I always thought the Iowa BBs were large ships, not so.

That is a good comparison. I too would have thought differently.

Dunno, she's still some 180ft longer than the "stretched"AO next to her and 9000 tonnes greater displacement.

Keep in mind that oiler beside Iowa is almost 40 years newer. Regardless, the Iowa class BB's still rank as some of the largest warships ever built. If they were active today the only other active warships larger than the Iowas would be US nuclear carriers and Russian Kuznetsov and Kiev class carriers.


So yes, Iowas are BIG warships.

Actually closer to 20000 tons greater displacement, when finally retired the Iowas were rated at about 58,000 tons.

That said, she is still dwarfed by the CVNs (at 100,000 tons plus, and around 200 feet longer).

I'd say they're large, it's just that those ships are larger than expected.
I toured the Alabama, which isn't even an Iowa class. It was immense and like an ant hill on the inside. LOL

This video is an off limits tour of the Iowa.

The youtuber is an acquired taste, but his guide is very good.

https://youtu.be/dW83U4bkC_k

What's going on in the pic? Why are the ships tied up alongside each other like that?

My eyes start crossing at the center of that picture lol. All those masts and steel! Beautiful ship.

Thanks Krazi! Wow, the picture on that wikipedia page...

I wonder why they couldn't just put old aircraft (my beloved F-14!!) on something like the "National Air Defense Reserve Squadron"....

That was great, thanks for posting.

The USS New Jersey shows a lot of the ship in their tour. You can actually go through the levels of the Turret, you can go through the Fire Control Station and the Powder Room. The only place this video showed that you didn't see was the director and you don't get as thorough of a view of the engine room.

I'd really recommend the USS New Jersey full tour. To get it, you have to show up early, like right at the opening otherwise they'll run out of space.

After the USS New Jersey, go across the river to PA and see the USS Olympia. Gorgeous ship.

Has the Olympia been fixed up Timothy? It was in pretty bad shape not to long ago.

They are working on it, but it's got a long way to go. I saw it in 2010 and then 2014 and it was worlds better, so there are signs of hope. I'm sure the turrets are in bad shape, they aren't even original, which is disappointing. They are just steel plate and not armoured turrets.

That is good to hear.

Timothy, can you check your meds please

Get well soon

Great pics by the way

Well... War ships have always been traditionally smaller than jumbo merchants. Bigger you are the slower you maneuver. Although not always the case any more. I am sure something like QE2 was bigger than an Iowa class. Well in terms of size. QE might even be bigger than those 2 freakishly large super battleships Japan had back in the day. Or I am totally wrong.


OOPs not QE2...just QE. The first one. Not the other one. Or I guess the new one. Ugh confusing.

RMS QE
Type: Ocean liner
Tonnage: 83,673 gross tons
Displacement: 83,000+ tonnes
Length: 1,031 ft (314.2 m)
Beam: 118 ft (36.0 m)
Height: 233 ft (71.0 m)
Draught: 38 ft (11.6 m)

Yamato
Class and type: Yamato-class battleship
Displacement: 65,027 t (64,000 long tons)
71,659 t (70,527 long tons) (full load)

Length: 256 m (839 ft 11 in) (waterline)
263 m (862 ft 10 in) (overall)

Beam: 38.9 m (127 ft 7 in)
Draft: 11 m (36 ft 1 in)