Navy question?

[Big_Dave]

I'm fascinated with the old 'Battle Wagons' of years / generations past. I read about them often, but have never seen anything in print explaining 'gun size'.

Can someone explain what these numbers stand for?

a main battery of twelve 16"/50 guns, a secondary battery of twenty 5"/38 guns
I know what the 16" and 5" means, but what does the 'secondary' number mean?
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/bb-67.htm

Thanks.

[Bookworm]

I could be wrong Dave (it happened once but I divorced her) but -------- 16"/50 was a 16 inch gun that had a barrel length 50 times the caliber and the 5/38 was a 5 in gun with a barrel length 38 times it's caliber

Dave
edited after some more research

[EVlLBOB]

The 50 and 38 are the caliber of the guns. The Iowa class were the largest American Dreadnoughts and I believe that the Missouri was the largest of the Iowa class. There used to be a billboard that said, "You are now in range of the USS Alabama" and that billboard was about 20 miles from Mobile, AL. Here is more info on the armament of the Iowa class ships:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armament_of_the_Iowa_class_battleship