Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "USS Tennessee (CA) - Guide 248" video.

Captions on pix of that sort of rig, iirc, mirrors on brackets, that I have seen say they are for gunnery practice. I have no idea how that rig would work though.
2
@potbelliedslim7645 , just answered your original post. It's a rig of mirrors on brackets for gunnery practice. Have no idea how that rig was used though.
2
@madrabbit9007 iirc, the two level turrets the USN used on the Kearsarge and Virginia classes was because the 12-13" guns took forever to reload. So the smaller guns on the upper level were supposed to keep up a hot fire wile the big guns were reloaded. Apparently, the Navy figured out that, if they worked on the ergonomics of the big gun turrets, and did some training, reload times dropped dramatically, eliminating the need for the superimposed smaller guns.
2
@davidkaminski615 binoculars? I can't tell for sure from the pix and diagrams I have seen if they have binos or mono telescopes. Center position of the three is for the man training the turret, the two on the sides are for the men elevating the corresponding gun. Major downfall of that arrangement was the scope had to elevate in sync with the gun. Synchronizing the movement required an elaborate linkage. No matter how precisely the linkage components were made, there was always a bit of slop, and the longer the range, the larger the error the slop caused. When the South Carolinas were built, a new model turret was introduced that had periscopes extending from the sides of the turrets for the elevation men. The periscope was rigidly bracketed directly to the trunnion of the gun, eliminating moving parts and the slop they cause. Moving the scopes to the side of the turret also got them farther away from the muzzle blast of the superfiring turret, which was also introduced on the South Carolinas.
1
@WALTERBROADDUS iirc, what the PTs often did, at night, was to creep up at low speed, so they did not create a visible wake, drop, then run like he!!.
1
@pedenharley6266 I'm partial to the Italian Pisa class, because they completely abandoned casemate mounted guns. Turret primary, turret secondary, and flocks of 14 pounders on post mounts for plinking torpedo boats. Only beef I have is the 14 pounders were a bit undersized for really hurting the 1000+ ton DDs that were being built at the same time as the Pisas. The Rurik, built by Vickers for Russia, looks great, and the tertiary armament is 4.7", but they are still in casemates. If I was designing the perfect armored cruiser for the USN, it would look like the Rurik, with 10" primaries, for hitting power, twin turret 6" secondary for rate of fire, and flocks of 4"/50s on deck mounts for plinking torpedo boats.
1
@WALTERBROADDUS I was thinking of the phosphorescent wake that can be generated, particularly in shallow water, particularly in warm climates, like the Solomons.
1