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Shipbreakers, a ship dismantling and military surplus company based in New Jersey, was successfully awarded four (4) of the 16" Iowa Class Battleship guns (720 tons) which were located at the Long Beach California Naval Base.

These used guns were removed from Iowa-class battleships (Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey, Wisconsin) for reconditioning. The guns were then placed into ready storage at the Long Beach Naval Base as replacement guns. When the Navy made the decision to retire the Iowa class battleships from active duty and decided that the 16" replacement guns would no longer be required, they were put up for surplus bidding. Initially, we bid for these guns for their metal value without researching the documentation that would identify which Iowa class battleship these guns were removed from.

We realized that we had a very unique piece of Naval history and decided to keep a portion of these storied guns for memorabilia purposes. We shipped the bulk of the guns by railroad containers to a smelter in New Castle, PA.

We are now offering a limited edition piece of Naval history in the form of a 12" x 15" Polished Wood Plaque with an 8" replica of a naval ordinance cast from metal of the 16" guns of these storied Iowa-Class battleships - Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey, Wisconsin - and Naval seal laminated color photograph of appropriate Iowa-class battleship, battle ribbons and citation. Plaques can be personalized with name, rank, serial number, and date of service. Also each plaque comes included with a Numbered Certificate of Authenticity. The 8" gun included on the plaque is a scaled metal replica gun cast from the 80 foot gun with the actual metal of the 16" ordinance.

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