New Jersey(BB-62) vs Missouri(BB-63)?

Question

Which ship was better?

They are both Iowa class battleship.

New Jersey and Missouri were both built in New York while Iowa and Wisconsin were built in Philadelphia.

New Jersey and Missouri design were almost identical while Iowa and Wisconsin design were almost identical.

New Jersey and Missouri were the only ship in their class to be arm with an aircraft catpult.

New Jersey earn a total of 19 battle stars, 20 ribbons, and is the most decorated battleship in naval history.

New Jersey was also the flag ship of the feared Third Fleet command by Admiral Halsey during WW2.

Missouri earn a total of 11 battle stars and 17 ribbons.

The signing of the Japanese surrender took place in this ship.

The averge person probably have heard of the battleship Missouri and not New Jersey.

Answer 1

The New Jersey was brought out of mothballs and refitted for service in Viet Nam.  There were three of the Iowa class tied up at Bayonne, New Jersey, and the decision which to recommission seems to have been made on the basis that the New Jersey was moored outboard of the three, and would have to be moved in any case.

Since the end of WWII the largest guns put on American construction are five inch guns.  There has been no main battery ammunition made since 1953.  These were even in the Viet Nam era the only remaining "bag guns" in the Navy - so called because the projectiles and propellant are separate.  It takes six bags to fire one shell.  If they are firing the 2700 pound armor piercing shells they use six 110 pound bags of nitrocellulose to fire the gun; if they are firing the 1900 pound HC (high capacity) "bombardment" rounds they use six 55 pound bags.  The shells are supersonic - you dont hear them coming.  One round could instantly create a helicopter landing zone, knocking down all trees within a radius of 100 yards, and defoliating all the trees for several hundred yards beyond that.  The ship was highly effective.  You could send one $1300.00 shell to destroy a bridge, or a 35 million dollar jet aircraft with a highly trained crew.

EIGHTY  PER CENT of Viet Nam was within range of the New Jersey's main guns.  The Paris Peace talks had just begun in 1967, and the North Vietnamese made such a stink over the New Jersey's use, that after only about a year it was decommissioned once more.

The US actually built ten "fast battleships", when they resumed after the "building holiday" imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1923.  The North Carolina and the Washington were sister ships, then there were the four South Dakotas, which were 60 feet shorter.  The Iowas were 160 feet longer than the North Carolina class, and developed almost twice the horsepower.  The first six could make about 27 knots, and the Iowas could make about 33.  All ten had aircraft catapults so they could operate O2SU "Kingfisher" aircraft used to correct the main battery's aim.  They could fire 24 miles, and it was hard to see that far from the ship even with high powered optics.

All ten of the fast battleships were 109 1/2 feet wide, so they could fit through the locks at the Panama Canal, which are 110 feet wide.  It was a very tight fit.

The Washington was the only US battleship to sink an enemy battleship in WWII, when it sank the Kirishima in one of the night battles at Guadalcanal in November 1942.  Sadly it was cut up for scrap after the war, along with the Indiana and the South Dakota.  The Massachusetts, North Carolina and Alabama have all been museum ships for many years.

To answer your specific question Id have to go with the New Jersey, solely based upon its better record.  It was finished before the Missouri and had more opportunities.

Answer 2

I think this is one of personal preference since they were the same ship. The difference would have been the crew and the captain in charge.