Friday, October 28, 2011

USS Iowa Begins Final Voyage-- Part 2

There was quite a battle to see whether San Francisco or Los Angeles would get the Iowa. Its sisters are already museum ships: the Missouri in Pearl Harbor; New Jersey in Camden, New Jersey; and Wisconsin in Norfolk, Virginia. It is too bad that Wisconsin and Iowa couldn't have had their namesakes tied up in their states. But the Missouri being at Pearl Harbor is fitting as the wreck of the USS Arizona is also there; the beginning and end of World War II for the United States.

Mow without its own power, the USS Iowa was nudges out of its slip by tugs and then towed the five miles to Richmond very carefully as the ship's 38 foot draft at times was only inches from the bay's floor.

Robert Kent of the Pacific Battleship Center said, "This is the world's last battleship," as his group took possession of the vessel. His group has raised about $5 million (with $3 million coming from the state of Iowa) and hope to raise another $5 million.

The ship's main armament was nine 16-inch guns (so-named for the diameter of the shells they fired) which were able to fire a one-ton shell more than 20 miles and you wouldn't want to be on the receiving end when it exploded. The Iowa was among the largest warships ever built, weighing in at 45,000 tons, 887 feet long, 108 feet wide and capable of cruising at 35 miles per hour.

Sure Glad It Was Saved. --DaCoot

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