The artifact
that I chose to describe was the Battleship Wisconsin that I toured while I was
on vacation in Virginia. The Wisconsin is an Iowa Class battleship and was one
of the main battleships that participated in World War Two.
This
battleship was designed with one purpose in mind and that is to cause
destruction and destroy enemy battleships. The hull of the battleship was
designed to ensure fast speeds in order to allow the battleship to move quickly
from point A to point B. Also the hull was durable enough to withstand rounds
fired from enemy battleships and in fact it was hit by an enemy round while
deployed but it did not sink.
The
interior of the battleship was very tight; the designers did not want to waste
any space. The stairwells are narrow, the beds will make you claustrophobic and
you can barely spin in a circle while brushing your teeth in the bathrooms.
These battleships required a lot of sailors to operate the ship which made
fitting as many personnel on board as possible a necessity.
A
battleship is nothing without guns. The battleship had three main guns (two in
the front with one overlapping the other and one in the back behind the
bridge). These guns were each equipped with three barrels that could fire
independently of one another to ensure all targets could be engaged. The reason
the two weapons overlapped each other was to decrease the space needed to house
the guns and therefore make the ship smaller in length which made it a smaller
target and harder to hit.
The command
bridge was elevated off of the deck to allow the bridge crew to have a vantage
point of their surroundings and successfully navigate the ship through the
waters as well as see enemy battleships. There was also a helipad in the rear
of the ship to allow rotor wing aircraft to land on the boat if necessary.
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| Photo courtesy of Cody Cioffe |
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| Photo courtesy of Cody Cioffe |
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| Photo courtesy of Cody Cioffe |
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| Photo courtesy of Cody Cioffe |
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| Photo courtesy of Cody Cioffe |
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