Electric Deck of Turret II of Battleship New Jersey 

Caught a really interesting Sky Documentary on New Jersey done with you guys a few years back, thanks for the videos guys I had no knowledge of WWII naval history until your videos peaked my interest!

Ryan you are one lucky SOB to be able to walk freely walk all around this piece of history. I am indeed jealous.

"An old Sprite can... caffeine free... Why would you bother?". Lol I can relate!

As an engineer, I find it astounding that ships like New Jersey were designed before the invention of CAD. The amount of detail and coordination required to accommodate all the machinery and systems, being done by individual designers working on hundreds of drawings is simply unfathomable.

Ryan, when you found that cigarette butt a retired CPO felta slight tingling in the base of his spine and a riding fury... When you found that can of sprite he let out a stream of obscenities!

I highly recommend the curator's tour with Ryan. I did it with two of my grown kids and it was awesome. We got to see a lot of these off the beaten path spaces. Ryan took us all through the electric deck but I see more places I want to go. I'll be Back! These videos are just incredible. Keep it up !!!

As a career gunner in the Canadian Navy, I have some insight into the beds. Gunnery exercises have a lot of "hurry up and wait". As a result there is a ton of downtime waiting for targets to appear, ranges to be cleared or director problems to be fixed. As a result, the first thing we did was to make a nest our of our weather jackets, put on our headsets, and sleep until we were needed. It may explain why there were no lockers. May not be for berthing at all.

Ryan never apologize for the sound or light, just seeing these off limit areas are really interesting. Thank you for the "show-n-tell"

"if you're not leaking hydraulic fluid, you're out of hydraulic fluid". 2XL save me a t-shirt, that's a moneymaker!

If I ever get to visit the US, the New Jersey is now on top of the places I want to visit, above New York City, Las Vegas and other touristy areas. RU-vid channel has made me aware of even the existance of that vessel, and now I wanna visit

Ryan, I can't thank you enough for making these videos. It's great to be able to see all the places onboard these ships that you don't get to normally see on tours. Great job and I hope you continue to make these even after the pandemic is over.

Having served on a naval ship older than New Jersey pre WWII ships and many ships built during the war often had racks without lockers. In some cases even without pipe racks just hooks for hammocks. You had either footlocker or seabags that you lived out of. During refit during the 1970s and 1980s those were mostly replaced with the more modern bunks and lockers. By using every nook and cranny is how their wartime compliment was so much larger than could be accommodated post refit.

Gotta love the giggle when he says "are you ready" ;)

I tune in every evening for the latest Battle ship videos, I really look forward to watching them!

The day/night Kamikaze threat meant very long periods at battle stations. They had to modify the number of crew on alert because of the need to rest. Sleeping at battle stations was common. Food and drink would be delivered too.

Oral history of Charles Hottinger turret II gun Captain, 1950-4. He says turret bunks were provided for Gunners mates at long term general quarters. He had a bad experience with a shipmate being killed by friendly shrapnel. After that he began to sleep in the turret. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WPI7T70qT58.html . He begins at 36 minutes

It always amazes me the spaces you find to crawl through. Crewmen actually worked in those places, during battle, with everything around them alive and deadly. I might add that you are a really big Dude, bigger than most of the WW2 Sailors and I worry you will get struck in one of those tight places, someday. Keep the Camery Lady with you! I also enjoy looking at some of the most amazing welding I have seen in the most difficult places, gotta admire those old Rodbusters.

That area of the ship is remarkably well preserved. A gearhead like me would happily spend all day just crawling through that one section, snapping pictures of all the plaques, letters, posters, technical details etc. One day, after this current world event is over, i do hope to finally come down from northern Canada and spend some time exploring this ship. Keep up the fantastic work!

Hooray. THIS is the video that I have been waiting for...and I'm certain that Ryan and Libby won't disappoint.

