Saw a Battleship

"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch) 11/20/2019 at 11:31 • Filed to: None

5

24

Totally worth it. Also a Tuesday Morning in November is apparently the time to go, no one was there. it was awesome.

It was impossible for me to imagine how something so heavy was built. Heavier ships have been built of course but I mean how in the world to do cast a room that is a cylinder with walls of 16 inches of solid steel? how do you work with that much sheer mass? I just don’t understand the logistics of the heavy stuff. I also never understood the true scale. Take the anchor, where each LINK in the chain weighs 128 lbs.

W e all know about the main guns but even the secondary battery is crazy. 10 double gun 5 inch turrets that are big enough to easily get inside and work. The smaller guns are armored rooms...

and of course there are the main guns which are on a whole other level.

The entire ship is bigger than I imagined too. You get inside WWII subs and ships and thing “how?!” but this was roomier than I thought. Obviously life wasn’t awesome as an en listed but the mess was roomy, the captain and admirals rooms weren’t bad either. Lots of work spaces too. Also weird to see modern weapons integrated.

very cool, glad I got to see it.  I even bought some of the old teak decking to take home.  it was just a plug, but still.

facw > HammerheadFistpunch 11/20/2019 at 12:52

0

That skijump model is cool. Proposal to carry Harriers, or is it older?

atfsgeoff > HammerheadFistpunch 11/20/2019 at 13:00

1

When these ships were built, each 16" turret had to be lowered into place in the hull atop a massive bearing race with bearing balls about 5" in diameter. One complete 16" turret weighs a bit over 2100 tons or 4.2 million lbs. There is nothing holding these turrets in place aside from gravity. If the ship capsized, they would fall out and sink separately .

Snuze: Needs another Swede > HammerheadFistpunch 11/20/2019 at 13:07

1

I’ve spent most of my career in and around ships and worked with some brilliant naval architects and I’m still not sure how something made of that much steel  manages to float .

HammerheadFistpunch > facw 11/20/2019 at 13:07

1

F18's if you believe it.

facw > atfsgeoff 11/20/2019 at 13:08

0

Yep, I remember an illustration (possibly the one below) of the Bismarck capsizing and having its turrets fall out:

HammerheadFistpunch > atfsgeoff 11/20/2019 at 13:09

0

yeah, I knew that about the turrets, and if you think about it, it makes total sense.  why try and hold them in at all?

facw > HammerheadFistpunch 11/20/2019 at 13:10

0

Wow. I mean they fly MiG-29s of ski jumps but nothing anywhere near that short. Seems like a H ornet would have to be basically empty to get in the air.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > HammerheadFistpunch 11/20/2019 at 13:31

2

I think the crazier part is how damn accurate these things can be in dropping shells on target. Without satellites and all of the fancy stuff required to get a cruise missile on target, these things can rain hell accurately from a pretty far ways out. Granted when compared to a cruise missile, these cant shoot very far but its a hell of a lot cheaper! Only problem is you need 1000 people to man the damn ship and most of it is specialized skilled labor as well. Battleships were outdated by the onset of ww2 but they are still cool as hell. 

user314 > facw 11/20/2019 at 13:44

2

Depends on which version :

Martin Marietta’s version would have featured:

Six 16-inch guns that could fire a variety of modern munitions

A 320-tube vertical launch system (VLS) capable of firing Tomahawks, Standard Missiles, ballistic missiles, and the Army Tactical Missile System family

Flight and hangar decks in place of the after turret, for various mixes of AV-8B Harriers, heavy-lift and attack helicopters, and MV-22 Ospreys

Accommodations for SEALs—and 800 Marines for short periods

Logistics spaces and machine shops

Medical facilities and operating rooms

Another had an angled flight deck, deleted the VLS, and added more CIWS:

A refined version of that design was proposed by naval architect Gene Anderson, who reworked the superstructure and stack, extended the flight deck and re- added the ski jump:

facw > user314 11/20/2019 at 13:50

0

Looks like that last one adds a catapult, which would probably make it more useful.

