Ship Photo of the Day

[Brett327]

One of the thoughts that keeps percolating is whether we will ever see a return of non-aircraft carrier capital ships.

Nobody of consequence is seriously considering that. This idea remains in the realm of academia, not policy.

 

[azguy]

The Montana class not only had that extra main gun turret, but the 5 inch guns were a 54 calibre vice the 38 calibre currently in use in the fleet.

Modern CRUDES are working with the 5/54 or 5/62.

 

[Randy Daytona]

Its Christmas, so a 2nd ship: the Baltimore Class Heavy Cruiser USS Pittsburgh - which had its bow blown off by a typhoon in 1945. The still floating bow was actually salvaged, and with a sense of humor, the bow was nicknamed USS McKeesport since McKeesport was a suburb of Pittsburgh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pittsburgh_(CA-72)

 

[Gatordev]

I may have posted this before, so if so, indulge me...

In the late '60's, my dad's sub (an old Guppy glass fleet boat, still in service) was in the yards at Groton. One day he ran into an OCS/sub school buddy who was stationed out of Pearl. My dad was a little confused as to why he was in CT. Apparently his buddy was on a boat "somewhere in SE Asia" and was spotted while submerged. The NV started doing everything they could to sink it and while the boat escaped, the enemy had managed to completely blow the sail off the ship and all that was left was the pressure hull of the conning tower.

They steamed for Pearl and then in the middle of the night, somewhere out of sight of the island, they met up with a tender. All night, the tender's crew built a plywood sail and painted it black. That next morning, the sub sailed into Pearl and right into a pen for real repairs, out of sight from prying satellites.

Definitely harry, and when you know how they collected some intel photos back then, the story makes even more sense on how they got caught.

 

[DanMa1156]

That video was cool.

I may have posted this before, so if so, indulge me...

In the late '60's, my dad's sub (an old Guppy glass fleet boat, still in service) was in the yards at Groton. One day he ran into an OCS/sub school buddy who was stationed out of Pearl. My dad was a little confused as to why he was in CT. Apparently his buddy was on a boat "somewhere in SE Asia" and was spotted while submerged. The NV started doing everything they could to sink it and while the boat escaped, the enemy had managed to completely blow the sail off the ship and all that was left was the pressure hull of the conning tower.

They steamed for Pearl and then in the middle of the night, somewhere out of sight of the island, they met up with a tender. All night, the tender's crew built a plywood sail and painted it black. That next morning, the sub sailed into Pearl and right into a pen for real repairs, out of sight from prying satellites.

Definitely harry, and when you know how they collected some intel photos back then, the story makes even more sense on how they got caught.

This story, assuming it's true, is also amazing. Thanks for sharing guys.

 

[SynixMan]

One of the thoughts that keeps percolating is whether we will ever see a return of non-aircraft carrier capital ships. As everything is a race between sword and shield, I wonder if a generation from now that directed energy weapons and rail guns will be able to make a near impervious defense as long as the ship has sufficient electric power to sustain the weapons.

The modern battleship is black, goes underwater, shoots a torpedo the size of a Volvo at its sea targets, and cruise missiles at its land targets.

 

[Rockriver]

I was flying wing in a four plane one day when my lead called "See you at ten" on a vessel similar to the one pictured. While it was a hazy day and we were down low, we certainly weren't astern nor 10 miles away from anything we could land on. Fortunately, he caught his error before we attempted to break at the bow. However, he could never walk into the ready room again without someone yelling "Wave it off, foul derrick".

 

[picklesuit]

Its Christmas, so a 2nd ship: the Baltimore Class Heavy Cruiser USS Pittsburgh - which had its bow blown off by a typhoon in 1945. The still floating bow was actually salvaged, and with a sense of humor, the bow was nicknamed USS McKeesport since McKeesport was a suburb of Pittsburgh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pittsburgh_(CA-72)

Was this the same typhoon that cost the elder McCain his job?

 

[Randy Daytona]

I was flying wing in a four plane one day when my lead called "See you at ten" on a vessel similar to the one pictured. While it was a hazy day and we were down low, we certainly weren't astern nor 10 miles away from anything we could land on. Fortunately, he caught his error before we attempted to break at the bow. However, he could never walk into the ready room again without someone yelling "Wave it off, foul derrick".

