Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Full Scale Ships => Topic started by: Rob Wood on July 20, 2012, 11:32:18 pm
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A bittersweet day for me in May, 2012. After a long, hard struggle, the USS Iowa was finally on her way to be converted into a museum ship, but not in San Francisco Bay. She was towed under the Golden Gate Bridge with much fanfare, and then on to San Pedro in southern California. While I'm happy that Iowa was saved from the breakers, it was hard to see her go.
Now there are no more battleships left from WWII to be saved, and reliable sources say that there are no more US WWII warships in mothballs that can be saved. If so, the photos below mark the passing not only of a great ship from her moorings in Suisun Bay's "ghost fleet," but the very last of the WWII warships to be saved for future generations.
I perched on the cliffs of the Marin Headlands (on the north side of the Golden Gate), and captured her final farewell to the City By The Bay.
Rob
(http://www.robwood.net/downloads/Iowa/640px/IMG_7817_1024.jpg)
(http://www.robwood.net/downloads/Iowa/640px/IMG_7833_cropped.jpg)
(http://www.robwood.net/downloads/Iowa/640px/IMG_7834_1024.jpg)
(http://www.robwood.net/downloads/Iowa/640px/IMG_7923_1024.jpg)
(http://www.robwood.net/downloads/Iowa/640px/IMG_7978_1024.jpg)
(http://www.robwood.net/downloads/Iowa/640px/IMG_7988_1024_long_pt_bonita.jpg)
(http://www.robwood.net/downloads/Iowa/640px/IMG_8002._1024_iowa_alone.jpg)
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Is she under her own steam in the last 2 pictures? At least she has been saved, total apathy here in the UK as far as preserving historic warships goes....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2159527/HMS-Plymouth-Falklands-frigate-lies-rusting-awaits-final-voyage-scrapyard-30th-anniversary-war.html
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mmmm yes I agree Rob & Nick...but at least she has been saved from the breakers
In 1986, her sister BB63 attended our Australian 75th Naval Centenary celebrations in Sydney
The anti nukes tried to spoil her entry & mooring at Garden Island saying she was carrying nuclear weapons..... {-)....but then a helicopter [skypilot] from HMS Ixxxxxxxx? [jump jet carrier] moored just down at Woollomooloo took action & hovered over the protesters craft & gently blasted them toward the Sydney harbour bridge to the applause of many O0
She was alongside under the Hammerhead crane @ GID...& just 50 yards from my office {:-{ ........I was lucky enough to have a guided tour of her STDB fwd 16" gun compartment....beyond comprehension :o
Derek
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She's under tow in all the photos. It's just an extremely long tow line, so the tug is out of the frame. In the photo below you can see the tug that's towing her, way out in front.
On the apathy toward warship preservation in Great Britain: It's the same in the US, but it's a question of numbers. The Iowa has probably 10,000 former crewmen still living, and that's a pretty healthy core group to target your marketing to, and from which to draw volunteers for all of the work it takes to save a ship, convince the Navy that your group has the means, the organizational strength and the commitment from a berthing venue to create and sustain a permanent warship exhibit. I noticed the group standing on the pier for the Plymouth's "last rites" seemed rather small - too few to save a large warship.
Rob
(http://www.robwood.net/downloads/Iowa/640px/IMG_7836_640.jpg)
Is she under her own steam in the last 2 pictures? At least she has been saved, total apathy here in the UK as far as preserving historic warships goes....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2159527/HMS-Plymouth-Falklands-frigate-lies-rusting-awaits-final-voyage-scrapyard-30th-anniversary-war.html
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Great story, Derek! Wish I could have been there! And yes: totally agree that at least Iowa was saved.
Rob
mmmm yes I agree Rob & Nick...but at least she has been saved from the breakers
In 1986, her sister BB63 attended our Australian 75th Naval Centenary celebrations in Sydney
The anti nukes tried to spoil her entry & mooring at Garden Island saying she was carrying nuclear weapons..... {-)....but then a helicopter [skypilot] from HMS Ixxxxxxxx? [jump jet carrier] moored just down at Woollomooloo took action & hovered over the protesters craft & gently blasted them toward the Sydney harbour bridge to the applause of many O0
She was alongside under the Hammerhead crane @ GID...& just 50 yards from my office {:-{ ........I was lucky enough to have a guided tour of her STDB fwd 16" gun compartment....beyond comprehension :o
Derek
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I kept if brief about BB63 :embarrassed: ...
