Launching USS New Jersey: A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

In this episode we're looking at a photo of what was on the ship at launch.
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The views and opinions expressed in this video are those of the content creator only and may not reflect the views and opinions of the Battleship New Jersey Museum & Memorial, the Home Port Alliance for the USS New Jersey, Inc., its staff, crew, or others. The research presented herein represents the most up-to-date scholarship available to us at the time of filming, but our understanding of the past is constantly evolving. This video is made for entertainment purposes only.

[@bret9741]

My grandfather was 57 years old when this was launched. When he was a child…. No cars, few paved roads, no electronics except telegraphs… most lighting was whale oil and by the end of his life on the 1980’s… we were launching space shuttles and these ships in mothballs soon to be reactivated. I can only imagine what a massive transition. The closest thing in my life is until my teens, no personal computers, cell phones or internet. If I wanted to research something I had to use encyclopedia and library books.

[@joewalker2152]

Same here for my Gran. Born before the Wright brother's first flight, and by the time she died in the 80's, you could cross the Atlantic in 3 hrs, man had walked on the Moon and, as you said, the space shuttles were being launched. As for doing any research on a topic, yes you only had books, which is where I get my love of history through books still today. A one-off payment and you don't need a battery or electricity to use it, even a candle will do in a power cut. Books rule.....

[@johnyarbrough502]

Along with New Jersey, there were nine other battleships launched in about three and half years. War production really was incredible.

[@dukeofgibbon4043]

Even with shore cranes, the propeller pad eyes are necessary because the stern of the ship makes skyhook access impossible.

[@bluerebel01]

I love A Picture is worth 1,000 words, Thanks Ryan.

[@wadewilson524]

Well dang it Ryan…. Now you have to put it back in dry dock to put that “3 2 1 0” on the ship!

[@aserta]

These episodes are some of my favorite. Ryan being a treasure trove of information, that's double the words easily.

[@KWC33]

As an autobody technician, I noticed how straight the panels are! She’s definitely been around the world a few times, but even more beautiful now because of it

[@Transit_Biker]

Funny seeing slipways on the Delaware. A bit upriver was Harriman shipyard. Built during WW1 there are still some remnants of the slipways along the bank of the river. Fascinating stuff!

[@0void]

According to the video's transcript, you said 1,187 words about this picture. (From the start until you say "maybe a thousand words?") So yes, just over 1,000.

[@BlutoFPV]

Ryan. When I toured the Iowa I was surprised to see what looked like expansion joints. I want to say I noticed it the most on an upper deck behind the bridge superstructure. I couldn't see where you had done a video on them. Can you give some insight? Or point me to the video if you have done one.

[@nickgriffin5835]

Glad yall are doing A Pictures Worth a Thousand Words again! I missed these episodes

[@subman721]

3:38 The anodes were the first thing that caught my eye!

[@MartysRandomStuff]

Just went through all the pictures I took of the rudders during my drydock tour and zooming in I can't see anything left of the bolts that were holding those on.

[@CAPNMAC82]

The draft marking down the rudder skegs might be a shipyard thing during launch, as she's going to ride "high" far all the thing not installed. I'd give even odds those were all just paint, and no weld bead used for the markings.

[@benjaminshropshire2900]

Came looking for this comment. I agree those are paint give there's no shadows from any of them and by how the "6" cross the riveted lap join.

[@Jim311366]

Nice to see u back in u to your office

[@tombrickhouse-growthmatrix6201]

I noticed that the numbers lower on the hull (6,5 & 4) are elongated, much like arrows & words painted on roads.

[@corollaguy6740]

The other amazing thing is you can just tell in the picture how brand new it is. While she looks really good now. That ship looks pristine. Cool picture!

[@pruittiii]

Great video, Ryan (and Libby, too). Imagine being at the launching and watching a ship the size of New Jersey slide down the slip way.

[@robertf3479]

A very, VERY interesting view of the ship Ryan!

[@robertgutheridge9672]

Everything about New Jersey is just amazing.

[@ut000bs]

I've never seen a wartime picture of a ship on the building ways or being launched with any sort of camouflage paint. _Missouri_ was launched in 1944 with the same paint.

[@SteamCrane]

For more info about slipways launching procedure and terminology, get "The Yard", about Bath Iron Works last conventional launch. Excellent book!

[@BattleshipNewJersey]

We second this, it is a great book!

[@ellobo1326]

You do such an awesome job with this channel. Thanks !

[@manknownonlyasjeff7106]

Thanks Ryan and the team.

[@jameslong3351]

I was in engineering on a couple of carriers, we were always changing "ZINKS" (as we called them) on, inside, around equipment. The worst was the condenser for the generators, they were really tight inside.