Spending many years in industrial mechanics, the first things I looked for was moving motors and lovejoy replacements and alignments in the rooms you go though. Also, getting grease and oil to these locations. PM structures and seals/bearings. wow.

Very enjoyable back stage pass video. Thank you for your hard work preserving and sharing this national treasure.

The vast amount of effort to make these ships is mind boggling

Imagine having to pull the rotors of one of those motors out in order to service it while the ship is underway.

13:17 turns out there was more "cool stuff" to find onboard Battleship New Jersey ! Just this week in January 2023 Ryan and the newest engineering maintenance person found 20 pounds of keys! Including the number 2 "nuke" keys for the cruise missile system. Showed that key "in action" as well as the keys for the reduction gears in engineering ( in separate videos on here ). Thank you Ryan and crew!

Great admiration for all the sailors and especially those that worked in the extra dangerous areas of the ship. Surely anyone that was claustrophobic in confined spaced couldn't work in the gun turret and support areas below.

That hydraulick fluid joke made me chuckle.

David Janda Excellent video! I really enjoy your description of the technical areas of the USS New Jersey. I'm an engineer in the metalworking industry for my whole career and I'm so impressed with the construction and equipment on these ships especially since they were built in 1941 to 1943!

Love this channel!!!

This was an amazing video. Thank you!!!!!!

Thank you so much for these videos. I am a long time viewer of Drachinifel's channel and discovered your eminent channel when he recommended it. I was definitely not disappointed and you deserve all the support you can get.

Thank you two for the video.

Ryan, thank you! Fantastic video!

Terrific video. Lots of spaces and angles that we haven't seen before. Thanks folks!

Most interesting video. Detailed views and information about areas inaccessible to most are great. Thank you.

I just love the tours of these areas and also the 'Ryan sound effects' that are added as he moves around in tight spaces.

Very nice. Thank you!

At least in the case of my grandpa(Hugh Dixon, you guys put his interview up from the 2002 reunion a while back). He had his pipe rack placed there so he didn't have to travel far to the his turret. I would assume it would be a similar thing for the other racks, a wartime fast reaction sleeping quarters for combat.

In the electrical grid industry, technicians use long insulating poles to manipulate high voltage equipment that might still be energized. I could see them also using wood poles like that to open circuit breakers etc if they're worried about being electrocuted or getting their hands burned by an arc flash.

really dig the local radio support thats awesome, as i am a huge fan of our local radio super awesome

Such unbelievable complexity! No wonder battleships were so expensive to make and maintain

I have been binge watching this channel the past few days. I find the ship amazing. I was able to see it from across the river in 2010, but just did not have the time to visit and add an Iowa to the list of ships I have visited. I look forward to the book project mentioned being available.

Awesome video! Seeing those motors though, damn those must be a pain. I wouldn't want to be the guy who has to service those things.

Thank you.

Ryan, Another great video, many thanks for this one. Amazing how tight the spaces under the gun house are! I had imagined all sorts of open space there but now I know better. Could I get sleep in the penthouse? Probably. My experience in the Navy was that all shipboard personnel got used to the normal sounds of their ship and simply tuned it out. For example, on the FF I served on my stateroom was just to starboard of the Forced Draft Blower (FDB) house, and one could hear every bell change as the FDBs sped up or slowed down. I still managed to sleep OK. It was only when things went quiet that it was a different story - that silence meant something was wrong, and it would wake you up out of a deep sleep!

"THERE IS NO SOUND HERE", translation: Ryan stubbed his toe or hit his head and there was a ... uhh, yeah, a microhone failure! Just kidding ...

Can't imagine what it must have been like to be in those spaces on the Iowa during the explosion with no chance of survival.

VERY INTERESTING VIDEO. THANK YOU.

Man...... I'd love to be able to crawl the ship like that.

Video like this is amazing.

Watching your videos filmed in the behind the scenes areas of the ship really make it clear why they cost so much to build. As much as I hate engineers they know there stuff, or at least did back then.

