USS Iowa?

[tbm3fan]

The first of the old Liberty ships will be towed out of Suisun Bay today to the drydocks in San Francisco; dunno which one it will be, but anyone who happens to be driving over the Benicia bridge this morning should be able to see it.

Actually a Victory Ship as that is all that is there. Of the four I heard the name Pan American mentioned several times on Tuesday and that is the one I would move as it is in the worst condition. Literally a tropical rain forest inside the holds where water leaked in, caused condensation, rotted the wood on top of each hold, is dripping from the overhead and humid on a warm day out there. One thing to note there are quite a few ships scheduled to be moved but the time frame can be as much as 5 years into the future.

[Stitch]

Actually a Victory Ship as that is all that is there. Of the four I heard the name Pan American mentioned several times on Tuesday. Of the four that is the one I would move as it is in the worst condition. Literally a tropical rain forest inside the holds where water leaked in, caused condensation, rotted the wood on top of each hold, is dripping from the overhead and humid on a warm day out there. One thing to note there are quite a few ships scheduled to be moved but the time frame can be as much as 5 years into the future.

They had four in mind that they were going to try and move over to SF this year sometime, and the other 50 or so will be spread out over the next several years, as you said. After they get cleaned up in SF, they'll be towed to Texas, and broken up for scrap.

[Dreadnought]

Actually port side mid ships...

Hmm, Quick question, Are you sure thats port side amid? Im only asking because that appears to be a turret overhang in the first picture. I would however buy port side amid if that hatch was leading to the Officers ward or BDS #1.Never knew Iowa had green tiled flooring in Officers Country.

[Rumrunner]

Note the painted arrow on the green tiled floor. Somebody has gotten lost before.:))

The guys in the JRRF told me they painted arrows on the floor so they would know the way to the bathroom.....ya know, in case of emergency;)

[RustyBattleship]

Apparently some private contractor guy who felt the ships here were his according to some MARAD guys did spend some time with a crew painting the superstructure from O1 up. Did seem to do a good job of it before he stopped for whatever reason.

Anyway a leisurely lunch aboard Iowa on the 17th and another stroll around her decks and find an open hatch to peek in.

The first picture was NOT taken aboard the Iowa. It shows green water vent covers for Turret I. Only Missouri and Wisconsin had them after reactivation & modernization. Ironically Iowa did have similar green water covers BEFORE modernization. But they were cut off and never replaced. The elderly gents up there on break are most likely veteran crew members of the ship and volunteering their time to at least do some paint touchup.

The second photo is of a Quick Acting Water Tight door on an outboard bulkhead. Looking in you can see the sides of the light trap with an inboard light trap door. I'm not sure I can place the passage because for some reason my 'puter' will not copy and paste these pictures so I can enlarge them with photo shop to read the sign on the inboard bulkhead. However, I suspect that it was the door between frames 102 & 103 based upon identification of the 3rd photo.

The third photo was taken from port side looking inboard at hatch 1-101-2 (first number tells what deck so #1 is Main deck, second number indicates what is the closet frame forward so #101 means Frame 101 and the last number indicates what side of the ship it is on; Even numbers Port, Odd numbers starboard) that would lead down to another passage. That passage originally ran forward alongside the Officer's galley. But in modernization all that cooking equipment was removed and the space used for offices. Except on Iowa. They made it into a secondary ship's stores that sold mainly cigarettes and other tobacco products. The ladder in the background leads up to Officer's staterooms on 01 level.

The fourth photo of a food prep space is not familiar to me but I suspect it was the Wardroom food serving space just aft of the Wardroom.

By the way, though the first number of the hatch can't be seen, I know it's a main deck hatch because of its thickness (1 1/2" thick STS).

As a matter of fact, I have my doubts that any of the photos were taken aboard Iowa. The name IOWA above the door appears to be a bit of intra-service rivalry prompting harmless grafitti.

[Ytlas]

The first picture was NOT taken aboard the Iowa.

cRusty...........

WAB's MythBuster

[connaye]

Rusty Battleship really enjoys life

After reading Rusty's recital of facts I'm surprised that the DoD has not retained his service.... It reads just like a technical manual

[tbm3fan]

The first picture was NOT taken aboard the Iowa. It shows green water vent covers for Turret I. Only Missouri and Wisconsin had them after reactivation & modernization. Ironically Iowa did have similar green water covers BEFORE modernization. But they were cut off and never replaced. The elderly gents up there on break are most likely veteran crew members of the ship and volunteering their time to at least do some paint touchup.

.

Let me see. Photo says Turret #3. I have been on the Iowa every month for the last three as it is the access point for Row G at Suisun. The large body of water in the background is the entrance to the Sacramento Delta and the large ship in the background is at the Chevron depot. So it is most definitely the Iowa.

Oh, and before anyone cares to judge my veracity I suggest you go here...

Suisun

[RustyBattleship]

Let me see. Photo says Turret #3. I have been on the Iowa every month for the last three as it is the access point for Row G at Suisun. The large body of water in the background is the entrance to the Sacramento Delta and the large ship in the background is at the Chevron depot. So it is most definitely the Iowa.

Oh, and before anyone cares to judge my veracity I suggest you go here...

Suisun

I presume you work for MARAD then. It's true that the barbette height is more for Turret III than Turret I. Though I have a couple of thousand pictures of her on my computer, I can't take the time to go over all of them. They were taken either by me or my team of inspectors in August and October of 2006.

Probably what threw me off was that the water looked so blue and clean. When you look at in in real life, you think it could be used for either chemical or biological weapons.

But the other photos do not make any difference as to what ship they are on as most spaces and passageways are almost identical on all four ships. Wisconsin does them one better by having out-of-the-weather vestibules port and stbd leading up to the bridge.

NOW!. If you are MARAD, the USS Mispillion veterans want to salvage their ship memorabilia. If it is not on your APL yet, they will send you a letter permitting me to go up there and collect the memorabilia for them. She used to display a huge orange Union 76 ball topside but I think one of their members already found a safe storage for it, I hope.

She's in the same group of ships as the Iowa and used to be just inboard of the Sea Shadow.

You can contact me through the private message function on this board and we can set up communications via emails, snail mail and cell phones. I look forward to working with you.

[Dreadnought]

The guys in the JRRF told me they painted arrows on the floor so they would know the way to the bathroom.....ya know, in case of emergency;)

*Fastest location would have been the XO stateroom.;)

[Dreadnought]

cRusty...........

WAB's MythBuster

So my eyes were lying.:))

[Ytlas]

So my eyes were lying.:))

Beats me. I wouldn't go visit any of them even if they were pulled up right across the street.

[Dreadnought]

Beats me. I wouldn't go visit any of them even if they were pulled up right across the street.

I dunno, The last time I stepped foot onboard the Iowa she was a continent away from where she is today slumbering alongside the Wisconsin in Philly Naval Yard many moons ago. It would certainly bring back alot of memories of much younger days.

[Dreadnought]

I dunno, The last time I stepped foot onboard the Iowa she was a continent away from where she is today slumbering alongside the Wisconsin in Philly Naval Yard many moons ago. It would certainly bring back alot of memories of much younger days.

This image although not mine would give you an idea of the last time aboard Iowa and Wisconsin (Except for 2008) in Norfolk.

[connaye]

New excitement needed ??

Beats me. I wouldn't go visit any of them even if they were pulled up right across the street.

Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence ??
:)):)):))