Located in Mobile Bay, the ship was brought to Mobile in 1964 as a tourist attraction and memorial for veterans in Alabama. The Alabama is a South Dakota class Battleship that was completed in 1942 for use in WWII. The “Mighty A” saw plenty of action against the Japanese in the south Pacific and is credited with shooting down 23 Japanese aircraft. Somehow, the Alabama and her crew managed to make it out of WWII without casualties or damage from enemy fire. The only deaths on board the ship were 8 people in a 5″ gun mount (mount #5) that were killed by friendly fire from another gun turret (mount #9) on the ship. A safety feature that prevented the turrets from firing if they were pointed at another turret or part of the ship failed. Mount 9 fired a round into mount 5 which exploded and killed everyone inside. All that remained of the gun commander was his boots. There we re little fragments of bone and flesh plastered on the walls inside the turret where the men were vaporized by the exploding shell. There were also two other deaths while the ship was under construction at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. A former worker reports that they had to stay on the ship overnight alone quite a bit, so they got their share of scares. Their first encounter was in the Marine Compartment where the Marines slept. Footsteps were heard approaching from around the corner when there was nobody on board. All around the ship, strange footsteps and voices were heard. Heavy solid steel watertight hatches on the superstructure would slam shut with a loud thud for reasons that could not be explained. Late at night when the whole ship was very quiet, the bulkheads would seemingly come alive with popping and tapping, and at times it was concentrated in one area. Needless to say, the Mighty A was very much alive.
