Thursday, July 14, 1994 - New Bedford, MA

The handle broke on our little blue wagon, so Roy went to the Gear Locker to see if they carried them. Eddie told him he could special order a handle, but it would take about two months to get here and would probably cost about $25. Instead, he sold Roy a brand new wagon for $37.50. That's not much more than half what we paid for the first one, and this one's a lot stronger.
Took the bus to Fall River and walked to the waterfront historic area. We especially wanted to visit the replica of the "Bounty", but we didn't see it anywhere. Thought it might be at the Marine Museum, so we went there and asked. They said it was, so we went in, but all they had was a small model of the "Bounty". Turned out the full-sized "Bounty" had just left that morning to be repaired. Never fails!
The museum had a lot of interesting exhibits, especially one on the "Titanic". They had a lot of artifacts, a video, and newspapers of the time. We were surprised to learn that the "Titanic" continued going forward for two hours after hitting the iceberg, and for at least thirty minutes of that time, she was going at nearly top speed. This, of course, meant that water was being forced inside her hull. If the captain had stopped the ship, she'd have stayed afloat a lot longer, perhaps long enough for rescue ships to arrive.
After the museum, we visited the battleship "Massachusetts" and ate lunch in the former ward room. The food was surprisingly good and reasonably priced. Unlike most ship tours, we were able to wander around almost the entire ship, even down in the engine room. There were just a few small rooms that were closed. Usually, you're not allowed down to the engine room, so this was very interesting. We also saw sick bay, the dental office, barber shop, laundry, cobbler's, mess halls, galleys, endless bunks, etc., etc. Even after several hours of roaming around, we'd only seen part of the ship, and we didn't get to the other ship or the submarine at all, so now we want to go back again.
We spent half an hour looking at the PT boats, and then caught the last bus back to New Bedford. Wildest bus ride we ever had. The driver drove at least 60 MPH and ran every stop sign, but we arrived in New Bedford safely. Picked up some Kentucky Fried Chicken for supper. Got back to the boat just before dark.