On this memorial day, I thought it might be appropriate to share this image and story. The USS Iowa made its final voyage from Richmond, CA to San Pedro CA on Saturday, May 26th, sliding under the Golden Gate Bridge for the last time.
A bow view of the battleship USS IOWA (BB-61) firing its Mark 7 16-inch/50-caliber guns off the starboard side during a fire power demonstration. Date 15 August 1984 Image: WikipediaIronically, the Golden Gate Bridge had its 75th anniversary a day later.
USS Iowa (BB-61) fires a full broadside of her nine 16″/50 and six 5″/38 guns during a target exercise near Vieques Island, Puerto Rico (21°N 65°W). Note concussion effects on the water surface, and 16-inch gun barrels in varying degrees of recoil., July 1, 1984 Image: WikipediaFull story and more great photos here: USS Iowa final voyage from Richmond, CA
As always, my thanks and respect to our men and women in the military, who have served our country in times of war and peace.
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pk
May 29, 2012 4:56 am
Johnnygunn says:
May 28, 2012 at 6:54 pm:
=================================================
obviously you have never walked the decks of one of the Iowa’s.
C
sunspot
May 29, 2012 5:52 am
Wouldn’t be a great thing to see the rest of the armed service’s retire also, then the world might get a bit of peace.
pk
May 29, 2012 6:02 am
Johnnygunn says:
May 28, 2012 at 6:54 pm:
=================================================
the reactivation of the battleships had a purpose that was not particularly publicized. when Presiden Raegan authorized the work there was a situation that could only be rectified by the reactivations.
there was a thing called the “Fierce Factor”. a minor version of it was that when one of our cruisers would tie up at a pier in west baffooonistan or east swazuliplatz with a russian cruiser on the other side of said pier, the locals saw our ships as being much slower than the russian boats. when asked the locals would say that the russians must be faster because they had an angle on the bow that must be necessary for the faster speed. (the “cutwater” on american ships at the time being nearly vertical meant to these people that they must be much slower than the russians).
at that time russian ships had a different launcher for every type of missile that they carried. this caused the russian ships to look really nasty to people on the pier. our ships had only one or two launchers (our launchers handled a variety of missiles out of the same equipment) and were percieved to be much weaker advesaries than the russians. and to make things worse we were starting to change over to the Vertical Launching System which had no above deck launchers and the only visible part was round covers about the size of a trash can lid and not visable at all to people walking down the pier.
a ship thats three foot ball fields long with guns that most of the soldiers of a third world army can crawl through makes a real impression on those folks.
when the battle ships were cruising the world all of a sudden a lot of the smaller third world countries started seeing things our way.
if you can, come to san pedro and do a main deck tour. if you happen to be in hawaii go to ford island and walk the decks of missouri, particularly the surrender deck where it all ended. if your on the east coast go to north carolina (i believe that its in charlston but am not sure) its a different class but to the non sand crabs its not much different. (shorter and slower but the same guns).
C
MarkW
May 29, 2012 7:53 am
Don’t know if anyone has already commented on this, but in that first picture, look at the bow wake when the Iowa fires all of it’s guns. The ship is being pushed 6 to 10 feet sideways.
Those are some big ass guns.
Mark
May 29, 2012 8:59 am
Small world, EW3. I was on the final cruise and decomm of the McCloy. And did some work for the Iowa when she was being recommissioned.
Midwest Mark
May 29, 2012 9:10 am
I have a good friend who served aboard the Iowa in the 1980s, after she was taken out of mothballs. He tells me he was on deck one particular day when a broadside was fired. The wind disturbance from the salvo blew his hat into the sea.
Matthew R Marler
May 29, 2012 10:07 am
Good Photos. Thank you for posting this.
Big D in TX
May 29, 2012 10:32 am
Alan says:
May 28, 2012 at 3:17 pm
Speaking of a broadside fired by those 16″ “rifles”, as I recall, at a range of 26 miles, those guns could group (place their shots) in about 1 minute of angle, one minute of angle being approximately 1″ at 100 yards.
*************
That’s an accuracy of what, 12.7 feet?
