It would be interesting to have a group, like Scouts, at hand, to actually stand in the positions, sequentially, just to show how "full up" the room becomes. That, of course, becomes complicated video to shoot. But, would be illustrative.

Please do continue with this style of presentation. Connecting the dots with this format is appreciated.

The Mk 48 computer was installed for the Korean War. these electromechanical monsters were dazzlingly complicated. It's a fun rabbit hole to explore.

I’m a tour guide on the Missouri and I love watching your videos. I learn so much from them. I wish we had a KZfaq channel like yours. Mahalo!!!

I have always been curious how they determine how many men will be needed on a ship when they are designed and built.

I served on the Iowa as a talker, at GQ, and other times. Usually talkers would be standing neat bulkheads staying out of the way, and close to the jacks so no one would trip. The hardest part of being a talker is keeping your cord from getting tripped over.

I would love this same explanation done for the engine rooms. On submarines I know it was common for cross-training on various systems. Did the Navy do that for surface vessels like the battleships?

Hi Ryan and all New Jersey staff. I was fortunate to receive a " Firepower Tour " last November on Battleship Massachusetts with Dr. John Scholes and we spent four hours on board and still could not fully complete the tour. I plan to continue the tour later this year. Naval fire control is a complex series of procedures that must be executed in a precise manner in order to deliver the shells on target and the equipment that you all were demonstrating were and still are masterpieces of engineering.

While there’s no serious question about bringing these ships back but boy does this illustrate how complicated that endeavor would be.

YES!!! This kind of video makes the ship very personable. Like an old car you are restoring.

I believe this was mentioned once before in another video by Ryan but for a video of the main fire control room of the USS Missouri during actual combat in Desert Storm, search for the KZfaq video titled "Battleship USS Missouri - Missile Inbound Brace for Shock". It shows at least 14 crew members in Missouri's equivalent space.

Continuing on with this is a great idea. Perhaps next you could revisit SPOT and SKY with this book. Also moving into the next room and going over the 5" directors.

Agreed - please do more videos providing this kind of information.

You might find a list describing what all the sound powered phone circuits are used for. Like the 1JV is the main manouvering circuit and the 1JA is the Captains Battle circuit. This what were used on the Coast Guard Cutters I served on. I'm sure the USS IOWA has a load of different circuits I NEVER heard off. Great video seeing complex equipment to aim the 16 inch guns. No wonder there are so many men/women on a BB.

it would be interesting to see you get eighteen folks into the space, standing at their duty stations.

Great video Ryan! Please keep 'em coming. Billeting and GQ functions are at the heart of the ship's purpose.

Yes, please more like this. I'd also be interested in comparing the manning schedule for operations in an active war zone (not battle general quarters), compared to peaceful operations in friendly waters. For instance how many weapons were manned etc.. How much and how fast could the ship respond to sudden unexpected threats before general quarters was set?

It's a good way of explaining the operation of the compartment and the layout and equipment as a general overview . It may be that the stateboard was replaced by a modern screen late in service or it was a nice size and nicked by another ship . I liked this as a good way to get a wider view of the whole space and Ryan explained very well .

it would be nice to have a complete set of those books so that you could find everyone from every department whose GQ station was in a particular space.

Curious what the Marines did during GQ. My short time on LHD USS Essex our GQ billet was our berthing area, stand by to draw weapons to repel boarders.

That is an incredible find into the history and operation of the Battleship New Jersey. Thanks to Ryan and his team.

Semper Fi! Such great work Ryan, thank you. YES, more like this. Keeps the ship alive!

Hope this gets followed with what the theoretical minimum crew needed to start the engines (assuming in service and not a museum ship) and move her out to open ocean (without caring about precise navigation, equipment durability, and long term human sleep schedules).

I'd definitely be interested in more room position/job videos! CIC, or maybe some engineering rooms? Thank you!

yes please produce more detailed stories about general quarters love every minute of every episode.

the pencil sharpener is not there for the grease pencils. you just peel more paper off those and keep writing, they dont get sharpened.

Super interesting. These plotting rooms are the most fascinating things imaginable.

I like these videos as they give idea of what the crew did and how many men were required in each area.

Billeting and general quarters is very interesting, and it’s a shame that this simple knowledge is almost lost to time just by way of people not writing these things down before all the old timers pass on. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to find and research these things to bring to the masses! I would love to see more of these types of videos in the future! Thank you Ryan and Battleship New Jersey!

This kind of video is amazing! I'd love to see similar videos for the engineering spaces and the bridge.

