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USS Missouri (BB-63) is an Iowa-class battleship and was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named after the U.S. state of Missouri. She was the last battleship commissioned by the United States and is best remembered as the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan, which ended World War II. Missouri received a total of 11 battle stars for service in World War II, Korea, and the Persian Gulf, and was finally decommissioned in 1992 after serving a total of 17 years of active service, but remained on the Naval Vessel Register until her name was struck in 1995. In 1998, she was donated to the USS Missouri Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor. [1]

Coverage[]

The USS Missouri is featured in Armed & Defenseless.

It was first introduce in 1 day after people, where the battleship sits quietly in Pearl Harbor. The show explains the history of the battleship, it was permanently moored as a museum ship since 1998, it was the last American battleship ever launched and the last to be decommissioned. It was five feet longer and eighteen feet wider than the Titanic. It was launched in 1944, witnessed the Japanese surrender in World War, and fired its guns on their last targets during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

While the Missouri is well-armed for fighting off enemy planes and ships, the device found below deck, in the corner of the mess hall, is the key defense in life after people: the control units for the Missouri's cathodic corrosion protection system. The show explains the device, it prevents rust and corrosion by sending an electrical current to zinc rods attached to the steel of the hull. The electric zinc draws corrosive reactions away from the steel but it only works submerged in water. Above, cleaning and painting are only defenses that even breaks down in the time of humans. Ronald Chavez shows the examples of rust on board the USS Missouri, a lot of the surface rust happen rapidly once the paint system fail from brackets, the supporting members holding ladders, and the piping systems. He then stated that eventually they're going to give way, crash, and fault in their foundations.

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The electric powered rust protection system fails.

The first event begins in 4 days after people when power is permanently out on the entire island, meaning that USS Missouri's electrically powered rust protection system fails and seawater begins to eat away at its hull.

In 6 months after people, birds of Hawaii are flocking to the USS Missouri. Sam 'Ohu Gon explains that birds don't have trouble and would treat it like any other island. The show continues that the birds bring new life to the decks, by dropping undigested seeds that lodge into the ships 53,000 square feet of wooden decks. He then explains that the decks of the Missouri would have tear decks and organic would start from buildup of soil and leaf litter like any place on land by just a matter of time.

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The USS Missouri drifts away from its mooring.

In 15 years after people, the lines of the USS Missouri begins to break off. Ronald Chavez stated that the ship is held to the pier with nylon mooring lines and has a chink in it. He then stated that after 15 to 20 years, the mooring lines part and the ship breaks away from its mooring in Pearl Harbor. The show continues that the lines snap and the USS Missouri pulls away from the docks of Pearl Harbor.

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The deteriorated USS Missouri.

In 70 years after people, the USS Missouri is now under a cover of green as is being consumed by blanket of shrubs and grasses. The massive 16-inch guns and the topside structures are being creep up by vines. Although its mooring line snapped long ago, the USS Missouri hasn't drifted far from the crumbling docks due to the mud of the shallow harbor bottom, which kept the 45,000 ton behemoth close of shore. But the Missouri is deteriorating faster above the waterline than below.

It's fate is revealed in 250 years after people, while the decks of the USS Missouri still rise above the waterline, water is penetrating its hull. Ronald Chavez stated that on the waterline, a series of rivet heads can be seen and the rivets are the weakest link in the ship. As the rivets rust, they'll fail and water starts entering the inside of the tanks and start flooding the ship. As the USS Missouri floods, the ships sinks deeper into the mud of the harbor bottom where it deck remain 10 feet above water, allowing the elements to continue wearing away its superstructure. The Missouri is built nearly 30 years after the nearby USS Arizona was built, and test conduced on the Arizona in 2008 and 2009 determined its hull take another 300 years to deteriorate. For the Missouri, it s a well more advanced warship with an outer hull 17 inches thick in places, engineers estimate that the ship could hold together for 20,000 years. The show conclude that the USS Missouri becomes a new home for generations of tropical fish.

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