Name the Ship

the Wisconsin?

you fell for the trap The Iowa Class included the Wisconsin but this isn't it

I thought that was too easy.

Ah, the smell of cordite, smells like....Victory!

Missouri?

Yup... the 63 gives her away... the Missouri.

I was on there once, about the time of her recommissioning in Bremerton.

I was a 125 pound FT (Fire Control Technician) working with the GMs (Gunners Mates) in Fox Division. They needed a little guy to crawl up into the breech end to make sure the "Star Gauge" was properly setting on the rifling as it was inserted from the muzzle end. This to measure the wear after sea trials or service duty. Those 16 inch loads were a sight when fired.

The USS Badass.

Join the Navy.

Travel the world.

Meet interesting people.

And kill them.

quite a storied vessel. this ship has come out of retirement more times than Brett Favre. in 1945 the Japanese agreed to a total surrender on the deck of the "Mighty MO"!

Yeah, but they had their fingers crossed.....

The table and papers were there when I visited, iirc.

USS Missouri BB-63 firing a 15-gun broadside circa July - August 1987
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph NH 96814-KN

USS Iowa BB-61 firing a 15-gun broadside in 1984
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph DN-ST-85-05379

I've never been able to find much information on how far off level the ship is pushed by the muzzle recoil reaction when firing.

Looking from the front, how far over is the ship rocked?

I doubt that there would be much more than a few fractions on an inch movement from the recoil of even a full broadside. The mass of the ship is many thousands of tons compared to just a few hundreds of tons of energy from the guns.

Factor in also the slides that would absorb much of the recoil in the first instance. I assume that these slides would have been located at the base of the turrets far below the barrels, so that would have added leverage to the equation. I believe they used an air compression system to both absorb the recoil on an escalating basis, and to return the barrels to their original position.

I read somewhere that the parallel guns in any turret actually fire a fraction of a second apart even in a full broadside in order to prevent each shell from interfering with its mate's trajectory while in flight. This appears to be supported by Lyn's pics which show the barrels in various recoil positions, and muzzle blasts that appear to be offset.

Consider also that gyroscopes control the firing of the guns to allow for the regular roll of the ship due to wave action, and to fire them at a consistent section of that roll (possibly at mid up or down - true horizontal for the gyro), but if there were any significant changes to that roll pattern when the guns were firing independently, that could not be rapidly and adequately compensated and would greatly affect the ability of the weapons to hit their intended targets.

did the Iowa (or Bismarck, Yamato, etc.) moves sideways when she fires a full broadside.

What looks like a side-ways wake is just the water being broiled up by the muzzle blasts. The ship doesn't move an inch or even heel from a broadside.

The guns have a recoil slide of up to 48 inches and the shock is distributed evenly through the turret foundation and the hull structure. The mass of a 57,000 ton ship is just too great for the recoil of the guns to move it. Well, theoretically, a fraction of a millimeter.

I get asked about once a month if the Iowa (or Bismarck, Yamato, etc.) moves sideways when she fires a full broadside.The guns have a recoil slide of up to 48 inches and the shock is distributed evenly through the turret foundation and the hull structure. The mass of a 57,000 ton ship is just too great for the recoil of the guns to move it. Well, theoretically, a fraction of a millimeter.But because of the expansive range of the overpressure (muzzle blast), a lot of the rapidly displaced air presses against the bulkheads and decks. Those structures that are not armored actually flex inwards just a bit, thus displacing air quickly inside the ship and causing loose items to fly around. Sort of like having your house sealed up with all windows and vents closed and when you slam the front door quickly the displaced air pops open the kitchen cabinets.

the velocity of the USS New Jersey moving sideways, what you need to consider is conservation of momentum. A 16" Mark 8 APC shell weighs 2,700 lbs. and the muzzle velocity when fired is 2,500 feet per second

My father served on a Destroyer escorting a battleship in the Naval Reserves around 1951-52. I don't know for sure which BB they tagged along with, but they had the best view of it when it fired a broadside. He did indeed confirm that, when firing all guns in a broadside, the ship would move several feet sideways. Impressive!

Well, I won't lose any sleep over it, either way.

But I seem to recall seeing a movie (somewhere) where the ship rolled over when the guns fired.

I weigh a lot more than any of guns I've ever fired and I get moved by all of them.

I spent 2 weeks aboard the USS New Jersey right after it was re-outfitted from the moth ball fleet in summer of 1983. I was helo'd aboard from the USS John A Moore, FFG-19, a turbine-powered frigate.

The Soviet Union flew many recon flights over her, taking pictures of all the new weapons systems, radar, and even which guns had been removed (mostly AA gun mounts). That was my first and only time to see the huge silver aircraft with the big red star on it. Bear aircraft. They flew over so close and low, we could see the faces of the pilots and gunners.

I was a Midshipman then. I was put on the underway watch bill, and conned the ship during normal sea maneuvers and underway replenishment, as well as during weapons testing. No, the ship did not move sideways a noticeable amount from a full broadside, at least as seen from the conning deck. But...you could sure feel it! And yes, it took some getting used to, to look through the ports of the cast steel armored bridge. The flying bridge was the preferred place to conn the ship from.

When firing the 16" guns, the sound was a very loud "WOMP" from below decks and up on the bridge. What I found most amazing was the fire control computers. They were large steel consoles, with mostly clock-work analogue computers and vacuum tubes. They were never replaced (at least at that time) because they could not be improved upon, without spending huge sums of taxpayer dollars. Each gun from a turret could be fired independently, or in groups of 2 or 3.

Yes, they actually did grease the mess deck floors for transferring projectiles from the magazines and across the decks, then up the elevators to the turrets. The "powder" bags were filled with cordite discs, about the size of a hockey puck, and shaped like sweet tarts.

Several times we targeted a small atoll in the South China Sea, just a small blip on the (modern) radar. 23 miles out. The coral was leveled and gone with one round, first try. Very accurate. And yes, as you looked out toward the horizon, you could actually see the small black round traveling through the air.

The ship didn't roll very much. Mostly, it was like riding an elevator, the entire ship would rise and fall with the swells. A very stable platform for the guns. Once trained, the guns would stay in position very smoothly as the ship moved with the swells.

Also, seeing modern (at that time) sailors holy-stoning the teak deck was a sight to see.

I seriously doubt we could even afford, or have the ship yards capable, of building an Iowa class battleship today.

After all those years, all those thousands of rounds fired safely.....one suicidal kid blows up a turret and they again mothball the BBs.

I visited the USS Massachusetts. There were men on board that had sea duty on that battle ship. I was told the ship moved 100 yards sideways when all the cannons were fired. 16 inch shells had a minimum range of 2 miles. Maximum range was 26 miles. There was a maximum of 9 packages of powder stacked behind each shell.

One of the reasons a broadside isn't a broadside. Stager the fire pattern and you reduce the opposing list.

I'm not certain but I think you'll find the info on one of the Iowa websites.

On a frictionless surface the ship would be pushed to the side and continue infinitely. The amount that a ship in the ocean will move will depend mainly on the drag of the water it is travelling in. How high the ship is riding the water will also alter the results.