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  • iowa turret#2 repairs??

    I know the tragedy is a sad & touchy subject
    I just want to know the nuts & bolts of
    What it needs to get it bsck to operational status
    I have heard everything from its wiped out to
    Everything needed for repair is stored in the turret.
    Is there a plan to repair it in the future?? Thanks

  • #2
    Originally posted by blackzz28 View Post
    I know the tragedy is a sad & touchy subject
    I just want to know the nuts & bolts of
    What it needs to get it bsck to operational status
    I have heard everything from its wiped out to
    Everything needed for repair is stored in the turret.
    Is there a plan to repair it in the future?? Thanks
    The turret is manually operable in traversing of the turret and elevation of the guns. Which is very, very slow. The turret alone weighs 1,800 tons and each barrel weighs 118 tons so you can imagine the complexity of the reduction gearing. According to a verbal report given to me by the progressman, everything that was needed to fully repair the turret in Norfolk (including the repaired range finder) was on the pier waiting for the center panel of the turret top to be removed. The Class C armor bolts were loosened up with Wintergreen penetrating oil, the damaged section of the center powder hoist was already marked off for cutouts and replacements (the markings are still there) but suddenly funding was cut off.

    PBC inspections from 2006 until present found only a pile of boxes of nuts and bolts in one of the powder magazines labeled for the turret repair and a pile of damaged parts in an adjoining magazine. However, the last crew of the ship, while still in commission, cleaned everything else up very well and unless you were a turret expert you would think everything was ship-shape as you climb up from the powder magazine to the gun house itself. The crew did an excellent job of cleaning things up and repainting where necessary.

    But without electrical, hydraulic and medium pressure air supply the turret can only remain a memorial to the 47 lost lives. Also, of the loosened bolts on top, 47 were removed and the bolt holes capped with metal plates (see photos on pages 233 & 234 of my book). Presumably those bolts were removed and made into some sort of a memorial but I have no idea of where it may be.

    However, we would like to know where all those other parts are (range finder, fan motors, etc.) and store them aboard the ship in accordance with Navy regulations. The range finder itself would make a great display item without being reinstalled.
    Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

    Comment


    • #3
      Thank you rusty , that was a straight forward answer, I just dont get why
      they would cut funding in the middle Of the repair ??? Makes no sense
      cause in the grand scheme of things the repair was cheap , again thanks

      Comment


      • #4
        I would imagine that those missing parts are either in a storage facility on the base or a floating storage hulk like many other parts for the USN are stored. Perhaps shipped to her percieved home port or a facility near by. Then again unfortunately perhaps discarded.
        Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

        Comment


        • #5
          Maybe it's over at Julien's Creek or Northwest annex?

          Comment


          • #6
            I think they are all in a special warehouse in Cheatham, NY. Parts of the Massachuesettes and North Carolina that were applicable as spare parts for the Iowas were also "retrieved" in the 1980's. I personally "cannibilized" the quick release towing Pelican Hook off the Mamie and two cargo winches off the Chicago.
            Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by RustyBattleship View Post
              I think they are all in a special warehouse in Cheatham, NY. Parts of the Massachuesettes and North Carolina that were applicable as spare parts for the Iowas were also "retrieved" in the 1980's. I personally "cannibilized" the quick release towing Pelican Hook off the Mamie and two cargo winches off the Chicago.
              I'd love to hear from whoever raided the North Carolina's storerooms to see if the "parts in their original wrappers' story is true.
              “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


              • #8
                Originally posted by RustyBattleship View Post
                I think they are all in a special warehouse in Cheatham, NY. Parts of the Massachuesettes and North Carolina that were applicable as spare parts for the Iowas were also "retrieved" in the 1980's. I personally "cannibilized" the quick release towing Pelican Hook off the Mamie and two cargo winches off the Chicago.
                Rusty, whatever happened to Iowa's SPS-49 radar? The mock up that's fitted to her now looks way undersized compared to the real thing. It just doesn't look quite right on her foremast. Is there still a possibility of getting a replacement for the Iowa?

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by RustyBattleship View Post
                  I think they are all in a special warehouse in Cheatham, NY. Parts of the Massachuesettes and North Carolina that were applicable as spare parts for the Iowas were also "retrieved" in the 1980's. I personally "cannibilized" the quick release towing Pelican Hook off the Mamie and two cargo winches off the Chicago.
                  Cheatham, NY?? Do you mean Chatham?? Where is this special warehouse?? Maybe it's time for the Slater crew to organize a covert raid!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Looks like the pacific battleship center needs to track this stuff down :)

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
                      I'd love to hear from whoever raided the North Carolina's storerooms to see if the "parts in their original wrappers' story is true.
                      It wouldn't surprise me. The ship still had the inventories of the small arms assigned to the ship.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by blackzz28 View Post
                        Looks like the pacific battleship center needs to track this stuff down :)
                        We are trying our best. But we have to repair a lot of "damage" caused by the Navy when the ship was anchored off of Rhode Island for two years and "acquisitions" from the Museum at the Washington Navy Yard.