This was a great video Ryan. I like this concept. I guess this also highlighted one aspect. Does the plans or any plans show what circuit is where? I would imagine there is somewhere. As you said the headphones had x number of circuits in that room. ( I would also imagine those circuits as in every communication circuit appears in one place somewhere simply for patching purposes maybe signalling or communications room somewhere) Where or are those duplicated elsewhere within the Ship? I would imagine yes in the Secondary fire control room. With the age of the ship and how everyone is aging. With each passing year there is going to be less and less crew who served on the ship still alive. I wonder if as the curator of the New Jersey it would be worth reaching out to those still alive and asking them could you tell us or come and show us what these are or what they are called especially when comes to likes of communication points. Or even asking them is there anything missing in this room that you can remember being here. Take advantage of the knowledge base already out there while can before it is gone. Because sadly once it is gone, that information is also gone forever. I realise that would be a lot of work. But I am also thinking about how much information would be gained compared to the work involved and from what I can think what you would gain, would far outweigh the effort involved.... But, maybe I am wrong.

This was an absolutely fascinating video, I would love to have a whole series of videos talking about the billets in various compartments. One for CEC and engineering would be amazing especially.

Great video! This is a great series because I can account for about 700 sailors from your previous videos but like where did the other 1500 serve?

I now have more questions than before I watched this!

I like these videos. Any chance you could cram curators/volunteers to show a space fully staffed?

This concept is really good. I would be interested in the manning/tasks for deploying the anchors, controlling the rudder, and managing the propeller speed. Thanks to you and your team.

Really like these videos. It’s fascinating learning what each sailor did and seeing your thought process. Please do the engine and fire room

Fascinating. More please,Ryan!!

Good work, Ryan. Please keep it up.

That line about the positioning being logical as a justification for the Navy NOT doing it was brilliant :)))))

Love the pause for dramatic effect!

If possible and practical I'd like to see a video like this for one of the main gun directors

Grease pencils aren’t sharpened that way. You pull the string and peel the paper.

Very good presentation on aiming the guns. Now almost always by this time the primary and secondary guns were used for shore bombardment, it would be a real treasure to see the same documentation from WW2 where there was a possibility of targeting an enemy ship and what the staffing arrangement would be. I keep seeing an empty seat at the computer and no mention of who sat there. We may never know.

Great video Ryan. Yes please more of these! Maybe fire room , central station?

Love the archeology aspect of your work.

This is a great video. I am a retired artillery officer and tour guide on the WisKy. This helps a lot. BRAVO ZULU

Really interesting. Each job held incredible responsibilities

This was one of the best videos yet. It put into perspective where each man was during their normal day/general quarters.

9:16 The graphic on the Mk 48 computer\potting table shows the two forward turrets, looking down the barrel of the guns & is labeled *"Appetite for Destruction"*

This was excellent - more, please! @Ryan you always impress with your incredible knowledge of so much of this huge ship! Chapeau!

One of the most interesting videos I’ve seen! Keep up the good work! More please!

I don't believe I've ever seen a grease pencil "sharpened".

Another excellent video, Ryan. Many thanks to you and your team. I'd love to see more of these types of explanations of how various departments or functions were organized. In addition to the turrets and fire control, some good topics would be the bridge watch, conning tower, damage control and boiler/engine rooms. I also think it is great that you and your staff keep finding these amazing artifacts.

Yes! Continue the series.

I think this is very interesting. Especially in a space that may have morphed over the decades as technology changed. Other spaces: Bridge, Engine / Propulsion control, Medical, and how were support personnel (clerks, cooks & mess stewards, musicians, electricians, plumbers, machinists, etc.) occupied during combat. Thank you, Ryan.

I like this very much.. I'd also like to see more close up shots of the different equipment faces in these spaces..🙂👍🇺🇸

a plexiglass status board seems like something which would be high on a shopping list of souvenirs while the ship was going into mothballs. That's definitely something you could walk out the ship with tucked under your arm and nobody is gonna ask where it's going.

Engine and boiler rooms would be very interesting to see. I had a Grandfather who served on the California pre war in the engineering spaces and fun to see how it worked.

It just takes one Casey Rybeck and two or three if his desperate comrades.

Yes! I love videos like this, and the bridge, CIC and CEC are the spaces I most want to see covered. Also, how does a sound-powered phone work? Did you do a video on them that I missed?

The video was interesting & i would like to see more like it. One suggestion would be to give the actual dimensions of the space, either in curators or square feet.

I did enjoy this piece. Future videos would benefit from more pictures or video clips of the spaces in action if possible. That really brings it to life.