2. I did also stand next to & view the bronze plaque on her quarter deck where the signing of the closure of hostilities & the Japanese surrender :((
3. Also viewed No 1 engine room & No 1 boiler room O0
4. Can't remember which hydraulic pump station [27 ft under water] with gleeming polished cupro-nickle piping for 750 PSI system pressure for her turrets :o
Imagine suggesting that BB63 was neuclear capable %%......but what the protesters didn't know was that just down the wharf at Woollomooloo was a British frigate with 75 mm nuclear tipped shells.......... <*<
Derek
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but what the protesters didn't know was that just down the wharf at Woollomooloo was a British frigate with 75 mm nuclear tipped shells.....
I've heard of nuclear depth charges but surely you can't fit a nuke into a three inch shell?! Do you mean that the shells were tipped with depleted uranium to help them penetrate a target?
Colin
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I went aboard her in October 1986 during her visit to Portsmouth UK. She was berthed alongside. I covered the event for Sea Classic International magazine and Editor John Cundell had arranged for a small group of us, including himself, to be shown around by a US Ensign. The ship was in commission and we were not permitted to go below upper deck level although we did go inside the superstructure. It was certainly an experience. A day or so later, I was aboard one of the huge flotilla of small craft that escorted her out of harbour and that was quite something to see as well. I got some fantastic pictures.
I still have my USS Iowa baseball cap!
Colin
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Colin asks..... "Do you mean that the shells were tipped with depleted uranium to help them penetrate a target?"
>>:-( Colin ...yes.......I did use the word "tipped"....but then :embarrassed: ...... this was classified at the time as I am sure you would have understood %)
Derek
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It's just that most people associate the word 'nuclear' in a military context with a very big bang....
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I also went on Iowa on her first visit to Portsmouth in 1986 and like Colin Bishop I still wear my baseball cap. I was working in the MOD(N) then so it was an invited visit for the section I was on.
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Like to know what RN Frigate had a 3in/75mm
Gun firing DPU projjies.
Ned
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None that I know of Ned - but I know some of the Leanders were carrying what were described as Nuclear depth bombs to be deployed by the
Wasp helicopters - I know by some of the signals that we received that we were carrying them on Juno
Only ships we had with a 3 inch gun in that era was the Tiger class secondary armament and the Peacock class patrol boats also had the Oto \Melara 76 mm.
Geoff
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Is she under her own steam in the last 2 pictures? At least she has been saved, total apathy here in the UK as far as preserving historic warships goes....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2159527/HMS-Plymouth-Falklands-frigate-lies-rusting-awaits-final-voyage-scrapyard-30th-anniversary-war.html
Spot on. You could add any number of RN ships to that list as well. Apparently there's more appetite from people on this board to 'turn them into razor blades' than try and keep some of our naval heritage.
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Perhaps we are just looking at the uranium enhanced 20mm shells? In 1986 when we all went down there (I posted pics of the entire event on here yonks ago), most, if not all, the UK contingent were using the "heavy" 20mm shells. As for the other "stuff"...no comment. BY.
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Great to see her being saved so others may view her
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None that I know of Ned - but I know some of the Leanders were carrying what were described as Nuclear depth bombs to be deployed by the
Wasp helicopters - I know by some of the signals that we received that we were carrying them on Juno
Only ships we had with a 3 inch gun in that era was the Tiger class secondary armament and the Peacock class patrol boats also had the Oto \Melara 76 mm.
Geoff
"I can neither confim or deny that such weapons are carried on board HMS Juno,,"
Standard answer in those days
Ned
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Between 1993 to 1999, I was employed on a Naval Armament Vessel ( aka RMAS Arrochar and Kinterbury), the only nuclear weapons we carried were the nuc warheads for Trident and Polaris, other wise the spent radium tipped ammo was 30mm for the Army. The RN 4.5 shells were mostly tank HESH rounds, but then the Royal Artillery are the sponsors of the 4.5 guns in the RN for shore bombardment purposes, this I was reliably informed by a serving RN officer who was surprised himself to find out this info.
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I forgot to mention re the Leander's, my elder brother served on several, an I remember him telling me that the ones he was in used to load these weapons ( nuclear depth charges ) under secrecy and in the ships safe was a letter stating if it was a real or not and when and how to deploy.