[@bobhealy3519]

Awesome

[@phillipbouchard4197]

I am interested to see the propeller shafts are tapered where the propellers are attached. I wonder if the shafts and propellers are keyed together ?

[@rearspeaker6364]

that key must be the size of a loaf of bread!

[@krtwood]

Interesting question. I don't see any keyways on the shaft. There are a lot of tapered joints in machines like Morse and Jacobs where there is nothing else keeping them together besides the friction between the two tapers. I can't believe battleship propellers are only held on like that though.

[@SeanBZA]

@@krtwood Tapered shaft and very likely also a few bolts that pull the propeller onto the shaft, so that there is always a force holding the propeller onto the shaft, even in reverse. running the engines in reverse is normally only at a low power, so as not to shear those bolts off and lose a propeller, which has happened to a few ships. A keyed shaft will not work here, as all the torque is applied at the edge of the keyway, which will result in fatigue there, and the key shearing with time, along with a very good chance the shaft will fail at the end of the keyway as that is a massive stress point, where most of the torque is applied to the propeller casting. Tapered shaft friction couples all the torque all the way down, and the shaft will not move in the casting at all, plus the torque and thrust make the propeller drive more tightly onto the shaft, so that when you come to remove it you will need to wrap it in thermal blankets and heat it up to expand the bronze slightly, to break the join, and use a heavy pull on it, likely a shipyard jig they made from I beams to transfer the pull to the shaft tube and not the drydock floor, to get it to move off.

[@bwatt1000]

O​@@krtwood

[@peter_smyth]

While rubbing forwards, the propellers would be pushed onto the shafts, but when in reverse they would be pulling the ship via the shafts, so there must be something fairly strong holding them on.

[@bruceyoung1343]

THANK YOU

[@jop4691]

Love your channel.

[@aserta]

I wonder if the numbering is down to the rudder holder, because she's (at least in theory) able to wait the tide and sit on her bottom. I wonder if it was a consideration during her design phase, that at some point, they'd find a "cozy" spot, and just let her rest on her keels, do the repairs and then go out again. There's not much sense otherwise. She would never float that high in the water, and it's not like it's for dry docking in the traditional sense either. Second thing, i'm wondering if the lighter gray plate around the shafts isn't also an anode. Modern boats have it. Mitigation right at the prop. Not all, but some do, in particular, i've seen several outboards and a few light yachts. Under the gray scheme, the anode colors do slightly match the rings.

[@mechanicmike2858]

That was really cool Ryan thanks for sharing

[@henrycarlson7514]

Interesting , Thank You

[@robertpoore7604]

Very interesting.

[@PaulBeaudoin]

Very cool!

[@zonavarbondagoo4074]

How is everything going with the ship since returning from dry dock?

[@danam0228]

Very interesting, thank you

[@ATEC101]

Model nerds: YYEESSSS!

[@CalgarGTX]

makes sense to fit rudders and propellers in a flat drydock rather than a slipway and waste time there that could be used to start another ship Id assume

[@jerrycornelius]

Great point! Also, on the slipway the ship is tilted down towards the water and I guess it would be much easier to attach three rudders and props the prop shaft ends and rudder attacment points level as otherwise you'd be working at an angle and the props and rudders would have to be both lifted and tilted.

[@busterbeagle2167]

About 50 days I'm gonna be there Ryan

[@stevenaird5925]

I need to go and visit the ship again spend some time about 10 years I think or so my son is now adult when we went before

[@DirkFedermann]

Have you ever made a video on WHY New Jersey did launch without the rudder and screws? And why would you launch a ship without it, so you have to drydock it immediately again?

[@SteamCrane]

The force of water during the launch can damage rudders and propellers. Great Lakes freighters were mostly side launched. The rudder was present, but fastened at 90 degrees, away from the water.

[@edprice9932]

Haze gray and underway!

[@GeneCash]

Do we know who took the pictures? Are they credited in any way? Are these newspaper pictures?

[@BattleshipNewJersey]

Official navy pictures

[@bigsarge2085]

⚓️

[@utube321piotr]

Interesting is the tapered ends of prop shafts without any telling features how the props were fastened to them, unless we are looking at nicely blended caps..

[@adamlewellen5081]

Now for your next trick, explain how the screws and rudders are installed after launch? Navy divers doing magic or redocking?

[@BattleshipNewJersey]

redocking

[@landoflibertychannel]

Does the Navy still hold any archival information including photos or videos you guys could access?