This was a completely cool video thank you Ryan. Personally I'm interested in the bridge and cic.

That is so cool. Please keep doing this. I would be interested in the outfit of the kitchen and bakery. For normal times

That book is the Kama sutra of the battleship: defining all the positions.

I really like this, please make more shows like this ?

The deafening silence as you search for the answer in your infinite wisdom of knowledge continues to amaze me. I’ve heard it with my Pops and a few times with Sir Draq. Thank you all for your input on Naval History!

@robertlian2009 This is how we generally manned in the 1980’s. TO booth: no talkers, no local range Keeper operator, no range Finder operators. Just one sight setter, no other positions except on occasion a check sight officer at a sight pointer position. The reason for sights on both sides of the turret is because of where your LOS is in relation to the LOF. The TO had the job to designate which sights were to be used. 0:02 😊 Gun rooms as you said. Electric deck as you said. We generally did not have an electrician assigned, although we often needed one. (It was an ongoing battle with engineering dept.) Shell decks: We only manned one deck at a time. from a practical standpoint I don’t see how you could ever man them both at the same time. The upper deck hoists have a door that is lowered into the floor so the shells can be smoothly parbuckled into the hoist. If you were to move shells into a hoist at both levels at the same time I don’t believe you could then move that door out of the way so the shell from the lower deck could move up the hoist. Powder deck as you said.

humm. Highly interested in the boiler room and engine room - and not for GQ (general Quarters) but regular "steaming" manning

You know, walking around on a battleship, digging up information on it and making videos about it, is a pretty cool job.

11:25 FYI grease pencils do not require sharpening! They use a peel-off outer casing to expose more grease / lead

Love it Ryan. This is a great video.

Idk but the folks at USS Iowa can tell us how many volunteers it takes to train the guns!

Excellent video, thank you.

Very interesting episode. Thanks Ryan!

you know Ryan and the crew are Jelly of the Iowa right now...

Hi Ryan, your videos are super interesting. Fiddle with (operate) the various fire control computers would be the second coolest thing for a video. Obviously a full broadside with live ammo (even if training rounds) would be the first most cool thing ever 😅

Yes, I liked the video describing the billets in detail

As a history nerd I can say that this is a good video and I like this kind of "reconstructive history".

I would love to see more technical videos, which describe who was where and what specific jobs were.

That is a piece of incredible history there! Yes, we are very much interested in the documentation of the positions.

It’s amazing how they could aim those guns and fire them so accurately with a mechanical computer that was so effective they never needed to replace it with digital ones

very informative more like this please!

Those computers are one of the reasons I started watching navy videos and found this channel. But I've started wondering about what the maintenance onboard was like. How much space and what type of tooling was there? I just watched the "unloading" video and read in the comments how much "on the spot" engineering was required. Just putting my vote in for some type of video like this in the future. Keep up the great work!

Good Presentation worth working through all major operational areas including the Mess deck the heart of the ship.

I've got to say the spaces shown look really well looked after and we'll present. You and the team should be congratulated!

A organization index. I remember when i asked for that in a alert center and i quietly got told to join the army or become a big politician before i would get to know that. So we made our own for the new NOC we where building for them and we never gave them that documentation before they showed us theirs. .. .. It was a fun project.

Typical for the Navy was that the talkers were separate from the equipment/system they served and they stood behind a plexiglass statusboard and wrote backwards in grease pencil to update the status board. example. The front of CIC would have a set of status boards. The Electronic Warfare status board would have an EW talker behind it who was talking to the EW operator in another part of CIC. The EW talker would update the board based on information received from the operator. (Some things changed over time but that is the main idea)

I love the uncertainty about so many details.

Excellent presentation! Yes, I want to see more videos of this kind. Very educational!

Yes this was a good format. Coordinating 18 technical sailors seems daunting.

Please continue with this kind of video. I like knowing this kind of info.

Just a suggestion, if you're going to refer to the various J-circuits in the compartment you might want to prep by locating them before the camera starts rolling.

I really like this kind of video! Very fascinating.

Would be amazing to have that booked scanned in for the record.

Every time you say you're recovering or reconstructing knowledge, I hope one of the former crew members will visit and be glad to tell you how they did things back in the day.

yeah, this was interesting finding who did what and where.

excellent camerawork as compared for like 3 years ago!

Just going off of my experience with 5 inch guns the switch board operator was on the “guns” sound powered headset and he was a talker so he could verbally confirm changes. Often times we had 2 operators who worked together. also the “talkers didn’t have to be in the weapons division and were basically parrots.