This is the most badass thing ever.....ever.

[Goodspeed]

The Iowa class battleships: Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, and New Jersey. My grandfather and WWII navy vet got me into these and other WWII naval stuff when I was a little kid. Just totally awesome. They were each recommissioned up to 4 times through the first Gulf War. When they were retrofitted with modern computer technology, they found that the main 16 inch guns were so powerful when fired in sequence simultaneously that they would cripple the electronics of the ship itself, so they had to resort to one at a time with long intervals. Maybe you could see why....

Video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=nsNlmiLJGIw

[ScottyB]

yep those ships are pretty sweet. i've also read that simultaneous firing like that would move the ship a couple feet laterally in the water when fired.

i love big guns

[PDenbigh]

Wow!

Scotty, I you're right - Look at Pic 3 - you can see disturbance in the water all the way to the end of the ship. I imagine that's because the ship was moving laterally. That's awesome power!

[Ginger]

The pic of the Jersey at Beirut - my Dad was running cryptology in the mountains near Beirut then. The Jersey was actually shelling a town 20-30 miles inland... where my dad was, a mile in at one point, it sounded like THEY were being bombed when they'd launch 24 hr campaigns.

Those boats are really something else.

[BLINGMW]

"we've been hit!"

"no... uh... that's us."