As someone who has landed on many a rig, you never land if the operator is still in the crane housing - every company in the Gulf stated the operator has to be outside so the crane is not in motion.

A class of ships I had not previously seen, the USS Worcester class. Here is USS Roanoke (CL-145) - the last all gun "light" cruiser - which seems to have been built on the Baltimore heavy cruiser hull. Most of the cruisers seem to be laid out as smaller versions of battleships with triple turrets of main guns (6" for light, 8" for heavy, 12" for large) and then the familiar secondary batteries of 5" dual mounts and 40mm Bofors quad mounts. The Worcester class instead was laid out like the smaller Juneau class anti-aircraft cruisers with 6 twin turrets - now mounting a new dual-purpose 6" gun. Neither 5" nor 40mm's are mounted, instead a new 3" anti-aircraft was chosen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Roanoke_(CL-145)
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/cl-144.htm

Comparison to the previous class USS Fargo (CL-106)

USS Worcester in action against North Korea

 

[Max the Mad Russian]

White Christmas?


Arrival of the Great White Fleet in San Francisco, 06 May 1908

See how close such pre-dreadnought ironclads were to their sailing roots. It's always better to see them from dead ahead on available pictures just to note the guns in board-long batteries, massive masts, ship-wide bridges and so on...

 

[Brett327]

I was flying wing in a four plane one day when my lead called "See you at ten" on a vessel similar to the one pictured. While it was a hazy day and we were down low, we certainly weren't astern nor 10 miles away from anything we could land on. Fortunately, he caught his error before we attempted to break at the bow. However, he could never walk into the ready room again without someone yelling "Wave it off, foul derrick".

How would anyone in the Readyroom have known unless someone from the flight told them?

 

[Max the Mad Russian]

Yet the perfect USN light (B-class London - 1930) cruisers were, in my opinion, two last ships of the Brooklyn-class, namely St.Louis sub-class of two hulls. While writting the book in Russian about Brooklyns, I was impressed by the firepower that class could provide against Jap destroyers at nights, especially the ships with SG radars. If there was sole thing able to contest the IJN torpedo abilities in 1942 and effectively defend the columns of cruiser-destroyer TFs against long-lance attacks, that was it, imo. Having no way to obtain the comprehensive book about those ships in English, was forced to become co-author of it in Russian:-P This one: http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/7463285/

 

[Max the Mad Russian]

By the way... This trio of Yorktown class, CV-5,-6 and -8, which book gents can you recommend about the last ship? There is a plenty good works dedicated to a leadship, and "That Gallant Ship" by Robert Cressman coupled with several books of J.B. Lundstrom about carrier warfare of 1942 would be enough to make detailed service story of CV-5. Surprisingly, the CV-6 Enterprise is described worse - i.e. there is really a ton of books about first Big E, but they are mostly memo or patriotic staff or illustrated albums, not at all valuable in historical parlance. But there is only one book about CV-8 Hornet, namely "The Ship That Held The Line", and this is almost novel - again, nothing serious. Or I didn't find. Please, put my nose in right direction

 

[Pags]

By the way... This trio of Yorktown class, CV-5,-6 and -8, which book gents can you recommend about the last ship? There is a plenty good works dedicated to a leadship, and "That Gallant Ship" by Robert Cressman coupled with several books of J.B. Lundstrom about carrier warfare of 1942 would be enough to make detailed service story of CV-5. Surprisingly, the CV-6 Enterprise is described worse - i.e. there is really a ton of books about first Big E, but they are mostly memo or patriotic staff or illustrated albums, not at all valuable in historical parlance. But there is only one book about CV-8 Hornet, namely "The Ship That Held The Line", and this is almost novel - again, nothing serious. Or I didn't find. Please, put my nose in right direction

Have you tried contacting the Naval Institute? Their book selection is usually more serious.

 

[Malo83]

Can't forget the USS Juneau CL-52 and the 5 Sullivan brothers who went down with her in the battle of Guadalcanal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Juneau_(CL-52)