7 ms·

In 1989 I was a data systems tech on a Destroyer going through some overhaul at the shipyard in Pascagoula Mississippi. Moored right next to us was the battles

by pmcf 2y ago

In 1989 I was a data systems tech on a Destroyer going through some overhaul at the shipyard in Pascagoula Mississippi. Moored right next to us was the battleship Wisconsin. Huge relic from WW2 but still going through modernization. A bunch of us that worked on combat systems got invited for a tour of their fire control systems. Wow. Just wow. All mechanical computers calculating fire control solutions for the big 16 inch guns. The guys giving the tour were well beyond the age for regular military retirement. Come to find out, they were all reactivated because practical knowledge of the mechanical computers had since left the navy. That was a very cool day.

flavius29663 2y ago
I remember seeing one of those computers on Wisconsin, but I only saw it after decommission, as a museum piece. Those computers are truly mind boggling, if you're reading this and you're close to Norfolk you should visit battleship Wisconsin.
- ricktdotorg 2y ago
  same goes for being in SoCal and going to visit the USS Iowa in San Pedro. it also has similar mechanical computers, it's a fantastic day spent clambering around the ship. sometimes they do "stay overnight in the bunks" nights, I can highly recommend it!
  - teqsun 2y ago
    For anyone along the Northeastern corridor, the USS New Jersey in Camden is another well-preserved Iowa class museum ship.
    - mrguyorama 2y ago
      The Battleship New Jersey has a good youtube channel where the head curator walks you through some things. https://www.youtube.com/@BattleshipNewJersey https://www.youtube.com/@BattleshipNewJersey They also sell broken parts of the ship that they fix up as souvenirs, like the entire deck's worth of wooden planking, and for $1000 you can take a tour where the mildly charismatic head curator takes you into the smallest and hardest to reach parts of the ship! Or fire a 5 inch gun, you know, if that's more your speed.
      - jabl 2y ago
        > Or fire a 5 inch gun, you know, if that's more your speed. Depends on what the target is.
        teqsun 2y ago
        For $1k it's just a blank round. But if you donate $1M, you're allowed to shoot the USS New Jersey's curator Jordan with an HE shell from the 16" guns.
        LgWoodenBadger 2y ago
        If you watch the channel you'd know it was HC - high capacity.
Loughla 2y ago
My uncle was on the Wisconsin and operated the big guns during the first Gulf war. I never really had context as a kid for how large that ship is, and was just astounded by the distances they would shell.
- pmcf 2y ago
  This was right before the gulf war so I may have met him! Assuming he was a gunners mate, that crew had a lot of moments of touching history. Besides mechanical computers, it’s a really dangerous place since they had to handle massive bags of flash powder. My ship was near the USS Iowa when turret two went up. A sobering experience when you think how much risk the turret crews are in just by doing their jobs.
  - teachrdan 2y ago
    For those like me who didn't get this reference: "On 19 April 1989, an explosion occurred within the Number Two 16-inch gun turret of the United States Navy battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) during a fleet exercise in the Caribbean Sea near Puerto Rico.[1] The explosion in the center gun room killed 47 of the turret's crewmen and severely damaged the gun turret itself." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_turret_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_turret_explosion
    - lazyant 2y ago
      thanks, I ended up reading the whole thing. If you watched a movie about this you'd think the writers went too far.
cwillu 2y ago
Apropos: https://www.navalgazing.net/Fire-Control-Part-1 https://www.navalgazing.net/Fire-Control-Part-1
retrac 2y ago
By the end of WW II American torpedoes were automatically programmed (direction, speed, fusing) before firing. The heavy calculations would be done by the shipboard firing computer while the parameters set would be used by the simple computer on the torpedo (which had inertial guidance). I struggle to imagine how people managed to design such things with just pencils and slide rules.
- dr-detroit 2y ago
  [dead]
- nradov 2y ago
  WW II American torpedoes didn't have inertial guidance. They used gyros for directional control and just ran in a straight line after making a single turn onto the set course. Occasionally the torpedo would get stuck in that turn and run in a circle. Towards the end of the war the Navy also started introducing homing torpedoes, but those didn't use inertial guidance either.
  - pocketstar 2y ago
    A gyro by definition IS inertial guidance.
    - nradov 2y ago
      Not really. By definition an inertial guidance or navigation system has to do some sort of integration of inputs over time. Gyroscopes are typically used as part of inertial guidance systems, but connecting a gyro output directly to a rudder input wouldn't by itself be considered as inertial guidance. The device wasn't doing anything to calculate absolute position based on inertia.
  - ploxiln 2y ago
    > Occasionally the torpedo would get stuck in that turn and run in a circle. Well that's not a great failure mode, if it can come right back at vessel which launched it ... imagine trying to implement a self-destruct failsafe with that tech back then ...
zerohm 2y ago
I had a co-worker at the Navy Yard that said he was an Anti-Aircraft tech during the Korean War. When he said they used 'mechanical computers' I had to stair up into space for a minute to figure out what that meant.
UncleOxidant 2y ago
In 1981 I was just out of high school and had a summer job at NUWES - Navel Undersea Warfare and Engineering Station in Keyport, WA. I was in a group that was refurb'ing fire control computers from submarines. They kind of looked like those stand up video game consoles that became popular in arcades soon after - except these cabinets were made of solid aluminum. They were full of gears and resolvers - analog computers. The "display" was all analog. And they were all being replaced with new gears and resolvers. I recall that there was another group nearby that was experimenting with microcomputers - they had some S-100 boxes like IMSAI 8080s.