                        The top of the mast was cut up into 7 sections so the ship would fit underneath the Railroad bridge going to Benicia. Everytime I went up there for inspection, I would measure and photograph the mast sections. I was finally able to come up with plans and a sequence of putting the parts together. Fortunately I had some of the original mast drawings so I could estimate weights as I did not know what lift capacity the crane would have.

                        I've had years of experience both building and designing masts for the Navy so I was finally able to come up with a set of re-assembly drawings.

                        And they worked. As a matter of fact, the crane was strong enough to pick up a fully reassembled mast rather than 3 sections as I initially proposed. So the entire lift was done in just a couple of hours instead of a whole week.

                        As for the SPS-49 antenna, there are some sitting on the decks of decommissioned Aircraft Carriers in Bremerton. But Navy budget cutbacks will not allow the Navy to ship one down to a nearby military base (we have Seal Beach NAVWEPS about 10 miles from us and are within sight of the Coast Guard base on Terminal Island). We would have to provide our own crane, our own barge and our own truck to salvage one of those antennas.

                        While the ship was at Rhode Island, "somebody" removed the amidships Tomahawk Armored Box Launchers, all 16 armored Harpoon tubes (We have sheet metal copies in place of the real ones).

                        Also most of the protective weather covers off of deck winches and secondary gun directors. Therefore a lot of restoration/replacement has to be done with many of the winch motors.

                        Even our CIWS guns are fiberglass & sheet metal dummies. They traverse and elevate, but only if you have a puppeteer behind it pulling on some ropes. We would have to get a Class C firearms license to have real ones that are not welded up. We are in the middle of movie and TV making country and having operational guns that can fire blanks can be used for special combat scenes and not rely on a computer "cartoonist" to CGI firing of the guns.

                        We have one of the 5"/38 secondary mounts manually reactivated and have used it to fire salutes with clearing charges instead of the 40 mm black powder saluting gun. Since both the 16-inchers and the 5-inchers use SEMI-FIXED ammunition (propellents are separately loaded behind the projectiles) a class C license is not necessary.

                        Besides, firing of 660 lbs of gun powder in each barrel would bust Bill Gates budget and I don't think our insurance company would cover every broken window in San Pedro.

                        I hope somebody in NAVSEA (or even Congress) is reading this as I finally found confirmation of Admiral Gorshkov's quote after he witnessed a gunfire demonstration of Iowa during Baltops 85.

                        "You Americans do not realize what formidable warships you have in these four battleships. We have concluded after careful analysis that these magnificent ships are in fact the most to be feared in your entire naval arsenal. When engaged in combat we could throw everything we have at those ships and all our firepower would bounce off or be of little effect. Then when we are exhausted, we will detect you coming over the horizon and then you will sink us."


                        Though I originally labeled the "quote" as possibly propoganda fiction, it is verified in the Admiral's biography in the Royal Airforce Museum web site.

                        Therefore, the USS IOWA (BB-61) is the ship that won the cold war. I would think the Department of the Navy and the Department of Defense should be able to arrange recovery of some of the items taken by museums and arrange two week traning schedules of Reserve units to get all those items out here.

                        Sub-note: After IOWA won the Cold War and communism was washed overboard, Russian individuals were then able to join American based organizations. When I questioned the NRA about the similarity between the German MP-44 Sturmgehwer and the AK-47, they wrote back that the recently deceased M. Kalishnikov is credited as the sole designer of his AK though he got the general idea from the German gun. However, the NRA said that Kalisnikov considered the M-1 Garand the greatest army rifle ever built and after communism in Russia fell, he JOINED THE NRA as a LIFE MEMBER.
                        Last edited by RustyBattleship; 02 May 14,, 21:06.
                        Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by RustyBattleship View Post
                          We are trying our best. But we have to repair a lot of "damage" caused by the Navy when the ship was anchored off of Rhode Island for two years and "acquisitions" from the Museum at the Washington Navy Yard.

                          The top of the mast was cut up into 7 sections so the ship would fit underneath the Railroad bridge going to Benicia. Everytime I went up there for inspection, I would measure and photograph the mast sections. I was finally able to come up with plans and a sequence of putting the parts together. Fortunately I had some of the original mast drawings so I could estimate weights as I did not know what lift capacity the crane would have.

