Who Likes Ships? We Have Aircraft and Trains.

[Detective D]

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PT boats?
PT boats, the real heroes of Suriago Straight. Japan's big ships could not divert course to avoid torpedoes or they would have run aground. Another disastrous decision in a string of them by their commanders. The media put the glory on our resurrected Battleships, which of course played a role, but PT boats dumped over 50 torpedoes into the sides of Japanese ships in the straight that had no choice but to steam forward in a a straight line.
You might wonder what records I am looking at for this, but I am going by the testimony given over the years from both the Japanese and American sailors from when the internet was much younger. The older I get the more I trust first hand accounts of events from the normal citizens with nothing to gain then I do the big media that does.

Our Pearl Harbor Battleships pulling off a perfect maneuver and gunning them down without taking a shot in return makes for a much better war time moral booster in the papers though

 

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[Photon440]

The Wilmington (North Carolina) reserve fleet; nearly 700 ships were parked here after WWII. They stayed for about twenty years before being disposed of, the final ones in 1970.

 

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The USS New Jersey went into drydock for repairs at the Philadelphia Naval Ship Yard. The same drydock where she was fitted out after she was launched! Right before she was supposed to go back to Camden they did scans of the hull and found she was really thin in some spots. To help pay for the extra drydock time they offered tours. I got a call from my brother, “Do you want to go, it’s once in a lifetime, it’s $225”! Well, Duh! When we got there, we had to sign paper work, then put on steel toe attachments which were a real pain in the butt, we got souvenir hard hats and had the obligatory safety meeting. Basically don’t do anything stupid! Then we went out to the ship. They told us up front that the only way down was 72 steps and ….. the only way up was 72 steps! Our tour guide was a very knowledgeable engineering student at Drexel in his senior year.



I’d always wondered about acceleration. If the boilers are up to full pressure and everybody is standing by and they ring up all ahead flank she’ll go 0 to 34 knots in about 15 minutes, if they need to wait for the boilers to come up figure 25 minutes.

 

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More Drydock Pictures

 

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And more......

 

[j-c-c-62]

More Drydock Pictures

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Those are I assume hundreds of corrosion fighting zinc anodes bolted below the water line on the side of the hull?
Are they original or a current addition for protection?
Neat pics BTW.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Those are I assume hundreds of corrosion fighting zinc anodes bolted below the water line on the side of the hull?
Are they original or a current addition for protection?
Neat pics B

They are normal, although they changed the composition because of the water she sits in. There is a video about what they did and what they changed on their YouTube channel.

Drydock sucks when you are in the Navy. We were in a floating drydock. By the time you climbed all those steps to get back on the ship you were sober again. The way the hull echoes when out of the water makes it hard to sleep.

 

[f569]

And more......

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Great shots, thank you!
Spent the night on BB-62 several years ago while on a field trip with my son's scout troop. Tour guides were retired veterans of the ship. What an awesome experience hearing them describe their ship and memories aboard her ... humbling.
Wives were invited to attend, mine did, she's a trooper. When she saw the bunks stacked three high she shot me a look. I said this or a flea bag in Camden 'cause I'm not driving back to Long Island tonight! Our guide said the accommodations were way better than on the Wisconsin, they were stacked four high on the same height decks! She says it was the best night of her life .... not!

 

[Basket case]

The New Jersey has a great You Tube channel. The curator makes great videos, explains all they did in dry dock.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Great pictures! I'd like to know how they set up all the blocks beforehand to set the ship on and then lower the ship perfectly on them when they drain the water out.

 

[Basket case]

In one of their you tube videos Ryan explains the Navy has plans for each class of ship on how to set up the blocks.

 

[JDmac72chrgr]

Build the blocks while dry dock is dry, put them in place based on old prints: as water is removed, divers check positions after stopping pump out at certain points: they USE TO have rope across dock at various points down the ship (bow back to stern) with plum bobs. Any deviations on bob, stop and adjust blocks. NOW, GPS is used. Groton CT had 2 floating dry docks for the "PIG-BOATS", small one for the OLD BOYS & larger one for the "CADILLACS/IMPERIALS/LINCOLNS". Doubt the small 1 is still around, those boats are razor blades by now

 

[Photon440]

As one of the ships built in the "new age", the Titanic had an impressive amount of electrically powered items. Electric lighting (around 10,000 lights on the Titanic), ventilating fans for the engine room and below decks, wireless radio, small fans in first class, electric cabin and deck heaters, bells and buzzers, electric cargo cranes and winches, electric elevators in first and second class and for freight lifts (a rarity even in buildings back then), illuminated pictures and signs, telephones... These were all powered by onboard steam driven dynamos with all the switch-gear and wiring that would entail. A marvel of it's day, those 10,000 lights meant that the ship had better illumination than even most modern office buildings or hotels of the day.

Instead of light filtered through a porthole and augmented by an oil lamp, first class rooms were quite bright inside. They had dimming switches as well.

This is the main feeder switch board as it was being installed when the ship was built.

The ship had four main dynamos providing a total of 16,000 amps at 100 volts. Because the rear of the ship was the last to flood, they managed to provide power until the very end, finally going dark as the ship broke in half due to the strain of the weight on the flooded bow. This ruptured the steam lines and power conduits.

The electrical room doesn't look like that any more.

An interesting, albeit lengthy article on firing the boilers and engaging the dynamos can be found in this article here: Cold Starting the Titanic

 

[j-c-c-62]

Very nice set of pics, Thank you.

"The ship had four main dynamos providing a total of 16,000 amps at 100 volts."

So, it was a DC powered ship, can you imagine the amount of ozone those dynamos generated in an enclosed space?

No wonder the sharks stayed away.

 

[Richard Cranium]

 

[Photon440]

 

[Richard Cranium]

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[Photon440]

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Well, since you ask....
Ramform Titan - Wikipedia

 

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