USS Alabama -BB 60- (Battleship)

[mTk]

 

[Louis]

Added to index.

 

[Louis]

1943

 

[Gunner]

It's pretty cool they simulate an air attack with the 20mm's.

 

[mTk]

A little redundant, but still entertaining video.
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[Gunner]

They do keep it clean.

 

[Louis]

The ex-battleship Kearsarge (AB-1) is moored next to the Alabama (BB-60) for lifting the 16" gun barrels into place. Main and secondary gun turrets are being fabricated and the smoke indicates that some of the boilers have been lit off. July 1942.

Note: The USS Kearsarge (BB-5), also known as AB-1, was a battleship that was converted into a crane ship.

 

[mTk]

"...On February 2, 1894, while en-route from Haiti to Nicaragua, she wrecked on Roncador Reef.
Efforts to salvage her proved fruitless, and Kearsarge was stricken from the Navy List later that year." -Wiki
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Never heard of such a thing as a "crane ship.' Now I've seen one.
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[HOA_KSOP]

I got a chance to tour the USS Alabama when I was 6, right after it was opened as a museum ship in 1965. My Dad was stationed in AL at the time, so we jumped in the car and headed down to Mobile. Unlike today's memorial park, it was a gravel parking lot with two gangways built from railroad ties and a plywood "booth" they sold tickets out of. All I remember was how massive the ship was, the fact that they had a 40 mm mount that people could mess around with, a diorama of a task force with model ships and a main gun shell on the deck. But you could go to the bridge, the CIC and see the captain's cabin, but you couldn't go too far belowdecks.