by pmcf 2y ago

flavius29663 2y ago

I remember seeing one of those computers on Wisconsin, but I only saw it after decommission, as a museum piece. Those computers are truly mind boggling, if you're reading this and you're close to Norfolk you should visit battleship Wisconsin.

ricktdotorg 2y ago
same goes for being in SoCal and going to visit the USS Iowa in San Pedro. it also has similar mechanical computers, it's a fantastic day spent clambering around the ship. sometimes they do "stay overnight in the bunks" nights, I can highly recommend it!
- teqsun 2y ago
  For anyone along the Northeastern corridor, the USS New Jersey in Camden is another well-preserved Iowa class museum ship.
  - mrguyorama 2y ago
    The Battleship New Jersey has a good youtube channel where the head curator walks you through some things. https://www.youtube.com/@BattleshipNewJersey https://www.youtube.com/@BattleshipNewJersey They also sell broken parts of the ship that they fix up as souvenirs, like the entire deck's worth of wooden planking, and for $1000 you can take a tour where the mildly charismatic head curator takes you into the smallest and hardest to reach parts of the ship! Or fire a 5 inch gun, you know, if that's more your speed.
    - jabl 2y ago
      > Or fire a 5 inch gun, you know, if that's more your speed. Depends on what the target is.
      - teqsun 2y ago
        For $1k it's just a blank round. But if you donate $1M, you're allowed to shoot the USS New Jersey's curator Jordan with an HE shell from the 16" guns.
        LgWoodenBadger 2y ago
        If you watch the channel you'd know it was HC - high capacity.

Loughla 2y ago

My uncle was on the Wisconsin and operated the big guns during the first Gulf war. I never really had context as a kid for how large that ship is, and was just astounded by the distances they would shell.

pmcf 2y ago
This was right before the gulf war so I may have met him! Assuming he was a gunners mate, that crew had a lot of moments of touching history. Besides mechanical computers, it’s a really dangerous place since they had to handle massive bags of flash powder. My ship was near the USS Iowa when turret two went up. A sobering experience when you think how much risk the turret crews are in just by doing their jobs.
- teachrdan 2y ago
  For those like me who didn't get this reference: "On 19 April 1989, an explosion occurred within the Number Two 16-inch gun turret of the United States Navy battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) during a fleet exercise in the Caribbean Sea near Puerto Rico.[1] The explosion in the center gun room killed 47 of the turret's crewmen and severely damaged the gun turret itself." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_turret_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_turret_explosion
  - lazyant 2y ago
    thanks, I ended up reading the whole thing. If you watched a movie about this you'd think the writers went too far.

cwillu 2y ago

Apropos: https://www.navalgazing.net/Fire-Control-Part-1 https://www.navalgazing.net/Fire-Control-Part-1

retrac 2y ago

By the end of WW II American torpedoes were automatically programmed (direction, speed, fusing) before firing. The heavy calculations would be done by the shipboard firing computer while the parameters set would be used by the simple computer on the torpedo (which had inertial guidance). I struggle to imagine how people managed to design such things with just pencils and slide rules.

dr-detroit 2y ago
[dead]
nradov 2y ago
WW II American torpedoes didn't have inertial guidance. They used gyros for directional control and just ran in a straight line after making a single turn onto the set course. Occasionally the torpedo would get stuck in that turn and run in a circle. Towards the end of the war the Navy also started introducing homing torpedoes, but those didn't use inertial guidance either.
- pocketstar 2y ago
  A gyro by definition IS inertial guidance.
  - nradov 2y ago
    Not really. By definition an inertial guidance or navigation system has to do some sort of integration of inputs over time. Gyroscopes are typically used as part of inertial guidance systems, but connecting a gyro output directly to a rudder input wouldn't by itself be considered as inertial guidance. The device wasn't doing anything to calculate absolute position based on inertia.
- ploxiln 2y ago
  > Occasionally the torpedo would get stuck in that turn and run in a circle. Well that's not a great failure mode, if it can come right back at vessel which launched it ... imagine trying to implement a self-destruct failsafe with that tech back then ...

zerohm 2y ago

I had a co-worker at the Navy Yard that said he was an Anti-Aircraft tech during the Korean War. When he said they used 'mechanical computers' I had to stair up into space for a minute to figure out what that meant.

UncleOxidant 2y ago

In 1981 I was just out of high school and had a summer job at NUWES - Navel Undersea Warfare and Engineering Station in Keyport, WA. I was in a group that was refurb'ing fire control computers from submarines. They kind of looked like those stand up video game consoles that became popular in arcades soon after - except these cabinets were made of solid aluminum. They were full of gears and resolvers - analog computers. The "display" was all analog. And they were all being replaced with new gears and resolvers. I recall that there was another group nearby that was experimenting with microcomputers - they had some S-100 boxes like IMSAI 8080s.