Faliro Floating Naval Museum - Athens

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Armoured cruiser G. Averof.

The third ship of the Italian Pisa-class, at first cancelled by the Italians due to a shortage of funds, at which point the Greeks stepped in and bought it instead. About 10000 tons, two double turrets with 234mm guns, four with 190mm guns.

Beat off the Ottoman fleet almost single-handedly in the battles of Elli and Lemnos, ensuring Greek naval superiority in the Agean sea, which in turn was probably quite critical for the overall outcome of the First Balkan War.

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No doors on the side of the turrets that I could see, so this appears to be how you get in and out.

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Possibly a manufacturing flaw.

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Also a place to be stationed.

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Apparently this thing may need fiddling with at times.

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Normal bridge in front, armoured war bridge behind it.

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I'm guessing this is a pretty modern modification.

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Oh bugger.

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Citadel armour.

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Some officer's quarters.

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Admiral's quarters.

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Officer's hangout.

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Destroyer Velos.

Built as USS Charette (DD 581), one of the 175 Fletcher class destroyer built by the US in WW2. I puttered around the Pacific doing destroyer stuff while the war was going on, had the front torpedo launcher swapped out for some AA to swat down kamikaze planes, and with the war over it ended up handed over to Greece in 1959.

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As far as I can tell there used to be a fifth gun turret here, between the torpedoes and the AA platform. Anyone know if it got swapped out by the Americans or the Greeks?

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Some kind of device to help feed gun ammo

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>>32133876
>Some kind of device to help feed gun ammo...

...into the magazines?

(I guess it'd be a good idea to write the whole post before pressing "post".)

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In 1973, during a NATO exercise, the captain of the Velos learned that the Greek junta had imprisoned a number of officer's who had proven more loyal to Greece an democracy than to the powers that were. Being of such leaning himself, he gathered the crew on the read deck and told them that he'd do a little publicity stunt, which the crew is to have been quite enthusiastic about.

He then radioed NATO headquarters, sailed off to Italy, and anchored there. A press conference was held where he pointed out that Greece was pretty fucking far form the democratic ideals waved around in the NATO charter. He, six officers, and twenty five petty officers then sought asylum as political refugees in Italy. Another 170 regular crew members (about all of them) wished to do the same, but were advised (and in some cases outright ordered) to go back to Greece to avoid reprisals against their families.

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Ending with somethign a bit older is style, but probably far younger in manufacture.

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And that's that.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/2b8lh2cq68howih/Athens_-_Floating_Naval_Museums.zip

Interesting stuff op
Did not know that Greece kept there museum ships in such good shape

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>>32134398
The Greek navy still considers them to be in omission, though I doubt either would be called upon to fight anything. Nice to see old things well maintained though. I also got a bit of a feeling that Averof is a bit of a national symbol since the Balkans war. Apparently there was a bit of a scandal a few years back when a wealthy shipper was allowed to have his wedding party on board, that cost the officer in charge his job.

Top thread as ever KM


Interesting about
>>32133173

It is indeed a manufacturer defect, specifically of the 7.5in Armstrong gun. Armstrong Whitworth's chief ordnance engineer himself ensured the Greens it was nothing of consequence and it turned out to be quite true.

The G. Averof has a fucking hilarious and badass history. On her journey to Britian to take on her first load of ammunition, she ran aground, most of her crew was arrested and spent the night in jail and it took a rear admiral of the FN to get them out, and a mutiny almost occured over fucking blue cheese. No, that's not some British code word for an experimental torpedo or something, the actual cheese.

The Captain was then replaced and everything got better off. The G. Averof was the most modern and probably the most powerful ship in the region (Balkans, Black sea, basically around the Turks) that wasn't a Russian battleship, and it was certainly the most modern with the most modern British guns, German generators, French boilers and Italian engines, a winning combination to be sure.

>>32134668
>and it was certainly the most modern with the most modern British guns, German generators, French boilers and Italian engines, a winning combination to be sure.

A bloody miracle they didn't end up with a civil war on board.