Naval Mark 7 16 inch cannons article

[edler7]

I found this article about the 16 inch cannons from the Iowa class battle ships. It looks like the barrels and projectiles are about to be cut up and sold for scrap unless they can find new homes. :(

I'll take a couple !

Anybody want to take on a casting a boolit for these babys ?

http://www.guns.com/2013/07/03/save-the-navys-mark-7-16-inch50-caliber-cannons-big-sticks-speak-loudly-videos/

[popper]

No, I high-lined enough of the Mark 15 8" projectiles to last me a lifetime.

These self-loading guns with lined monobloc construction and vertical sliding breech blocks weighed about 20 tons. (sic. 3 gun turret is 300 tons)Semi-fixed ammunition (projectile and powder case handled separately) with 78 pounds (35 kg) of smokeless powder gave a 335-pound (152 kg) projectile a velocity of 2500 feet per second (760 m/s).[1] Each gun could fire about ten rounds per minute. Range was 17 miles (27 kilometers) at the maximum elevation of 41 degrees.

[JeffinNZ]

Still doing over 1600fps at 40K yards! And each shot is more than a lifetime of powder for me.

[btroj]

Anyone make a mould for an appropriate projectile?

[oneokie]

Some of those cannon barrels were listed on the govliquidation site earlier this year.

[bob208]

I guess one of them on a mount in the front yard would trump. the swat teams armored suv.

[BruceB]

What is a 16-inch/50cal armor-piercing round?

This is the naval method of describing a gun; in this case, it is a gun with bore diameter of sixteen inches and a barrel length of fifty calibers, i.e.: 16" x 50 = 800"........ almost sixty-seven FEET. There's nothing subtle about such a weapon!

Armor-piercing is simply a type of projectile intended for use against other heavily-armored vessels, where the round might have to penetrate a couple of feet of hard steel before exploding..... as opposed to a regular high-explosive shell which detonates immediately on impact. HE was used for such things as shore bombardment or unarmored vessels.

[pipehand]

You think if we went in together and cut a barrel into 30" pieces, it would be suitable for an NEF stub barrel conversion?

[beagle]

I have seen the terminal affects of the New Jersey's 16 inchers in VN. Impressive amount of firepower./beagle

[jmort]

My dad was on the New Jersey during WWII and he said the 16" guns made a big impression. Rock the boat. He was assigned to the 5" cannons. Thanks for the link. Picture of the New Jersey firing all the 16's at once is too cool.

[uscra112]

Talked with a guy at either Watertown or Watervliet Arsenal in the late '70s who claimed that those 16" liners were only good for a hundred rounds. (I worked for a machine tool rebuild/repair outfit back then, and did jobs in both places.) When I were a wee sprout growing up nearby, they still had anti-aircraft guns in place around the Watertown Arsenal. Then a little later it was Nike missiles.

[rondog]

U.S.S. Wisconsin giving the guns a workout, pure awesome!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-5ATYPrZnSQ&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D-5ATYPrZnSQ

[ragsflh]

look great in my yd.that would impress the neighbors

[pipehand]

I remember looking at the DRMO auction site a few years ago, and the machinery to rifle naval gun tubes was up for bid. The location was listed as Watervliet Arsenal. Watertown must have been a busy place during WW II.

[MUSTANG]

I believe that it was Guns and Ammo that published an article that highlighted the 16" 50 Caliber Guns of the Iowa Class Battleships as equal or exceeding long range "Varmint" gun accuracy. Seems the article was back in the late 1970's or early 1980's if my memory serves me.

Mustang

[Digger]

Had some picks from the San Fran paper I had saved ... they set up a display at one of the original sites on the coast before you get into the bay in frisco ...
Think they brought one of the pieces in from Harter's neighborhood out in Hawhorne , Nevada ...
89602
89603
8960489605

[Harter66]

Yep that looks like 1 of ours.......... Sadly gentlemen 11 of those 12 bbls were chopped up over a yr ago. 3 of those bbls were removed from the Iowa after the blow up.

I have a proof sheet in all my stuff from Aberdeen NM for proppelling charges for 8'' 47's . 47# of powder behind a ''nominal'' projectile (150-275 lbs) developed 35,000 psi at the breech block and 2700 fps.

The original rating for AP howies was bore inches for AP inches, IG, 8'' gun for 8'' of armour. That changed of course during WWI.

I was told the LORAN slaved last generation 16's would drop rocket assisted shells into a football field (inside the grid lines) at 60 miles. A good gun crew and chief could get them in the stadium w/good spotters at 30 miles in WWII.

[Harter66]

I'd bet that, that bbl is the 1 from the Iowa that is memorialized. Thanks Digger.
Very apropriate to me. I've lots of ''connections'' to all of this. 12/7 just hrs away and all........

[popper]

Fun watching the 8" bbl replacement when they pulled her back from the blockade, which ended before she got back on-line.

[Digger]

Your most welcome there Harter , did not realize the significance of the article but kept copies of the pics for another individual that I work with that was in the Navy on a cruiser back when , he enjoyed them greatly.
While going back over this thread here this evening .... looking at that small map.
I googled "Battery Townsley" .... and found this ... very enjoyable , history and pics and best of all ...
details on that particular gun as it happened to be in attendance at a very important moment in history ..
It includes a pic or two of that piece out there in Hawthorne ... click on the links they provide and they will show more details ... also explore the page for the history of " Battery Townsley"
Thanks to the OP for bringing the subject up ...have really enjoyed the research this evening.
Link ...
http://www.nps.gov/goga/historyculture/new-gun.htm
Also here .....
https://www.google.com/search?q=battery+townsley+open+house&client=firefox-a&hs=kXX&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=gL6iUubvFcfZoASW3YCoCg&ved=0CFAQsAQ&biw=1120&bih=612&dpr=1.5

[edler7]

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread. These guns are part of what made this nation great, along with the men who manned them and the people who designed and made them.

