Comments by "Old Guy Gaming Network" (@CRAZYHORSE19682003) on "USS Iowa - First of the Fast" video.

The don't call her the Showboat for nothing :)
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At 11:19 you say, you have this motorized hoist which runs along this rail. Just for clarification it was not motorized propulsion along the rail, that was 100% muscle power. Even for the 2700 pound shells, when you had them connected to the monorails it was muscle power that moved those shells along the rail. The canisters and shells would be balanced so well that it was not hard to move them that way.
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The hatches for loading and unloading shells and powder are called strike down hatches.
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It wasn't the age of the powder that was the problem, stored properly a powder charge is good for DECADES. The problem is that the powder in question was stored on non climate controlled barges in the middle of the summer and exposed to temperatures of over 100 degrees for DAYS which caused the powder to start breaking down and becoming unstable. Also they didn't spontaneously combust, they were probably exposed to incredible pressure from an accidental over ram.
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Externally there wouldn't be. We repainted her externally after the fires were out so when we pulled into port in Norfolk there was no visible signs of the explosion other than the turret still trained to starboard and the left and right guns elevated and center gun in the loading position.
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On the shell hoisting mechanism around the shell, if you look 2/3 of the way down the shell you can see a large pad eye. When lowering the shell down the strike down hatches there would be a guy at the bottom with a hook who's job it was to catch that pad eye securing the shell to on of the monorail systems at the bottom of the turret. You would them move the shell to the appropriate location inside and a second hoist would take them up to one of the projectile decks. It was dangerous as hell because if you missed the shell would strike the deck and could potentially fall over crushing the catch man, there was hardly any room to maneuver in the annular space where you were catching the shells as they were lowered.
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@DethOnHigh New Jersey and Iowa are identical from the perspective of bulkheads. It is the Missouri and Wisconsin that were improved with substantially thicker transverse bulkheads.
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Turret explosions were far more common than you think. The USS Mississippi had two of them in the same turret. Coincidently or not all but one turret explosion in USN history were center gun turret two.
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@John.0z They were a huge waste of tonnage.
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Iowa was decommissioned 18 months after the explosion. She sat in mothballs for a long time but that is not the same as being in service. Turret 2 was not repaired because of cost.
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@unemployed_history_major4795 I do not believe that had anything to do with it. At full power the ass end of the ship would literally get sucked down low in the water from the power of the screws. On one full power fun the stern was almost pulled under water, several spaces were flooded because of that and the deck was wet all the way up to turret 3's barbette.
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@SuperchargedSupercharged By definition a crane not only lifts and lowers objects but it moves them horizontally. So the davit used to strike down projectiles and powder does not fit that definition.
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