If you visit the battleship USS Alabama BB-60 in Mobile, Alabama, you'll find many exhibits and displays inside the "Big A". Not the least of them is this beautiful 1/8-Inch equal 1 foot (1:96) scale model of the first battleship USS Alabama BB-8. Launched May 18, 1898, USS Alabama BB-8 was commissioned October 16, 1900. She participated in the cruise of the Great White Fleet and was decommissioned May 7, 1920. USS Alabama was expended in the Billy Mitchell bomb tests off of the Virginia Capes. 

8bama136qd.JPG (106036 bytes) 8bama137mid.JPG (118822 bytes) 8bama138bri.JPG (116575 bytes) 8bama139focsle.JPG (96453 bytes)
8bama154stern.JPG (67080 bytes) 8bama142bripro.JPG (91212 bytes) 8bama141bow.JPG (65154 bytes)
8bama144stern.JPG (83424 bytes) 8bama143asup.JPG (83676 bytes) 8bama156rtur.JPG (102741 bytes) 8bama151briface.JPG (93109 bytes)

This model was scratch-built by Robert D. Bracci of Stratford, Connecticut and was donated to the USS Alabama BB-60 Museum by Alexander (Sandy) Gaston of Fishers Island, New York. The model is the centerpiece of a number of photographs and artifacts of BB-8, including an interesting but inaccurate period print of the Battle of Santiago, Cuba.

 8bama155asup.JPG (101813 bytes) 8bama157aftbri.JPG (114324 bytes) 8bama158boat.JPG (87774 bytes) 8bama160brift.JPG (88457 bytes)
8bama147xtur.JPG (115629 bytes) 8bama145mid.JPG (118428 bytes) 8bama146atur.JPG (90570 bytes) 8bama159facclad.JPG (76515 bytes)
8bama152scroll.JPG (69363 bytes) 8bama140plack.JPG (105355 bytes) 8bama163santiago.JPG (110258 bytes) 8bama149pro.JPG (99290 bytes)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________