The Battleship Texas
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Another Ship!
Grandpa must really like to crawl around old ships.
This battleship is one hundred years old. They started to build it in 1911. It was finished in 1914 just in time for WW I. These big ships were built around 10 big canons. There are four in the front, two in the middle and 4 in the back of the boat.
These are the four on the back of the ship. Those barrels shoot a 14" diameter shell that weighs 1,500 lb. They keep these shells in the bottom of the ship under the guns.
We are now 4 decks below the gun in the ammunition magazine. This shell is ready to be pulled up 4 decks through this tube to the gun turret by a cable winch.
You also needed a lot of gunpowder to propel this shell. From a fireproof room (the Powder magazine) the sailors that were called Powder Monkeys would pass 100 pound bags of powder through a fireproof door one at a time. It works like the mail box at the post office. These bags of powder went up another tube four decks to the gun turret.
This is inside the front gun turret and we are looking at the back of one of the 14" big guns. To fire this gun the 1,500 lb shell comes up from down below on a winch cable. They put it on this brass slide and push it into the back of the gun with the brass ram rod you see on the slide. Then they pass up four bags of powder that weigh 100 pounds each and push them into the gun.
Then they close the breach with this massive bolt and fire.
What a BANG! Those shells would go about 12 miles and make a very big hole in whatever they hit.
Grandma and Grandpa went on a special tour of the Texas. We went down deep inside the ship into many places where you normally don't get to go. In one area near the bow (front) I could look through a floor hatch and see the very bottom of the ship.
Everyone had to wear a hard hat and bring a flashlight. Grandpa brought two (just in case) The pictures look bright because of the camera flash but the areas were often very dimly lit.
We climbed down through hatchways and stairs.
This is one of the main walk ways from the bow to the stern below the waterline.
I'm at the bottom of the stairs looking at someone climbing down. This is an "air tight" staircase that could be sealed off at the top or bottom. Down these stairs was a very important part of the ship. The boiler room. This was the only escape route for the boiler room sailors.
During a battle the boilers would be going full blast this room would get very hot. It would get over 100 degrees and the sailors would be soaked in sweat. They hoped that everything was going ok in the battle because if the ship was hit and started to sink or burn there was very little chance that they would be able to get out of the boiler room alive.
All of the hatches (doors) are shut during battle.
These are some of the old stairs we went up and down.
There are a LOT of electrical wires and pipes going every which way.
The Texas did not have automatic switches. Each circuit was opened or closed by hand.
1,800 men were onboard the Texas so there were bunks like this placed every where they could find some space. You had a small locker somewhere near your bunk to keep all your stuff.
This small area is the Bridge where the Captain would direct the ship in battle. There was an armored bridge below this one but you couldn't see very well so it was not used very often. One sailor called the Helmsman would steer the ship with the brass wheel. Another sailor would be stationed at the telegraph on the right side of the wheel. The only sailor to die on the Texas was standing at the wheel when a German shore battery fired a shell that hit just underneath where he was standing. In the same battle shell hit and went through several decks and landed in the Chief Petty Officers bunk but did not explode.....Whew.....!!!!
Three 5" guns pointed out each side of the Texas.
The Texas also had plenty of smaller guns too.
The Texas was very old style battleship. It was so old that it was scheduled to be scrapped in 1940. The start of WWII changed those plans. The US needed every ship that they could get. The Texas was old but it still had big guns, so off to war it went. It served in many areas. It fired shells at Normandy beach on D-day trying to destroy the German heavy shore gun batteries. It also fired at Iwo Jima, and Okinawa during the marine landings there
Read more about the Texas
The big Texas 14" guns are aimed right towards a very tall monument. What is that monument and why is it so important to the people of Texas?
Hint....it has something to do with the Alamo.
Love Grandpa & Grandma
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