Events and Activities

We visited on Memorial Day weekend and the volunteers were maintaining the engines, so we got to see the engine bay in action. they said they do it once a... read more month. So cool! Call ahead and ask for their schedule, so you can see it, too. The little museum in the hull was a nice touch.

This is an excellent maritime museum with plenty of history regarding this ship in particular and liberty ships as a whole. The first place you enter has a whole... read more load of information about the SS Jerimiah O'Brien, her wartime service, as well as her history as a museum ship. It's also fascinating to note that this ship still runs on her original engines, and you can go down into the engine room! There is also a few dioramas in the forward part of the ship that show what a typical amphibious landing in WW2 looked like, with the Jeremiah O'Brien involved, as well as the convoys she used to sail with across the Atlantic to get wartime supplies to the European theater. Up on deck her 3 inch gun is on the bow and still moves! So you can train it across the bay at Oakland, the Bay Bridge, or anywhere you like, you can pretend you are defending the ship against enemy planes in WW2 and have a blast. At the stern, you can look out on the Golden Gate Bridge and see the fog coming over the mountains which is a gorgeous sight. Then up in the superstructure you can explore the cabins and the Bridge, which unlike many WW2 museum ships, has a mix of original WW2 vintage equipment, as well as modern equipment for when the ship still sails around the bay and around the world. I will definitely need to come back to this museum during fleet week so I can sail aboard her when she goes out into the bay. I also will have to come back to spend more time aboard her as the amount of information and history this ship has is incredible!

Compared to the Pampanito (submarine) next door, the ticket price here definitely was worth the length of the tour. However, the entire heritage site was really badly managed. It was... read more peak tourist time when renovation and painting would continue on, the kitchen was actually making hot dogs for some private events, and the ship lacked a lot of explanation boards that describe what you are seeing. Essentially, you walk onto a historical boat without any explanation or history and somehow need to make sense of it all, all while your illusion broken by people "fixing" and renovating the boat. There are definitely jewels of the tour. The engine room is unique, there's a great WW2 museum in the lower level, etc. However, the entire presentation looked liked a junkyard. Visitors simply cannot get in the illusion that they were roaming around a WW2 ship. Also it would've been amazing to know exactly what role this particular ship played in D-Day at Normandy. Somehow all the presentation coming together felt badly managed and presented. A lost opportunity I would say. Won't probably return even with tourists visiting from out of town.

A piece of history on the SF waterfront. If you don't like this museum you aren't an American.

Super cool if you are into history- best part is it's still a working ship that they sometimes take it out in the bay. But while it's on the pier... read more you can tour at your leisure and see the impressive steam engine or play on the guns on the main deck. You also get a great view of the Golden gate bridge.

Very interesting nothing like it's historical past in Europe, played a very useful role in WW2