Battleships move sideways on broadsides?

[Zander]

You gotta bring the Barrett, though...

Oh, please...

Just dip into that bottomless firearms-acquisition fund of yours.

I do have one request...can we wait until the sun actually shines on the Free Republic of Tennessee again? <sigh>

Oh, one more request...can we mount some outriggers to the john boat?

 

[Stevie-Ray]

How many grains of powder to they use to launch one of those 2700 pound payloads?

400 lbs. It's extruded powder each grain about the size of a 12 guage shotshell in 100 lb silk bags which are consumed in the fire.

The ship also moves at broadside. Can't remember if it moves laterally to notice, but has a pronounced list due to recoil. I'll check my archives, but this was one of the things brought up on one of the specials on the history of the Dreadnought on the History Channel. I'll see if I can find it in my books.

 

[BigG]

Hey y'all, watch this!

OK, Stevie Ray, what we need to do to make the killer Tyrannosaurus rifle of the 21st century is build a cartridge that will hold one grain of that 12 ga shotshell sized powder and cap it with the largest bullet we can find. It will put the 50 cal BMG to shame for horsepower and probably recoil, too! Even Dick Casull oughta be impressed! Ouch!

 

[TexasVet]

Forget about it, Zeno already proved that motion is impossible anyway

Naw, he just proved that you can't get there from here.

 

[rick458]

One of my Buds was in Beruit when the New Jersey was firing on the Druse Militia up in the hills he said it was very cool when She fired you would see a flash from over the horizon, hear the rounds scream over head, hear the boom of the firing, see the splash of the rounds impact and then hear the Boom of the impact,and a big ole chunk of the mountain would be gone.
You just gotta love a weapon like that

 

[M1911]

I saw the New Jersey twice. Once it was at anchor in San Francisco Bay and the other time it was steaming under the Golden Gate Bridge. Very impressive sight.

A while back I went aboard one of the Iowa class in SF. They were tied up and allowing the public on board, though only one the main deck. What beautiful ships.

 

[KelBench400]

I was on board the Jersey last fall. It was $10 dollars well spent. We got to walk all over the ship (within boundaries) on a self-paced tour.

One of the guides was asked if the ship was moved due to recoil. His answer was no. The guns' recoil system absorbs most of the recoil. The picture with the water being disturbed is caused by muzzle blast only. These guides were highly knowledgeable about every facet of the ship...so I don't doubt his answer.

 

[M1911]

KelBench400: I'm jealous. When I went on board, the ship was still in active service, so we weren't allowed below decks. I've visited the USS Massachusetts, which is a smaller, older ship. Quite impressive.

 

[Wakal]

The average Iowa-class (they were slightly different lengths, with the New Jersey being the longest by an inch and a half) was 887 feet 3 inches, width 108 feet 2 inches. The tightest of the Panama Canal locks is 110 feet

Full powder load was six bags at 110 pounds per bag.

And since their full draft (just ask Captain "Run Aground" Brown) was 29 feet, remember that the "wall of water" she is pushing against has just under twice the pressure at the keel as at the waterline

From empirical data (ship's level indicator and GPS), she did list one degree from TDC with a full 9-round volley, but didn't move enough to deflect the numbers on the GPS.





Alex

 

[Gnull]

I stayed on board the Massachusetts for a couple days when I was about 14.. was a visit to Battleship cove by our Air Cadet Squadron(845 Avro Arrow). Kinda funny to have a Canadian Air-force based youth paramilitary group visit an American NAVAL Ship.. but it wa definatly an amazing sight, and I felt almost like I could crawl into one of those big 16" Cannons.

Heh.. gotta love the old battle-wagons

 

[bountyhunter]

Recoil Absorber

The person who mentions the recoil absorber brings up a good point: a recoil absorber is a spring type device that absorbs recoil energy as it compresses. An important thing to undertsand is that the recoil absorber does not reduce the amount of recoil energy directed into the mount of the gun turret (ie, the ship) by even one iota. That energy is conserved. What a recoil absorber does for any gun is spread out the time over which the recoil impulse is applied to the "mount". For handguns, that is your hand. For a battleship, that's the deck.

People would feel much less "shock" through their feet from the deck at fire with a recoil absorber because the peak of the pulse is lower in amplitude.

As to the ships reactive motion in the water as a result of the recoil (and Newton's Law of motion), would a recoil absorber change the distance it moved? No. The water applies variable resistance based on how fast you try to move through it (try it with your hand in the bathtub). So a sudden sharp pulse gets more resistance, the longer rolling pulse from the effect of the recoil absorber gets less resistance but over a longer time. So, the final amount the ship moves as result would be the same.. although, we have already established it would be quite small.