I'm honestly just here to see how small a space Ryan can fit in

ANSWER: Yes, as far as we know, the 16in Gun Turrets can rotate. (but the electrical system probably lacks to power to energize the motors to do so) No weld marks have been found to indicate otherwise.

Another shoutout to Libby who not only has to squeeze into the small spaces with Ryan but also squeeze into the spaces with Camera equipment! Respect

"...today we are hunting for those weld marks." *revs angle grinder*

But but but.... The movie Battleship shows us that we can still fight against alien invaders with Museum ships anytime we need too! 😂

The best videos are the “let’s see where this door goes” or “let’s see the weird places we can make Ryan squeeze into”. Absolutely fantastic!

Back in 06 a group of us led by Marty, raised the guns on turret 1 and 2 by hand. We discussed if it were possible to activate the machinery, but it would have involved reconnecting the power, and it was doubtful shore power would have been sufficient. Not only that but I bet it would have caused a big concern from the Navy LOL

I love the nuts and bolts videos like this. It’s one thing to read about, study, and look at pictures of the ships. But an entirely different thing to actually see inner workings.

Since the bearing rollers are all packed in grease, I would expect any welding to be done in the gearset someplace. If I were going to try to disable a turret I'd probably do it in a place that was fairly easy to access, and not covered in potentially flammable grease. There must be a gearbox somewhere where the motors / drive gear interfaces with the turret and that would be where I would look. Alternatively I suppose some simple bar stock welded across a gap would do the job, though I'd imagine that would be even more obvious. Man, wouldn't it be cool to move those things, just to prove someone was wrong? Super cool stuff.

Im so glad this showed up in my recommended. My great grandfather was actually in the shipyard helping put in the 16 inch turrets on the USS New Jersey and im glad that something he helped put together is still around.

Had to comment on this one after seeing the man again go into the very fibers of the ship to show things that few have seen. Thank you sir, your dedication to your work is inspiring and you are sharing a wealth of knowledge.

Truly fantastic video! I half expected the video to be short: "Do the 16in Gun Turrets Still Rotate?" "No." end of video. Seriously, I am not surprised, but always amazed at how complex these 80 yr old vessels are.

Article: The turrets were welded so they can't traverse. Ryan: I'm standing next to Turret 2's gunhouse with 500 volunteers, a really big pulley, and a lot of rope. .Let's see if we can turn this thing and scare the crap out of Philly.

I've always loved the story that the radio telescope at Jodrel Bank uses hydraulic motors from Revenge class battleships because they could point things so accurately.

The grease stops the rubber rotting it acts like a feed for the rubber :)

That's pretty amazing to see the "big dumb metal" parts that let something that huge operate. Yeah seeing all the awesome computers and targeting systems, control panels, engines, etc is also extremely fascinating, but it's cool to see those parts where it's just a giant sturdy piece of metal that's capable of both supporting an astronomical amount of weight but also allow it to move with the precision required to hit a target 20+ miles away.

Half of Camden is hoping you find those welds; the other half is afraid you´ll hold Camden hostage if you should succeed.

3:20 Yes, the hold down clips *are* intended to hold the weight of the turret (proven by Mike Getscher and Ed Najjarine). That's not to say they would do so for long (Eg. Prinz Eugen's retaining clips have slowly failed under the test of time and salt water) or that they 100% *will* it's not been tested, nor do we have a capsized Iowa class that retained its turrets in place to answer that Question. Either way, the clips on most ships, tend to be engineered to be able to hold the weight of the whole turret basket. The few exceptions being Yamato's failed potentially due to the concussive damage she took before capsizing. Tirpitz turret clips were stretched during the damage from Operation Source. #4 Dora was pushed over, off their rollers, breaking the lips on the upper sets of rollers, and many of the planetary gear's teeth were partially flattened or broken off upon crashing through the worm drive and against other local structures, so despite the other gears and rotation equipment either being repaired, or replaced. Dora was never fully operational again according to Alfred Eichler (Chief Engineer aboard Tirpitz) and her log books (Tomas Gallagher's research) 3:48 Tomas Gallagher did find evidence in Tirpitz's notes and from first hand accounts, Bismarck would have had retaining clips. Whether they were as strong, or designed like Tirpitz's to aid in her water tightness, after the experiences of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau taking on hundreds of tons of water at top speeds, is not clear, there is *very* little evidence, and original drawings of Bismarck are as rare as rocking horse poop. Plus, unlike Gallagher, we no longer have access to such fantastic resources like Captain Hans Meyer. Unlike Iowa, who has dozens of old drawings archived, and even her turrets operating manual has the hold down clips labelled. The clips aren't designed to withstand the magazine brewing, but engineering them for the weight of the turret, was the most commonly picked desideratum across various national naval engineering schools. There's just as many examples of turrets falling out of place, as there are of turrets remaining fastened during a capsize, and for varying turret weights, all to way up to the largest Battleship turrets. On another note... She looks as well kept as a sterile clean room for pharmaceutical packaging xD