[rondog]

My parents were machinists at Mare Island Naval Ship Yard during WWII. Mom ran a turret lathe, and dad ran a huge, massive vertical boring mill of some kind.

I remember him telling me that he bored propellers for battleships, carriers, and other ships, and parts of the turret rings for battleships. I remember him saying it was so big that the workpieces were bolted down, and he basically "rode" on the machine and "drove it".

Wish he was still around to ask him more. And I'd LOVE to see that machine, or photos of it. He had a single steel chip that he'd kept as a souvenier, it was unreal how big it was.

[MUSTANG]

My parents were machinists at Mare Island Naval Ship Yard during WWII. Mom ran a turret lathe, and dad ran a huge, massive vertical boring mill of some kind.

I remember him telling me that he bored propellers for battleships, carriers, and other ships, and parts of the turret rings for battleships. I remember him saying it was so big that the workpieces were bolted down, and he basically "rode" on the machine and "drove it".

Wish he was still around to ask him more. And I'd LOVE to see that machine, or photos of it. He had a single steel chip that he'd kept as a souvenier, it was unreal how big it was.


RonDog,

If my memory serves me correctly, the machine tools for the Battle Ship Turrets was scrapped in the early or mid 1980's. It was a big deal to many Marines and was covered in both the Navy Times and the Stars and Stripes, because once it was scrapped the capability to make a Battle Wagon with Big Guns would be forever gone. Speaking as a Marine, we loved "Big Gun" Naval Gun Fire Support. Taking out a Grid Square was the terminology used.

[uscra112]

My parents were machinists at Mare Island Naval Ship Yard during WWII. Mom ran a turret lathe, and dad ran a huge, massive vertical boring mill of some kind.

I remember him telling me that he bored propellers for battleships, carriers, and other ships, and parts of the turret rings for battleships. I remember him saying it was so big that the workpieces were bolted down, and he basically "rode" on the machine and "drove it".

Wish he was still around to ask him more. And I'd LOVE to see that machine, or photos of it. He had a single steel chip that he'd kept as a souveneir, it was unreal how big it was.

I was in the big machine tool business for a while. I remember going into an old plant near Pittsburgh, where I saw the bending rolls they used to bend the armor plate for the Missouri. They bent it cold. Then I saw a vertical boring mill with a 90 foot diameter table. Walked into the bay and said "where is it?", and my guide said "you're standing on it." The table was level with the surrounding floor. There was a kind of tower off to one side that had an overarm to hold the tools. They made ball mills for mines on it. The plant was being scrapped. I was sent there to see if there was anything my employers could use. Nope, too big even for us, and we had a crane built to move entire locomotives in our main bay.

That's still going on. Worked at Lockheed in Fort Worth for a winter, 2007/08. While I was there they were scrapping a whole row of Cincinnati gantry mills. Breaks my heart to see those magnificent old machines cut up for scrap. Or worse yet shipped to China. I used to have one of those huge chips. Two or three inches wide, 1/8 inch thick, and bright blue!

[MTtimberline]

Very good read! I enjoyed this thread.

[imashooter2]

I generally feel pretty safe behind 20 feet of reinforced concrete. Apparently I've been living in a fool's paradise. :)

[popper]

Wonder how they bent the torpedo belt for that sucker.

[HighHook]

My dad was on the New Jersey during WWII and he said the 16" guns made a big impression. Rock the boat. He was assigned to the 5" cannons. Thanks for the link. Picture of the New Jersey firing all the 16's at once is too cool.

My father was also ww2/korea same ship. I remember the stories he told me when the guns fired all at once pointed outward every body on the ship thought the ship would roll over sideways. As kids when we used to shoot 22's and 30-06's my dad said son in the war we shot REAL guns...

[John Boy]

Awsome! USS New Jersey
http://www.battleshipnewjersey.org/
90546

[savagetactical]

I remember seeing the Wisconsn during the Gulf War. It was an impressive sight, in many ways I felt privileged to see it, now I think about it and I think I was in the last war where a battleship was used.

[GabbyM]

I remember seeing the Wisconsn during the Gulf War. It was an impressive sight, in many ways I felt privileged to see it, now I think about it and I think I was in the last war where a battleship was used.

Proud to state:

My brothers XO on the USS Talbot. ASW Fast Frigate back in the 1970's. Was Captain of the USS Wisconsin off shore in the first Gulf War. That man was one of only a few officers I heard him speak with great respect for. Back when He was in the Navy. He was awed when setting in front of his TV he saw an interview from the bridge of USS Wisconsin as it sailed off shore Kuwait. Camera panned over to show the captain. Wow his old XO from 26 years past. Just shows you that if you hook up with the right company. Doing a good job will have rewards.

My predominate reason for making this post is. For benefit of any back stabbing sniveling creeps who think no one has your number and you can get ahead by steeping ahead. Perhaps but only in a company that is on it's way down hill.

GO NAVY