ABSTRACT
The Pacific Battleship Center, which hosts the memorial to the battleship USS Iowa (BB-61), can be located on a drive along South Harbor Boulevard in San Pedro, California, by nothing other than the sight of the ship itself. She floats majestically at the pier, 887 feet long, with a tall bridge (Figure 7.1) decorated with medals earned in a long service to the United States of America, and most impressively, the three gun turrets above its deck, two forward and one aft. Each turret (Figure 7.2) houses three 16-inch guns: left, right, and center. With 5-inch steel decks and 17.5-inch steel bulkheads, a turret weighs about the same as a World War II Destroyer, essentially a naval vessel all by itself.
