Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” says the “captain” of the U.S. Navy’s Aegis-class destroyer “USS Nauticus,” an interactive naval battle simulation that uses computers, video, and an arsenal of special effects. Split-second command decisions determine the fate of your ship and crew, and a realistic combat situation on board a “U.S. Navy destroyer” could develop at any moment.
In the museum’s Aegis Theater, live “officers,” movie screens, and realistic sound effects create a scenario that duplicates the danger of attack. Console and status boards suddenly light up, and you are under possible attack from unknown aircraft, ships, and submarines. The early warning system has detected threats that you must evaluate instantly. Do you send a warning? Launch a Tomahawk? Take a shot with a 5-inch gun? Fire Phalanx gatling guns? Evade? Call on assistance? As you match wits with the unseen enemy, an F-14 leaves a carrier to intercept. With the wrong decision (console buttons let you “vote”), the ship is hit, smoke fills the room, lights flash, sirens wail, explosions crash outside the combat information center— the battle, and your options, are over.
Nauticus is part Navy, part science, part history museum, part aquarium, part maritime research—in short, a unique education and entertainment center. Part of the Navy-gray building resembles a carrier superstructure; other parts of it look more like Jules Verne’s Nautilus— indeed, many of the exhibits celebrate the fantastic and futuristic wonders of the sea. But overall, the museum is more science than science fiction, encompassing virtually every aspect of our waters and waterways. Special exhibits focus on the lower Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads area—including Norfolk; Portsmouth; Newport News; Virginia Beach; Hampton; and the Elizabeth, James, York, and Nansemond rivers.
In addition to the simulated craft inside the museum, real ships of all sizes, types, and ages (including Navy, research, and commercial ships) frequently moor at the Nauticus International Pier and often can be boarded. Indeed, Norfolk is the maritime capital of the world; Hampton Roads, the world’s largest natural harbor, boasts more than a dozen shipyards, including Norfolk, the country’s oldest and largest naval shipyard and the largest base of the U.S. Navy.
Nauticus opened 1 June 1994, a spectacular $50 million, 160,000-square-foot, three-level showplace of maritime technology. Through a series of interactive exhibits, shows, and theaters, visitors sail from early maritime history into the future and see “The Living Sea.” Nauticus’s three decks are divided into many theme areas. Visitors enter at ground level on the lower deck, which includes a gift shop, visitor information center, saluting battery, and the International Pier. Up on the third deck, visitors explore a ship’s bridge, complete with operating radar and telescopes trained on various key elements of the Port of Hampton Roads. The top deck also includes a series of colorful interactive exhibits—150 in all—that easily could take all day to explore: the Marine Exploratorium Theater, Discovery Wall, Sonar, Mind Power Stations, Voyages of Discovery, Coast Guard Rescues, Maritime Theater, Commerce Theater, Dry Dock, Navy News Station, Conversations with the Navy, Aegis Theater, Research Center and Aquaria, Shark Encounter, Touchpool, NOAA Projects, Underwater Archaeology, Tides Interactive, Charting Story—and much more.
On the second deck, visitors will find the “virtual reality” submarines of Virtual Adventures. The Loch Ness Expedition challenges visitors to navigate through a mysterious undersea realm in search of the world’s most elusive creature. It is a unique undersea journey, the world’s first group virtual reality expedition. After Virtual Adventures, visitors enter the Hampton Roads Naval Museum, which focuses on the Age of Sail, the Civil War, the Steel Navy and the Great White Fleet, Norfolk Naval Base, and the U.S. Navy today.
The Hampton Roads Naval Museum opened in 1979 as one of 11 official U.S. Navy museums and relocated in 1994 to Nauticus. The chronological story presented in the Hampton Roads Naval Museum begins with the Battle off the Virginia Capes between the British and the French during the American Revolution. The exhibit includes a beautiful model of La Ville de Paris, Admiral de Grasse’s flagship. Displays and artifacts include events leading up to the War of 1812, such as the infamous Chesapeake- Leopard Affair of 1807. Later came the Gosport Navy Yard, where many naval vessels were built before the Civil War, including the U.S. sloop Constellation. Models and prints depict some of the sailing ships and steamers of the era.
One wing of the museum is devoted to the Civil War in Hampton Roads, complete with a full-scale mock-up of the USS Monitor’s turret. The Monitor and the CSS Virginia fought to a draw in 1862, and the museum illustrates the battle with a fiber optic map that uses electronics and graphics to depict the famous duel. Also displayed are items recovered from the wreck of one of the Virginia's victims, the USS Cumberland.
Exhibits also feature the Jamestown Exposition and Theodore Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet, both World Wars— notably the Battle of the Atlantic and the life-and-death struggle with German U-Boats—and more recent events such as Operation Desert Storm. Though it is in the same Nauticus building, the Hampton Roads Naval Museum is a separate entity.
Nauticus does not pretend to be a world-class history museum or marine aquarium, but it does offer fascinating insights and glimpses into virtually every aspect of the sea—not to mention virtual reality. There is surely something for everyone—from the seasoned sea professional to the green land lubber. Nauticus draws visitors into a unique journey of exploration where they discover the world of the sea in an engaging hands- on museum of the future, an adventure in learning for those willing to take command and control.