Podcast
Battleship New Jersey
Hosted by Battleship New Jersey · EN
The Audio Guide for Battleship New Jersey in Camden, New Jersey.
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1. Introduction
Feb 27, 202100:04:22Tap to summarizeHi, I’m Ryan Szimanski, curator for Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial. Welcome aboard USS New Jersey, the most decorated battleship in U.S. Naval History! New Jersey served her country during four separate commissions from 1943-1991, and was a home to an estimated 55,000 sailors and marines over that time period. She is the most decorated battleship ever built with won nine battle stars during her service in World War Two, four during the Korean War, three in the Vietnam War, and three more during the 1980’s and 1990’s as part of President Reagan’s 600-ship navy. New Jersey is also the longest battleship ever built at 887’7”, with a width of just over 108’ which just allows her to barely make it through the Panama Canal with less than a foot of clearance on either side. She was built just down river at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard where men and women from New Jersey and Philadelphia welded and riveted the ship’s 57,500 tons of steel. She was launched on December 7, 1942, a year to the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor and commissioned on May 23, 1943. Battleship New Jersey is a warship, but not all warships are battleships. Battleships were the large, Big-Gun capital ships of the navy. No other type of ship had bigger guns or heavier armor. Most battleships are comparatively slow but New Jersey is the fastest battleship ever built. Battleships use BB as their designator and New Jersey is BB-62, the 62nd battleship in the US Navy numbering system. Warships are designed in “Classes”. All of the ships in a class are almost identical to each other when built, there are four sister-ships in New Jersey’s class, Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, and Wisconsin. Collectively they are known as the Iowa-class, since that was the first of the 4 authorized. The Iowas were the last class of battleships that the American Navy ever completed and the last in service in the world. Today there are still American warships, but they lack the big guns and thick armor that battleships have, in favor of the more modern missile systems that New Jersey had retrofitted in the 1980’s. While no more battleships are in active service there are 9 battleships left in the world which operate as museums. Mikasa is in Japan, Texas, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Alabama, and New Jersey are all in their home states, and Iowa is in California, Missouri is in Hawaii, and Wisconsin is in Virgina. There are also many other museum warships around the country and world. If you enjoy your tour today be sure to look them up when you plan your next trip. Welcome aboard the world's greatest battleship, the most decorated, fastest, or longest battleship ever built. Now before we go any further here are some things you should know: Walk, don’t run as you move through the ship and Watch your head and feet for obstructions along the way. The ship was designed for a crew of professional sailors and has many unexpected obstacles. You may take photographs and videos of anything you’d like, but don’t walk and photograph at the same time. There are a lot of things to bump into here. Please use the handrails on the ladders. Many people find it safer and easier to face the ladders as they go down them. It is safer for kids to climb the ladders themselves than to have you carry them. Please let them climb the ladders themselves. The ship is a memorial to our armed forces and also a nationally significant artifact. In a normal museum you would have to look at artifacts like this inside glass cases but here you can interact with, touch, and go inside the artifact. Please be respectful so future generations can continue to experience the world’s greatest battleship. And most importantly have fun, ask questions, and learn what it was like to live on board a US Navy warship in the 20th century.
Transcribe →2. Turret One
Feb 27, 202100:03:22Tap to summarizeIn front of you is turret number 1. It houses three 16-inch/50cal guns. No larger gun was ever put to sea by the US Navy and they were just as effective in the Persian Gulf as they were nearly 50 years earlier during World War II. The turret is one of the most heavily armored parts of the ship. The top is made of 7.25 inches of steel, the sides, nine and a half inches; the back, twelve, and the front, seventeen inches on top of another 2.5in backer plate with concrete sandwiched in between. All sitting on top of an armored barbette up to 17.3” thick. Each complete turret weighs more than 2,200 tons, the size of an entire World War Two Destroyer, and has five different levels that all rotate as one. Up to 80 men manned the turret, and thirty of them worked inside the top gunhouse. At every level a different task was carried out to prepare the gun for firing. The lowest level had the powder magazines, deep inside the ship. Above that two stories of shell decks held hundreds of projectiles. Another level had all of the machinery for rotating the turret and elevating its barrels. There were two main kinds of projectiles fired. The 1900lb high capacity ones were for unarmored targets, primarily shore bombardment while the heavier 2700 pound armor piercing shells were for sinking other battleships. Their 23-mile range was accurate within fifty feet. Up to six 110lb powder bags were needed for each shot and a well drilled crew could fire two rounds per barrel per minute. Inside the turret you are standing in the turret officer’s booth. Watch your head for the periscopes but feel free to look out of them. Look for the open doors that lead into the gun pits. Here you can see where the projectile was loaded into the breach of each of the guns. In the center compartment, a projectile is positioned ready for loading. Each projectile is 16 inches in diameter, while barrels are 50 times 16” long meaning they are 50 calibers long, 800 inches, over 66 feet which is where the guns get their name. 16”/50caliber. Under normal conditions, the firing solution is determined from a plotting room deep within the ship’s armored citadel. However, many redundancies have been put in place so if that is not possible, a firing solution can be computed using the comparatively small electromechanical analog computer, called the Mark 3 Rangekeeper, and the small fire control switchboard in the 16” gun house. The computed firing solution can then be directed to any of the other guns in any of the turrets. You can find that rangekeeper just to the left of the center passageway. If you would like to see more of one of the Gun Turrets, please inquire with any staff member about our interactive Turret II Experience.