[@thelegendcmj78]

I mean she was a brand new ship about to go into a dry dock, with no clue about where her first orders were going, they probably didn't want to go all in on anodes just yet. Also with metal being so prized and limited at that time. I could see those all being factors for not all of the anodes being placed

[@wtmayhew]

One good thing… the anodes were zinc which wasn’t quite as restricted as some other metals. I have a WW-II Navy Chelsea Ship’s Bell clock which is in a cast zinc instead of forged brass case. The lesser ship’s clocks were in Bakelite cases, but that was already true pre-war. It was probably mostly a symbolic gesture to switch to zinc, but symbolism can be important.

[@johnbenda8180]

I have a question. Did New Jersey of any escort ships assigned to her when she left for the Atlantic for sea trials and then through the Panama Canal. U-Boats were still in the area, at least 18 ships were sunk in and around the Delaware Bay.

[@charlesmaurer6214]

Had a thought on war time construction needs. Build the upper parts of carriers on naval air stations as a prebuild and use program. In war as the new ship is being built you train on the land carrier decks as at sea first and as new hauls are built the decks on land can be removed and placed on the new haul or preplanned merchant cargo conversions. Could use two per airstrip as a raised landing platform and once removed use the traditional strip below. It would pre-stage the needed hardware in a manor not unlike the reserve fleet. BTW chat was not working for me, subbed. If I remember right one of the 2 great lakes carriers was stripped down to help build a sea carrier in the later part of WWII. If planned right it would be like removing a section of a merchant marine and dropping the flight deck sections on top like some commercial construction is done today in sections assembled like Lego blocks then welded in place.

[@wtmayhew]

The first US aircraft carrier, Langley, was a 1913 collier onto which a flight deck was placed in 1922, so it is a bit as described above. Also notable was that when it was launched in 1913, the then Jupiter was electric drive, not reciprocating or turbine steam drive. I don’t know about the propulsion in 1922. This is according to the history-navy-mil web site.

[@michaelsheffield6852]

How do you get the rudders and propellers on once in the water?

[@nmccw3245]

Take her to the drydock she just came out of for her “fitting out”

[@EDKguy]

​@@nmccw3245Any job worth doing once is worth doing twice.

[@TheEvertw]

I am very surprised how those propeller shafts end in a taper, but without any threads. I remember Ryan describing how they found the wrench for the propellers in the ship, so I am curious how they are mounted on the shafts.

[@michaels.5878]

What's that structure all the way to the left, that the person is silhouetted? It almost looks like a spare rudder post?

[@mbtoth8238]

Someone should try to colorize this (and perhaps others from the same photo group) working from known baseline color(s), at least the white of the draftline numbers and writing on photo, and perhaps the red of the hull

[@Aotearoawoodturner]

what's ur fav pick of dry dock with u in it. worth 1000 words for the future. mayb an idea for a video

[@KWC33]

Isn’t it ironic how The Iowa class was designed pre-war and it absolutely dominated throughout ! And the Japanese eventually surrendered on the deck of one of them! Always thought it was a huge statement to the ingenuity productivity and strong work ethic of the American people! They definitely awoken a sleeping giant and filled us with great resolve!!!

[@chriselliott4621]

Do the USS Liberty next, I dare you.

[@syn6294]

Hi

[@MoritzvonSchweinitz]

But why would they launch it without the propellers & rudder into the water? Wouldn't they just have to frydock her again to mount them?

[@nicjansen230]

She needs to go into drydock anyway. The slipway is best for constructing a hull and drydock is better for fitting everything else. As the ship is launched from a slipway, items may be damaged from the impact. Going slower is also not a good option due to the forces exerted on the hull, so a drydock is better for slowly floating the ship

[@Archangel3083]

Why do the numbers count down to zero then start again at 9?

[@trog7986]

Going up, not down. The 0 is a "10", the 1 above the 0 is "11", and so on

[@poowg2657]

1st to say I'm not 1st to be 1st after someone else said they were 1st, 1st. Cool photo dissection, thanks much!

[@moodberry]

Dumb question, but why in the world would they NOT install the props and rudders before launching? What's the rationale?

[@BattleshipNewJersey]

theyd get caught on stuff when sliding down the ways

[@rogergoodman8665]

What!!! You mean you won't do a video on the toilet paper holder on head #2 for the officers?!!!!!!!! That's OK, I'll use my imagination!!! Keep up the great work!

[@johnmcguigan7218]

I want to see the container of strawberry ice cream that got Captain Queeg to lose his marbles. Oh wait, wrong ship. My bad.

[@nigelterry9299]

Does she have caulking on the seams? They look,pale.

[@nmccw3245]

The caulking first happened in the ‘80’s

[@BattleshipNewJersey]

the two part cold bonded polysulfide sealant is an 80s addition.

[@fko1]

Would be great to run the photo through an app and see it in color

[@merlinwizard1000]

1st, 2 July 2024