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 Gene Slover |
Lexington gets 2 5"/38's |
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Posts: 6438 (20-Jun-2008 14:53:15) |
Tony D
Remember the lady that wanted to know what it would cost to insure a 5"/38? http://www.usslexington.com/pdfs/press/10march2008.pdf |
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Gunnersmate04 |
Wel, that answers the question... | ||
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Registered Member
Posts: 198 (20-Jun-2008 18:07:39) |
......of where they were being boxed up and sent to. My bro-in-law works at Brownsville and told me when they were scrapping DES MOINES that the 5/38's
where getting "tlc" and being packaged up and sent somewhere. Somebody, I forget who, assumed perhaps for museum dsposition, and they were right.
GUNNER |
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Gene Slover |
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Posts: 6439 (20-Jun-2008 18:16:17) |
Well we'll be buying the steel back from mexico pretty soon:-)
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jhack |
Heavy weight guns | ||
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Posts: 104 (20-Jun-2008 18:22:28) |
I guess I didn't realize how heavy those gun mounts were. There is a minor discrepancy though, www.navweapons.com said the Des Moines carried the Mark 32
Mod 0 mount that weighed 105,000 pounds or 52.5 tons. The press release said the mounts weighed 60 tons, corresponding with the 120,369 weight of the Mark 32
mod 4 mount that navweapons.com says was mounted on the Alaskas and a few Essexes. I wonder which is right, although it is a bit of nitpicking.
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Tony D |
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Posts: 2373 (20-Jun-2008 18:35:33) Da Boss |
Hi Gene,
Yes, I remember. Glad she found some. jhack wrote:You seem to be expecting that a PR flack writing a press release to have the facts straight? Have you ever read a press release from your own operation and noted the errors contained within? In this particular instance, my guess would be that someone told the PR flack that these mountings weighed 60 tons on the Lexington and never mentioned that the ones coming in from Des Moines had different weights. But, regardless, expecting all the details to be correct in something as boilerplate as a press release is, how should I put it, at least mildly optimistic. |
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Gene Slover |
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Posts: 6440 (20-Jun-2008 19:17:31) |
Tony D
I later found out that she was the historian for the lexington and had told her that I was in corpus many times a year and eventually met her and some of the others that run the ship. I have since furnished her with CD's of some of the fire control equipment and of the guns the ship has. I still have yet to copy the 5"/38 book but its a sooner or later thing. Its an 8 1/2 X 11 book with 517 pages in it. She tells me they now have the 5" installed and wants to know where her book is. A 5"/38 gun house on a DD is about 1 1/2" thick. On cruisers and BB's its about 2 1/2" thick. |
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boblaurabyu |
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Posts: 11 (22-Jun-2008 18:13:02) |
it's exciting that Lex got some turreted 5 inch, will they be going on their old spots fore and aft of the island? also did they pick up one or two of the
gun directors too?
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Theodore |
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Posts: 8460 (28-Jun-2008 03:54:14) Wheat Boss |
I was aboard Lexington today. The 5in mounts are on the flight deck fore and aft of the island, awaiting restoration.
As far as I know, the museum did not acquire any directors. Certainly they are not aboard the ship. Her own were removed in 1969. This was my first visit, and I was pretty impressed with the museum. They've done a good job of setting up several self-guided tour routes with a wide variety of well-executed displays throughout the ship - flight deck, hangar deck, island, forecastle, after engine room, and other spaces. Active restoration work on both the ship and an F-4 Phantom is ongoing. She was doing a pretty good business - a couple of tour groups but also plenty of families and solo tourists. The location probably helps; she's clearly visible from the bridge over Corpus Christi Bay and adjacent to the Texas State Aquarium and one of the beaches. I wasn't planning to visit her today, but I was there, and, well... ;-) |
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seasick |
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Posts: 4809 (28-Jun-2008 07:07:56) |
They could build a dummy director for the 5inch guns. Shouldn't be difficult. Aluminum over a wooden frame.
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