I love these videos of rarely seen, virtually inaccessible and impossible for public access places on the ship. They add tremendously to my appreciation of the technology and what WWII sailors had to do to perform their duties. Keep up the good work!

My father served on this great ship in WW 2 he is also on the taps roll call

I agree with hal james: thank you for doing this. My supposition is that the plunger pin you showed us may have some shock absorber value but I think it's true purpose is to possibly open an electrical circuit or close one to send an interrupt signal. Either way, the resulting function would be to stop the motor(s) driving the rotation in the event the human in the loop wasn't paying attention.

Not being claustrophobic is definitely a requirement in your job Ryan. Wow, some good shot of the inner workings of the turrets.

Ryan needs to discuss the USS Iowa rotating turret #3.

The engineering of these machines astonishes me. All pre-computer, pre-calculator!

I really appreciate the energy and enthusiasm you put into making these videos - thanks and keep up the great work 👍

Where to start? All my life I've been fascinated by big gun warships, ever since I read Ludovic Kennedy's book "Pursuit, the sinking of the Bismark" when I was about 14. Now thanks to Ryan and You Tube I am getting the answers to all the questions I've had over the years about these magnificent vessels. Every single video, without fail, is fascinating and a real pleasure to watch. Thank you so much.

This is an absolut amazing view in a area normal visiters would never discouver. Many thanks for showing us this very rar details of a Turret we would never know without you. Best regards from Germany.

I've been inside several tanks on display outside armories and VFW halls over the years and can tell you that the manual traverse mechanisms have still been operable in all of them. Elevation was not possible in any of the vehicles I've been in, because there's usually a steel bar welded to the breach, keeping the gun in place.

We watch this channel to see what dingy crevice of the New Jersey he's wedged himself into this time. :+)

This vid is awesome! More like this please! Holy Christ that looks like a tight squeeze to get through to get into that pitch black space.

My two brothers and I toured the USS Alabama last fall. It was truly amazing how much space for the crew, as well as the total firepower these battleships had.

How many museum curator jobs have the requirement that you cannot be claustrophobic? Really admire this guy’s commitment. I was feeling claustrophobic just watching this.

Great to see this question finally answered since nobody involved with the museum has been able to show those rollers in the past 20 years. Like so many other stories, the “turret is welded so it won’t turn” appears to be another myth.

Thanks for these, Ryan, but please be careful with confined space entry. After decades, there is always a strong possibility of toxic or noxious gases.

These videos are great. I have always been a battleship fan and these videos have given so much more information you will ever see in books and other films and videos.

Ryan and team, well done and very interesting. Thanks for climbing through that tiny hole to film the video.

Need to come see the New Jersey, I've seen the Missouri in pearl harbor and it was amazing, almost got lost wandering around below decks.

These are great how to video's from a bygone era. Ryan deserves a lot of credit for finding new ways to make lemonade during this pandemic challenged time plus Baraseal is right; How small can he go?

Thank you for your time and effort!!!

There is a sponsorship opportunity here for a laundry detergent manufacturer.

The turret retainers are one of those things where you’d definitely have bigger problems than the turrets falling out of the ship if they were able to.

Ryan, you need to be issued with overalls but keep up the great work and vids. It's really interesting to look at the nooks and crannies of a battleship 👍

Holy crap, that first shot .... nope, nope, nope, never going in that space LOL Hats off, sir!

This was great. Really informative. I’d love to see more of the machinery for how the turrets are rotated

Would love to see the mechanisms that do the rotating of the turret.

thank you for all you do. I truly apricate all of your hard work and dedication.

I know for a fact at least three of Massachusetts' main guns were still capable of being elevated as of 45 some odd years ago. When I visited the ship with my dad in my pre-teens they had installed wooden steps on deck you could walk up and look down the bore, the barrel was back lit from the breech so you could see the rifling. I seem to recall it was turret #1, the barrels of that turret were horizontal at the time and all main guns are elevated now. I remember my dad bemoaning the possibility of rainwater getting inside and running down into the bilge and potential for subsequent corrosion.

