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Moving the USS Texas

Chad Fuck

By Chad Fuck
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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 90480

Posted
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6 hours ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

I believe the battleship New Jersey curator is going to pay a visit in preparation for that ship’s upcoming dry dock visit. He has a pretty solid YouTube following so that should help too. 

I think I’ve watched all 1,500+ of his videos.  I can tell you where the New Jersey’s captains silver service set is stored, how they moved ammo through the ship from turret to turret, and how the steam system worked, among other things.

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InkaUtexas

InkaUtexas 26778

Posted
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1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

I think I’ve watched all 1,500+ of his videos.  I can tell you where the New Jersey’s captains silver service set is stored, how they moved ammo through the ship from turret to turret, and how the steam system worked, among other things.

Cool story. Have you thought of getting laid? I kid, impressed. Oh, and I had a few beers. 

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Hate

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I gotta be honest.  I’m not optimistic about how far $35M is going to go in keeping her afloat.  I can only imagine what that hull is going to look like when they get it on blocks.
They need to find a nice spot offshore to sink it as a marine habitat and let people dive it.   

561174127e18e7dd918f3c54b216d02f.gif
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CycleTex87

CycleTex87 2998

Posted
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53 minutes ago, hookemATL said:

Surely we can get Whataburger to sponsor the ship to help fully fund repairs and upkeep. 
 

“Welcome to the USS Texas, brought to you by the new Whataburger honey butter chicken biscuits n gravy burger”. 
 

you mean those nice folks from Chicago?

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Bobby_Batronic

Bobby_Batronic 1994

Posted
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7 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

I think I’ve watched all 1,500+ of his videos.  I can tell you where the New Jersey’s captains silver service set is stored, how they moved ammo through the ship from turret to turret, and how the steam system worked, among other things.

Yup. It’s good stuff, and he has certainly taken the camera to every nook and cranny of that ship

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Bobby_Batronic

Bobby_Batronic 1994

Posted
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8 hours ago, Chad Fuck said:


I was aboard New Jersey about a month ago. Really nice shape but it’s in a rough location.

f4c82d40768416e5b33212308c169a47.jpg

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6922e481bf33d69f557ca260ac11d870.jpg

It’s less than ideal, but he’s clearly monetized his media and built up support to keep the NJ in good shape. Him being around the Texas is a very good thing. 
 

That last picture reminded me that they had a periscope in one of the engine rooms to observe the exhaust and refine the mixture in the boilers to make the ship less visible.  

 

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PTINS

PTINS 3490

Posted
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image.thumb.jpeg.d9674ec1b933f26bdf392b84d30cd95f.jpeg

 

Always liked this pic of the kiddo's on the USS Texas. Pretty sure they had not seen Dr. Strangelove by this time...

Fun trip for all. Got to go down in the bowels of the Texas.  Hard to imagine working in the engine room on a daily basis. We also did the trip to Corpus Christi for the "Stay Aboard" on the Lexington, complete w/ the SOS for breakfast.  Nothing brings the realities of history to life like seeing the artifacts.

We went to the Smithsonian and the kids were talking about the attributes of the various weapons in each exhibit.  The other people around us thought it was cute at first, and then slowly increased their distance from us. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Grade of D as in David

Grade of D as in David 13254

Posted
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21 hours ago, Guadaloopy said:

I gotta be honest.  I’m not optimistic about how far $35M is going to go in keeping her afloat.  I can only imagine what that hull is going to look like when they get it on blocks.

They need to find a nice spot offshore to sink it as a marine habitat and let people dive it.   

Yahoo Fun GIF by getflexseal

 

$35M will buy a shitload of flexseal

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 90480

Posted
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11 hours ago, Chad Fuck said:

What’s his name? I feel I’m missing out here.


https://www.youtube.com/c/BattleshipNewJersey/videos

He covers a lot of non-New Jersey stuff, and I mean a lot.  Lots of WWI/WWII naval stuff, and even stuff about the modernization programs of our battleships and even their service in the first Gulf War.

He’s just one of those people that nerds out over everything having to do with these ships.

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 90480

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His was from March of last year, He or somebody needs to keep an updated list of the museum ships that need he most help.

