The Iowa class battleships’ three dozen installed 16-inch 50 caliber Mk 7 guns, the largest, most destructive naval gun ever mounted on an American warship, have been quiet sentinels in pierside museum service for the past quarter century. Last fired in 1991, the big 16s have sat preserved since then.
Recently, the USS Iowa Musem made a bit of history when they turned one of the ship’s gun houses– Turret 3– to allow for some below-deck maintenance. It was the first time this was done on a BB-61-class battleship since 1992.
“Turning the turret was the result of months of hard work and research by our team, as well as input from Iowa class battleship veterans. We make it look easy, but it’s most definitely not,” notes the Museum.
The Museum staff had six cameras running on different decks within the turret when they rotated it on June 30, 2023. You’ll see four of those angles in the below video.