Transcribe →3. Forecastle
Feb 27, 202100:03:01Tap to summarizeHere we are at the most forward part of the ship: the forecastle. Here's a quick reference on ship terms: forward is towards the front of the ship or bow; aft is towards the back or stern. When you’re facing forward, the left side is port, and the right, starboard. You are standing on a deck, not a floor. The walls are called bulkheads, and the ceilings are overheads. All the way at the bow you can see an unfamiliar flag on a staff. That is the naval jack. A jack is flown from the bow of any naval ship while in port. Between you and the naval jack at the forward end of the ship, look for the tall gray antenna. It’s the discone cage antenna, used for ship to ship communications. One of New Jersey’s bells is hanging on the forward face of the antenna. Aft of the antenna, you can see the drum shaped windlasses and capstans and the wheels that control them. They raise and lower the heavy anchors in and out of the water and adjust the mooring lines. It can be hard to see the anchors hanging off the side of the ship from here, but look for them when you leave today. Each one of those anchors weighs 30,000 lbs and has over 1,000 ft of chain. Just one of those links weighs over 120 lbs! Below the gun barrels is a low steel wall called a breakwater. That wall helps reduce the force of waves coming over the bow during heavy weather. Look up above you at the very top of the ship’s superstructure. Just below the black mast you’ll see the RangeFinder – it’s shaped like a squat cross with short arms. This equipment uses radar and optics to direct the 16-inch gun turrets. Now take a look at the wood deck you’re standing on. It is mostly made of the tropical hardwood, teak. Teak doesn’t splinter or rot easily, and it’s not as slippery as the steel it is covering when wet. It also helps insulate the berthing compartments below where most of the crew lives. Imagine the south pacifc sun beating off a bare steel deck. In the World War II navy, many ships including battleships had a wooden decks but this has been phased out with the changes in modern ship designs.Sailors would scrub this wood with a stone that was the same size and shape as a bible, thus the duty came to be known as holy stoning. The museum is in the process of replacing the entire deck with new teak. It’s a multi-million dollar project we are funding through grants and donations.
Transcribe →4. Enlisted Berthing
Feb 27, 202100:03:52Tap to summarizeThe most forward compartment in this area is the Anchor Windlass Room. This is the equipment that moves the anchor up and down. Each anchor weighs 30,000 lbs and has 187 fathoms of chain, or 1,122 feet. Several decks under this room, the chain is piled in the Chain Locker. Imagine this berthing compartment filled with off-duty sailors. These two rooms housed nearly 120 total sailors. Each sailor had one bunk and one locker as their only personal space. The bunks are enclosed on three sides, with a little curtain to close them in completely. Remind you of anything? We call them coffin racks for a reason. These bunks may seem small but they’re almost luxurious compared to the enlisted berthing or racks of earlier eras. Before 1982 the racks were made of pipe frames suspended from the overhead by chains and didn’t have storage underneath. In World War II the crew was around 2,800 men, but in the 1980’s it shrank to roughly 1600. You’ll pass through many berthing spaces on your visit today, but there are many more elsewhere. If you’re wondering about spaces behind locked doors or roped off passageways, oftentimes, the answer is more beds like these. The spaces currently used as exhibit spaces used to be berthing spaces too. Sailors usually berthed with other sailors in the same division, or other men who did similar jobs to them. This space was used by the Boatswains. Boatswains were in charge of the anchors and lines around the ship. For many men that meant that they worked very close to where they slept. You might notice that there aren’t separate berthing spaces for women on board. Women were able to serve on board navy ships by the end of New Jersey’s career but this ship was never modified with separate facilities for female sailors. While there were no designed spaces for women on board, in the first years of this ship’s history, the navy was segregated and Black sailors, as well as other non-white sailors, were relegated to certain jobs and thus their living spaces were separated from the white sailors. For example, the black sailors who worked in the ship’s galley in World War II stayed in the berthing compartment directly underneath this one. By the late 1940’s this practice had been ended and Black sailors served in all capacities on this ship, including as Battleship New Jersey’s final admiral, Admiral J. Paul Reason. Look for some of the art that the boatswains left around the space. As you walk around the museum today you’ll see sailor art in many forms. Some of it will be like this and be large fairly professional art. Some of it will be simpler or informational about the space. All of the sailor art you see today likely dates to the end of the ship’s career when it was permitted if an officer approved the design. Feel free to try out one of the bunks to get an idea of how the sailors slept while on board. Don’t forget, the ship was always moving! While a ship of this size didn’t rock too much in normal conditions, the front of the ship where we are now moved the most. Do you think you’d get sea sick on board? You could experience a night aboard the Battleship and sleep in similar bunks with our overnight Encampment Program.
