USS Iowa vs. her weight in 1790s British frigates

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2003-12-01 10:23am

I told you I'd do it:

Can 53,000 tons of 1790-era British frigates (like HMS Surprise) POSSIBLY defeat the mightiest battleship of all time?

Iowa is in her 1945 fighting trim, with a full load of ammunition for all guns.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-12-01 10:37am

Thats a one sided victory.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-12-01 10:47am

Even if the USS Iowa was out of ammo it could simply ram through them without difficulty. Being in a sailing ship and seeing the hull of the USS Iowa bearing down on you would be an unpleasant situation.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-12-01 10:59am

Take off the main guns and just use the BOFORs cannons and .50 cal MGs and start ripping holes in the sides of the ships.

Incredibly one sided victory for the Iowa.

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2003-12-01 11:04am

OK, who voted yes?

Come on, fess up...

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2003-12-01 11:17am

I imagine that assuming the light and medium AA guns can be re-set to fire on surface targets (admittedly, that might be a fairly daft assumption, given the general upward angling of the mounts), Iowa could convert the frigates to 50,000 tons of driftwood without once firing her main or even secondary guns.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-12-01 11:21am

It could actually score kills by firing its primary guns over their heads. The blast shockwave from the big 16" guns firing to one side would probably cripple or destroy any ships on that side.

Zoink · Post by **Zoink** » 2003-12-01 02:59pm

The British ships sail up to the Iowa waving flags and stuff, the Americans wouldn't see them as a threat. All the American sailors are like: "Cool, look at all the old ships!" Then when a few get near they throw ropes up and its all "arghh!" and "shiver me timbers!" from there.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-12-01 03:27pm

RAM THEM UNTIL THEY GIVE UP!

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-12-01 03:34pm

Zoink wrote:The British ships sail up to the Iowa waving flags and stuff, the Americans wouldn't see them as a threat. All the American sailors are like: "Cool, look at all the old ships!" Then when a few get near they throw ropes up and its all "arghh!" and "shiver me timbers!" from there.

Even then wouldn't all those British people have to deal with automatic-wielding people aboard the Iowa?

Companion Cube · Post by **Companion Cube** » 2003-12-01 03:38pm

Aw, give us a chance, and change it to 53,000 tons of 1970s British frigates...

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-12-01 03:51pm

Can the frigates even elevate their guns enough to maybe drop a cannonball or two onto the Iowa's deck, seeing as they could fire at her armor belt until the sun burns out and never so much as ding her?

CmdrWilkens · Post by **CmdrWilkens** » 2003-12-01 03:53pm

Lets see, the USMC contingent (either with M1s, M14s, or M16s) can stop pretty much any boarding party. The ship can ram them until they give up and the Ma Deuces onabord have enough power to rip through anything onboard the Brit ships...I think its clearly a win for the British.

Zoink · Post by **Zoink** » 2003-12-01 04:14pm

The British get on board, neutralize the people on deck with a surprise musket attack, then neutralize the USMC counter attack by rolling large barrels of gunpowder down the hatches... they set fire to the ship and then its all 'have at ye!' with the cutlasses on the remaining crew.

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2003-12-01 05:22pm

Zoink wrote:The British get on board, neutralize the people on deck with a surprise musket attack, then neutralize the USMC counter attack by rolling large barrels of gunpowder down the hatches... they set fire to the ship and then its all 'have at ye!' with the cutlasses on the remaining crew.

Would the musket balls be able to penetrate navy flakjackets?

And I'd love to see how a british frigate rakes the Iowa, only to have the battleship accelerate to 30+ knots

The expression on the faces of the boarding parties would be priceless...

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2003-12-01 05:25pm

Oh, and the Brit frigates would have a hard time maneuvering with all those sails taking wind from each other...

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2003-12-01 05:25pm

They only way they'd win is if you put so many of them there that they created a black whole from their mass and sucked the iowa in.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-12-01 05:35pm

RedImperator wrote:Can the frigates even elevate their guns enough to maybe drop a cannonball or two onto the Iowa's deck, seeing as they could fire at her armor belt until the sun burns out and never so much as ding her?

The whole ship was built out of STS steel, which is basically light armor plate, forget the belt armor, a cannon ball is going to shatter or bounce off just about any place it hits.

BB61 Iowa could easily defeat every wooden warship ever built, assuming it didn't have to use up its fuel steaming around all over the world to find them. She could win this scenario without engine power and with only one 20mm cannon operational. Though I don't know ware some of you are getting the idea that she carried M2's, there might have been a few aboard in 1943, but by 1945 there certainly where none. The gun was worthless for naval air defence and only a few quad mounts acquired from Army units, generally at the discretion of the ships captain, where being used by anything bigger then a landing craft or PT boat.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-12-01 05:48pm

Probably because modern USN ships have some M2's to repulse small ships. I expect that'd be less of an issue in open warfare in the Pacific.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2003-12-01 06:11pm

Darth Wong wrote:Even if the USS Iowa was out of ammo it could simply ram through them without difficulty. Being in a sailing ship and seeing the hull of the USS Iowa bearing down on you would be an unpleasant situation.

On the other hand, being on the USS Iowa while this takes place could be immensely humorous.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2003-12-01 06:19pm

I, uh, wasn't going to say anything, since after I did this I avoided the thread completely, but my feeble brain made the following correlation:

1. Iowa Vs.

2. British frigates

Can they do it?!

Choice 1- yes they can! (Hmm....they.....must be Iowa Crew!)
choice 2- are you insane?! (Seems pretty clear the Iowa will own. He MUST be nuts!)
Choice 3- no comment (Psh. cop-out choice.....always gotta be one.)

*click!* choice 1!

*Reads OP*
Fuck me with a chainsaw.

*Slinks out of thread*

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-12-01 06:35pm

USS Iowa vs. a Mole of late 18th century era frigates.

HahahahmwahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-12-01 06:38pm

This would be so hilarious to see.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-12-01 06:42pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:This would be so hilarious to see.

The planet implodes due to the Royal Navy being slightly bigger than normal.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2003-12-01 06:53pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:
DPDarkPrimus wrote:This would be so hilarious to see.
The planet implodes due to the Royal Navy being slightly bigger than normal.

The RN of the time had hundreds of frigates, they could spare the 50+ this scenario calls for.