Ryan - Wow the First Ad on RU-vid that i Like...That Goes Towards Something Good...Wow...

Very sobering to think of what this massive equipment was designed to do. And even more sobering to think that there could be an enemy ship over the horizon firing 16-inch shells back at you.

The "cane" is also effectively a hot stick as used by linemen from ye olde utility co. Could be used for breakers, fuses, switches, etc. Even ensuring a cap is discharged (although it might be a bit overkill for that).

So awesome, I love this stuff, can you guys give pics of the motor and reduction tags inserted into the videos? I love large industrial stuff and would love to read all the tags

The cane or hook was also used to turn off anything electrified, if there were lever switches, and is still used and approved by OSHA today. It was also commonly used just to pick dropped things up off the floor, since it was so cramped.

I would love to see you get in the fuel/ballast/counter flood tanks and show us the outboard face of the belt armor if that is possible.

A new book about Iowas? Sign me up! Is there a title for it yet?

Awesome vid. Love electric decks, always made plans to explore the few times I got to get into one but once you're there you get tired quickly of rolling around and getting bruised on hard surfaces. Not an easy space at all to be inside. The best hatch for the 45 caliber guns on the older (non Iowa class battle)ships I've been on is to get into is the left one as it allows the easiest wandering and travel, also if you are good at crawling and flipping over motors allows access to the gun pits the most easily. The Iowa recently opened up its turret for public tours looking forward to eventually someday checking that out. Yup wear crappy clothing the entire turret is a pretty greasy proposition and that stuff isn't that good for you! I wonder how noisy it was during combat. Yes I know the turret had positive pressure so you couldn't hear the guns, just thinking of how loud all that machinery would have been. And yes all the other battleships have bunks down there too. Did you get the story from the North Carolina that an old veteran met with their staff and dug up old booze bottles he and his shipmates had left behind some panel that they unscrewed to hide their swag? Thank you for posting.

Might as well go ahead and set up a preorder list for the book. Put me on it.

I am looking forward to visiting the battleship New Jersey soon. Did visit the Battleship Alabama a few years back and my mind still roaming it. I was in the Navy 1990-1996 and back then Battleships where mythical unicorns. My first time seeing a battleship in person was Back In 2003 when I lived in Martinez, CA next to the Navy mothball fleet and did get to go fishing for sturgeon 200 yards astern of the battleship Iowa covered in bird dropings identiffied by 61 on the hull (shes no longer at the mothball fleet nor I) and the spy ship GloMar Explorer was there too. Who knows what other historic ships might be there mothballed?

Wooden hookstick could be used for rescue at the voltages present, but is most likely used for hard to reach disconnects.

Amazing the amount of technology used that long ago and done with slide rule and paper

I enjoy your videos, hope to meet you one day when I come visit the N.J. Just wish it wasn't in Camden! Yes I think I would sleep soundly in the turrets. As long as there is not loud noises coming from equipment, but I think it would be largely cut off from noises because of the heavy armor. But I could be totally wrong.

Those hooks also come in handy for grabbing those oil absorbing pads in hard to reach places. Maybe there’s some hydraulic leaks in there

Another great video brother. Perhaps the beds in the penthouse etc…are just for quick naps during long periods of general quarters operations?

Great video. I would love to see some stills inserted in the video of the name plates etc of the motors and such. Would love to see some of that stuff close up. Another idea for audio etc is to do a voice over after getting some footage, that way the audio will be clean. Otherwise very fun to watch these when some of us can't get to the ship. 👍👍

I can’t imagine how loud it would be to have been inside the turret when the guns were fired.

Have you guys ever thought about doing a road trip to the USS North Carolina in Wilmington and doing some videos on it? I would drive out from Charlotte to be able to see you guys!!

Thanks for another great video. I’m curious, what areas of the ship would you restore or stabilize if you had more funds?

the lifting eyelets welded to those motors well its all ginormous lmao

FYI, all the 9" floor tile are Asbestos. Some 12" tile are also though most are not.

