August 28-29 -- Battleship Cove, Fall River, Mass

Yes, Massachusetts, not Rhode Island! But Fall River can be approached by water only through Narragansett Bay, so it's alright. It was only five miles and with virtually no wind we did not raise any sails on the still waters -- nor hoist the dink. We passed Borden Light and under the I-195 Bridge (you can see the battleship behind the can).

The moment of truth, though the bridge was twice as high as ILENE's mast. Then we cut under the bow of the Battleship USS Massachusetts, BB-59, which separates the eponymous Cove from the Taunton River and took a mooring almost under the I-195 bridge and in the shadow of four retired naval vessels. Being so close to the huge warships was a unique sensation, comparing tiny peaceable ILENE to the ferocious killing machines. Lene in the dink is my chauffeur.

Borden light by my shoulder

That's a pigeon, not a dove.

Both ILENEs

The mighty Battleship is the queen bee. They don't make them anymore, - haven't for 75 years. The other three major ships include the Destroyer Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. DD-850; like I said, this is Massachusetts after all. Kennedy is about one third again larger than my Destroyer Escort, Hammerberg. The Kennedy had its Viet Nam Era configuration with ASROC and DASH: weapon systems that were supposed to deliver homing torpedoes by rocket and by drone, respectively, to kill the enemy submarine before it could kill us.. Hammerberg had DASH and the system never really worked. it was an engineer's dream but the multiple ways that small errors crept into the process through so many human intervention points, meant that it was ineffective.
The Cove's flotilla also included the submarine USS Lionfish, and the former Russian guided missile launching frigate Hiddensee, half the size of the Kennedy, but not open for touring. There are also, on land, two full sized WWII PT boats, one of those landing craft from which our GIs staggered out onto the beaches of  Normandy under NAZI gunfire, a great Antifa action, and several military aircraft, both fixed wing and helicopters. In short a very broad expanse of military equipment and history.
The Massachusetts bristles with guns with three triple barrelled sixteen inch diameter cannons. Each of the nine 16 inch guns could propel a one thousand pound explosive shell 25 miles! So such "battlewagons" were used for shore bombardment in WWII and again, up to 20 miles inland,  through Viet Nam.
The Massachusetts has so much interior space, with high ceilinged decks, that much of it has been given over to displays of almost anything nautical or military. A full room of documents and articles celebrating a decorated Cruiser, a collection of hand made dioramas, of PT boat history, and even the Boy Scouts. One of the founding purposes of the Boy Scouts was to acclimate young men to military life. It worked that way on me though I also derived many of my few good qualities from scouting. We saw several groups of uniformed High School students who were in the Marine Corps ROTC program touring the Cove.

I spent about nine hours over our two days here in the ships and museum but did not have the physical strength to see all that was on display.
You will recall in May I posted about a visit to a Destroyer Escort docked in the Hudson in Albany.  That ship, also of WWII vintage, was so much better explained with live volunteer docents who loved their ship, kept her in top condition and knew so much about her.  Fall River has much more raw material to work with but has so far done much less to bring it to life.There are no docents and signage is weak. Movies in key locations are not really about the ships and hard to hear or see. Fixing this would take a great deal of money and volunteer effort, but much more can be done than just letting folks wander about.

The museum is two blocks away and covers too much with not a lot of depth. One thing I learned about was the role of the Azores as an allied base in WWII and the high level political maneuverings needed to accomplish this. These are Portuguese islands and the Portuguese influence in these parts, mentioned previously during this cruise, is evident in Fall River. The other thing I learned in the museum was about was the Fall River Line, a business of side wheel steam driven paddle boats that transported large numbers of passengers, in style, between docks in New York's East River (via Long Island Sound) and Fall River, with connections by railroad between Fall River and Boston. For many decades they ran daily in all seasons, and all weather, including fog, until the failure of the business in the depression of the 1930's. It was an overnight passage and the business people awoke refreshed and ready for business.
This exhibit brought back to my memory what must have been one of my first water passages: with an aged aunt I traveled by boat from New York City to Bridgeport Connecticut. It must have been around 1950, so my experience took place after the demise of the Fall River Line, but it was a thrill to a young kid.
Our last night we attended a rock concert in "The Narrows Center" which is the third floor of an old factory building. The artist was Danielle Nicole with three musicians in her group. I was told she was a blues singer but I think I heard rock. She has a song nominated for a Grammy. I had never heard of her before. The concert was after dinner in the Cove Marina and Restaurant, to which we had traveled by dink. Very modern but good food.
We tarried the next morning with hair and nails appointments for Lene, groceries and a breakfast at AlMac diner. Breakfast was the final straw in Block Island being crossed off our itinerary this year. Well at this point, 2/3 of the way through the planned cruise, my mate usually gets itchy for home and 2019 is no exception. Not that we have any appointments for which we have to get home early. But Almac served fried Portuguese bread, that sweet delicious bread, and told us that we could get more during our walk back to the dink, at Cinderella Bakery. We did. And part of the reason for sailing to Block Island's Great Salt Pond is to score such bread from Aldo, who scurries about the harbor in his boat yelling "Andiamo!!!" and selling to those who becon him over. Block has many other attractions, but we've got our Portuguese bread fix for 2019.