Transcribe →5. Signing Wall
Feb 27, 202100:03:33Tap to summarizeThese walls are covered in signatures of former USS New Jersey crew members of this ship. Around 55,000 people served on board over the years and the museum hosts many of them every year when they come back to visit their ship. Here you will see signatures from some of the ship’s captain’s, officers, and enlisted men. At least one pair of signatures are from a father and son who served on board at different times. Most are the men who served on board but at least one female shipyard worker who helped build the ship has signed the wall. About a third of the workers at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard where the ship was built were women, including many welders. Most signatures include the name, rank or rating, division, and years they were on board. Can you find signatures from all four of the ship’s commissioning periods? Some signatures are from World War II sailors and marines. The ship’s first commission lasted from 1943 until 1948. These men may have been part of the ship’s crew, or on the staff of some of the many Admirals who commanded fleets from New Jersey’s flag bridge like William Halsey or Raymond Spruance. New Jersey was the flagship of 5th fleet during operation hailstone, the raid on truk lagoon and the only time Iowa-class battleships fired their guns on enemy warships. New Jersey was also the flagship of the 3rd fleet during the battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle ever fought. Later the crew endured relentless kamikaze attacks of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and took part in the occupation of Japan. Some signatures are from Korean War era commission when New Jersey was active from 1950-1957. Her sailors and marines did two tours of duty off the Korean Peninsula as well as countless training cruises, often including hundreds of Naval Academy midshipmen or naval reservists, some of whom have also returned to sign the wall. The Korean War was also the time when New Jersey hosted Admiral JJ Jocko Clark who commanded 7th fleet. Clark was a pioneer of naval aviation and the navy’s first Native American admiral. Other signatures are from the year the ship spent off the coast of Vietnam. She fired more rounds in that deployment than she had in World War II and Korea combined. When the ship was decommissioned in 1969, there were no battleships left in the world and it was believed that there never would be again. Captain Penniston, whose signature is on the wall said in his decommissioning speech, “my last order to you --- Battleship NEW JERSEY --- is rest well, yet sleep lightly, and hear the call, if again sounded, to provide 'Firepower for Freedom.” The Big J wasn’t done yet, many of the signatures are from the ship’s longest commissioned period, from 1982-1991. As part of President Reagan’s 600 ship Navy New Jersey was rearmed with modern electronics and missiles, made the centerpiece of her own battlegroup, and projected American military might all over the world and helped end the Cold War. She operated in hotspots from the Sea of Oshkosh, the coast of South America, the Persian Gulf, and off the coast of Lebanon where she lost a sailor in the Beirut barracks bombing.
Transcribe →6. Wardroom
Feb 27, 202100:02:12Tap to summarizeOfficers ate their meals here in the Wardroom, except for the Captain who ate in his cabin. The Executive Officer, or XO, presided over meal time from the head table at the other end of the room. The XO’s cabin is the compartment you first walked through when coming up the ladder, on the forward side of the room with the blue carpet. Did you notice that his berthing space was much nicer than where the enlisted sailors slept? The XO is in charge of the ship’s crew, both doling out punishment as needed and crew morale as well. Notice that there are other staterooms for officers near the Wardroom. These were senior officers such as the medical officer and the engineering officer. What makes someone an officer? Officers have some sort of formal education before coming into the navy. This might be the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, or an ROTC program at a university, or Officer Candidate School after college graduation. Regardless of how precisely they become an officer, they are responsible for the enlisted sailors and direct the daily affairs on board the ship. During formal meals everyone sat down at the same time. Officers stood by their chairs waiting for the signal from the Executive Officer, who is second in command of the ship. Meals were served on china and silver, with linen tablecloths. While the meals were not so different from what the enlisted sailors ate, the officers paid for their own meals while on board. This tradition dates back to before there was refrigeration on ships and the food quality was poor. Officers wanted a higher quality of food so they paid for their own and the tradition continues today. Sometimes movies were shown here after dinner. Above that table in the front is a movie screen that pulls down. On one wall, you’ll see a large blue flag. That flag was flown behind President Ronald Reagan when the ship was recommissioned for the final time in 1982. This was the only time that a battleship was recommissioned by a sitting president. The smaller pennant beneath it is called a commissioning pennant and was flown that day as well.