user314 > facw 11/20/2019 at 14:10

0

It was only a paper study, so the details are a bit fluid, but I’m seeing references the Battlecarrier having  both a ski jump and a CATOBAR setup, which I’m not sure how that’d work. 

ranwhenparked > HammerheadFistpunch 11/20/2019 at 14:38

0

Interestingly, the Delaware River has basically two sets of the same power plant  moored within eyesight of each other. The ocean liner SS United States, laid up across the river in Philadelphia, has a modified version of the Iowa class powertrain.

facw > user314 11/20/2019 at 14:52

0

Looks like catapult to port and ski jump to starboard, though it would have to be pretty short since the run up crosses the elevator, which presumably needs to be at least fairly flat.

benn454 > user314 11/20/2019 at 14:53

1

That probably doesn’t have much less deck space than an Invincible class.

 Absolute madness. I'll take four.

HammerheadFistpunch > ranwhenparked 11/20/2019 at 14:53

0

interesting!  I was going to go see the SS United States but it sure looked sad from the freeway and I didn’t want to get more of that.

benn454 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 11/20/2019 at 15:01

2

 The Iowas had radar guided fire control when the IJN was still using a dude with a telescope. 

ranwhenparked > HammerheadFistpunch 11/20/2019 at 15:11

1

The closest you can get is the curb outside the fence anyway. They run tours from time to time, but only for ex-crew and former passengers and you have to sign up months in advance. 

HammerheadFistpunch > ranwhenparked 11/20/2019 at 15:13

0

Thats what it looked like.  I figured there wouldn’t be much to see.  Looking into the specs, it looks like the powerplant on the SS United States was the hot rod version of the Iowa, more pressure, more rpms, more shaft hp.

ranwhenparked > HammerheadFistpunch 11/20/2019 at 15:17

0

Yep, and just as crazily expensive to operate, if not more so. Over 38 knots flat out - 20 in reverse.

user314 > benn454 11/20/2019 at 15:28

0

Phase II conversion was guestimated at $ 1.5 billion in 1980, so by the time they were done it would likely have been closer to $ 2.8B . That’s roughly $8 billion today. 

benn454 > user314 11/20/2019 at 15:39

1

That’s about what, 75% of the cost of a Nimitz? For the unholy hellspawn of a battlewagon and a LHD?

  Apparently the Armed Services Committee was full of fun-hating commies. 

RacinBob > HammerheadFistpunch 11/20/2019 at 17:57

0

Absolutely a worthwhile tour. And with constant reminders about what a deadly and lethal place that could be.

First insight was the “ 5th” turret which was the auxiliary bridge. It is essentially a turret inside the bridge structure which has all the backup controls. Essentially they assume the rest will be shot away but this will survive allowing control of the ship. It kind of makes you wonder how long they plan on the people surviving outside of the turrets.

Second insight was while waiting to meet the captain, I was looking at a checklist at an emergency station. Steps one through nine were pretty mundane however ten sent chills down my spine as it was —- “Don’t give up the ship”. In otherwords if you have to bolt the compartment to fi ght the fire with you inside, so be it. There is no “Try not to give up the ship in this business”. ....

A great tour including the Jersey, the Olympia and the Submarine.....

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > HammerheadFistpunch 11/20/2019 at 23:50

0

th craziest job on the south dakota class , is the guy 1/2 deck below the turret, (you can see his head at 7:02) who would feet from the breach when it fired.

There was an interesting video by Drachinifel on youtube, how teh odds of seeing these again is slim to none as the whole industry of making barrels that large are gone. There are some spare barrels around, but creating a new battleship would require the whole industry from 75 years ago. 

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > HammerheadFistpunch 11/21/2019 at 11:49

1

That breech locking system is ingenious. You have 80% of the circumference used for locking and containing the forces yet only need 24° of rotation (6.7% of the circumference) to unlock it.