Compared to the crawl space between the driver compartment and crew compartment in a M3 Bradley that truly is a penthouse,

The difference between a hydraulic pump and a hydraulic motor is determine by to what they are attached. The B-end you mentioned would be the hydraulic motor.

Wish I lived closer as a still photographer would love to explore with you and document it in stills.

Fascinating! I had absolutely no idea you could manually aim and discharge the gun from within the turret itself. It never even crossed my mind, but from an engineering, maintenance and failover perspective it makes sense. Though I think actually firing it while in that tin can would be quite a harrowing experience.

I can't even imagine having to fix that space if a projectile ended up getting into there. Or even just being in one of those chairs if a shell hit the turret, goodbye eardrums and bowel forever.

I want your job. It has to rank in the top 5 greatest jobs category. Although I'm guessing that the pay isn't that great. But you basically have a battle ship of your own (sorta) I cant imagine what it would have been like in the penthouse area during ww2 or anytime around the equator. Another fantastic view!@

Ryan... In your videos describing shell-handeling procedures for the 16" guns you always mention the greased deck to facilitate moving the shells across the deck. My question is how do the shell-handelers keep their footing on the slippery decking? Seems like they would be sliding all over the place, especially on a rolling, pitching deck. Love your channel and can't wait to visit.

Any chance you can convince the guys over at the BB Texas to start doing videos like this?

Thank you for doing this video, I really wanted to see these spaces! Ryan you have a fantastic job :) However, I think your red dot "We are here" markers are off a bit :)

What's making the electrical humming noise towards the end of the video? I was under the impression that all of the turrets circuits had been manually cut except for the parts were you take tours through.

beds in a 16 in gun turret? BEST ALARM EVER

Today I learned that Hydraulic Fluid is like glitter it always gets everywhere, even if the container is "sealed" properly

The rule of the Military is when you can you take a nap because you can't come and go during GQ. Used the same ideal for AF when your on alert you sleep when and where and how you can while at alert status.

Those recoil cylinders are a tad bigger then what my rifles uses! Thank,I have been wondering about seeing them.

Since the motors drive hydraulics I assume they are constant speed induction motors. Operate on 3 phase 450VAC? Before you said hydraulic I was thinking they would be DC.

Was that auxiliary traverse operator position required to be manned during general quarters? That'd be a heck of a crawl to get up in there.

Was this area a constantly manned station? Or was it a battle station?

It would be really interesting to know how many men manned the turret and where they were stationed (was there anyone stationed in the electrical deck, I'm guessing yes since there's a firing position there) and how they got to their location, via the magazine or down from the turret.

6:56 i can only imagine what it must have been like in those cramped spaces with everyone smoking.

I wish more of your videos had the little thing at the bottom right like at 8:39 when there's meant to be no sound. A lot of the videos I've had to check my speakers because the audio just suddenly went away

I am curious about nose levels in the turret. I don't imagine it was too noisy during normal cruising. When the gun is firing it could break the eardrums of anyone inside of the turret. How did they avoid that?

I would turn into a mouse because I would crawl around until i found every single mechanical piece in there

What is the space rear of the space with the red tiles in the "penthouse"?

should display those vintage beverage cans in your ship's store.

I imagine you do it elsewhere but the Ramrod isn't a long piece of metal is it? Is it more like a chain that you can push against and it stays straight? The length not used hangs down a pipe?

15:41 Good line.

Okay I have a question. Those motors in the electric deck are huge, as are some of the other components. No way those are fitting through those hatches, not to mention the difficulty of maneuvering them into position. How would those larger components have been serviced?

"If you're not leaking hydraulic fluid, that means you're out of hydraulic fluid." HA! Yup! I remember riding around in CH-53s in AFG, "if you're not getting pissed on, you're in trouble!" Hahahaha...same thing. They leak. Constantly. But that means it's working. 😆

9:00 maybe this is for savety replace a circuit breaker?