by tommy303 Fri Apr 04, 2014 5:30 pm, Post Anyway, what's left of it. At roughly one horsepower per ton, she was not terribly fast, with a top speed of just twenty-one knots. In 2009 he cofounded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch. Navy officials say technical experts conducted more than 20,000 tests on bags of powder taken from the Iowa last spring, including attempts to create an explosion through friction. Required fields are marked *. 3 other similar ships, the USS New Jersey, the USS Wisconsin, and the USS Missouri were built at the same time. The battleship was damaged by suicide planes in both operations. On June 12, 1924, there was an explosion in the USS Mississippi's No. USS Mississippi (BB-41/AG-128), a New Mexico-class battleship, was the third ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the 20th state, and the second battleship to carry the name.Commissioned in 1917, too late to serve in World War I, she served extensively in the Pacific in World War II, for which she earned eight battle stars.She was one of several pre-war battleships that . Sandia investigators asked if two similar explosions on the battleship USS Mississippi could be related to the Iowa explosion. Despite her forty years of service, Mississippi was bound to tragedy, experiencing two major accidents in the same turret, in the same gun, twenty years apart. Note the crew assembled on deck to view the event and the details on the cage masts and gun turrets. Team Mighty. "That fireball went straight to the bottom of the turret. He battled to contain the fire until he passed out from smoke inhalation, waking up later in an emergency dress battle station. Carr was eventually able to climb into the wrecked turret. The accident has been a major influence on my life. In the years since the blast, Carr has surmised what might have happened. Repulse have gone down. It was responsible for designing and building the guns for Navy ships during the first half of the century. Over the protests of local clergymen, who believed that an admiral had no right officiating at funeral rites, Pratt insisted on delivering a tearful and moving eulogy. After overhaul at San Francisco. The 14-inch/50 caliber gun was plagued with technical issues, a major problem considering it was the primary armament on the majority of serving U.S. Navy battleships. The battleship Mississippi, built in 1915, was the last to have an explosion involving her main guns. Second, it is to showcase As the stricken battleship glided into a San Pedro berth, Rear Adm. William V. Pratt boarded the ship and the hospital ship Relief pulled alongside. On 20 November the Mississippi suffered an explosion in a main turret, killing 43 men. US National Archives and Records Administration. This was a wise decision on the part of the captain. At least two sailors who survived the Iowa explosion say that either the rammer or friction contributed to the blast. "He died in my arms.". Abner Read began sinking by the stern and 20 minutes after the attack, she rolled over and sank. It was a foreseeable result of lack of training and the running . 2 aboard the Mississippi resulted from either the presence of a burning ember left . I got this little group of items that belong to someone who served on the USS MISSISSIPPI and thought this would be a good place to show them. he told Penthouse in a January 1990 interview. "The sad thing is I understand what they were doing and why they were doing it," Truitt told Task & Purpose. USS Mississippi, a 32,000 ton New Mexico class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. Forty-eight sailors were killed, and only one of the sailors manning the turret survived. Seaman First Class Fidler was just seventeen years old when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. fully into the war. We just outran several units of the German fleet (submarines). A similar explosion in a turret of the battleship Mississippi in 1920 led the Navy to redesign its turrets to prevent future accidents . He said the owners told him that the yard long was the crew of the ship but I figure that it contains the sailor that was assigned to the ship pictured. The Senate Armed Services Committee has hearings on the explosion planned for today. 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The Navy's initial investigation also found that sailors aboard the Iowa had decided to experiment with using five bags filled with an unauthorized type of gun power for the test shoot when the explosion occurred, an August 1991 Government Accountability Office report found. * November 1943: The battleship USS Mississippi, while shelling Makin Island in World War II, had an explosion in turret No. Each of those visits was special, but a particularly unique one resulted in a perk rarely seen on a military vessel: in 1943 a bathtub was . A tragic reminder the costs of peace time training can be paid by lives as well. She was commissioned in December 1917, and operated in the western Atlantic area . Though the Navy Bureau of Ordnance's findings are 45 years old and involved the Mississippi's 14-inch diameter guns, the mechanisms and equipment in volved are similar to the 16-inch guns used on the Iowa and the Navy's other three battleships now in service, current and retired Navy personnel say. Only two sailors in the turret firing room, J.F. He had instinctively closed the doors to the ammunition hoist and flooded the magazines. The crew members in the upper chambers of the massive gun turret aboard the USS Iowa were killed by the explosion and fire while sailors working several levels below suffocated when the blast sucked all the oxygen from their chambers, Navy officials said Friday. From the Washington Naval Treaty to the end of the Second World War. After repairs, the Mississippi continued its wartime service, and was present in Tokyo Bay for Japan's formal surrender to the U.S. on Sept. 2, 1945. . There's some paper with this group and his hat. MISSISSIPPI. Following repairs, she participated in the capture of Kwajalein in February 1944 and bombarded Japanese-held islands in February and March. It said this conclusion was reached even though test mixtures of black powder and propellant were ignited by friction, "but only negative, although not conclusive, results were had from elaborate and extensive tests with an actual rammer.". "Then approximately two minutes later, I recognized Senior Chief [Reginald] Ziegler, who was the chief in charge of Turret 2, yell into the phones: 'Fire, fire, fire! Right now I worry only about the U.S.S. Looking for information/casualty list from the Nov 29,1943 turret explosion. USS Mississippi, a 32,000 ton New Mexico class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. I think it was a terrible, terrific tragedy that we had. I met my life-long friend Dave Welch, got to experience Fleet Week in NYC, and lived through the turret 2 explosion. . Prewar and during the Pacific War located in the Gilbert Islands. Your email address will not be published. She was commissioned in December 1917, and operated in the western Atlantic area until July 1919, when she transited the Panama Canal to the Pacific. 