As we approach Memorial Day, we continue our tour aboard the legendary USS Iowa Museum ⚓ (Part 3)

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]The locks on the Panama Canal are 110 ft wide. Ship is a beam of 108 ft 2 [music] in.

[00:00:06]That's not a coincidence. It's a design criteria to go through the canal. Go through the canal after a ship of any size, which this is, takes about 8 to get through the Isthmus, which is 50 mi wide. Came out the other side and now they're going into battle.

[00:00:19]If going into battle, you want to have full food, full fuel, and full ammunition to start with. Well, they had the ammunition, but they used a lot of food and fuel just coming down here.

[00:00:28]Well, there's no facilities usually in the canal. It would be here somewhere cuz my exact position was actually quite north.

[00:00:33]Ships came out from Pearl Harbor and replenished the fleet.

[00:00:36]US Navy is the best in the world. It's the best in the world.

[00:00:39]It's a huge force multiplier. They probably did it over here somewhere cuz it was more, you know, less of a journey to get to the first station here.

[00:00:49]Okay, now they're going to island hop.

[00:00:51]They shelled Quadzline and then they talked for a while. Then they went and hit Truk. This was a big battle. They used a lot of ammunition and stuff like that. Then they were told go blast Mili Atoll. Mili Atoll didn't like that. They blasted back.

[00:01:03]They had some 5-in and some 6-in artillery out there. We didn't know about it.

[00:01:07]Got a hit on the Saratoga with two of the 6-in shells. They trashed the paint.

[00:01:11]That's 10 in of face hardened armor. You don't get through that with a 6-in shell.

[00:01:15]A point blank at the waterline they got a hit on the ship the siding there. It's about that thick with a 5-in shell. They got their pier stabbed. There's a foot of water behind it. Didn't pierce that. Well, the captain's upset with his impolite behavior.

[00:01:29]So, he told I mean you have another five 5-in mounts on that side at the time.

[00:01:34]Two guns each. [music] They just made me and boom, boom, boom. They blew away a couple acres of that island they were shooting at.

[00:01:40]I think those guys are more brave or smart shooting at a battleship with guns that small, but yes, we do that kind of [music] stuff.

[00:01:46]Well, not in this case.

[00:01:48]All right, after Mili Atoll they went and hit orders to go here and go there and everywhere. They just, you know, it must have replenished a couple times. It must [music] have seen a couple of times in this.

[00:01:57]Yeah.