Old WWII battleship USS Iowa has recently become a museum at the port of Los Angeles, so I decided to take a look and take some pictures.

The USS Iowa, is very thin and unfortunately not as photogenic as other od ships such as the Midway or the Queen Mary as there are no ornate decorations or furnishings, but it's nice to see a piece of history.

1.


2. Rear cannons and the projectile and gun powder in the foreground.


3. I think these are 15 inch guns.


4. As you can see, the ship is very thin and slender, almost like a canoe shape, I'm sure to make the ship go fast.


5. View out from the bridge.


6. Inside the bridge is this bunker like control room with 17 inch thick steel walls where the ship is controlled during battles.


7. In one of the rooms, they have a panel of lcd's that gives you a sense of the view from the bridge during combat.


entire gallery

Thanks for sharing Tee. We have a battleship here but it looks like the Iowa has some areas open to the public that ours doesn't. What lens did you use to be able to get the 3 guns like that?

Thanks,
I used at tokina 16-28mm f2.8 lens on a full frame body.

Very nice shots of a grand old lady!

Funny thing, I always considered the Iowa Class battleship to be the most photogenic of warships when shot as the ship was berthed. I think that it all depends on the area from which you can shoot. I never served on a batttlewagon but, during the Vietnam Conflict there were Iowa Class battle ships berthed at Naval Air Station, North Island in San Diego. The best shot, if I remember correctly was from the bow looking aft. However, you needed to be a goodly distance forward of the bow to get the shot. It doesn't look like there is sufficient shooting room where Iowa is now berthed...

The most awesome image of an Iowa Class battleship was an aerial shot of the ship firing a broadside of her nine 16-inch guns. You can see how the recoil pushed te ship sideways through the water...