As he pointed out, Texas is significant because she’s the oldest, and she’s had leaks (video should be right at the Texas part)

 

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Chad Fuck

Chad Fuck 18072

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https://www.youtube.com/c/BattleshipNewJersey/videos
He covers a lot of non-New Jersey stuff, and I mean a lot.  Lots of WWI/WWII naval stuff, and even stuff about the modernization programs of our battleships and even their service in the first Gulf War.
He’s just one of those people that nerds out over everything having to do with these ships.

I know who this guy is. He posts a lot on the Museumships group on FB.
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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 90480

Posted
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1 hour ago, Chad Fuck said:

I know who this guy is. He posts a lot on the Museumships group on FB.

I wish a lot more of the museum ships had guys like him pumping out videos like he does, because it’s got to help drive up interest and visitors  for the ships.  

Even when he has no plans for what he’s going to film and it feels like he’s thinking “okay, fuck it, we’ll film a tour of the heads that the main turret gunners use”, it’s still entertaining.

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FartingMonk

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On 9/1/2022 at 4:45 PM, TwiceHorn said:

Interesting.  I thought they closed off the floating dry dock and pumped out the interior, but apparently not.  They pump out the spaces in the dock itself.

It's on a ballast system.  They flood the ballast tanks full so it sinks.  Once the ship is parked inside the dry dock.  They blow the ballast so the dry dock itself starts to float.  Hence the term "floating dry dock.  

I've taken a submarine into drydock 3-4 times but those were the traditional ones.  You basically dead stick it and land on blocks inside the dry dock.  They pull the caisson and then pump it out.  One of the scariest things to me is actually going inside the dry dock.  You are probably a good 100 feet below the water with this manmade door blocking you and the ocean.  If that thing breaks you're pretty much fucked.  Anytime I had to go tour the drydock.  I would make it as quick as possible.

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31946

Posted
Posted (edited)

I think those were where the "mooring" piers were attached.

1280px-Battleship_Texas_-_exterior_-_DSC

I was reminded looking at some videos from that Tom Scott guy that BB-35 was of riveted construction.  But I suppose any hull repairs will be welded.  Anyone know their intentions there?

Also, I find it kind of interesting that the forward "barbettes" were enclosed and guns removed, yet amidships there are still what appear to be 5" guns in barbettes above the main deck.  The pic above really reveals it to have been a dreadnought, as those barbettes were mostly gone from ship designs by the 20s or 30s at the latest.

Also something super-weird that I never noticed before.  She only has one funnel.  There are six boilers and they all feed into that one funnel.  That's got to be extremely unusual.  Even destroyers usually have two or more funnels.  At launch, she had two.  I understand that one boiler room, with two boilers, was removed during one of her refits relating to the conversion from reciprocating to turbine engines and I suppose they went from saturated to superheated steam and forced draft, as well as oil burners, so maybe that eliminated a need for a second funnel.

Edited by TwiceHorn
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Bobby_Batronic

Bobby_Batronic 1994

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, TwiceHorn said:

I think those were where the "mooring" piers were attached.

1280px-Battleship_Texas_-_exterior_-_DSC

I was reminded looking at some videos from that Tom Scott guy that BB-35 was of riveted construction.  But I suppose any hull repairs will be welded.  Anyone know their intentions there?

Also, I find it kind of interesting that the forward "barbettes" were enclosed and guns removed, yet amidships there are still what appear to be 5" guns in barbettes above the main deck.  The pic above really reveals it to have been a dreadnought, as those barbettes were mostly gone from ship designs by the 20s or 30s at the latest.

Also something super-weird that I never noticed before.  She only has one funnel.  There are six boilers and they all feed into that one funnel.  That's got to be extremely unusual.  Even destroyers usually have two or more funnels.  At launch, she had two.  I understand that one boiler room, with two boilers, was removed during one of her refits relating to the conversion from reciprocating to turbine engines and I suppose they went from saturated to superheated steam and forced draft, as well as oil burners, so maybe that eliminated a need for a second funnel.

I don’t think they ever refit her with steam turbines. They had plans to, but never followed through. 

