Ninety miles from the South Eastern tip of the United States, Liberty has no stead. In order for Liberty to exist and thrive, Tyranny must be identified, recognized, confronted and extinguished.
Note the white plume to the left of the bow. I have heard from WW2 navy vets that when a battleship fires a full broadside the entire ship moves several yards in the other direction.
That is just blast effect from turrets one and two. If the ship were shoved aside by the piddly effect of firing the equivalent of nine Volkswagens down range, I would have been knocked off my feet along with all the other 1500 men aboard that day. I am one of the white dots on the level above the bridge. President Duarte of El Salvador is below me on the bridge.
Assuming a displacement of roughly 50,0000 tons, 18000 lbs of shells fired with a muzzle velocity of 800 m/s, momentum conservation implies that the ship would have an imparted velocity of about 150 cm/s. Slow enough to keep you from being thrown off your feet, but more than enough for a ship that size to travel a meter or two before equilibrium due to drag through the water.
Note the white plume to the left of the bow. I have heard from WW2 navy vets that when a battleship fires a full broadside the entire ship moves several yards in the other direction.
ReplyDeleteThat is just blast effect from turrets one and two. If the ship were shoved aside by the piddly effect of firing the equivalent of nine Volkswagens down range, I would have been knocked off my feet along with all the other 1500 men aboard that day. I am one of the white dots on the level above the bridge. President Duarte of El Salvador is below me on the bridge.
ReplyDeleteAssuming a displacement of roughly 50,0000 tons, 18000 lbs of shells fired with a muzzle velocity of 800 m/s, momentum conservation implies that the ship would have an imparted velocity of about 150 cm/s. Slow enough to keep you from being thrown off your feet, but more than enough for a ship that size to travel a meter or two before equilibrium due to drag through the water.
ReplyDeletetypo: 50,000 tons not 50,0000
ReplyDeleteAs impressive as those battleships were, they are still well and truly obsolete. (All were decommissioned over 20 years ago.)
ReplyDelete