I like this short but compact format of video.

Greasing those roller bearings looks like a job for the lowest ranked gunnery mate.

As this channel has gotten more popular he's getting quite good at presenting

i love watching these videos and just going outside and seeing bb-62 in front of my eyes

Every time I go up and down 95 or cross the river on 676 I always look to see if the turrets have moved since last time I passed by the ship

Thank you for the info. Love the videos you provide! Yes I like this type videos.

The Zerk fittings all have caps on them, I don't even have those on a new warship.

AllI can say is, THANK YOU! History worth saving!

This sort of thing is why museum ships are so important. We can pour over plans all we like, but people can never climb around the gubbings once the ship is gone. I know USS New Jersey has been out of commission for a relatively short time, but the rollers look in great condition with plenty of grease. I imagine the reason the turrets don't turn is drive machinery related, ie the motors are either disconnected, out of service or removed. And I can imagine there would be a few worried faces if New Jersey just started swinging her turrets around. I'm sure being a museum ship isn't the most exciting thing for her given her career, but she is a mature girl now and so has to behave.

Folks watching this video may want to checkout the video turret #3 of the USS Iowa rotating in June 2023.

Ryan you should look at the other turrets to see if they were welded. These kind of videos fascinate me great job

For anyone interested, Ryan did eventually "solve" the riddle of why _U S S New Jersey_ can not rotate her turrets (hint : it is as simple as you might guess). To see a 16 inch turret rotating go to _U S S Iowa_ Museum and Memorial. 😊

Just chillin with a blunt and notice the battleship guns swinging in your direction 😮

"And yet it moves" -Galileo, and Ryan Symanski

Is there a turret lock to stop the turret from moving like in high seas I know on the tank M1A1 there is a turret lock for when it's being transported

I really enjoy watching your videos , one of my favorite uncles’ was a plank owner serving aboard “Battleship X”. He’s been gone many years now and I regret my lack of interest when I was younger as i’m sure he had many stories to tell. I remember as a child my father telling how the 5 inch turret his brother was in took a hit during one of the battles and the shell was a dud. Incidentally, my dad also served in the US Navy aboard a Minesweeper and took part in the Normandy invasion sweeping mines for the Battleships, USS Texas, and USS Arkansas, enabling them to take up fire support positions for the landings at Omaha beach.

😵 AHH, the claustrophobia is taking over just watching this. For over 40 years I have been crawling inside of aircraft structures to inspect or repair things. Several years ago I started developing an aversion to small places to wedge and lodge my large mammal body. Watching some of the places you have visited on the ship in order to film has been impressive. At least some of the structures I have crawled into, I could cut or chew my way out LOL. Thank you for this really great collection of archival work friends.These videos really reveal a lot about the people who had to defend our way of life by operating and maintaining these ships.

OK, Has the "ELECTRIC MOTOR" that drives the, gearing, been disabled/"WELDED"?

Ryan: Today we're going to be crawling around the turret mounts. Camera person: Oh hell, not this again... Seriously whoever does the camera work props to you for also getting in whatever dark corner of the ship you have to film.

Always fascinating to watch videos like this which get down in the operational weeds

Very cool! Thanks Ryan!

Call down to Engineering and tell them we need to go to “110% Likes”.

Do you occasionally move certain parts of the ship to keep them from seizing or rusting in place, or do you generally just leave things the way they are? I love the work you do! Thank you for keeping our great history alive! -Aaron

I bet no one wanted to be the guy whose job it was to grease the roller bearings... that job looks like it would really suck! Enjoyed the video Ryan.

You’re doing a great job and getting better. Thank you for making these videos.

In another video, you state that the Navy prohibits you from raising steam, but does the Navy prohibit you from even attempting to turn a turret?

Wouldnt be worth the effort to weld them, theyd have to clear up all the grease so they didnt accidentally start a fire, and I can tell you from experience of greasing an artillery gun, that stuff doesnt come off easily.

This just shows you what good preventative maintenance does. That turret looks amazing, ready to rock and roll.

I can't wait to come and do the museum tour.

