Posted on 04/16/2022 10:38:38 PM PDT by Spktyr
Video only update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXj81SXVVkU
Summary - ship is slowly being pumped out, has rolled more upright, hatches were opened as part of opening for the day as a museum ship, the ship suddenly took on a list and the staff was ordered off the sinking ship without being allowed to close. The video also shows that they were making attempts to deal with the ongoing leaks and hull integrity issues prior to the current incident.
Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXj81SXVVkU
Museum ships are cool. But this happens to any ship moored to a dock with insufficient maintenance. And it seems this always happens to museum ships eventually. (Even to ships that are lavished with attention. Such as USS Constitution and HMS Victory.)
Would special berthing help? Or a fund that would be conservatively invested and could only be used for repairing or maintaning a deteriorating hull?
Well, the Pfentagon has better things to do than demonstrate respect for the Country’s Military.
FU, Pfentagon.
There was a hole in the side of the ship that’s normally below the water line. But the real cause is climate change and racism, and that ships are always called “she”. What if it feels like a “he”?
Damn Rooskies!
Invasive zebra mussels on the 3/8th hull, sigh.
That’s three eighth inch steel plate hull.
I’ll never understand why these ships can’t be displayed on shore.
A hull inspection of all fittings would be instructive.
I wonder if it’s a sea water penetration like a water intake line? Main condenser lines or something. Gaskets don’t last forever. USS Thresher, we were told got taken down by an auxiliary sea water line. Right out of a yard overhaul. Rickover made sure yardbirds road boats on sea-trials after that. 8,000 feet deep off of Maine is where the pieces sit.
My all time favorite movie is The Fighting Sullivans. These 5 brothers were the namesake for the ship. They all died when their vessel was sunk by the Japanese. The movies focuses on their childhood growing up in Iowa. When Pearl Harbor happened they signed up together and stayed together. To me their growing up years seemed idyllic. The old days were better.
A hull inspection of all fittings would be instructive.
The Curator of the Battle Ship New Jersey, Ryan Szimanski, pointed out that the hull is only three eights of an inch thick and could not support itself for an extended length of time on shore.
It was also pointed out that the inspection was done in February of 2021 and a plan was developed and began but they had to stop for the harsh winter The had begun again this year cleaning the invasive zebra mussels but they could not apply the Epoxy hull patches because of water temperature was still too cold.
Ships of significant size require support at all points on the hull. If you drydock such a ship, you can only keep it out of the water so long before the hull starts deflecting, bending and cracking, and it’s not really that long at all.
We’re still trying to figure out the best way to store a museum ship. The best thing anyone’s seen so far is to store the ship in a separate pool so invasive marine organisms can’t freely enter, and perhaps make it a freshwater pool.
In the long term, I’m wondering if we could come up with some sort of longlife clear gel to ‘float’ and store a ship in.
The concept makes sense, I’m not doubting it at all, just wondering how they account for that issue while it’s being built.
The Battleship Alabama in Mobile Bay looks like it is floating but there is only a little water covering the sand that was pumped in all around its hull.
They don’t, because they don’t have to - this is also why warships take so long between launching and commissioning. Here is a video of the Iowa launching:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etjGTjZw0XM
Pause the video at 0:57 and look at the Iowa. At the point it is launched, it is missing the superstructure, guns, turrets and indeed much of anything on the top side. The hull armor is not mounted. Internally, most of the decks are notional, not finished. In some areas, the decks don’t exist because they’re waiting for equipment to be installed. What you have there is a mostly empty hull, not completed internally, but enough for it to float out of the slipway and be hauled to a construction dock for finishing.
It’s a hell of a lot lighter at this point and can actually be supported by the keel and some side supports. The completed vessel is *much* heavier and cannot be.
Even the Alabama has problems with its sandy berthing. At least it’s highly unlikely to sink in such a scenario.
Sounds like a good long term plan.
I’d still be interested in observing exactly how all of the holes in the hull are managed.
I knew that ships usually went through an extensive “fitting” process after being launched, but never knew that that there were structural reasons for it happening in that sequence. Thanks for the info!
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