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Chad Fuck

Chad Fuck 18072

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I don’t think they ever refit her with steam turbines. They had plans to, but never followed through. 

Right, I recall reading somewhere that she’s a National engineering landmark (or some similar recognition) as the peak of triple expansion steam engine design. I never got to take the engineering tour, but maybe in e future.

If you ever want to see what one of those bad boys look like, check out Olympia in Philly. The piston shafts are open to the world. I cannot imagine being a young machinists mate on rolling seas standing your watch next to a giant meat grinder like that. One false move and you’re hamburger.
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TwiceHorn

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Posted
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9 hours ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

I don’t think they ever refit her with steam turbines. They had plans to, but never followed through. 

You are right.  I thought I read turbines at one of the refits.

The elimination of the fourth boiler room was due to the switch to oil fired.  It apparently always worked on superheated steam, which was kind of the pinnacle of reciprocating steam engines and, although triple-expansion, had four cylinders each (two low-pressure pistons) because of the huge expansion from inlet pressure to outlet pressure.

There is a series of videos about the engines at the Tom Scott channel. 

 

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31946

Posted
Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, Chad Fuck said:


Right, I recall reading somewhere that she’s a National engineering landmark (or some similar recognition) as the peak of triple expansion steam engine design. I never got to take the engineering tour, but maybe in e future.

If you ever want to see what one of those bad boys look like, check out Olympia in Philly. The piston shafts are open to the world. I cannot imagine being a young machinists mate on rolling seas standing your watch next to a giant meat grinder like that. One false move and you’re hamburger.

Sand Pebbles enters the chat.

Also:

 

Engine rooms are in surprisingly good shape.  The connecting rods are actually fairly well shrouded on Texas.

Edited by TwiceHorn
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TwiceHorn

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Posted
Posted (edited)
3 minutes ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

That super heated steam is scary stuff if there’s a leak. 
 

I can’t remember which ship, but the British actually pressurized the engine room of one of their warships to get extra power out of the engines. 

That was common by the end of WWII.  The boiler rooms of Texas were overpressured.  "Forced draught" is what they called it.  Ships got semi-crippled if they lost pressure in the boiler rooms.

Edited by TwiceHorn
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FartingMonk

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1 hour ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

That super heated steam is scary stuff if there’s a leak. 
 

I can’t remember which ship, but the British actually pressurized the engine room of one of their warships to get extra power out of the engines. 

All steam is superheated in order to turn your turbined.  You have to get it to high pressure high temperature but yes.  It is scary.  The 3 casualties we were mainly worried about was fire, flooding, and steam line rupture.  Luckily the pressure transient from a SLR would probably knock you unconscious before you boiled like a lobster

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Bobby_Batronic

Bobby_Batronic 1994

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1 hour ago, FartingMonk said:

All steam is superheated in order to turn your turbined.  You have to get it to high pressure high temperature but yes.  It is scary.  The 3 casualties we were mainly worried about was fire, flooding, and steam line rupture.  Luckily the pressure transient from a SLR would probably knock you unconscious before you boiled like a lobster

I was just thinking of all the times I’ve been on a ship tour and they’ve talked about the crew walking around with a broom out in front of them to detect the steam before it killed them. 
 

I guess that would be a greatly reduced threat with the electric drives they’re putting in the Columbias. Still have to turn the generator with it I suppose, but not much else. 

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FartingMonk

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15 minutes ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

I was just thinking of all the times I’ve been on a ship tour and they’ve talked about the crew walking around with a broom out in front of them to detect the steam before it killed them. 
 

I guess that would be a greatly reduced threat with the electric drives they’re putting in the Columbias. Still have to turn the generator with it I suppose, but not much else. 

Yeah.  That's a real but exaggerated reality I suppose.  You got 1800 PSI steam at 400 degrees.  It's going to cut you like a cutting torch if it's a pin hole leak.  But anything at that high pressure is going to cut off a limb.  They train people that way to be scared but 500 PSI anything is loud.  1800 psi is louder.  5000 psi will put you into confusion.  I mean it's all dangerous but it's not as crazy as they say.  The healthy fear makes you be aware of your surroundings 

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