Transcribe →7. Admiral’s Cabin
Feb 27, 202100:03:19Tap to summarizeThis is the Admiral’s Cabin as installed on the ship in the late 1980’s. As originally designed, the Admiral’s cabin was a deck above you, but those spaces were repurposed in 1982 as no admiral was expected to fly their flag on the battleship.When Admiral J. Paul Reason came aboard to direct a battle group across the Pacific and into the Persian Gulf, these guest quarters were converted into the space you see today. Admiral Reason was the last admiral to break his flag on board the battleship and he is most well known as the first Black 4 star admiral in the United States Navy. The most famous admiral New Jersey had aboard was Admiral William F. Halsey during World War II. From this ship he commanded the carriers, fast battleships, and escort ships of Third Fleet during many engagements, including, arguably the largest naval battle in the history of the world, Leyte Gulf. Halsey was popular among the press and enlisted sailors however, alongside Halsey’s early war successes, he made controversial decisions as Third Fleet commander that resulted in the needless deaths of men under his command; most famously sailing through Typhoon Cobra which caused a great deal of damage to both ships and aircraft as well as the complete loss of three destroyers and hundreds of their crew. While a controversial figure, for his performance during the war the Navy made Halsey a 5 star, or fleet, admiral. That is the highest rank attainable in the Navy and has only awarded 4 times. Halsey and Reason were not the only admirals on board this ship. World War II also brought Admiral Spruance on board. Spruance was in command of fifth fleet from Battleship New Jersey during Operation Hailstone, the only time that New Jersey ever fired her main guns at an enemy warship. While this is what the battleship was built for, she spent the majority of her career doing shore bombardment, not fighting other ships. During the end of the Korean War, Admiral JJ Clark commanded 7th fleet from New Jersey and he flew from the battleship to P'anmunjŏm in 1953 for the signing of the armistice. The adjoining, symmetrical space is a Captain’s Cabin’s, known as the “In-Port” Cabin because the captain only slept here when the ship was in port. When the ship was at sea, the captain slept close to the bridge in his at sea cabin, which you can see on the RED route. This room contains the ship’s Silver Service. Originally created for the first Battleship New Jersey, BB-16, this is only a portion of the ship’s silver, the rest can be found at Drumthwacket, the governor’s mansion in Princeton, New Jersey. The first New Jersey was commissioned in 1906, joined the Great White Fleet in their around-the-world cruise, and was then deliberately sunk in 1923 to test the capabilities of aircraft bombs against battleships. There is a third USS New Jersey, a submarine, SSN 796.
Transcribe →8. Galley/Mess Decks/Chapel/Geedunk/Scullery / Store
Feb 27, 202100:02:49Tap to summarizeThis is the galley where food was prepared and served to enlisted personnel. They got their tray, some flatware, and lined up to be served cafeteria-style. Back when New Jersey was in service, there was a very long line here at meal times, often stretching up onto the main deck. Over the years, the galley and mess decks have changed. Originally, both sides of the line served the same food, but by the 1980s, one side permanently served fast-food while the other served the food of the day like meatloaf and steamed vegetables. The mess deck tables once were able to be moved out of the way to use the space for other things, occasionally even more berthing, but now you can see that tables are welded to the deck. During the Vietnam War, the Commanding Officer was Captain J. Edward Snyder, Jr.. Snyder looked out for the welfare of his crew – even the food they ate. Captain Snyder warned the commissary officer that he would be sampling one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner every week, unannounced, and it had better be good! Snyder would also be seen in crew’s mess once a week to celebrate that week’s birthdays with the crew. The library on the aft end of the mess decks was managed by the ship’s Chaplains, here you will also find their offices. The chaplain’s were in charge of not just religious services but crew morale as a whole and thus also controlled the recreational components of the ship’s television studio and the library. Today, this is still a functioning lending library. If you would like to borrow a book, you must be a museum member, ask a staff member for more details. On the aft end of these spaces you’ll find the ship’s store. While the ship was in service, as well as today, sailors could buy hats, trinkets to send home, and more in this space. In addition to this store all of our products are available on our website. Just forward of the ship’s store, you’ll find the Geedunk. This is where sailors could get ice cream, potato chips, soda, and other snacks. It’s the Navy’s name for a snack bar aboard ship but the snacks that you get at the geedunk can also be called geedunk. It was usually open in the evening after supper when New Jersey was in service, and it was a popular place. Having this amenity on board helped with crew morale, this was essential to keeping sailors happy while they were away from their families for months at a time. By the end of the ship’s career, the United States had switched to an all volunteer military and small things like the geedunk and the improvements in the berthing compartments made the navy more tolerable for these volunteers.
