USS Massachusetts Fireworks Extravangaza!

With her guns silent, the fireworks across the way provide the show! Big Mamie is center to one of the best shows in the northeast! Sit back, relax, and enjoy the 4th of July celebrations from the unique perspective of being alongside a U.S Battleship! BIG MAMIE quickly made a "shot heard round the world" in 1942 at the Battle of Casablanca with America's first 16" shot of WW2. With peace achieved, "Big Mamie" returned to the United States and operated with the Pacific Fleet until mid-1946, when she was ordered deactivated. The Battleship remained in the Reserve Fleet in Norfolk, Virginia until she was stricken in 1962 from the Navy Register and ordered sold for scrap. However, her wartime crew had held annual reunions since 1945 and lobbied to save their ship as a memorial. With the assistance of Massachusetts school children, they raised enough money to bring Big Mamie to Fall River in June 1965. She was opened to the public two months later. Now the centerpiece of Fall River's revitalized waterfront and one of the five National Historic Landmark ships at Battleship Cove, "Big Mamie" with her guns trained fore and aft in the posture of peace, stands ready to welcome visitors from around the nation and across the world as she has for more than a quarter century.