Clicking on a picture should take you to my Flickr page where you can see the full-sized version (just click on the "All Sizes" icon at the top of the image on the Flickr page itself. Eventually I will post all 700+ images on my Flickr page and link the set here for anyone who cares to see everything.Okay, let's have a look at the ship. New Jersey is an Iowa-class battleship, was laid down at the Philadelphia Naval Ship Yard in 1940 and launched in 1942. She mounts nine 16-inch guns in three main turrets (two forward and one aft with three guns in each), twelve 5-inch guns in six secondary turrets (three on each side with two guns per turret), 32 Tomahawk Cruise missiles and 16 Harpoon missiles. For air defense against missiles, she employs four 20mm CIWS guns (two on each side) and clusters of SRBOC launchers (each side). She also uses a NIXIE towed decoy system to foil torpedo attacks.
If I had taken the ferry across the Delaware River, I'd have been able to get a better picture of her full length, port side. As it was, I took a shuttle bus from Philadelphia across the Ben Franklin Bridge into Camden. From the starboard side, it's difficult to get the whole ship in view, especially with the large ramp/elevator structure tourists use to get aboard. The ship is 887 feet, 7 inches long, making her the longest battleship ever built, several inches longer than even her three other sister ships, the Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin. The ship's beam is 108 feet. The top of the main mast is 172 feet from the water.
Note the cylindrical armored conning tower which penetrates the bridge levels seen at the center of the superstructure, behind the number two turret and forward of the 5-inch gun director that has a circular radar dish on top. There is a white-colored rotating marine radar mounted on top of the conning tower. It is the T-shaped device almost at the center of the image (you may need to look at the larger images to see it clearly). We will look at this area up close later on. Just forward of the main mast, the gun director for the forward 16-inch gun turrets can be seen.
Radar atop the main mast.
The mast is situated above the ship's forward smoke stack. Also visible are two of the four directors for the secondary 5-inch gun batteries. The directors are the structures with the small dish on top. One is on the right side of the photo and the other is left of center, below the mast.
One of the six 5-inch gun turrets that are mounted on both sides of the ship, three to a side. Originally, New Jersey had ten of the secondary turrets (five on either side), but four of them were removed to make room for Tomahawk missile launchers. The smaller gun above with the white dome is a CIWS air defense gun. We'll take a closer look at these weapons once we get aboard.
Two of the ship's boats on the starboard side. The lowermost boat is the Admiral's Barge, used by Rear Admiral Paul Reason when the New Jersey served as his flagship in 1990. You can also see the Harpoon missile launchers aft of the boats and above the 5-inch gun turret. The ship's aft smoke stack is visible.
Okay, let's get aboard already!
This structure projecting from the side of the number one main gun turret houses a sighting system. All of these are now covered, but do not appear to be plated over. Rather, they seem to be sealed with a flexible cover of some kind. Take a look at the large version of this and you can see the painted-over cover and what appears to be tape.
Big, expensive ropes.
Here is the location of one of the long-removed 40mm anti-aircraft gun tubs the ship originally had during WW2 and the Korean War. The red line is for the self-guided tour.
Need some help with this from one of our ship experts, but I believe that this "NSDS Link 11" antenna on the forecastle is used for ship-to-ship communication. Beyond that, I can't find much more information. Unfortunately, the deck forward of the wooden planking is off-limits, so this is about as close as we can get for now. The large chains below the antenna mounting are attached to the anchors on either side of the bow.
These capstans are used to lower and raise the anchor chains. The chains are drawn around each capstan and are fed into a chain locker below the deck. The chains enter the deck via an opening as seen here.
Capstan on the opposite side. Each link in the chain weighs 110 pounds. Each anchor chain is 1122 feet long. The ship's two anchors each weigh 30,000 pounds.
Anchor chain brake control wheels.
Mysterious hatch of wonder and delight. Actually, I forget where this goes. I think it's some kind of stores loading hatch, or possibly access to the chain locker?
A quick diversion while we have a good view... Across the river on the Philadelphia side we can see the buff- and white-colored Protected Cruiser USS Olympia berthed at Penn's Landing, (behind another vessel). She was launched in November, 1892 and served in the Spanish-American War in 1898 and also during the First World War. In 1921, she returned the body of the Unknown Soldier of WWI to the US. Olympia is the oldest steel-hulled warship in the world to remain afloat. The submarine USS Becuna is on Olympia's starboard side, out of view here. Eventually, I'll be visiting both Becuna and Olympia.
