Sunday, April 8, 2018

Big Booms on Board


14-inch (35.6 cm) projectiles on deck of the U.S. Navy battleship USS New Mexico (BB-40), while the battleship was replenishing her ammunition supply prior to the invasion of Guam, July 1944.

4 comments:

  1. Do you think the ship had a bit of list to starboard? That's a lot of weight on that side ... probably not though, it's a damn big ship ...

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  2. There would be no discernible list, and ships of that size have a whole series of ballast tanks to adjust for different load patterns. Load calculations are usually one of the Chief Engineer's primary responsibilities.

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  3. My Dad had for many years an ashtray made from one of those shells, with a cork knob in the center to tap your pipe on. That brass was heavy, and it was only the bottom 3" or so of the shell.

    Wish I knew what happened to it, it was always on the table when I was growing up, but it's been gone for a long time now.

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  4. At about 2200# per shell thats a helluva lot of hurt sitting on deck.

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