Bong-Bong Ships Bell Arriving
Hey Shipmates.
Here’s a little photo history about how the museum directors obtained the Newport News ships bell. In 2000, the naval historical society, claimed that the bell was on display prominently in the Newport News museum and because of that, we could not have it.
When Doc Mike Lanier and I went to the 2001 reunion in Norfolk, we went to the museum to see the bell. Lo and behold it was not on display. We tracked down an assistant curator who took us to a storage room on the lot and there it was gathering dust on the shelf. Through a lot of time and effort, they agreed to let us have the bell, on loan, and with the help of the father of our reunions, Rags Ragland (RIP) who hauled it up to Boston with a buddy in a Budget rental truck, the help of riggers who picked it up off the truck and placed it on the deck and then they assisted members of the Quincy fire department, to maneuver the bell through our Hatch and into the museum itself. The Bell is now on display.
The attached photographs show a picture I took of the bell in storage at the Mariners Museum, a picture of when the Budget rental truck arrived, and the crane was about to place the bell on the ship, and when it ended up on the deck with John Noll and I happily welcoming it aboard.
And finally it sits in a place of prominence in the museum. Click photos to enlarge.
-Al Siegel
