[smartd]

Originally Posted by 1250ships

Quite right- she did play Graf Spee which was unavailable for filming thanks to the RN.

I believe that Salem is the only heavy cruiser open as a musuem ship anywhere in the world. Haven't seen her myself but she is supposed to be well worth the visit.

What class of ship is the USS Alabama in Mobile?

[1250ships]

Originally Posted by smartd

What class of ship is the USS Alabama in Mobile?

Alabama is a South Dakota class battleship. 35,000 tons with a main armament of nine 16 inch guns. This is the same class as the USS Massachusetts which is also preseved as a musuem ship. The other two ships of this class, the USS South Dakota and USS Indiana were both scrapped.

The USS North Carolina is of the preceeding two ship North Carolina class is also preserved. Then you have the four Iowas, three of which are musuems and the fourth is in the San Francisco Bay area awaiting a final destination. The other intact and oldest US battleship is the USS Texas and of course you can still see the Arizona at Pearl Harbor. The Utah is still on the bottom at Pearl but can not be visited unless you have a military escort onto Ford Island.

[planenutsfrog]

Originally Posted by tank nut

I think that it is a german one, they need to do some work on it as it is rusting real bad. Not to metion I'm sure the mini golf course is not the best place for it!!

This is a "Seehund" class midget sub.

[planenutsfrog]

[quote=1250ships;112688]Salem was one of three Des Moines class heavy cruisers. They were the final gun cruiser designs produced by the United States. The most remarkable feature was the use of a semi-automatic 8 inch gun capable of firing 10 round per minute. Previous 8 inch gun ships could only fire 2 to 3 rounds per minute. These ships displaced over 17,000 tons which made them almost as big as some of the early dreadnoughts. These ships were laid down in 1945 and not completed until the late 40s so they missed World War Two but served during Korea and Vietnam.

Their gross displacement even reached 20000 tons, making them the biggest and most capable heavy cruisers ever.

The closest foreign design was the German "Admiral Hipper" class (17000 tons, 8 x 8'' guns), initially an answer to the French "Algerie" (13000 tons, 8 x 8'' guns), the ultimate Washington treaty cruiser, the most remarkable feature of wich, was an unprecedented armored protection, virtually similar to that of the "Deutschland" class "pocket" battleships ! (17000 tons, 6 x 11'' guns).

Because of the challenge of the "Hipper" class, the "Algerie" fine as it was, wasn't to be duplicated.
Instead, France designed a new class of even superior ships, very similar to the late US heavy cruisers : the "Saint Louis" class : 17000 tons, 9 x 8'' guns.

But the tragic course of events prevented these projects from coming to fruition...

[SKUNKY]

Salem and I were both born in the same city...The big difference being that she still resides there, and I thankfully do not....(and the city is saying the same thing)

[Shawn 507]

You just have to love those old ships with guns everywhere, its a shame missles have taken thier place. But its great they saved this one as well as all others. I've heard the USS North Carolina is the most complete WW2 Battleship on display (no modernization).

[tank nut]

I have pics of the battleship cove if you guys have not seen them on here too

[JustPlaneNuttz]

Great shots there TankNut. That must have been very impressive to prowl around through. Brings back memories (albeit on smaller scale). Speaking of a smaller scale, those photos that '1250ships' provided really helped demonstrate the overall scale of the ship. The info sure put everything into perspective. Nice stuff, guys!