                          I've had years of experience both building and designing masts for the Navy so I was finally able to come up with a set of re-assembly drawings.

                          And they worked. As a matter of fact, the crane was strong enough to pick up a fully reassembled mast rather than 3 sections as I initially proposed. So the entire lift was done in just a couple of hours instead of a whole week.

                          As for the SPS-49 antenna, there are some sitting on the decks of decommissioned Aircraft Carriers in Bremerton. But Navy budget cutbacks will not allow the Navy to ship one down to a nearby military base (we have Seal Beach NAVWEPS about 10 miles from us and are within sight of the Coast Guard base on Terminal Island). We would have to provide our own crane, our own barge and our own truck to salvage one of those antennas.

                          While the ship was at Rhode Island, "somebody" removed the amidships Tomahawk Armored Box Launchers, all 16 armored Harpoon tubes (We have sheet metal copies in place of the real ones).

                          Also most of the protective weather covers off of deck winches and secondary gun directors. Therefore a lot of restoration/replacement has to be done with many of the winch motors.

                          Even our CIWS guns are fiberglass & sheet metal dummies. They traverse and elevate, but only if you have a puppeteer behind it pulling on some ropes. We would have to get a Class C firearms license to have real ones that are not welded up. We are in the middle of movie and TV making country and having operational guns that can fire blanks can be used for special combat scenes and not rely on a computer "cartoonist" to CGI firing of the guns.

                          We have one of the 5"/38 secondary mounts manually reactivated and have used it to fire salutes with clearing charges instead of the 40 mm black powder saluting gun. Since both the 16-inchers and the 5-inchers use SEMI-FIXED ammunition (propellents are separately loaded behind the projectiles) a class C license is not necessary.

                          Besides, firing of 660 lbs of gun powder in each barrel would bust Bill Gates budget and I don't think our insurance company would cover every broken window in San Pedro.

                          I hope somebody in NAVSEA (or even Congress) is reading this as I finally found confirmation of Admiral Gorshkov's quote after he witnessed a gunfire demonstration of Iowa during Baltops 85.

                          "You Americans do not realize what formidable warships you have in these four battleships. We have concluded after careful analysis that these magnificent ships are in fact the most to be feared in your entire naval arsenal. When engaged in combat we could throw everything we have at those ships and all our firepower would bounce off or be of little effect. Then when we are exhausted, we will detect you coming over the horizon and then you will sink us."


                          Though I originally labeled the "quote" as possibly propoganda fiction, it is verified in the Admiral's biography in the Royal Airforce Museum web site.

                          Therefore, the USS IOWA (BB-61) is the ship that won the cold war. I would think the Department of the Navy and the Department of Defense should be able to arrange recovery of some of the items taken by museums and arrange two week traning schedules of Reserve units to get all those items out here.

                          Sub-note: After IOWA won the Cold War and communism was washed overboard, Russian individuals were then able to join American based organizations. When I questioned the NRA about the similarity between the German MP-44 Sturmgehwer and the AK-47, they wrote back that the recently deceased M. Kalishnikov is credited as the sole designer of his AK though he got the general idea from the German gun. However, the NRA said that Kalisnikov considered the M-1 Garand the greatest army rifle ever built and after communism in Russia fell, he JOINED THE NRA as a LIFE MEMBER.
                          I hope eventually the Pacific Battleship Museum will be able to get one of those radar for the Iowa. Another possible source, the Ticonderoga class CG's that have gone through their most recent refits have had their SPS-49 radars removed as that type radar is slowly being phased out. Maybe it's possible that one of those might be closer to the Iowa's location? Of course money and moving it would still be a problem.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Tophatter wrote:

                            I'd love to hear from whoever raided the North Carolina's storerooms to see if the "parts in their original wrappers' story is true.
                            As a Tar Heel and BB62 vet, I saw that article in the local press and would have to say that IMHO this is a true statement. The rules for decommissioning ships were much different in 1946-47 when THE SHOWBOAT was put into mothballs. The ship was for all practical purposes sealed up with everything aboard save the food and drink! Today the ships are stripped of everything that isn't welded in place. I would also imagine that other gov't agencies with their various agendas (EPA, OSHA, ATF to name a few) have all created regulations that also extend to deactivated naval vessels. NORTH CAROLINA had spaces unopened until whenever this article came out (I can't recall the dates) and much to EVERYONE's amazement had these inventories of new barrels, receivers, etc. for the 1.1" a/a guns and whatever else all sitting there waiting to be found :whome:

                            I really need to take a weekend trip to Wilmington and go aboard and once again breath in that Luxor of Lube Oil to bring me back to some sense of reality and purpose :insane:

                            Hank

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Well u might as well get the latest radar to keep up with the navys upgrades lol

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