Nothing more impressive than a 16" gun turret training from port to starboard. Having been on a Firepower Tour last November on board Battleship Massachusetts I was able to visit many of the same areas you just showed in your video, also in Turret #3. Climbing down into the left gun chamber was a tight experience but nothing as impressive as seeing the rotating levels on Iowa and how effortlessly the turret rotated. She appears to be in great shape for an eighty year old ship. Hat's off to all Iowa crew and volunteers for making this happen !
My family and I did a Cub Scout sleepover about 15 years ago on the Battleship Massachusetts. Fantastic experience. They have (or had) one turret fully restored and we were able to explore it all the way down to the powder deck.
@@BattleshipUSSIowaLosAngeles I'm looking forward to this video too! A few other museums (Notably New Jersey!) have stated that it's not possible to provide power to that motor. You guys have obviously figured it out! I'm super interested in the 'how' lol.
@@CelticKnight2004 I agree, I"ve seen USS New Jersey's video about why they can't move their turrets, essentially there isn't enough shore power and the ship no longer makes it's own power, so how did IOWA manage it?
@@grafspeem9402 LOL you're right shoulda thought of that. Honestly Ryan from the USS NJ made it sound so daunting and so impossible that I just wrote it off. Still what an amazing thing to see.
I’ve just returned home to Scotland after a fantastic family holiday in the LA area & top of my attraction list was to visit Iowa, which we did on the 2nd of July. Absolutely gutted that we missed the turret rotation by 2 days! 😩 However we all loved the tour & you should be very proud of her condition & what you’ve achieved 👏🏻👏🏻 Keep up the great work & many thanks.
Thanks so much! You wouldn't have seen it even if you'd been here on the 30th. Because we weren't sure how it would go (or if it would even work), we kept it very quiet. There was just a small group of people - most of whom had been involved in the effort - on hand to see it in person.
Actually, as Ryan recently discovered, the turrets on NJ are in fact not permanently disabled, but just have a few brackets welded in place. That means that with some tender love from a cutting torch and sufficient shore power, BB62 should be able to have rotating turrets too. All despite those spoilsports at the Navy :)
In that video, Ryan made the bold assertion that it was IMPOSSIBLE for any battleship, now or in the past, to train their turrets under shore power. Even if those pieces of metal weren't welded onto the turret pins, they never would have attempted this because he didn't believe it could be done.
Super cool to watch. Amazing to see the turret working. Going to be even more amazing when the Museum staff start shooting the 16" guns too in a couple weeks. 😉😉😉 Come on you know you want too.
the equipment was made to last, i am not surprised that the equipment is still fully functional. Decommissioned but still stored in a manner to protect the equipment.
It's amazing they were able to design and build these gigantic machines without computer aided design, only using slide rules and drawing each detail by hand!!!
This is incredible! Getting all this operational again was no small feat. There are so many interdependent things involved and it was probably very expensive. You can't just go to harbor freight and get all the tools you would need or get the parts yourself from granger. We literally had a full time machine shop with at least 20 guys (I knew a few of them) that did heavy duty (and I'm talking HEAVY duty) metal fabrication for stuff like this. I would love to go see this. I visited the USS new Jersey once, and it was pretty much gutted out, compared to this.
Yes, the Iowa and Missouri were allocated monies by Congress to maintain them in deployment ready condition for an additional ten years after retirement in the 90's, and it certainly shows when you tour them. In regards to the New Jersey, that ship has several times the wear and tear on it than the other three.
We can raise and lower the guns manually and it's not all that hard. We're good with that for now. Lots of things (painting, for just one example) have take priority over getting the powered system running. =)
Thanks for putting the video up on my birthday the is Donavin Johnston on my mom's account cause everything is on this account but my thoughts are that things have to be kept some what operational so the mechanical mechanisms on the ship last for generations to come cause if you let things sit too long they will degrade over time and cause more problems that you don't want to have that is why my thoughts are that things should be kept semi operational so they do last for life keep up the good videos also my grandparents are no longer around they in a safe place now which is heaven but I still have my mom and me and a new father soon so when I am with my new father and family with my mother I will come by and spend a visit to see what has gone on From what I was last there when my grandpa and grandma were alive can't wait to see the progress of how far away from the ship was restored too.
I think the curator of the New Jersey,Ryan just says you can’t move the turrets and says there’s not enough shore power because of the work involved in energizing the equipment needed to operate it without powering up other equipment and because the navy probably doesn’t want the turrets to move which is why they welded the pins in place
Now to get all 3 to do this, not just Turret 3 solely. Can u imagine the shock & awe factor for special events/ceremonies if all 3 turrets could turn broadside & elevate to 45 degrees for example.
