According to this website. in the entire world there’s only 14 museum ships in the entire world outside of the United States of ships produced past 1900. The United Kingdom only has 3, Greece has 2, France has 1 (formerly 2, they scrapped a cruiser in 2007), Canada and Australia have 1 each, and the rest of the countries only seem to have 1 each.
While I understand they’re expensive to upkeep, the fact “rich” countries like France only had 2 but then let one get scrapped due to budget cuts seems awfully dumb. If the United States can somehow support dozens I don’t see why the European governments can’t put more money aside for more than one each.
It’s probably not at the core of your question, but that’s not a list of all modern ships which are museum ships. It’s only a list of “all-guns” ships, an era which they describe as ending in about 1950. And it’s not even all ships of that era, because I know of at least one WWII submarine which is now a museum ship, but which isn’t on that list (apparently, using torpedoes means it’s not “all-guns”). It may, in fact, be that most nations’ museum ships are too modern to be on that list.
Agreed. For example, I know for fact there’s a submarine just outside of Paris (from the 50s I think ? Pretty sure post WW2 - google break - yup, entered service in 56)
Also, looking at the first list, of the 8 American “ships of the line,” 7 were battleships from WWII – which, alone, suggests something to me about why they were preserved, rather than being scrapped. It was a war in which the U.S. was triumphant, and about which there was likely a great deal of interest in preserving the ships, and their stories, after the war.
Also, it’s interesting to note that almost all of the non-U.S. ships on that list are much, much older.
Well, after many wars most of the ships on the losing side were either sunk during the war, taken or scuttled. So, for example Germany wouldnt be expected to have many, and of course some nations went thru a “war is bad” phase, and got rid of anything that would remind them.
Even the IJN Mikasa would have been sunk or something during WW2, except it was encased in concrete and useless.
Yes, the USA fought a pair of wars in WWII where the navy was a major participant - particularly the Pacific war. Not too many other countries fought - and won - major naval efforts in the last century, they were mostly land wars. The WWI participants probably didn’t want to keep and memorialize their giant dreadnoughts which in the end were mainly giant duds in the overall war.
So if you look at the following lists on the website, the other countries are far better represented. And that does not include submarines, of which I visited 2 in the USA alone.
It does not contain USS Pueblo at the Pyongyang Victorious War Museum/Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum (though Pueblo is not a ‘major warship from the “all gun” era’.)
I think the US is unique in having a very pro-military culture AND having a very short history. Which is why we ended up with a lot of modern war equipment on display.
When I think of famous warships on display, the first three that come to mind are the Vasa, Mary Rose and HMS Victory. These are older than the US itself.
The USA is also a huge country with a lot of land available, and everything spaced far apart. So the US has more of most things.
In the US are any of those museums maintained by the government or are the all owned by private entities?
Now that I think about it are they even owned by the museums or do they just maintain them? I know the Intrepid has its own foundation that runs the museum but I’m not sure if the DoD maintains any kind of hold on it.
Also note that all but 2 of the US battleships that are currently museums are located in the state they were named after. So there’s got to be a bit of state pride involved there as well.
The 2 exceptions are the Missouri & the Wisconsin, landlocked states. And they’re located in/near 2 of the most well known naval bases in the world as well.
Managing ships of this kind and staying solvent has proved difficult, and too many trusts or charities have tried it and gone broke, leaving a rusting hulk which is clocking up moorage fees weekly (think of the USS Cabot) . Even the HMS Belfast Trust couldn’t do it and remain solvent, which was why the IWM ended up taking it on.
Intrepid is also located in the city which is the center of world finance and gets a lot of foreign visitors, for whom it’s part of the must see (myself on multiple occasions for instance), when visiting NYC.
So a bit of a unique situation.
Says the Canadian who only has one warship preserved.
But as a matter of fact I think its a good thing because it’s a unique piece of history we will probably never see built again due to how fast naval technology changes. We have all sorts of historical sites, why not a warship? Also why scrap them when you can at least use them to attract tourists.
I believe most are operated by private entities. During government shutdowns while Pearl Harbor Memorial Park is closed the USS Missouri stays open due to it being privately funded. I’ve also seen the same said for the USS Iowa and USS Midway.
I think the only ones funded by the government are the ones still under active commission such as the USS Constitution and USS Little Rock.
After WWII, the people in power in Japan needed to know that waging war for imperialist purposes was absolutely wrong. They needed to know that they had to completely abandon the militaristic society which lead to the war.
The US had absolutely no desire to allow Japan to glorify the war.
I think the OP may have it wrong, since there are definitely more than 3 former warships preserved from the Royal Navy.
HMS Victory
HMS Caroline
HMS Holland 1
HMS Warrior
HMS M.3 (monitor)
HMS Gannet
HMS Cavalier
HMS Alliance
HMS Belfast
HMS Ocelot
HMS X24
HMS Courageous
HMS Wellington
HMS Unicorn
HMS Trincomalee
HMS President
HM Coastal motor boat No4
Added to this are the Mary Rose which is possibly one of the most noteworthy archeological maritime preservation in the world along with many bits and pieces of other vessels such as HMS Namur
There are others whose future has yet to be decided, and all this along with the UKs National Historic Fleet with around 1000 vessels, and a number of tall ships that take on various well publicised events.