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From: vrdxhq!vrdxhq.verdix.com!bsmart@uunet.UU.NET (Bob Smart)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Uss Iowa (propellant charge)
Summary: 16" guns
Message-ID: <5985@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 27 Apr 89 03:10:56 GMT
References: <5858@cbnews.ATT.COM> <5940@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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From: vrdxhq!vrdxhq.verdix.com!bsmart@uunet.UU.NET (Bob Smart)

In article <5940@cbnews.ATT.COM>, anderer@vax1.acs.udel.edu (David G Anderer) writes:
> >From: sun!portal!cup.portal.com!mmm
> >My friend who told me the guns on warships are real old says his dad
> >was on the USS Massachusetts, and he said the gun barrels had dates on
> >them, dates from 1916 to 1922.
> >
> 
> So, I'm skeptical of those gun barrel dates.

 Good going Bill, a lot of people don't realise that the older 16/50
was a different gun ( and a lot more powerful) from the WW2  16".
I have two possible explinations for the barrel dates
1) The ship in question is actually the USS Mississippi a New Mexico
class BB (and the guns were 14" but when its that big who notices
a couple inches :-))
2) the Massachuusetts usedd old barrels from the Maryland class 16/45
at some point.

I think that 1 is more likely however it should be easy to check,
The Massachusetts is on display I believe at Fall River. can someone
in New England check it out? ( checking  Alabama at Mobile and
North Carolina at Wilmington might be interesting to)

Good references for this discussion are Breyers Battleships and Battlecruisers
and Seacoast fortifacations of the United States ( I can't remember the author
but can check on the next trip to the library) Thatswhere the best data on
the old 16"/50 I've seen is.

Bob Smart (bsmart@verdix.com)

[mod.note: In "Warship International," No.4, 1974 (V13), an article 
entitled, "American Battleship Main Armament: The Final Generation"
by Emanuel R. Lewis gives the design history of the various 16" guns,
as well as the 18" weapons that were tested. It includes lots of
data, as well.  - Bill ]