She must be close to the record in service longevity. Twenty Seven years with the US Navy. Twenty Seven years with the S. Korean Navy. She is now a museum ship at Gangneung Unification Park South Korea. When the US Navy retired this ship, she was known as the last of the Six shooters. Six 5 in 38 Caliber rifles make up her main battery. When she was sent to the Sea of Japan, to rescue the Pueblo, she carried a reputation for deadly accuracy with her six 5 inch guns. Although the rescue never executed, the South Koreans took note and specific sought to purchase this ship which happened in 1972. They made a museum of this ship in 1999. I always sort of wondered if anyone else ever messed with that Mark1A mechanical monster, that controlled the main battery. I doubt it, once right, you don't screw with them.
This doesn't look like a fitting end for a good ship. Jacked up on shore somewhere, like a carcase from yesteryear.
Well in reality, it really is. Stripped of two thirds of the main battery. I wonder what the hell they wanted?
Well obviously if you owned this ship you would technically have a fleet so assuming this ship was commisioned it would be the (MAS) MarAzul Ship, Betty Ford. Betty was the first name that popped into my mind, and Betty Ford sounds better than Betty Crocker.
The Mark 1A computer I referred to in the original post was the center piece of this ship. Actually all Destroyers built for the US Navy from 1937 until 1972. Most were built during WWII and not many were built after the end of the war, except for experimental purposes until the Spruance class which started in 1972. The computer room or Plot as it was known, was actually in the meta center of the ship, the center of pitch and roll of ship. This point is straight down below the waterline under the Mark 37 FireControl Director above the bridge, just before the main mast. It was perhaps the device that represents the apex of human engineering of mechanical devices, an analog computer. The last of it's kind. Conceived by the British Navy, refined at MIT, and built by Ford Instrument Co. It was the brain of the Mark 37 Fire Control system. It performed all the calculation involved with hitting a moving target on a rotating planet from a moving ship, pitching and rolling. It probably weighed about 4 tons and when it was properly adjusted to specs, the gun fire was extremely accurate. The machines components, finely machined using the quality steel and Bronze. When all tuned it stayed that way in it's protective environment. The best place in the ship to ride out rough weather too.
