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  • Battleship Stopping Distance

    Hi All,

    I just visited the New Jersey Battleship museum in Camden, New Jersey and in a word, awesome!

    At the museum someone mentioned that battleships were designed to stop in a very short distance by sharply turning their rudders to impede forward motion.

    Would someone please go into more detail regarding this?

    Thank you,

    Bob

  • #2
    Originally posted by Bob Guercio View Post
    Hi All,

    I just visited the New Jersey Battleship museum in Camden, New Jersey and in a word, awesome!

    At the museum someone mentioned that battleships were designed to stop in a very short distance by sharply turning their rudders to impede forward motion.

    Would someone please go into more detail regarding this?

    Thank you,

    Bob
    Only the USS Wisconsin has experimented with this type of stop called "Closing the Barn Doors".

    A normal full "Crash Back" stop keeps the rudders amidships but the propellers are reversed from full flank ahead to full flank reverse. It takes the ship about a mile to come to a stop before going in reverse again. I was riding the Missouri at the time we tested this out and it is amazing how quiet the machinery spaces suddenly get and start up again.

    The inboard shafts 2 & 3 on an Iowa class are built into large skegs supporting the 5-bladed propellers. The outboard shafts 1 & 4 support the 4-bladed propellers by struts.

    But the rudders are almost in line with the skegs for props 2 & 3 and those skegs form a virtual tunnel underneath the ship allowing for lots of water to pass through.

    The Proceedings had an article on this back in the 80's of the Wisconsin testing the Barn Door stop. By turning over the rudders to local control (in the steering gear rooms themselves) they could be operated independantly and turned inboard to each other to close off that tunnel of water.

    This also including reversing the props as well.

    The results were shocking and often messy as anything not tied down wound up on the deck or against the forward bulkhead. In one test, they had a crewman throw a piece of wood off the bow as the "Barn Door Stop" was ordered. When she came to a stop, the piece of wood was almost abreast of Turret III.

    That's stopping a 57,000 ton Battleship in about 600 feet.

    When we reactivated the Wisconsin in the 1980's, there was an Insurv item from sea trials that the rudders vibrated and were a tad loose. When she was dry docked in Philadelphia, I was party chief of a shipcheck team for other modifications. But I was also given a huge roll of rudder drawings (about a foot in diameter) to deliver to Philly.

    After relating my just by chance reading of that Proceedings article, they then knew what they had to do to tighten the rudders back "up" again (literally "up" by about an inch).

    Naturally, "Closing the Barn Doors" became high on the list of things NOT to do with a Battleship.

    In the small pic you can see the propeller and rudder arrangement on Dreadnaught Helper's model of the New Jersey.

    The next pic is yours truly on the No. 4 strut. You can see the skeg for No. 3 behind me with some Zinc cathodic protection anodes on it. As you can see, it's about the size of the broadside of a barn.

    The big pic is yours truly again underneath the starboard "Barn Door".
    Attached Files
    Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

    Comment


    • #3
      Rusty Battleship will enlighten you when he comes on Line. Go and introduce yourself on the Introductions thread, then get back to us. Good question mind.

      Comment


      • #4
        Damn thats was quick Rusty.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Chaobam Armour View Post
          Damn thats was quick Rusty.
          You're welcome. I always aim to please. I just realized, I think I answered this question once before and it is also described in my book.

          But that's okay by me as long as it serves a useful purpose and increases the education of someone.
          Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

          Comment


          • #6
            Damn big 'Barn Door'.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by RustyBattleship View Post

              The next pic is yours truly on the No. 4 strut. You can see the skeg for No. 3 behind me with some Zinc cathodic protection anodes on it. As you can see, it's about the size of the broadside of a barn.

              The big pic is yours truly again underneath the starboard "Barn Door".
              You were about 47-48 in the pictures? Weren't you ever young?

              I like the last picture I saw of you, standing there in the park with a hot dog in your hand.

              Comment


              • #8
                Thanks guys.

                It's truly amazing that a battleship that size can stop in such a short distance!

                Bob

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Ytlas View Post
                  You were about 47-48 in the pictures? Weren't you ever young?
                  How was he supposed to play Santa Claus if he was young??



                  “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
                    How was he supposed to play Santa Claus if he was young??



                    The malls are full of young Santa Clauses every Christmas Season.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Ytlas View Post
                      The malls are full of young Santa Clauses every Christmas Season.
                      With FAKE beards. What kind of cheap-ass stunt is that??
                      “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
                        With FAKE beards. What kind of cheap-ass stunt is that??
                        Ok, ok. cRusty has the real beard and real padding. You win, cRusty doesn't need padding or fake beard.... or glasses... or white hair.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Ytlas View Post
                          Ok, ok. cRusty has the real beard and real padding. You win, cRusty doesn't need padding or fake beard.... or glasses... or white hair.
                          That's very true, up till a few years ago anyway. I played Santa Claus for the Long Beach Fire Department, for St. Anthony High School and for the Spina Bifida Association.

                          The Spina Bifida Association (children born with an open spine) was joyous at times when a youngster would push themselves out of their wheel chairs to sit on my lap. At other times it was sad when a couple of years later they were no longer there.

                          But for at least one moment of their lives they would smile as I gave them a hug.
                          Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            A big burly man likeself with the real deal I could not imagine a better Santa.:)
                            Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Those rudder post castings for the Wisconsin alone weighed approximately 100 tons each and were cast but minutes from my home in Eddystone Pa. and barged up river to the PNSY. After they broke up the ice on the Delaware for the trip. Otherwise she would have been behind schedule in her building. The Delaware river does not freeze that often but when it does it creates havic for the barges and other shipping.

                              The prop shafts you see Rusty standing next to on the skeg are 23" in diameter and 4-1/8" thick.
                              Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

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