Transcribe →9. Helicopter
Feb 27, 202100:02:40Tap to summarizeIn the early 1980’s, a sea sprite helicopter was placed aboard New Jersey. Its functions were multi-purpose. The Sea Sprite carried sonar buoys that could be used to detect submarines. It also transported goods to and from the ship like the mail. And when New Jersey was part of a peacekeeping force in Beirut, Lebanon, the Sea Sprite gathered intelligence information. The Sea Sprite typically had a crew of 3, a cruising speed of 150 mph, and a maximum range of just over 400 miles. An earlier helicopter on this ship was nicknamed the “Jersey Bounce.” It was a Sikorsky HO3S-1 Dragonfly that was placed onboard during the Korean War. It was used to transport passengers to and from the ship, as well as performing search and rescue missions. New Jersey was not assigned any helicopters during the Vietnam War, but numerous helicopters landed on her deck during that time. Before there were helicopters onboard, the New Jersey carried Kingfisher and Seahawk seaplanes which were scout planes catapulted from the ship. Unlike an aircraft carrier which is designed to carry many planes, New Jersey does not have a hangar for the craft to be stored, nor enough space for planes to be able to take off on their own. They landed in the water and were craned aboard. Their primary mission was to assist the 16in gunners in spotting where their shells were landing. Both the catapults and the crane were removed from the ship when helicopters became the battleship’s primary aviation tool. During the Vietnam War, the battleship began using drones for the first time. Called SNOOPY, these drones would be stored on board the smaller ships that traveled with New Jersey but commanded from the battleship. By the 1980s, New Jersey’s Pioneer remotely piloted vehicles could take off and land on board the battleship. Both these drones operated similarly to the earlier aircraft on board and were used to scout locations for shore bombardment and to see where shells were landing to improve the accuracy of the guns. These unmanned aircraft were a safer alternative to the manned aircraft because they did not require putting a pilot in harm’s way to do this important work. Pardon the mess as we replace worn out teak with new material. We are in the middle of redecking the entire ship, roughly 50,000 square feet. This process will take years and cost an estimated $5million. Some of the worst rotting was here at the fantail.
Transcribe →10. World War II Anti-Aircraft
Feb 27, 202100:02:36Tap to summarizeThere are many different types of guns in this section of the ship. The single-barreled 20mm, and 4 barreled 40mm, and the larger 2 barreled 5in gun were all part of the ship’s Anti-Aircraft defense as built during World War II. The two smaller types of guns were both removed as harder to shoot down jet aircraft became prevalent. The largest of these guns, the 5in guns, were also capable of shore bombardment and ship-to-ship combat in addition to being the first line of defense against incoming aircraft. These guns were capable of firing a 54lb projectile up to 10 miles and were considered to be the best medium caliber gun used by any navy in World War II. The ship was built with 10 mounts but 4 were removed in the 1980s to accomodate more modern weapons. The next largest gun in this group is the 40mm Bofor Guns. This ship had 20 of these mounts at its peak. These guns could fire up to 160 times a minute under ideal conditions and the two lb projectile could fire up to 6 and a half miles. This one was removed from the ship in 1967 and was displayed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard for years until the ship got it back for restoration in 2018. The smallest of these guns is the 20mm Oerlikon and was designed to combat the planes that made it through the defenses of the larger guns in the group. For a period during World War II, this gun was credited with an estimated 32% of all Japanese aircraft shot down. However, this gun proved ineffective against late-war Kamikaze planes and was phased out of use. At its largest compliment, the ship had 57 of these guns; that number decreased to 32 during the Korean War deployment and those were removed by 1952. These guns could fire up to 320 rounds per minute and had a range of 2 and half miles. Also in this area is the Captain’s Gig. While it looks like a lifeboat, this craft would have been used to transport the captain from the ship to shore or to other ships. Elsewhere on the ship are 4 other boats, some of which would be used to transport the crew in the same manor. The ship’s size kept it from being able to dock in every port and would often have to ferry crew to shore using the small boats like this one. Inflatable life rafts were used if the crew had to abandon ship.
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