I think this goes here.

[Howard Jones]

Good ol Battleships. Got to love em. Here we have the Iowa in Richmond California. It was moved to Richmond point shipyard, the weekend before we went and had a look it it, from the mothball fleet in the Carquines straights.

Them's some big bullets boys. That's my hat on top of a AP practice shell. Note the fuse on the nose.

It is going to be moved to San Pedro down in LA where it will become a museum in late January 2012. They said it might be opened up for some limmited touring inside before it leaves for LA. One of the guys in the 24 hr fire-watch crew said all the ordnance is still in the magazines with the exception of the power. The Ammo loading hatches are under the rear of the number one and three turrets. The turret must be rotated to open the hatches so the ammo magazines remain full of 16 inch shells.

He said that really made his ass pucker when they gave him the tour.

 

[Jim Craik]

Howard,

Great photos.....

Its good to hear that she is staying on the West Coast, SF would have been a fitting location, but it was not to be.

I find it hard to believe that she is still carrying all that ammo. I know that in the past, warships had all their ordinance removed, just for shipyard or dry dock time.

That seems foolishly dangerous to me!

 

[Ian K]

I used to see that bad boy twice a day, five days a week, as long as the sun was up, during my daily commute back and forth on the Capitol Corridor. It was always fun explaining to co-passengers that "that low slung battleship with the '61' on it is the Iowa - and is still maintained in case of need.

Ian

 

[Jim Rosenthal]

Similar hull form to the SS United States, I think- very fast and still classified. Another decommissioned battleship, the Wisconsin, is in Norfolk as a floating museum. There are tours through some of it, although not the machinery spaces, which would be the most interesting parts. Still a lot of fun to look over, though. How far they can throw a shell, and with how much accuracy, is amazing- very slick targeting equipment. The shells are uranium, and they weigh a LOT- 1500-2000 pounds per slug, from what I recall. You would know when something like that arrived.