Structural Engineering for Gun Barrel Installation

GUN MOUNTS

Pennsylvania Historic Museum CommissionPennsylvania Military Museum

Boalsburg, Pennsylvania

Provided engineering services to support the installation of two, 14-inch diameter, 53-foot-long gun barrels from the Battleship USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) on a concrete pedestal. Oversaw a geotechnical investigation and prepared structural designs to design pedestal that would approximate the manner in which the guns appeared on the ship, including a 28’diameter disc that replaces the ship’s turret.

USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) was the lead ship of the Pennsylvania class of United States Navy super-dreadnought battleships. At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Pennsylvania was in drydock in the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard. She was one of the first ships in the harbor to open fire as Japanese dive and torpedo bombers roared out of the high overcast. Repairs were made to enable Pennsylvania to steam to the Marshall Islands where she was used as a target ship in the Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests at Bikini atoll during July 1946. She was then towed to Kwajalein Lagoon where she decommissioned on 29 August. She remained in Kwajalein Lagoon for radiological and structural studies until 10 February 1948, when she was sunk stern first off Kwajalein. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 19 February. Two of her 14-inch guns are now kept outside the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania