I was recently doing a little research for an upcoming bike trip. I’ll be down in New London, Connecticut, and was considering a visit to the U.S.S Nautilus Museum. The Nautilus was the first nuclear powered submarine in Navy History.

Truth be told, as a Navy Veteran who served only on surface ships, and who subsequently worked with various Civilian Navy Veterans (Submariners), I was not overly thrilled to visit the museum, but it was in the vicinity, and I was open to new experiences. Not only are surface ships and submarines VERY different in their obvious hulls and missions, but the sailors who man them are quite different as well. That’s not what this blog is about today. I will quickly add that once at work, I was having a “discussion” with two “bubbleheads” (submariners), another surface ship veteran; although also a Navy Nuclear Engineer, and myself. One of the “Sub Guys” taunted me saying his military service on his submarine was far superior to mine, I instantly, and brilliantly I might add, made the response about serving on a submarine far below the ocean for 3 months at a time with no shore leave; “Ah yes, join the Navy…..See Some Pipes!” A good laugh was had by all!

Anyway, I was looking at pictures of the inside of the Nautilus. Instantly I was creeped out not just by the claustrophobic nature of the vessel, but by all the fake plastic mannequins of sailors posing at stations around “The Boat.”

This is not a “clown thing,” where I’m unnerved by artificial or dressed up humans masquerading as “someone else,” although I also am also a little creeped out by Civil War Re-enactors; a possible blog for the future?

Mannequins in stores displaying clothes or just the bust of them are fine. Nobody is expecting these objects to properly depict “real human beings.” Well, unless they suddenly come to life like in so many horror themed films and shows.

To have the plastic people / sailors is to pretend that they are “real” people, doing “real” jobs, on “real” ships. Besides detracting from the real people who dedicated their lives to this profession, to me, it also makes everything around them fake and unbelievable; the consoles, and chairs, and equipment. It also doesn’t help that the plastic people are sometimes placed behind whole walls of plastic so people don’t touch the mannequins or equipment, only rendering the whole scene like some cheap 4th grade Diorama.

The picture above is from a video (link below) that describes how and why mannequins were bought and installed on the Battleship U.S.S New Jersey Museum and how they wound up removing them for several reasons including scaring children.

There are plenty of creepy “real” people walking this Earth, I don’t need to witness any creepy plastic ones, so I definitely won’t be visiting the Nautilus. 

Hmmmmm….I wonder how long it would take me to cycle to the UFO museum in Roswell this week?