@@htroberts unfortunately you are correct. While Turret 2 was repaired to an extent after the incident to the point that I’m pretty sure the turret will rotate, it’s been permanently sealed forever. In order to rotate it, I believe they’d have to get inside the turret to do some basic maintenance (hydraulic fluid, grease bearings, etc) which again cannot be done as the turret is sealed. And should stay sealed honestly. No one has been in it since 1989. There is zero photos of what #2 looks like inside since the incident. And it should stay that way. Would be nice if it could rotate though. Even if it itself remained sealed
That the way way they move in non combat. When fire control is active, those turrets move with speed. They are searching right, left, right left, fast. Lock on , fire. Been their. ect BB-62 1967
@BattleshipUSSIowaLosAngeles Were any changes to the shore power setup or coordination with the power company needed when the turret was moved? Would be awesome to see a video on all the work that went in to making this possible.
I sailed in the 7th fleet for 8 yrs, the New Jersey was part of the fleet, she was an awesome sight to see, unstoppable is a word id use. She could put fear into any potential enemies heart.
I have a question about that phone in the projectile hoist. Is it connected to other parts of the ship or just that specific turret? I would assume just the turret because of the cabling you'd have to manage on a rotating turret, it might be easy for something to get pulled or cut as the turret turns.
They were absolutely amazing about cable runs and about having phone systems connected both within the turrets and with abilities to contact other areas. Everything's protected because they knew the kind of stress the equipment would be under.
OK, if it takes 8 shore lines to power that single motor, how much power is that in total? Which also then makes me ask, how much electrical power could a battleship produce?
What are those bollards on the upper and lower projectile decks? Are they meant for some sort of manual rotation with loss of power by use of ropes and muscle power?
Im surprised the rollers didnt have flat spots from sitting still after 30 years. Those turrest are massively heavy, thousands of tons, im surprised it turned so easily.
That may have been what was causing the surging the photographer was commenting on. As each roller came around to it's 180* mark and contacted the flat of the race, or they implanted brinelling divits in the lower and upper bearing races for the turret.
@@BattleshipUSSIowaLosAngeles Cool can't wait, I remember Battleship New Jersey's curator saying it requires something like 500 volts and that shore power is 240
Look carefully at the motor in the beginning of this video. We paused on the plaque with its stats. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZyfTPMpLWQs.html
Y E S !!!!!! The INSIDES of 'T3'!!!! Take from me.....person who has worked, though briefly, on the "GUN TOUR".... Come By the IOWA and see some M O R E stuff related to the 5" gun to the 16" gun!! NOTE: We ONLY take Guest into the 'Gun House' of T1 ONLY.
Iowa's turret can still turn after 30 years of inactivity. The British loaned HMS Royal Sovereign to the Soviets for 5 years (1944 - 1949) and its turrets were literally stuck in zero position when the British got their ship back. W-T-F did the Russians do to that poor ship?
If i remember right I think Ryan said it had something to do with there shore power not supplying enough electricity to rotate. I think most of them were still locked as well.
@@blackwater2192he actually removed the locking pin on video, I think. but he did say New Jersey did not have sufficient shore power to operate a turret.
@@htroberts Yeah, the locking pins are all free on the turrets and the gears look in good nick with plenty of grease left on them still. No signs of corrosion. It does indeed take a few kW of power to rotate the turrets, which is more than shore power can provide at the moment. I'm sure Ryan would not mind having a few extra powerlines run to the BB62 :)
All of the Iowas, at least, probably, with a lot of work and preparation, since it's been 30 years give or take. Older ships no. Too much degradation on the hardware since last run.
You understand these systems were designed in the 1930s right?? Look at the state of the art of cars at the time for a little perspective. With the exception of the atomic bomb, the Iowa's were the most complex, advanced and state of the art weapons system on the planet at the time...
Govt could have easily kept an Iowa class battleship in active service , maybe not to fight but for visiting ports around the world . 100 billion for ukraine proves the money is there . Dont want here the obsolete b.s.
I think they should focus there funds on equipment that actually can be used to fight, people are already complaining that the military has a too big budget so them not using this budget to actually make the navy more combat capable is kinda bad
That was impressive. I have always been interested in battleships. Wanting to be on one was one of the reasons I joined the US Navy back in the late 80s. Of course I was not assigned to one sadly. I did get to see the Wisconsin underway steaming to Desert Storm and coming home. That was very cool. Thanks so much for sharing this and continuing to save these important parts of our history.
@@SgtFluffytheoriginal We saw Jon, Frog, and what looked like Car in there. Didn't go much past the hatch - didn't have time. PM us your real name. When we get a chance, we'll see if we can find it and send you a photo. 😃
Boilers and sea chests next please 😂 Now wouldn’t it be cool to have her on her own power able to take on the seas again. I’ll keep dreaming but great work so far!
Amazing to see all the levels move , a great way to present what is a significant achievement . It would be interesting to see the work and preparation that went into making the turret move .
BZ! Excellent job getting her rotating again, and on preservation/restoration. I'm pretty sure the jerking is due to power fluctuations, as I recall gun ops put a lot of load on ship's power.
I served on the USS Forrestal in 71 as a FN Damage Control. The sounds of the stem powered arresting gear is all I had to tolerate as they ran thur my berthing compartment. A friend and neighbor served on the USS New Jersey in Vietnam. After 20 years as a navy gunner he couldn’t hear well at all.
