"Curator's Tour" on the Batlleship Iowa, Part 3

The next place we went to was the ship's Bakery.

The ship I (used to!) work on usually fed us "store bought" bread, BUT, at certain times of the year, they'd bake fresh bread, and the wonderful aroma filled the entire ship.

Not sure if it was like that on the Iowa, but fresh bread is a marvelous thing!

 

Lots of racks for dinner rolls, and popcorn machine!

Biggest dough mixer I've ever seen. Probably made in the late 1930's, and still functional after over 70 years.

From the bakery we went to some "other" spaces, one of which was at the inner side of the hull. The area below is a "void", and there are many on the ship. Some were filled with sea water, others with fuel oil, and their purpose was to give an extra layer of protection to the inner hull from mines or torpedo attack.

This is one of the many "voids" on the ship.

Of to some generic "Crew's Quarters".

This was the Master Chief's quarters. They told us who he was, but not being a true "Navy Guy", the name didn't ring any bells.

The Engineering Office.

This office is in use, and is where the staff goes over some of the blueprints when needed, ad it also has a very large printer/plotter for making banners and such.

The Electric Shop.

This area is also in use, and is where we brint some of the original radios from the Comm Center when they need work. We're sloooowly getting all the receivers back on-line, and perhaps later this year we'll have one of the 1000 Watt transmitters back on-line. I don't think we'll use it for Amateur Radio operations, but it would be nice to be able to use it for MARS operations.

Some more Crew Art, unfinished. I'm not familiar with what the finished design would be, but I suspect from the hammer, axe, and square it has something to do with Engineering.

 BIG drill press!

Now we come to what the Curator calls "One of the most priceless and revered artifacts on the ship".

Neatly stamped in to the stainless work top are all the names and addresses of the men in the section who were on board the Iowa as she was anchored next to the Missouri in Tokyo Bay for the surrender ceremonies.

It looks like a typewriter did it, but it was all hand stamped. The border around the names is made form "O" and "I" stamps arranged to look like anchor chain.

Just beautiful!

Here's a better picture from the "USN Shipboard Radio Room" website.

 

The table is located in the Mechanical repair shop, at one end.

Here's sosme more shots of the area. The large I-Beam track at the top was used for handling large equipment.

Welding table with pedastal grinder at the rear. The items on the table are not "props". They were there when the ship was put into mothballs, and have been left there.

This is a large lather, with a 21" swing (I forget how long the bed is) located in the "General Workshop". I'm sure you could power it up today, and it would work perfectly. That's a horizontal milling machine on the right.

More art by Mr. Dehning on the Supply Office door.

In this piece he put his artist's signature on the paycheck!

On our way to several of the areas we saw, there were these large, curved structures that several people thought were air ducts. They're actually part of the ammo hoist for the 5" guns. The yellow hoses are from the dehumidification equipment the Navy installed when the Iowa was mothballed. There are quite a few of them still installed, mostly in the "Off Limits" areas.

The US Post Office aboard the Iowa.

This will eventually be on one of the regular tours, so the staff filled the wall display with some information and "First Day Covers" for the Iowa.

This is the certificate the City of Los Angeles gave to the Pacific Battleship Center when the ship came into port.

As we went to the Training Center for the rest of the presentation, we passed the Barbette for Turret #2.

It's 18" thick!

The '"TrainingCenter room, where the crew orientation is given, was formerly an office for the Cargo Handling Department.

Here's a bit of humorous Crew Art, artist unknown.

After the presentation was over (it's very similar to the video I linked to yesterday), we were free to roam the "regular" tour route until the ship closed at 1700.

One thing I really wanted to get some pictures of was the map of the Pacific Theater they discovered while cleaning the Officer's Wardroom. The artist is unknown, and the Curator can find no mention of this map in any of the documentation they have.

Sorry for the crummy pictures, but it was the best I could under the circumstances!

So, that's about what you'd see if you took the "Inside the Iowa Curator's Tour".

I had few flash misfires on some the shots I took, so I didn't post them, like looking "Down Into The Void".

it was deep and dark, and looked like it went on forever.