Dutch Town and Maritime Museum

Muskegon and Holland

We arrived at Muskegon late afternoon and passed the SS Silversides sub and Maritime museum as we came in the entrance channel very close to where the marina is. We hired a car the next day and drove down to Holland a town settled by the Dutch in 1846. It was a swampy densely forested landscape then but is beautiful now. The town caters for its citizens as well as the tourists – free parking, many parks & gardens, bronze statues on many corners and heated pavements. We actually saw the workers laying the pipes and bricks to extend the system. This of course causes disruption and as one of the shop owners said to us – 'there are 2 seasons in Holland winter and construction'. We had a great smorgasbord lunch then drove out to the Windmill island. Here there is a reconstructed windmill that was brought over from Holland in 1964, and rebuilt and is still operated by the only Dutch certificated woman miller in the USA (she hauls around the 50lb bags of flour). The milled flour is bought by local bakers and restaurants. There is a miniature Dutch village, a street organ, and carousel with wooden horses all maintained in working order and of course tulip fields (when in season). The town is full of theatre, music, & art, fishing, biking, hiking, winter sport and festivals/events every week.

The next day we biked to the Maritime museum and USS Silversides submarine tour. We have been on a few subs over the years but this guide was both knowledgeable and entertaining. The sub is kept in operational order. It was launched in 1941 & decommissioned in 1969. She sunk more ships (30 Japanese ships & damaging 14) and took down more tonnage than any other surviving WW11 sub. A pharmacist mate performed the first appendectomy which he was nearly court martialled for.

Many of his stories came first hand from a former crew member.

The coming weekend was Labour Day holiday so marinas further south were booked and there were not many good anchorage options. We looked at the forecast and decided that we would leave the east side and cross Lake Michigan to Milwaukee on the west. We hope for calmer water than we have had.