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  • As I said, the letter is sort of beating around the bush. There is absolutely no intention on the part of anyone to reactivate the Texas. Two World Wars and a show of force off of Vera Cruz was enough for the old gal.
    Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

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    • Originally posted by RustyBattleship View Post
      As I said, the letter is sort of beating around the bush. There is absolutely no intention on the part of anyone to reactivate the Texas. Two World Wars and a show of force off of Vera Cruz was enough for the old gal.
      One hell of a good looking ship she is.:)
      Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

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      • Originally posted by Dreadnought View Post
        One hell of a good looking ship she is.:)
        Re: USS Texas. No argument on that. Interestingly, when LBNSY was reactivating the Iowa's back in the 1980's, one of our men in a design support section (code 244) served aboard the Texas. He was ready for retirement but deliberately put it off until we got the last Iowa class ship commissioned.

        He was a gunner's mate in one of the main turrets. He said that if and when (which happened a few times) the main power for training the turrets went out, they had to be turned with chain falls and whatever strong MAN-POWERED rigging could be used.

        Edit: If there are any WW II USS Texas vets out there, the name of the person was Bob Hartley.
        Last edited by RustyBattleship; 25 Mar 11,, 01:37.
        Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

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        • Originally posted by Ken_NJ View Post
          Over in the Fletcher thread, Dreadnought posted this link to a picture of the NJ. The topic was the bridge structure but can someone explain the rope or chain coming down from the foreward-most hawse pipe. I know they have paravanes on the battleships, but all the guys look like they are in dress whites, not working, and the ship is underway with a tug following. Supposedly the picture is from the Philly Navy Yard collection.

          http://navsource.org/archives/01/062/016219w.jpg

          Fletcher thread link....http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/nav...tml#post789188
          Ken, after looking at a few pictures taken that day and also a set up they had aboard after her launching/sea trials, the chain you see through the bull nose is indeed her parvane chain. I was reminded of this post after seeing a few photos of her aboard the other night in the Petty Officers lounge.

          Being one of the major naval yards it probably was not out of the ordinary for them to sweep the Delaware as well on their way to either Norfolk or out to sea.
          Last edited by Dreadnought; 26 Mar 11,, 18:27.
          Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

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          • Originally posted by Dreadnought View Post
            Agreed with the above, all of the Iowas had one 5"/38 mount dedicated to US Marines for their use. For both the New Jersey and the Wisconsin this was mount 55 Starboard side aft.

            It can also be stated that US Marines also manned 20mm machine guns and 40mm aboard the Iowas (Iowa in this case) as I have first hand knowledge of this. A close friend of the family who was a former US Marine stationed aboard Iowa during WWII imparted this information and other information of his duties to me in writing.
            *An update to this is Mount 56 Port side was also used by the Marines aboard the New Jersey during the reactivation period. My bad. ; )
            Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

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            • Wouldn't the chain\paravane be going more away from the ship than almost vertical or more or less underneath her?. And she is passing a buoy to starboard, wouldn't there be a chance of fouling a mooring buoy going out a channel like that?

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              • Originally posted by Ken_NJ View Post
                Wouldn't the chain\paravane be going more away from the ship than almost vertical or more or less underneath her?. And she is passing a buoy to starboard, wouldn't there be a chance of fouling a mooring buoy going out a channel like that?
                Ken, she is dragging her port side paravane and not her starboard side. The buoy you are looking at is a channel marker not an mooring/anchoring buoy. As it seems she is heading down river and away from Philly's Naval Yard and perhaps paravaning the main channel (her port side) which is the approach to League Island (PNSY). Also the Schuylkill River which was the access for fuel coming and going to League Island and outbound cargo's (Grains, RR Freight, CG station etc) making it a vital point of shipping so it would not have been uncommon for the main channel to be swept along with those approaches.

                Link: Popular Science - Google Books

                *Look at the photo on page 82 (left side) shows one of Iowas paravanes stored on the port side forward of the breakwater.
                Last edited by Dreadnought; 28 Mar 11,, 02:01.
                Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

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                • Thanks Dread. I meant to say channel marker. I figure the channel would not be that wide where they would be able to paravane, with maybe shipping traffic on the other side of the channel or even the channel markers on the other side. Thanks for the explanation.

