The Wisconsin

Norfolk, Virginia, N35 51 W76 18
November 1. Today we stuck with the plan. Libby and I went to the Nautica Museum, and then I continued to tour the battleship Wisconsin. We judged both a bit less than expected.

I think Libby and I seem too old for modern museums and modern presentation methods. We seem them as dumbed-down and sterile. Further, displays that use electronic wizardry need maintenance. Nearly 1/3 of the such displays in the museum were out of order. Notwithstanding the above, se saw some high points. I liked the liquid vortex generator and I liked the liquid filled globe that demonstrated the coriolis effect in wind patterns. We also got to pet a shark with our bare hands. Never did that before.

The USS Wisconsin was the last and the most modern battleship built by the USA. She’s magnificent and she’s huge. No person could help being awed in her presence. She even has 4 acres of teak decks that are in freshly scrubbed condition. My only complaint with my tour is that visitors are only allowed to walk above decks. None of the interior compartments can be viewed. Too bad.

When I toured the USS Texas last year I crawled around in almost every compartment below decks. I consider myself an old steam power plant man and I loved puzzling out how the Texas’ mechanical, thermal, electrical, command and control systems worked just by staring at them. I love the challenge of staring at a piece of equipment to trying to understand its engineering function.

On the Wisconsin I had to imagine instead what it would feel like standing on the foredeck as she accelerated to 33 knots. I avoided imagining what it would feel like in the same spot when she fired her 16 inch guns because that feeling would be very unpleasant.

Some of the more modern touches on the deck included Harpoon ship-to-ship missile launchers and Tomahawk ship-to-shore missile launchers. I knew about such missiles before and I understand their basic construction. Before today I never appreciated that their on-deck launchers must be shielded by a couple of inches of armor to prevent them from being damaged by enemy fire. As a matter of fact, almost everything on the Wisconsin for every purpose gets protected by a couple of inches of armor. That makes a lot of armor.

 


Of course the Wisconsin suffers from the ultimate irony in that her perfection of the battleship weapon art came 4 years after Pearl Harbor rendered battleships moot. She was designed to meet and beat the Japanese Yamato and the German Bismarck but neither she nor her sister ships ever fought such a battle. She lends credence to the criticism that our military designs for winning the last war, not the pending war.