“That is one heck of a boat,” she added with a big smile, echoing a submariner’s term for the vessel, a $2.8 billion high-tech marvel built in Virginia to roam the world’s oceans for 30 years.
The ceremony featured spirited marches and martial music, countless selfies with the Massachusetts, and an upbeat audience replete with hundreds of active-duty Navy officers in crisp dress uniforms.
“This is amazing. It’s been a long process,” said USS Massachusetts crew member Ana Barraza, 22, a sonar technician from El Paso. “It’s a little chillier than what I’ve been used to, however.”
The Massachusetts — a Virginia-class, fast-attack submarine — was christened in Newport News, Va., in 2023, launched in February 2024, and subjected to rigorous sea trials before arriving at Saturday’s commissioning ceremony.
The 377-foot ship carries 152 officers and sailors and is powered by a nuclear reactor that takes up more than half its length. Armed with torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles, the Massachusetts can travel faster than 25 knots and dive deeper than 800 feet.
“May this boat always find safe harbor and deep water,” said US Representative Seth Moulton of Salem, a Marine veteran who cited the state’s pivotal role in founding the United States 250 years ago.
“It was Massachusetts that gave the Revolution its voice,” Moulton said.
Three Medal of Honor recipients attended the ceremony, including Thomas Kelley, a West Roxbury native and Navy veteran of the Vietnam War.
The submarine is the nation’s first warship to be called the USS Massachusetts since a decorated World War II battleship, built at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, was decommissioned in 1947.
That ship now serves as a museum in Fall River, a city that also lays claim to being the hometown of Edward Brennan III, the new submarine’s chief of boat and senior enlisted sailor.
The first USS Massachusetts was a wooden steamer, built in East Boston in 1845, that served in the Mexican-American War.
The large crowd, who sat facing the harbor on a chilly morning, included family members who had gathered in Boston from all over the country to celebrate with the crew.
One of them was David Forys of Highland, Ill., who boarded a plane for the first time in 25 years to share the moment with his 23-year-old son, a machinist’s mate second class assigned to the USS Massachusetts, who also is named David.
“He was inspired by a lot of his family” who served in the military, the elder Forys said, and sought an assignment on a nuclear aircraft carrier or submarine.
“I’m not aware of where they’re actually going” after the commissioning, Forys said. “But it’ll be far away from me. I live in the middle of the United States.”
The submariner’s brother Chris, an Army veteran, smiled at the thought of his sibling serving on a vessel that could remain submerged for months at a time.
“My brother wanted to one-up me,” Chris said, eyeing the ship. “This looks a lot more impressive than anything I’ve ever gotten close to.”
During the ceremony, Lieutenant Commander Joshua Hightower, the submarine’s executive officer, declared the Massachusetts to be “tested and battle ready.”
And at its conclusion, the crew boarded the USS Massachusetts, one by one. The first watch was set, the ship’s pennant was hoisted, and Naval Academy graduate Michael Siedsma announced he was in command.
Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at brian.macquarrie@globe.com.
