The USS Massachusetts (BB59) propeller is a 38,030 pound manganese-bronze propeller manufactured at Philadelphia Navy Yard and removed from Battleship Massachusetts during her 1998-1999 drydocking. It is one of four propellers that, when turning at 185 revolutions per minute, propelled the 35,000 ton ship at speeds up to 29 knots. USS Massachusetts was built at the Bethlehem Steel Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts, and was commissioned May 12, 1942. She received 11 battle stars and a Philippine Republic Presidential Unit Citation while operating in the Atlantic and Pacific Theatres during WWII. "Big Mamie" was decommissioned and transferred to the Reserve Fleet in 1947, and in 1965 she was enshrined at Battleship Cove as the Commonwealth's official World War II memorial.