Kicking myself now... This is the LÉ Eithne, the flagship of the Irish Navy which was visiting Philadelphia the week I went to see New Jersey. I didn't know what this ship was until after I got home and by then it was too late to take the free tour. I also missed seeing the HMCS Fredericton which was in port and available for free tours the following week. Dammit.
Okay, back to New Jersey. Let's head down to the Anchor Windlass Room and we'll also see some of the crew bunk spaces.
This is the Anchor Windlass Room which houses machinery used to raise and lower the ship's anchors.
There are many brass fittings in and on the ship. This is an electrical outlet.
Lots of pipes down here, on the bulkheads...
And above your heads.
Aft of the Anchor Windlass Room is the Enlisted Berthing area. Under each bunk is storage for a sailor's gear and personal items. The boxes with the rounded, reddish diamond-shapes contain emergency smoke hoods.
Whoever used this bunk liked Conan the Barbarian comics, John Grisham novels and Kool Mo Dee.
Raiders? Get outta town.
More personal belongings.
Now this is more like it. Go Phillies!
Chess, anyone? Checkers?
The reception down here is really bad. No, actually the TV was showing a well-worn videotape of the ship in action. The "3" on the wall is for the digital audio player given to visitors. So, if you have the player on you, press "3" now...
Some ducting.
Okay, let's head aft.
But not topside yet. Of course, I could lift that hatch if I wanted to.
More bunks. Just be sure to watch yourself during those bleary-eyed, early morning wake-up calls...
...because the ladder space nearby goes at least 4 decks down.
Wish we could check it out.
Various water flow controls.
Sailor art. Unfortunately, this space was rather narrow and I literally could not step back far enough to get the whole thing head-on and in frame. And it won't be the last time, as we'll see again and again later. For as large as this vessel is, it's quite cramped in a lot of places.
This tells you how to find out where you are. It's readable in the larger sizes linked from the photo.
Okay, time to head up and out again.
We just came up through the hatch in the foreground. The door in the background leads down to the windlass room we just saw. The hatches themselves are just inside these small enclosures. Vestiges of a another 40mm AA gun tub can be seen on the deck.
The ship's main deck is covered with teak wood. A lot of it is in pretty bad shape. There are plans to refurbish the deck with replacement teak. But it's expensive...
You have no idea how much I wanted to climb up on top of these turrets. No worries, though. We'll take a look inside the number two turret in a bit. Each of the these turrets weigh 1,750 tons. The armor on the front faces of the turrets is 17 inches thick with a thinner layer of 2.5 inch-thick armor behind it. The armor on the rear face is 12 inches thick and the sides with 9.5 inch armor. The roof is covered with 7.25 inches of armor. Visible stretching across the deck is the angled breakwater. The forward, T-shaped 16-inch gun director is visible below the radar on the main mast.
Okay, let's have a closer look at the number two main gun turret. This is the left side of the 26' rangefinder on the outside of the number two turret. It's encased in an armored box and it looks like there is a weather cover over the optics.
From behind.
An example of one of the shells fired by the main guns.
One of the powder bags. The shells and powder bags were stored in spaces below the turret itself, several decks down.
Rear edge of the turret with welds visible.
Here is one of the openings under the rear overhang structure of the turret. The hatch itself has been removed and is on the deck behind the ladder. Keep in mind that 27 men worked inside each turret and another 50 in the shell storage and powder magazines below each turret. Now let's see just how cramped it was inside these massive turrets.
As we look around the turret, here is a photo of the layout of the interior. Our exploration will be generally limited to the dark tan-colored area surrounding the light blue rangefinder. The spaces below the turret and the guns themselves are off-limits.
We've just come up through the hatchway and are looking forward inside the turret and down at some of the 26' rangefinder controls and optical devices.
This range scale is immediately to the right of the view piece above.
Directly below the sight above is a (traversing?) control wheel.
One of the seats. There are two other seats, one each to the left and right. This seat is centered and directly behind the rangefinder, with the wheel above just visible. The rangefinder extends across the width of the turret and into the armored boxes we saw outside. The number one main turret lacks a rangefinder like this, it having been removed. If you look at the picture of the number one and two turrets above, you can see the number one turret is missing the large boxes on the sides which house the ends of the rangefinder.
The rangefinder itself, looking forward and left. Note the folded seat below and additional view pieces and (elevation?) wheels and controls on the rangefinder.
And its viewfinder. Unfortunately, as the rangefinder optics are covered (if not missing entirely), there isn't much to see through here.
Moving forward and under the rangefinder now. Here we see the rangefinder extending into the armored housing we saw outside, looking aft and left.
