Battleship to become L.A.'s newest museum [USS Iowa]

OC Register ^ | 21 June 2012 | Gary A. Warner

[smokingfrog]

The USS Iowa, one of the last battleships ever built, will open July 7 as a museum in Los Angeles Harbor. Advance tickets are on sale for tours of the ship, which served on and off from World War II to 1990.

The 900-foot battleship with 16-inch guns was towed recently from Vallejo, on San Francisco Bay, to Los Angeles. It is the last of the four Iowa-class battleships to find a permanent home after years as part of "the mothball fleet."

he Iowa will be operated by the nonprofit Pacific Battleship Center, which will begin offering tours July 7 even as the ship is being renovated. Such work may continue for years to make more of the ship available to tour groups.

The Iowa's new home will offer 41/2 acres of parking space in North America's busiest seaport, adjacent to the World Cruise Center, where cruise ships dock and flocks of tourists could tour the Iowa.

"Our focus for our museum will be on the history of the battleships, not only the Iowa being the ultimate in design, but we'll be focusing from the very beginnings" of the massive vessels, Kent told the Associated Press.

[17th Miss Regt]

Also, very nearby is a 16” barrel from the USS Wisconsin. The barrel is located by the San Pedro Maritime Museum at the intersection of Sixth Street and Harbor Boulevard. It is on display right by the sidewalk and a couple of naval memorials. (They put metal crossbars in the barrel so that kids could not crawl in and get caught inside!)

[17th Miss Regt]

There is also a Liberty ship you can take a tour on and you can also see the prow of the USS San Pedro (outside the museum).

[smokingfrog]

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

I have seen that 16” gun. It is an astounding piece of metal!

[moonshot925]

[ConorMacNessa]

Genuflectimus non ad principem sed ad Principem Pacis!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[Hunton Peck]

“...very nearby is a 16” barrel from the USS Wisconsin.”

Depending on who was in charge of placing that thing, it might be fun to calculate the trajectory of a hypothetical shell that might be fired from it, and see if there’s any particular point of interest at what would be the target.

[diverteach]

IMHO the most beautiful warship ever created.

[catbertz]

I took my little 18 ft Chapparel out to see her when they towed her into LA harbor. She looks great. The volunteers did a great job, in very short order, to tidy her up.

I can post a few pictures this afternoon.

[catbertz]

I should know how to spell the name of my boat lol. Chaparral!

[CaptainAmiigaf]

Anyone seeing the photo of that broadside..here’s what always fascinated me. At “battlespeed”, a broadside of those 16” rifles actually pushed that gigantic steel monster a few feet in the opposite direction.
I asked a Fire Control Chief once as to the accuracy of those giant guns. His serious reply..
“If you are in a rubber raft 9 miles away, give them a free shot at you. Before they reload and re-fire.....learn to fly.”

[Sporke]

I will never forget sitting out on the forcastle after work, listenin to tunes. It was the best of times. Watchin dolphins swimming two feet in front of the ship was pretty cool too.

I took one very good pic of the guns firing, but I never have figured out how to post pics here.

[RedMonqey]

Is it just me or is the force of all the main guns going off pushing the ship to port?(notice wake at bow)

[rockinqsranch]

Chuckling, and shaking my head as I see the powerful recoil effect in the sideways wake of the vessel. I see they are shooting to port, and the ship is leaving “wake” as it is recoiling to the port.

[DoughtyOne]

Having the U. S. S. Iowa will be great, but I would have loved it more if it were the U. S. S. Missouri.

[jettester]

Actually, they are shooting to the starboard side.

[diverteach]

Posting pics isn't that difficult. First thing is that they need to be loaded onto the web. You can do this many ways but the easiest is to create a account with photobucket.com or use a facebook account. Once they are on the web, or pictures that are already on the web you'll need the web address of where that picture is at. What I do is simply place my mouse cursor directly on the picture and right click on it and you'll see an option to "copy image location" select that. In a FR post box you would type

[ZOOKER]

Missouri is on display at Pearl Harbor and they probably won't let you have it.

They put the Missouri next to the Arizona, the two ships representing the beginning and end of WWII (Arizona was sunk in the sneak attack which began the war, the surrender that ended the war was signed on the deck of the Missouri).

Which begs the question: where are Wisconsin and New Jersey, the other two battleships? Scrapped?

[smokingfrog]

I can post a few pictures this afternoon.

Would love to see some pictures of your Chapparel. Post some pictures of the Iowa too while your at it. ;)