English: DN-SC-91-03644 - The gun captain of the center Mark 7 16-inch/50-caliber gun in the No. 2 turret aboard the battleship USS IOWA (BB-61) gives the signal to ram the powder bags on the spanning tray into the gun's chamber. The crew is loading what will be the 1,000th round fired by the IOWAs 16-inch guns since the ship's recommissioning. The panel opposite the gun captain with the red line is the door to the powder hoist from which the bags are delivered to the gun from the powder room at the base of the turret. At left, the rammerman operates the lever which uses hydraulics to ram the projectiles and powder bags into the gun's breech. The rammerman must carefully operate the ram lever as an overram could jam the powder bags and/or projectile too far into the gun, causing a dangerous situation. On 19 April 1989 this same gun exploded and killed 47 crewmembers in the turret. The explosion is theorized to have been caused by an overram of five bags of D-846 powder.
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