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                  • Originally posted by Ken_NJ View Post
                    Thanks Dread. I meant to say channel marker. I figure the channel would not be that wide where they would be able to paravane, with maybe shipping traffic on the other side of the channel or even the channel markers on the other side. Thanks for the explanation.
                    Ken, perhaps I didnt word the above correctly, she may not even be dragging her paravane/paravanes but the chain that is pictured is her rigging for it. I also couldnt help but notice the object in the water just forward of the channel marker buoy. Not sure exatcly what that object is but this is an older picture of US battelship paravane chains to give you an idea of their set up at the lower bow. It more then likely was changed by the time the Iowas entered service. Rusty posted photos of the Iowas paravane bow set up on an earlier thread that show a somewhat different set up then what is pictured here.

                    http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/i...000/h54656.jpg

                    http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/i...000/h45918.jpg

                    In the thread USS Missouri goes to drydock today (Battleships Forum), you can see in Post #56 the picture I posted of her skeg foot paravane loop which is different as it does not penetrate the bow as it does in the pictures above of the former USS Missouri and former USS DeKalb. As Rusty mentioned in prior posts on the thread the New Jerseys foot loop was removed and plated over.
                    Last edited by Dreadnought; 28 Mar 11,, 23:08.
                    Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

                    Comment


                    • Originally posted by RustyBattleship View Post
                      I have no idea as to their status now. But below I have added a letter answering BB enthusiasts about the dispostition (one of them called me yesterday morning). It was sent by a member of the Navy Office of Legislative Affairs in the House of Representatives. Naturally I have deleted the name and address so they are not deluged with phone calls.

                      It doesn't look good as the letter's context is more like beating around the bush and you have to read between the lines.


                      [I]" ----- the law only requires a contractual provision in material donation contracts allowing Navy to recall donated spares in the event of a national emergency. Congress provided no direction regarding disposition of spare unwanted for donation.

                      Note that donation is a disposal method, not a method of storage mobilization parts, although donation defers demilitarization to the end of is display life.

                      For ship donation, the only statutory requirement that ship donation contracts include a recall capability in event of national emergency applies to ex-TEXAS (BB 35), ex-IOWA (BB 61), ex-WISCONSIN (BB 64), and ex-JFK (CV 67). Most ship donation contracts have that contractual provision, but for other vessels it was a matter of policy not law.

                      Likewise, there is no statutory requirement to retain spares unique to BB 35 or CV 67.

                      Please let me know if you have any questions."
                      Welllll...there are 8 more 16/50 barrels on the market. This time at St. Julien's Creek. Lol...the barrels available are dropping like flies. Can't be many more out there....can there?
                      0001 - Uncategorized at Government Liquidation

                      Also...(guess I can add this...) found this 2009 picture from a Google search.
                      http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/904...gunbarrels.jpg
                      The other barrels that I saw and thought were more 16" are probably 14"?
                      Here is another picture of the 8 at St. Julien's....what is circled is the space shown for one more barrel. Probably one
                      ships complement of barrels.
                      http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/776/gunsacircled.jpg
                      Last edited by biggerisbetter; 29 Mar 11,, 00:11. Reason: Correction/Addition

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                      • Originally posted by RustyBattleship View Post
                        As I said, the letter is sort of beating around the bush. There is absolutely no intention on the part of anyone to reactivate the Texas. Two World Wars and a show of force off of Vera Cruz was enough for the old gal.
                        Well,
                        There was this fictional reactivation:
                        Amazon.com: The Ayes of Texas (9780345332820): Daniel Da Cruz: Books
                        Took me awhile to dredge that one up in the old memory. I recall enjoying the book, but it's been twenty years or so since I read it.

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                        • Another possibilty you could consider is that those barrels and all others shown here are "assembled". Nobody knows how many "could" exist in its seperate parts considering the guns are an assembly of a Liner, Tubes, Jackets, Locking rings and Liner locking rings which if they were unassembled wouldnt be recognizable to most eyes. Even the trained ones.
                          Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

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                          • Hi everyone, been reading the battleship board extensively the past few days, being a battleship aficionado like you. Interesting topics, although I have to admit I was expecting a thread about Averof. Yea, I know, armored cruiser and not a battleship, but in the context of this board, it is very hard to imagine a reason why not. Especially because apart from Mikasa, she is the only big gun warship in the world, outside the United States, and not only that, but she is preserved in near perfect state, so it is a pity not to share the world this great warship. Actually I pay her a visit this very morning and I was thinking of starting a thread, seeing that this is a rather appropriate and busy forum. Not so much as a photo thread cause you can find many in flckr, although I'll post mine, but more of a discussion about the ship and the era. As long as you are interested that is.



                            And mine from today.
                            Last edited by ReiAyanami; 03 Apr 11,, 20:13.

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                            • She is a magnificent ship, and beautifully preserved, a fore runner of the battlecruisers - she did quite well in combat against the old Turkish battleships.
                              this post contains an article about her:
                              http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/bat...tml#post756393
                              Please start a thread in the member introduction thread and introduce yourself. welcome to the WAB
                              sigpic"If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
                              If your plan is for one hundred years, educate children."

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                              • Sorry not a question and was not sure which thread to post this in. In the Fletcher tour thread, the latest discussion was about captains requesting modifications to their own ships which were not part of the entire class and whether BuShips might have approved of the mod. While searching for pictures of the swimming pool gun tubs on the NJ, I came across this nice 'tour' picture site of the NJ as she exists today. Don't know if it has been previously posted on WAB, but here it is anyway. And as I understand, one Iowa class BB captain requested bridge mods which was applied to the other ships.

                                U.S.S. New Jersey Walkthrough

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