Battleship New Jersey

The New Jersey was launched in 1942 and commissioned in 1943, one of a class of the largest battleships the Navy ever built. In World War II she screened aircraft carriers and shelled shore positions across the Pacific, and over the following decades she was called back from retirement again and again, seeing action in Korea, off Vietnam, and in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf in the 1980s.

That long and repeated service earned her more battle stars and commendations than any other battleship, which is why she is called the most decorated in United States history. Thousands of sailors served aboard her over the years, and their letters, photographs, and memories fill the museum today.

When the age of the battleship finally ended, the New Jersey was saved from the scrapyard by a campaign to bring her to Camden, across the Delaware from the shipyards of the Philadelphia region. She was towed to the waterfront and opened to the public in the early 2000s, moored where visitors can walk aboard a genuine piece of naval history.

A visit takes you across the ship from bow to stern and deep below deck. Topside you stand beneath the great sixteen-inch gun turrets, guns so large that a person can nearly fit inside the barrel, and walk the long teak main deck with the Philadelphia skyline rising across the river.

Below deck the tour threads through the world of the crew: the bunk rooms stacked three and four high, the galley and mess, the sick bay, the officers' quarters, and the maze of machinery that drove the ship. Steep ladders and narrow passages give a real sense of what daily life was like for the thousands who served aboard in close quarters at sea.

The ship is moored on land that was long home to the Lenape people, whose descendants today include the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape of southern New Jersey. Camden grew into a great shipbuilding and industrial city on the Delaware, and battleships and warships were built and outfitted up and down this stretch of river.

As the city's industry faded, the waterfront was rebuilt as a cultural district, and the battleship became one of its anchors alongside Adventure Aquarium and a riverfront concert venue. Today the ship shares the waterfront with those neighbors, and a ferry links the Camden side to Philadelphia's Penn's Landing across the water.

The ship is open year-round, though the outdoor decks are best enjoyed in mild weather and much of the tour runs below deck where the temperature is steadier. Guides, many of them Navy veterans, add stories and context that bring the steel to life, and special programs let visitors go deeper into specific parts of the ship.

Because the battleship sits steps from Adventure Aquarium, many families make a day of the waterfront, pairing the two and walking the riverfront promenade with its open views of the Delaware and the Philadelphia skyline. The warm months bring the ferry and the concert season, while winter is quieter and cooler on the exposed decks.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.