the USS New Jersey battle ship.

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abodyjoe

abodyjoe

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not my pictures.

i really wanted to cruise over and watch this but just couldn't make it.

the battleship was moved down the Delaware river to the Philadelphia Naval Ship yard (where it was born) for some restoration work. it will then be moved back to camden and returned to being a museum. had to be cool to see. maybe I'll be able to catch it being moved back to Camden.

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I got to see her yesterday. Such a great experience and I hope to do a dry dock tour as well. I was going to create a post, but...
Here are some of my pictures.
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Very cool. Thanks for sharing all the pictures. I worked with several people over the years who worked at the Philly Naval yard when I lived in NJ. :thumbsup:
 
Those Battleships (Texas, New Jersey and Missouri) are really something to behold. I'm sure there are others out there, but those are three that I've actually set foot on as a tourist.
 
I got to sleep on it one night with the Boy Scouts. Very cool! Talk about small beds! I would have been claustrophobic if I served on her.
 
If battleships could talk, the stories that could be told.

I used to work at the Washington D.C. Navy Yard back in the day.

Thanks guys for sharing. Love the old battleships.
 
gliderider06 said:
I got to see her yesterday. Such a great experience and I hope to do a dry dock tour as well. I was going to create a post, but...
Here are some of my pictures.
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awesome. that dry dock tour is pricey from what i think i saw. be cool as hell though.
 
68gtxman said:
I got to sleep on it one night with the Boy Scouts. Very cool! Talk about small beds! I would have been claustrophobic if I served on her.
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very cool. my daughter got to spend 3 weekends on the New Jersey when doing honor guard training with the sea cadets. she had pictures from all over that thing.

i took a tour of it when it first opened. the bunks were set up as they were last used. they said there were a ton more when it was first commissioned. they shared bunks and slept in shifts. that had to be some tight quarters back then.
 
abodyjoe said:
awesome. that dry dock tour is pricey from what i think i saw. be cool as hell though.
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It is somewhat. $250.00 per person with restrictions. <16 not allowed and need safety boots, hard hat etc... I might do it if I can get a free day on one of the weekends it is open for tours.
 
It's nice to see the drone footage of it. There was less than 6 foot of clearance between the upper mast and the bottom of the Walt Whitman Bridge. They stopped traffic on it as she passed through to avoid any car accidents while doing so.
What a beautiful and majestic ship.
 
I've been watching their Youtube videos on battleship New Jersey for awhile now. The engineering in a ship that old is simply amazing.
 
It's long been my opinion that all four of the Iowa class battleships should be kept in ready to use condition and updated with the latest technology as time goes on. Nothing says "we'll kick your ***" like a battleship parked off shore.
 
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My father and I toured the New Jersey in 1968, in Long Beach harbor, as she was on her way to Nam. Never did reach a liflifelong goal of experiencing a 16" naval rifle firing live. Too late now.

As a battleship lover, I'm ashamed to say I haven't yet toured the Iowa (Bb61) in Long Beach.
I did tour the Alabama (BB60) many years ago. I'd love to fly over for Mopars at the Battleship..... but I doubt that will happen.
 
For those of you interested.......

A lot of the machinery used to build those Iowa class battleships was bought up out of the Carolina shipyards and transported by rail to Johnson Machine Works in Chariton, IA. That machinery is still in use to this day.

Link to JMW website......
Johnson Machine Works, Inc.: Steel Fabrication Home

In the first video about a minute or so in, you can see the HUGE metal lathe used to turn the gun barrels. It can turn pieces with a 108" swing up to 70 feet long.

My first welding job out of high school was at JMW, and my work area was right next to that lathe. There's also a "tank press" with four 24" diameter rams...each ram can press 2000 tons. They also brought back a HUGE chopsaw that can cut a 2" thick web of any size I-beam in just seconds. Their flame cutting table can cut plate steel up to 12" thick.....
 
33IMP said:
As a battleship lover, I'm ashamed to say I haven't yet toured the Iowa (Bb61) in Long Beach.
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a high school friend of mine was stationed on the Iowa when that turret blew up. his description of it sure wasn't pleasant sounding.
 
That is for sharing the pics and videos! I hope to tour one of these battleships at some point in my lifetime.
 
I've toured the USS Iowa (BB-61) here in SoCal. Absolutely amazing.
The old battleships may be outdated, but those big guns are truly intimidating...

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I was also fortunate to go out on a day cruise on the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier before she was decommissioned. We got to witness catapult launches from the flight deck and also see both live fire and ordnance dropped in the ocean. That was a great day!.
 
RustyRatRod said:
It's long been my opinion that all four of the Iowa class battleships should be kept in ready to use condition and updated with the latest technology as time goes on. Nothing says "we'll kick your ***" like a battleship parked off shore.
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Unless your enemy has no air force, battleships are nothing but floating targets. There simply aren't enough land-based enemy targets within range of the shore, and any major naval opponent has aircraft carriers.

That said, I certainly wish we still had stuff like that.
 
RustyRatRod said:
It's long been my opinion that all four of the Iowa class battleships should be kept in ready to use condition and updated with the latest technology as time goes on. Nothing says "we'll kick your ***" like a battleship parked off shore.
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My exact thoughts, we need all the ships , our Navy is depleted, as is our Air Force.
 
I've been aboard the USS North Carolina and the USS Yorktown and all the displays they have at Patriot's Point in Charleston S.C.
I've also been thru the USS Pampanito in San Francisco.
Calling them claustrophobic is being kind.
There is no way in hell I could have served on Navel vessel. I have a lot of respect for the guys who did.
 
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