Artistic License Ships: Difference between revisions
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*** However, the standard crew complement on an ''Iowa''-class BB is 1800 men -- and that's for one of the modern refitted ones, an unrefitted museum piece would still be using the original manning needs of about 3000. Even assuming a 100% survival rate for the crews of the destroyers, they didn't have enough men to staff so much as one duty section. In addition to the fact that it takes approximately six months, a full shipyard, and hundreds of yard workers to reactivate an Iowa-class BB from mothballs.<ref>That being how long it took to reactivate the USS ''New Jersey'' in 1982, IRL.</ref>
*** There's also that while many skills would carry over between the differing ship types (deck department, fire control, etc.), the engineering departments ''wouldn't''. Iowa-class BBs used diesel-fired steam boilers while modern destroyers use gas-turbine engines, which are completely different. The one nod to realism in the movie is them acknowledging that they'd have to go find outside experts who were familiar with the equipment and call them in to supervise the engineering refit.
*** Of course, the ''entire premise'' of that scene is absurd to begin with. Even if we handwave aside every single one of the logistical and maintenance concerns above, the scene as presented still contradicts itself. The USS ''Missouri'' is a museum ship docked at Pearl Harbor naval base. If you can reach Oahu from there (which they obviously could, because that's where the retired sailors they called in to supervise the engineering refit were living) then geographically the entirety of Pearl Harbor is under the dome with you and freely available. Which admittedly takes care of the 'crew' problem above (as the entire personnel complement of one of the US Navy's largest bases is potentially available)... but also means the idea of the protagonist remaining in command of the situation as acting senior officer present is ludicrous because he's a lieutenant, and there's enough people on that island who outrank him to damn near crew the entire battleship by themselves.
**** Not least among them being CINCPAC himself -- Pacific Command is located on Oahu, which was also under the dome.<ref>For the unitiated CINCPAC refers to Commander-in-Chief US Pacific Command, the four-star admiral or general (traditionally an admiral) in operational command of all US military forces in the entire Pacific theater and only two steps down from the President himself in the chain of command, directly underneath the Secretary of Defense.</ref>
** One area the film-makers did screw up in however, is the portrayal of John Paul Jones herself. She is the third ship in the Arliegh Burke Class of Destroyers, which means she is a Flight 1. Flight 1s have a helipad, but lack a hanger. The USS Sampson (which was destroyed) is a Flight 2A. These models HAVE a hanger. However, someone in the film studio seemed to think that all Burkes have hangers, which would be excusable if the ship and hull number was fictional, but the USS John Paul Jones is one of the better known of the Destroyer fleet, and there are hundreds of photos to reference from.
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