Historic Military Ships You Can Visit Today

Commissioned in 1959 and serving through 1986, the Daring-class destroyer HMAS Vampire is the largest museum vessel in Australia. Berthed at Darling Harbour in Sydney, visitors can explore her twin 4.5-inch gun turrets, bridge, and mess decks.

Known as the Fightingest Ship in the Royal Canadian Navy, HMCS Haida sank more enemy surface tonnage during World War II than any other Canadian vessel. Today she serves as a Parks Canada National Historic Site on the Hamilton waterfront.

Stretching 420 feet long at La Cite de la Mer in Cherbourg, France, Le Redoutable (S611) is the largest submarine in the world open to museum visitors. With her nuclear reactor removed, guests walk right past her 16 towering missile tubes.

Moored at Pier 45 in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, the Balao-class submarine USS Pampanito (SS-383) sank six Japanese ships and rescued 73 Allied POWs during World War II. Visitors tour her cramped torpedo rooms and working periscope.

On April 16, 1945, the Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer USS Laffey (DD-724) withstood an 80-minute assault by 22 Japanese aircraft off Okinawa, surviving six kamikaze crashes and four bombs. Today you can tour her combat decks at Patriots Point.

Anchoring Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum across the harbor from Charleston, USS Yorktown (CV-10) fought across the Pacific in World War II, served in Vietnam, and recovered the Apollo 8 astronauts after humanity's first lunar orbit.

Headlining the world's largest collection of historic naval ships at Battleship Cove in Fall River, USS Massachusetts (BB-59) fought from Casablanca in 1942 to the Japanese mainland in 1945 without losing a single crewman in combat.

Permanently berthed on Mobile Bay since 1965, the 35,000-ton battleship USS Alabama (BB-60) served in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters during World War II and led the American fleet into Tokyo Bay in September 1945.

Known as The Showboat, USS North Carolina (BB-55) participated in every major naval offensive in the Pacific Theater, becoming the most decorated American battleship of World War II. She is open daily across the river from downtown Wilmington.

When a U.S. Navy hunter-killer group boarded the crippled Type IXC submarine U-505 on June 4, 1944, it became the first enemy warship captured on the high seas by the U.S. Navy since 1815. Today she is displayed indoors in Chicago.

Commissioned in 1954, USS Nautilus (SSN-571) revolutionized undersea warfare with nuclear propulsion and made history on August 3, 1958, by sailing submerged beneath the geographic North Pole. Admission to tour her in Groton is free.

Berthed at Pier 3 in Alameda on San Francisco Bay, USS Hornet (CV-12) went 16 consecutive months in forward Pacific combat without being touched by an enemy bomb, and later plucked Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins from the ocean.

Known as Big J, the Iowa-class battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62) saw combat in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the Lebanese Civil War. Following a major 2024 drydock restoration, she welcomes visitors daily on the Camden waterfront in 2026.

Built in Britain in 1900 for the Imperial Japanese Navy, Mikasa served as Admiral Heihachiro Togo's flagship during the decisive 1905 Battle of Tsushima. Preserved at Yokosuka, she is the sole surviving example of a pre-dreadnought battleship.

Operated by the Imperial War Museum on the River Thames in central London, the Town-class light cruiser HMS Belfast escorted Arctic convoys, helped sink the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst, and fired some of the opening naval salvos on D-Day.

Docked at Pier 86 on Manhattan's West Side, the Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Intrepid (CV-11) survived five kamikaze attacks and a torpedo hit in World War II before serving as a NASA Gemini and Mercury recovery ship and floating aerospace museum.

The longest-serving American aircraft carrier of the 20th century, USS Midway (CV-41) saw action from Vietnam to Operation Desert Storm. Today on San Diego Bay, she hosts more than 30 restored aircraft and welcomes over a million visitors annually.

Launched in 1765 and immortalized as Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson's flagship at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, HMS Victory remains a commissioned Royal Navy warship in drydock at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, where visitors walk her three gun decks.

Named by President George Washington and undefeated in battle during the War of 1812 - when British cannonballs bounced off her live-oak hull - USS Constitution remains crewed by active-duty U.S. Navy sailors at Boston's Charlestown Navy Yard.

Standing watch over the USS Arizona Memorial at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, USS Missouri (BB-63) is the last battleship built by the United States and the site where General Douglas MacArthur accepted Japan's formal surrender on September 2, 1945.