Once again - From Jay Yurth (Amazon.com)

The loudest sound I ever heard.

 

There I was in the middle of the Indian Ocean on the aircraft carrier USS Ranger. Circa.1986-1989.We were told that the USS Missouri Battleship was going to fire two rounds off, just for us to witness. They positioned the ships in a single file (there were about 30 other ships in our battle group) We were lucky enough to be right in front of the Missouri. Now that would make us the length of our ship away from them, so about 1100-1500 feet or so. They told us to watch the horizon for a big splash. The Battleship will be shooting a shell about as heavy as a Volkswagon out yonder. When you are out in the open ocean, on a ship that has a flight deck and catwalks about 50 feet or so above the water, the horizon about 12-13 miles away. Here is the equation.   You do the math (I barely passed Pre-calc.) This establishes how far you can see until the curve of the Earth starts, blah, blah, blah. Anywho, all the sailors that were virgins to this kind of an event grabbed a place on the starboard side of the ship and waited.

Finally we heard a BONE jarring sound. You could actually FEEL the blast hit your ears, eyes and entire body. I remember thinking that something went wrong and they fired AT us, but as I could clearly see the turret pointing out to sea and a large cloud of fiery smoke, I quickly knew that was not the case. Then I scanned the horizon. It took about 5-8 seconds and…splash down. You could see a very large spray of water shooting up in the sky. WOW. Then they did another one and I was ready for it. It was by far the loudest sound I have ever heard or felt, you really can’t explain the loudness... I’ll try though. It was like listening to the rock band Metallica as a guest of the band and they sat you right in front of one speaker. I was quite impressed.

 Until then, the loudest sound I had ever experienced was when the Saratoga put on an Air show for us in the Atlantic Ocean and a jet flew by our ship fifty feet up off the port side at supersonic speed. When it went by, it sounded like an arrow going through the air, then of course a few seconds behind that was the sonic boom. It almost made me drop my camera in the water. I bounced about 6 inches up off the flight deck I was sitting on as my butt checks tightened so quickly. That was loud, but it was not as loud at the Missouri shooting one shell. NOW, think of the guys inside the Battleship that are actually loading the shells and gunpowder and yelling “fire in the hole”. I am sure they all have hearing disability checks coming. They mothballed the Battleship Missouri at Pearl Harbor, so you can walk on it and take a tour when you visit Hawaii, I have. Here is a picture of the Missouri firing 3 at a time.