Proud to say my grandfather was a fire controlman for the 16″ on this ship: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Massachusetts_(BB-59)
If I remember right, he said he sat in a little box and aimed the gun, while another guy sat in another little box below him and would shoot it. He said it was an interesting thing to aim at something you couldn’t see – that he could only see about 7 miles to the horizon on open water and was shooting 20+.
sunspot says:
May 29, 2012 at 5:52 am
Wouldn’t be a great thing to see the rest of the armed service’s retire also, then the world might get a bit of peace.
***************************
What an immature and naive thing to say.
pk
May 29, 2012 12:44 pm
sunspot says:
May 29, 2012 at 5:52 am
Wouldn’t be a great thing to see the rest of the armed service’s retire also, then the world might get a bit of peace.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
sunspot has been out in the sun to long without a hat.
C
PeppyKiwi
May 29, 2012 1:20 pm
About the ship being pushed sideways when firing a broadside. Conservation of momentum says m1 x v1 = -m2 x v2. Given a broadside weighed about 10 tons total and exited the barrel at around 2500 feet per second, while the ship weighed about 50,000 tons, the ship would move sideways at about 0.5 feet per second, IF it was in free space. But it wasn’t. In simple terms, the side view of the ship from the waterline down is a wall 36 feet high and 900 feet long. The opposing weight and force of that wall of water would be enormous, so the initial sideways movement would be much less than 0.5 feet per second, and it would be braked down to zero in a very short distance. In short, the lower hull was pretty much anchored against sideways movement by the water. As the sideways push of the broadside was well above the waterline and the anchor point well below the waterline, all the ship would do is rock sideways a little.
eyesonu
May 29, 2012 2:21 pm
Metaphorically speaking, It would be nice if the Iowa could fire a full broadside salvo and deliver the the final blow to the sinking ship CAGW in the name of freedom and democracy.
eyesonu
May 29, 2012 8:39 pm
Anyone notice the ” hydrodynamic ” design of this ship. From the aerial view it looks just like a boat tail spitzer bullet. Trying to guesstimate the waterline hull at the bow, I would estimate an ogive value of eight. I don’t know the nautical term that would be used but it makes a good hydrodynamic design with regards to speed.
Just an observation. She’s magnificent.
If anyone is still visiting this thread and knowledgeable of modern hull design, I have a question that the answer may be classified. Is it possible to have a displacement hull that would then perform somewhat as a planing hull at top speed?
Just curious on that one.
Larry Ledwick (hotrod)
May 29, 2012 10:04 pm
eyesonu says:
May 29, 2012 at 8:39 pm
…
If anyone is still visiting this thread and knowledgeable of modern hull design, I have a question that the answer may be classified. Is it possible to have a displacement hull that would then perform somewhat as a planing hull at top speed?
Just curious on that one.
Yes the newest fast littoral ships (Freedom class) use a semi planing hull, and can achieve speeds of 47 knots. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_class_littoral_combat_ship
The competing Independence class ships use a trimaran hull hull form for both speed and stability.
Lots of experimentation underway to produce new high performance ships with low manpower requirements suited to close to shore combat operations.
Larry
Daryl M
May 29, 2012 11:03 pm
Whether or not she moved sideways from the salvo is debatable, but the ship is not executing a port turn. There’s no wake, no waves, no nothing. She’s not underway.
George E. Smith;
May 30, 2012 3:53 am
Well Daryl, debateable or not, it is a fact. Fred Haynie points out that the rifle recoil will “absorb the energy”. If the gun was on wheels it would then hurtle off the port side of the ship; but somewhat slower than the round went out. But it doesn’t as the recoil converts the short intense impulse inside the barrel into a much longer, and less amplitude , impulse, which in turn is applied to the ship through the gun mount and turret. Eventually the ship will absorb the full impulse, and it will move sideways, and eventually some water will flow around from one side of the ship to the other. With all the numbers, one can calculate how far the ship moves, and probably how long that takes. But I agree with Fred, that it isn’t going to toss peope overboard.
Hell the bang must be impressive enough to satisfy most folks.
eyesonu
May 30, 2012 6:52 am
Larry Ledwick (hotrod) says:
May 29, 2012 at 10:04 pm
==============
Thank you.
eyesonu
May 30, 2012 8:41 am
Larry, I followed your link and you can guess as to where that may have led (inquiring minds need to know?).