So technically they could work right? Also as soon as you guys open again I'm going worth the 4+hr drive

Soo basically with enough electrical power the turrents are likely fully functional still

Amazing video on the mechanisms of the gun turret. Keep up the great work Mr Szimanski! Best regards from Malaysia!!

I LOVE this!! Thank you!! I visited the New Jersey back in 2007. Thanks for taking such good care of her.

Thats a lot of grease.

So they technically still do rotate.It would just take a lot of work.To get them moving.

As far as the other museums go, Alabama fired her rear turret during the filming of Under Siege. Iowa can not raise or lower her main guns anymore due to several components involved in the process being removed when she was placed into reserve the last time and never being replaced.

It would still be grand to see her in action again.

Just saw this from IOWA. What is different about the Iowa and New Jersey contracts that allow this to happen ? kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Z9R9faaKkqmtnYk.html Happy to see this happen and I'll have to go visit IOWA again and ask this question to that crew.

These are the best videos Ryan, keep em coming.

Ryan, you do a wonderful job presenting the videos, keep them coming.

The best questions are those that are only answered by serious exploration!! Thank-you Ryan.

That was one of my favorite maintenances to do each year

Awesome video Ryan. I worked on North Carolina for a few years as the welder and I always wondered about this. Word was that they relied on the weight to keep the turret seated but I recognize some of what you pointed out on the NJ from the NC. I did have to manually rotate a few of the 5 inch gun houses when they were installing the cofferdam. Man, that was a beast.

Nice video. Small edit for our younger, non mechanical viewers, at 2:10 brass or bronze don't create sparks due to being smooth, it's because they are non-ferrous metals. I would also think the designers wanted non rusting metals due to the limited maintenance cavity.

There is no such thing as disliking any of your videos.....just sayin! C'mon y'all, who else clicks a new video, immediately likes it, then settles into pure battleship bliss?! 👍

This video is like crack for my brain. There is no place else on the entire World Wide Web that has in depth videos with actual real video of the subject like this. This ship is a red blooded American males wet dream. I could only imagine having run of that ship. The engineer ring that it took to make that thing is mind boggling. Even today some 80 to 90 years after it’s design and build it’s still better quality than anything today’s computer age could put out without the cost being astronomically out of sight. Ryan your videos are spot on. You hesitate a little bit during some of the narration but that is understandable. I would rather hear your explanation than anybody else’s. You’re getting better for sure. The subject matter you have to deal with definitely takes forethought to lay out the explanations in a concise yet thorough manner. Most of the time I would watch a video like this and never think about donating. After watching your videos I actually put forth quite a bit of effort trying to donate. I feel like I owe you something after watching your videos. It would be like stealing to not give you something. You definitely put forth a lot of effort like I said. You deserve all the credit in the world. I only hope that battleship gets the proper treatment and is properly preserved and hopefully one day given the opportunity to steam under her own power for demonstration/exhibition cruises much like the confederate Air Force. They have a fully functional B-29 “Fifi” and several other Aircraft it cannot be found anywhere else in the world. It’s so important these marvels of human achievement are kept in near perfect shape for future generations. People need to understand why these vessels were built and what the repercussions were if they were not built. It would be a totally different world today if the strength that the USS New Jersey and all Iowa class battleships we’re not in existence. Bad intentioned heavily motivated Countries had to contemplate the wrath of Iowa’s if they tangled with the United States Navy. Can you imagine being on the receiving side of one of those 16 inch shells! Think about that. 25 miles inland you can have a high explosive shell the size of a Prius take out near anything with near pinpoint accuracy. That’s my two cents. Thank you again Ryan. My contribution has been made. Can’t wait for more content. You’re my new favorite channel on KZfaq.

great work your crew are doing

I remember some of the wrecks showed capsized battleships and cruisers having the turrets fall out of the superstructure.

For some reason I never even thought there was a gap between the turret itself and the barbette. So, I did learn something new, thank you :)

That sets off my claustrophobia alarms ringing off the hook!!

Thank you for saving 3 of the greatest ships of naval history. I hope one day this influences the navy to recreate a modern version of these ships . I still feel that should have been kept them in service and upgraded them years ago but I’m glad they have people like you keeping them alive and their incredible history.

The report said the training mechanism was welded. According to a 1955 navy 16” gun & turret training video MN-9321C Iowa class BBS this is located in the electric deck under the pan plate.

Thanks for all the videos of the old Girl. You’re doing a great job showing us around. I actually got to go on the Iowa and Jersey when I was active duty. They are impressive ships.