The opposite end, looking right and aft. Presumably the small wheels on each end are used to open and close the rangefinder covers? Note that the wheel on this side isn't connected to anything--its linkage seems to be missing, unlike the one above on the other side.
Still looking aft, we see a conveniently-mounted vice on a shelf in front of the rangefinder.
Below and to the side of the shelf is this, but I have no idea what it is other than it seems to be made of brass.
Okay, turning around now and looking forward, we can look through the glass into the dimly-lit gun spaces.
The breech and recoil cylinders of the center gun are barely visible. Because of the glass, there was no chance of using the flash.
EDIT: I found a decent video taken aboard USS Wisconsin (same class as New Jersey) showing the loading and firing of these weapons. Check it out here.
One of the powder hoist access doors. Sadly, they were chained shut.
Nearby phone. Note the heavy cover hanging below the viewport looking into the gun spaces.
Fire sprinkler valves.
Telephone switch box. I forgot to open it.
Each turret has several periscopes like this, penetrating the roof of the turret itself. As an aside, the air inside the turret was quite warm, even though it wasn't a particularly hot day. Still, after hours of sunlight beating down on that thick steel, the roof was noticeably warm to the touch.
Anyway, I wonder...
A quick elevation chart consultation...
Hm, no numbers. Well, that was useless. But this seems promising. Just a little bit to the left and...
...we can see across the Delaware and into Philadelphia. For those unfamiliar with the city, that is One Liberty Place on the right and Two Liberty Place on the left. One Liberty is the second-tallest building in Philadelphia.
And yes, I did put the crosshairs on the buildings, but it seemed slightly tasteless to photograph it.
Okay, time to bail out of here so we can see some more of the ship.
Port side of the ship looking forward. The Benjamin Franklin Bridge is visible north of the ship, crossing from Philadelphia to Camden. There is Eithne again, as well.
Looking aft. The Swiss cargo ship Luzern is visible in the distance.
Alright, let's step inside to the Officers' Wardroom.
There was an enormous model of the ship across from the hatchway, but I forgot to take a closer look at it!
Looking forward before we move aft, leaving the Wardroom.
Various fittings and electrical boxes.
Very brassy. I like it.
Lots of wiring overhead
This is hook is rather inconveniently-placed. Perhaps that's why it's painted white, so no one would notice it! That, or the pipe was installed sometime afterward. I prefer the inconveniently-placed hook story, myself.
Looking down. We won't go down now, but later and via another route.
Damage control plates like these are stored at various places throughout the ship. Again, the passageway was narrow, so this is a good of a view as I could get with my camera.
Okay, heading outside again. We will see some more of the first and second levels of the ship, shifting back and forth a bit, so pardon the bouncing around.
I forget where I was looking into here, but it may be an office of some kind, given the shelves of files, or somesuch. Also a hanging plant.
Firefighting gear.
This hatch wasn't really supposed to be opened by the tourists...
So I just snuck a quick peak. Unfortunately, the flash wasn't ready and there were people coming behind me. Not much to see at any rate. Just some old paint cans, a fan and assorted whatnot.
Tramampoline!
Main mast far above. CIWS visible just to the left.
I don't envy the people who had to paint this ship. There are a lot of surfaces, nooks and crannies.
Saluting gun. I very much wanted to see the gun with the cover off, but no joy.
Navigation Bridge with, I believe, the Flag Bridge below it. Note the cylindrical conning tower which rises through the bridge levels, visible just above the tarp on the left side. We'll take a look at all of these areas later on.
Entering the Admiral's quarter's on the second level. These quarters belonged to Rear Admiral Paul Reason. Adm. Reason served aboard the New Jersey for the ship's last deployment.
Doesn't it look just like your parents' old den? They probably even had the same chairs and lamp. Actually, it reminds me of a waiting room in a doctor's office. The only difference is that the walls probably weren't made out of steel.
Admirals get pretty nice beds! I'm not thrilled about the baby blue paint, though. Reminds me of a pool locker room. I can almost smell the chlorine.
The admiral's desk.
The admiral's shower.
Just around the corner a bit from the admiral's quarters.
Various equipment.
This is Officer Country. It's also off-limits. Anyway, we're on our way to the Junior Officers' Staterooms.
And here we are. A bit cramped but not too bad. These simulated officers are enjoying story time.
One room over and it's similar to the first. With the exception of this giant cylinder in the room. Wonder what it's for...
Vaseline jar above the sink. Also, a similarly-old tube of toothpaste.
Okay, this post is getting a bit unwieldy, so as we get ready to head back outside again I will end this post now. I'll come back with more pictures in another post, later.
