USS Wisconsin – Iowa Class Battleship pictures

This is a view from the third floor of the museum building adjacent to the ship.

Standing next to the #2 main turret

Looking out from the bridge to the bow of the ship. The fore-most gun is the #1 turret, and the closer one is the #2 turret.

Another view from the bridge

This was taken standing right in front of the #1 Turret

This is from an open area two levels up on the back of the conning tower. You can see the #3 turret and the helipad.

This is a shot taken from the helipad looking forward.

Another view of the 5-inch dual-purpose gun turret.

One of the turrets of dual-purpose 5-inch guns. Located just aft of the #2 turret, by the conning tower.

This is a view inside the dual-purpose turret. The doorway was covered with semi-oxidized plexiglass and I couldn’t really see in at all. I’m just glad that this picture turned out a little. You get a sense that the innards of the turret were pretty cramped.

AA mounts were removed to make room for Tomahawk missile launchers. These were used to good effect in Desert Storm, I believe.

One of the 40mm turret mounts (I think) was replaced with Harpoon missile launchers some time after WWII.

A hallway in the ship. It’s hard to tell but it was not that high, maybe just over 7 feet. The ‘doorways’ were more inconvenient than they look. I can’t imagine trying to hurry through any part of the ship.

Stairs going between decks/levels. They felt steeper than they look here. It was practically a ladder.

This is a view looking out a window at the back of the bridge. You can see how much more tower there is above it.

A view of the bridge. My impression going in to the tour was that things were pretty centralized. And while there was some centralization in the CIC and the CEC (sorry I didn’t get pictures, lighting was tough), everything else seemed to be relatively spread out. I think the exception would be down in the citadel, where they have as much important stuff concentrated and protected. The tour didn’t take us down there though.

Only the citadel and certain high-value sections of the ship were armored. This was a cylindrical tower within the bridge that was made of tool-grade steel over a foot thick. The tour guide told us the (rather small) door into the tower weighed over 5 tons. This was one of the systems used to coordinate accurate fire of the main guns.

The captain had a different (fancier) bedroom when he was in port. This was because he had less to do while at port and could take a breather, so to speak. The boxy column is an ammo hopper for 40mm ammunition, leading from the citadel down below up to a gun mount above. Restroom was in the back left from this perspective, the back-right doorway led to the kitchen that attended solely on the captain and his boardroom while in port. The captain would regularly entertain dignitaries and other officials while in port.

This tiny room was the chambers for the captain while at sea. It is immediately adjacent to the bridge so he would be available at a moment’s notice. The room was incredibly cramped; I was backed up into a corner taking this picture. The far door is the restroom. The couch folds down into a bed.

This is a picture of me standing by the #1 turret, for scale.

I went on a tour of the USS Wisconsin – an Iowa Class Battleship. I tried to take some pictures to give a sense of scale. Sorry I didn’t take more; the tour was incredibly well done and very engaging!