12:00 a.m. June 9, 1999: For the Record Los Angeles Times Wednesday June 9, 1999 Home Edition Metro Part B Page 3 Metro Desk 2 inches; 37 words Type of Material: Correction Battleship photo--A photo of a naval funeral that accompanied the L.A. Then and Now column in Sundays Times was incorrectly credited. . Maybe I will get to see Hotel Street after all. During the latter operation, on 29 November 1943, Mississippi experienced another turret explosion, which took 43 lives . Thank you. By the way, my uncle's name was Francis Zacharias. He already had policies that named his parents and another friend as beneficiaries. Island Hopping . She was commissioned in December 1917, and operated in the western Atlantic area until July 1919, when she transited the Panama Canal to the Pacific. . Over more than a decade, she operated with the fleet's other battleships, conducting exercises and training operations in the Pacific and in the Caribbean. Joseph Miceli, who headed the technical aspects of the Navy's investigation of the Iowa deaths, issued an interim report that stated: "The most probable cause of the casualty appears at this time to be frictional or compressive forces acting on or within the" bags of powder as they were rammed into the breach. He said: 'No, it's the same thing my dad did.". The exact date and number of casualties were not available. The Senator from Michigan has asked for a Court Martial of leading admirals and in the 14th Naval District. If Germany has declared war on the U.S., they should be bombing Iceland soon.". Mississippi. -1924, the battleship USS Mississippi, the same ship, had an explosion in turret No. "We did not accuse Kendall Truitt of anything in the investigation or the other gent," Kelso said. By The waterspray system was not, if I recall, used to clear the bore between shots, just the compressed air blast. You need to play a total of 20 battles to post in this section. On the eighth salvo, turret two, gun two suffered a rare flare back. The four powder bags inserted into the breech, totaling 470 pounds of explosive powder, caught fire and ignited other bags waiting to be loaded. It was also clear that each 16-inch gun turret required more sailors than the Navy could afford to assign. Sign up for a new account in our community. According to Truitt, Hartwig first told him about the insurance policy two years before the explosion as the Iowa was preparing for a six-month combat deployment to deter Libya from attacking merchant ships. The mighty warship was 624 feet long with a beam of 97.5 feet, and displaced 33,000 tons fully loaded. . It was one of the worst disasters suffered by the Navy during peacetime. During World War II, in November 1943, while bombarding the Makin Islands in the Pacific, it experienced another flareback, when the gas-ejection system was turned off and reloaded too soon. He passed away in 2010. Forty-three sailors died. Francis Zacharias was only 16 when he enlisted and used his older brother's birth certificate without his parent's knowledge. "Interestingly, I was never read my rights, nor did I realize that I was a suspect," Truitt told Task & Purpose. That took place in 1943, when a turret explosion during the shelling of Makin Island, in the . The battleship Mississippi (BB 41) pictured transiting the Panama Canal during the 1920s. Forty-seven coffins were arranged on the field. 2 Turret was cold, meaning it hadn't been fired yet. On August 17, 1942 at 3:30am two submarines USS Argonaut (SM-1) and USS Nautilus (SS-168) surfaced and deployed rubber rafts with outboard . Powered by Invision Community, USS MISSISSIPPI (BB-41) 1924 Turret Explosion, US MILITARIA FORUM - COLLECTORS PRESERVING HISTORY. I recently purchased a yard long photo with ship photo that the seller claimed were bought together at an estate sale in Lake George NY. . Battleship Mississippi (BB-41) Interactive Map. Navy investigators allege that Hartwig, the captain of the gun, had encouraged the rammer that day to push the load that far. Another 2700 sailors observed the services. Although investigators concluded that a faulty gas-ejection system prevented one of the guns breech plugs from closing securely, thereby permitting a jet of flame to spurt back into the powder-filled room when a salvo was fired, the Mississippis skipper, Brotherton, still faced the Navys unforgiving notions of a commanders accountability. Battleship USS Mississippi, cruiser USS Minneapolis, and destroyers USS Shaw and McKean departed Suva, Fiji bound for Pago Pago, Samoa. 2 16-inch gun turret aboard the Iowa (BB-61). 2, the ship was anchored just inside the breakwater. Previously, ships other than aircraft-carriers had to come to a halt in order to lower the aircraft into the water to allow them to take off. 12:00 a.m. June 9, 1999 For the Record Los Angeles Times Wednesday June 9, 1999 Home Edition Metro Part B Page 3 Metro Desk 2 inches; 37 words Type of Material: Correction Battleship photo--A photo of a naval funeral that accompanied the L.A. Then and Now column in Sundays Times was incorrectly credited. Prince of Wales and H.M.S. April 20, 1989. They subsequently wrote lawmakers saying that it was unfair Truitt would receive the money instead of Hartwig's parents. . 1941- Enroute Hvalfordur, Iceland to Portsmouth, Va. At last we are steaming homeward in company with the U.S.S. You need to be a member in order to leave a comment. Or had she been transferred to the Atlantic Fleet? by paul.mercer Fri Apr 04, 2014 9:12 am, Post Facts later emerged that undermined the Navy's first investigation into the explosion, Truitt said. As the rammer was withdrawn, there emerged from the breech a small grayish ball of smoke and flame followed by a large flash. "At 10 minutes to 10 a.m., somebody came over the phones and said, 'We're having a problem, Turret 2, center gun,'" Carr recalled. Mississippi steamed to Australia on a U.S. Fleet good will tour in mid-1925. Then-Navy Secretary John Lehman fell in love with the idea of using battleships to build strike groups, easing the strain on aircraft carriers, according to retired Cmdr. "We all knew each other rather intimately.". In our community if I recall, used to clear the bore between,... There emerged from the breech a small grayish ball of smoke and flame followed by a large flash disasters... 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