First shock; the Destriero, 220 ft long, 400 ton displacement, a top speed of 53 knots (68 mph), crossing the Atlantic at an average speed of 53 knots ( 61 mph) without refueling. Impressive at 400 tons.
The speed of the littoral class combat ships are truly impressive.
The hull design on the Iowa would be a limiting factor regardless of any improved propulsion system installed. The issue would be transverse waves.
While there are likely applications for the rapid rate of fire that could be provided by a beauty like the Iowa, she is ready for retirement. Sad.
Larry, thanks again for the link to that which was previously a known unknown to me. 😉
pk
May 30, 2012 6:23 pm
eyesonu says:
Larry Ledwick (hotrod) says:
May 29, 2012 at 10:04 pmMay 29, 2012 at 8:39 pm
____________________________________________________________________________
gentlemen:
if you happen to come onto a picutre of LCS1 in dry dock you will see that the hull for is simply a huge deep vee hull exactly like used for towing waterskiers.
and yes USN has a huge “tub” fitted with instruments and computers that they have used for 50 years + in hydrodynamic experiments. its called the David Taylor model basin and is in the north east.
C
Johnnygunn says:
May 28, 2012 at 6:54 pm:
=================================================
obviously you have never walked the decks of one of the Iowa’s.
C
Wouldn’t be a great thing to see the rest of the armed service’s retire also, then the world might get a bit of peace.
Johnnygunn says:
May 28, 2012 at 6:54 pm:
=================================================
the reactivation of the battleships had a purpose that was not particularly publicized. when Presiden Raegan authorized the work there was a situation that could only be rectified by the reactivations.
there was a thing called the “Fierce Factor”. a minor version of it was that when one of our cruisers would tie up at a pier in west baffooonistan or east swazuliplatz with a russian cruiser on the other side of said pier, the locals saw our ships as being much slower than the russian boats. when asked the locals would say that the russians must be faster because they had an angle on the bow that must be necessary for the faster speed. (the “cutwater” on american ships at the time being nearly vertical meant to these people that they must be much slower than the russians).
at that time russian ships had a different launcher for every type of missile that they carried. this caused the russian ships to look really nasty to people on the pier. our ships had only one or two launchers (our launchers handled a variety of missiles out of the same equipment) and were percieved to be much weaker advesaries than the russians. and to make things worse we were starting to change over to the Vertical Launching System which had no above deck launchers and the only visible part was round covers about the size of a trash can lid and not visable at all to people walking down the pier.
a ship thats three foot ball fields long with guns that most of the soldiers of a third world army can crawl through makes a real impression on those folks.
when the battle ships were cruising the world all of a sudden a lot of the smaller third world countries started seeing things our way.
if you can, come to san pedro and do a main deck tour. if you happen to be in hawaii go to ford island and walk the decks of missouri, particularly the surrender deck where it all ended. if your on the east coast go to north carolina (i believe that its in charlston but am not sure) its a different class but to the non sand crabs its not much different. (shorter and slower but the same guns).
C
Don’t know if anyone has already commented on this, but in that first picture, look at the bow wake when the Iowa fires all of it’s guns. The ship is being pushed 6 to 10 feet sideways.
Those are some big ass guns.
Small world, EW3. I was on the final cruise and decomm of the McCloy. And did some work for the Iowa when she was being recommissioned.
I have a good friend who served aboard the Iowa in the 1980s, after she was taken out of mothballs. He tells me he was on deck one particular day when a broadside was fired. The wind disturbance from the salvo blew his hat into the sea.
Good Photos. Thank you for posting this.
Alan says:
May 28, 2012 at 3:17 pm
Speaking of a broadside fired by those 16″ “rifles”, as I recall, at a range of 26 miles, those guns could group (place their shots) in about 1 minute of angle, one minute of angle being approximately 1″ at 100 yards.
*************
That’s an accuracy of what, 12.7 feet?
Proud to say my grandfather was a fire controlman for the 16″ on this ship:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Massachusetts_(BB-59)
If I remember right, he said he sat in a little box and aimed the gun, while another guy sat in another little box below him and would shoot it. He said it was an interesting thing to aim at something you couldn’t see – that he could only see about 7 miles to the horizon on open water and was shooting 20+.
sunspot says:
May 29, 2012 at 5:52 am
Wouldn’t be a great thing to see the rest of the armed service’s retire also, then the world might get a bit of peace.
