USS Iowa comes back to life for its final voyage

[rnorton]

They did, while not a battleship.. a dreadnaught of its day..

USS Olympia

If you ever visit Philly..

To stay on topic.. in the late 80's was stationed on board the USS Trippe and spent time in both the USS Iowa and New Jersey battle groups.

Ooooooh! I didn't know that was still afloat. What a beauty.

 

[audiobiker]

I really wanna tour a battleship now!

 

[Sam Cogley]

Ooooooh! I didn't know that was still afloat. What a beauty.

It might not be much longer. :sigh:

 

[Hyperion]

When I stayed in Virginia a while ago I had the pleasure of a trip around the Wisconsin at the National Maritime Centre at Norfolk Virginia.

It left a lasting impression on me - I'll never forget that day.

 

[WhiteSE]

Belgrano was a Brooklyn class light cruiser (Phoenix ??), and as such would have comparably no armor to speak of.

oh, no wonder...poor argie sailors.

 

[soundboy]

USS Iowa will leave San Francisco Bay tomorrow on its final voyage to its new home in Los Angeles. The battleship will sail under the Golden Gate Bridge (one day before the bridge's 75th anniversary) at approximately 2-3 PM.

 

[soundboy]

 

[LBPete]

An awesome beauty.

- Pete

 

[LBPete]

Yeah, but the planes would hit the targets.

Then you would be comfortable as the target of those guns?

- Pete

 

[avionic]

Yeah, but the planes would hit the targets.

Then you would be comfortable as the target of those guns?

- Pete

They hit there targets as well.
From 20 miles away...Pretty impressive guns.:scratch2:

 

[Bigerik]

Find me a plane that can drop almost 50,000 pounds of shells on a target a minute. And keep doing it until it runs out of shells.

 

[markdi]

50,000 tons a minute wow kool

the iowa can fire 5000 more tons per minute than it weighs

 

[Bigerik]

50,000 tons a minute wow kool

the iowa can fire 5000 more tons per minute than it weighs

Lol

50,000 lbs, smart ass.

 

[Sam Cogley]

Give the gunners on an Iowa good targeting info, and those 16" guns are incredibly accurate. The biggest problem with them was always the operational costs. When Eisenhower was President, it cost $1 million per day to run one Iowa - not adjusted for inflation.

In their 1980s configuration, the crew head count was significantly reduced, but they were still bloody expensive to run.

 

[jocko_nc]

Thanks for posting the photos. Beautiful.

 

[Midfi deluxe]

They did, while not a battleship.. a dreadnaught of its day..

USS Olympia

If you ever visit Philly..

To stay on topic.. in the late 80's was stationed on board the USS Trippe and spent time in both the USS Iowa and New Jersey battle groups.

Beautiful ship. I find the pre-dreadnoughts fascinating, there were so many different designs and configurations, and lots of peculiar one-offs. I have a special soft spot for some of the really ugly ones that look like they were designed committees of insane admirals — like the Hoche (1890), nicknamed "the Grand Hotel."

From The Naval Annual 1890: "The superstructure in the centre has three decks. The turrets are two storeys in height. The military masts are as tall and as wide in diameter as the minarets of a Turkish mosque. The ship seems deficient in freeboard.”

http://www.steelnavy.com/Combrig350Hoche.htm

 

[LBPete]

Give the gunners on an Iowa good targeting info, and those 16" guns are incredibly accurate. The biggest problem with them was always the operational costs. When Eisenhower was President, it cost $1 million per day to run one Iowa - not adjusted for inflation.

In their 1980s configuration, the crew head count was significantly reduced, but they were still bloody expensive to run.

The gun barrels themselves had a pretty short life. I read somewhere that they need to be replaced after something like 350 rounds. Now that has to be costly!

- Pete

 

[Sam Cogley]

They started out at a 290 ESR barrel life, by the late 60s deployments developments in powder and even the chemistry of the powder bags greatly extended that. During the 1980s deployments, they were up to around a 1500 round equivalent life, and replacement was necessitated more by damage to the actual barrel structure than the inside of the bore, which was the original limiting factor.

There wasn't anything efficient about the Iowas, but they were great terror weapons and really, really good at pounding through heavily-reinforced concrete. I think the 2,700lb. Mk. 8 shell was capable of blowing through something like 30ft. of reinforced concrete. They were recognized as obsolete before even the four that were completed were commissioned, but construction was allowed to continue because they were fast enough to serve as really, really big escorts for the Essex-class carriers. The Montana-class was cancelled before any construction began because they were too slow for modern naval warfare, and the resources were needed for carrier construction.

 

[Bigerik]

They started out at a 290 ESR barrel life, by the late 60s deployments developments in powder and even the chemistry of the powder bags greatly extended that. During the 1980s deployments, they were up to around a 1500 round equivalent life, and replacement was necessitated more by damage to the actual barrel structure than the inside of the bore, which was the original limiting factor.

There wasn't anything efficient about the Iowas, but they were great terror weapons and really, really good at pounding through heavily-reinforced concrete. I think the 2,700lb. Mk. 8 shell was capable of blowing through something like 30ft. of reinforced concrete. They were recognized as obsolete before even the four that were completed were commissioned, but construction was allowed to continue because they were fast enough to serve as really, really big escorts for the Essex-class carriers. The Montana-class was cancelled before any construction began because they were too slow for modern naval warfare, and the resources were needed for carrier construction.

Actually, for the time, they had the most efficient powerplants ever installed on a battleship. They could steam farther, faster than anything else by any other navy. By a lot.

 

[Sam Cogley]

Actually, for the time, they had the most efficient powerplants ever installed on a battleship. They could steam farther, faster than anything else by any other navy. By a lot.

I guess my terminology was off, but the point was that they were hellaciously expensive to operate for a weapons system that was already obsolete when they were launched. It's why they were all decommissioned for the better part of 30 years, outside of New Jersey's 1968 deployment to Vietnam. They all spent more time in mothballs than sailing.