Copyright Business Insider
The USS New Jersey is a battleship of superlatives. Fastest battleship ever built? Check. The ship's fastest speed was a record-setting 35.2 knots, or a little over 40 miles per hour, in 1968. Longest battleship ever built? Check. At 887 feet and 7 inches long, the USS New Jersey is almost three football fields long, and 5 feet longer than the Titanic. Most-decorated battleship in US history? Check, again. The USS New Jersey earned 19 battle stars throughout its career. Originally built for combat in World War II, the USS New Jersey was so powerful and irreplaceable that the Navy kept recommissioning it until the 1990s. After it was decommissioned for the last time, it was transformed into a museum based in its namesake state where visitors can explore spaces such as the combat engagement center, officers' staterooms, and gun turrets. Just don't expect to be able to see the entire ship. "I've been here eight years now," Ryan Szimanski, curator of Battleship New Jersey, told Business Insider. "I still have not been in all 1,600 rooms." Take a look inside the USS New Jersey.