***************************
What an immature and naive thing to say.
sunspot says:
May 29, 2012 at 5:52 am
Wouldn’t be a great thing to see the rest of the armed service’s retire also, then the world might get a bit of peace.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
sunspot has been out in the sun to long without a hat.
C
About the ship being pushed sideways when firing a broadside. Conservation of momentum says m1 x v1 = -m2 x v2. Given a broadside weighed about 10 tons total and exited the barrel at around 2500 feet per second, while the ship weighed about 50,000 tons, the ship would move sideways at about 0.5 feet per second, IF it was in free space. But it wasn’t. In simple terms, the side view of the ship from the waterline down is a wall 36 feet high and 900 feet long. The opposing weight and force of that wall of water would be enormous, so the initial sideways movement would be much less than 0.5 feet per second, and it would be braked down to zero in a very short distance. In short, the lower hull was pretty much anchored against sideways movement by the water. As the sideways push of the broadside was well above the waterline and the anchor point well below the waterline, all the ship would do is rock sideways a little.
Metaphorically speaking, It would be nice if the Iowa could fire a full broadside salvo and deliver the the final blow to the sinking ship CAGW in the name of freedom and democracy.
Anyone notice the ” hydrodynamic ” design of this ship. From the aerial view it looks just like a boat tail spitzer bullet. Trying to guesstimate the waterline hull at the bow, I would estimate an ogive value of eight. I don’t know the nautical term that would be used but it makes a good hydrodynamic design with regards to speed.
Just an observation. She’s magnificent.
If anyone is still visiting this thread and knowledgeable of modern hull design, I have a question that the answer may be classified. Is it possible to have a displacement hull that would then perform somewhat as a planing hull at top speed?
Just curious on that one.
Yes the newest fast littoral ships (Freedom class) use a semi planing hull, and can achieve speeds of 47 knots.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_class_littoral_combat_ship
The competing Independence class ships use a trimaran hull hull form for both speed and stability.
Lots of experimentation underway to produce new high performance ships with low manpower requirements suited to close to shore combat operations.
Larry
Whether or not she moved sideways from the salvo is debatable, but the ship is not executing a port turn. There’s no wake, no waves, no nothing. She’s not underway.
Well Daryl, debateable or not, it is a fact. Fred Haynie points out that the rifle recoil will “absorb the energy”. If the gun was on wheels it would then hurtle off the port side of the ship; but somewhat slower than the round went out. But it doesn’t as the recoil converts the short intense impulse inside the barrel into a much longer, and less amplitude , impulse, which in turn is applied to the ship through the gun mount and turret. Eventually the ship will absorb the full impulse, and it will move sideways, and eventually some water will flow around from one side of the ship to the other. With all the numbers, one can calculate how far the ship moves, and probably how long that takes. But I agree with Fred, that it isn’t going to toss peope overboard.
Hell the bang must be impressive enough to satisfy most folks.
Larry Ledwick (hotrod) says:
May 29, 2012 at 10:04 pm
==============
Thank you.
Larry, I followed your link and you can guess as to where that may have led (inquiring minds need to know?).
First shock; the Destriero, 220 ft long, 400 ton displacement, a top speed of 53 knots (68 mph), crossing the Atlantic at an average speed of 53 knots ( 61 mph) without refueling. Impressive at 400 tons.
The speed of the littoral class combat ships are truly impressive.
The hull design on the Iowa would be a limiting factor regardless of any improved propulsion system installed. The issue would be transverse waves.
While there are likely applications for the rapid rate of fire that could be provided by a beauty like the Iowa, she is ready for retirement. Sad.
Larry, thanks again for the link to that which was previously a known unknown to me. 😉
eyesonu says:
Larry Ledwick (hotrod) says:
May 29, 2012 at 10:04 pmMay 29, 2012 at 8:39 pm
____________________________________________________________________________
gentlemen:
if you happen to come onto a picutre of LCS1 in dry dock you will see that the hull for is simply a huge deep vee hull exactly like used for towing waterskiers.
and yes USN has a huge “tub” fitted with instruments and computers that they have used for 50 years + in hydrodynamic experiments. its called the David Taylor model basin and is in the north east.
C