Battleship Texas, One Good Turn Deserves Another 

Thanks for your service! 69-73 here. USS SEATTLE AOE-3 HERE.

@Rayan Cairo No one cares, scammers.

@@waterheaterservices How stupid would you have to be, right?

@@CampVictoria I see, your just in here trying your hardest to be an ass to everyone. Makes sense now.

@@CampVictoria really? So Canada has a few ww1 battle ships? Wow never heard about them before plus if I remember correctly the only UK made ww1 battle ship left is in Japan! From what I've heard the UK scrapped all of its old battle ships! So please start naming these ww1 and ww2 battleships that you say exist because we would like to visit them? Well we are waiting?????

@@CampVictoria again where are these ww1 battle ships that you say still exist and btw what are their names? Again we are waiting?????

Lottory is a joke. Why do people always go on about "if I won the lottery" anyone can become wealthy by investing money smartly. Understand the effect of compounding and exponential growth. You think every wealthy person just "won the lottery"?

bobby ray of the family smith because it's nice to dream. Scroll on if you have nothing good to say. Thank you, I hope you have a nice day.

@@bobbyrayofthefamilysmith24 At the end of the day, it’s not a joke to the people who won! And like they always say; somebody’s going to win… It could be you! Couple of bucks is a small price to pay for a little unrealistic optimism.

@@HM2SGT Except its spending a couple of bucks on an astronomically slim chance so slim that its basically a stupidity tax. Also just waiting, hoping to improve your life by winning a ridiculously unlikely raffle rather than actually planning and working to improve your situation reeks of having given up or plain ignorance. Also you could instead use that couple of bucks to buy dividend shares and in 10 years that money will have grown exponentially rather than just thrown away

It was decommissioned officially on San Jacinto Day 1948. The rudder change was the final command from her Captain. Admiral Nimitz was right there to welcome the crew and announced the retirement of Texas and transfer her to the State of Texas.

Love what both of them are doing!!!

These are much more informative than Ryan's are. Ryan's video's mostly stay focused on his face and never really show us much of nothing. His later video's have gotten better I have to admit but Tom Scott video's are better.

@@museumjunkie9317 Glad I'm not the only one that thinks that. All we see is Ryan... here, all we see is ship.

Maybe Tom is not as good looking as Ryan!!

Difference is Tom focuses solely on hardcore USS Texas information. Ryan focuses on playing with LEGO blocks and never does first person views like this of the areas off limits to visitors.

I'll give you my wife's cellphone number so that you can tell her the national treasure part!

@@tomscotttheolderone364 lol I'm sure she feels the same way! Really appreciate the time you are taking. This is my favorite ship of all time. I wish it was still open. I live in south houston

Great job Tom! Sorry FANTASTIC JOB!

@@tomscotttheolderone364 can't wait to get down there and see her and meet you!

My brother and I took a trip to Texas and took that tour in 2013! One of the best tours I have ever taken!!

Can you imagine who had to design all this stuff, and who had to build it?.

Yeah, Taylor Marine did a great job!

Glad you enjoyed it!

There's one thing better about Texas. Her 14" guns work better than Ford's catapults and elevators!

Michael, a dry berth option was studied and a number of proposals based upon it were created over a more than 10 year period. There is no question that it is the best method of guaranteeing the ship's survival. Unfortunately, when its $100 million cost was taken to the Texas state legislature, they were not willing to spend that much money and that plan was permanently eliminated. Whether or not they should have spent the money is an entirely different conversation, suffice it to say that it simply wasn't going to happen. By the way, a study was performed on the less expensive method of dry berthing the ship by bedding her in sand and the conclusion was that it would lead to severe structural damage to the ship. The problem has to do with the soil along the upper Texas gulf coast. It would require sinking about 200 pilings more than 100' deep to provide the needed support. There were a number of other problems with the method that included permanent loss of access to the outer hull below the sand line, ultimately leading to the destruction of the outer hull shell. Before anyone starts tossing out suggestions, know that these conclusions were made after 100's of core samples were drilled throughout the area and studies were made by soil and marine engineers. What the state did do was give $35 million for the current solution, which is to take the ship to drydock and replace almost the entire outer hull shell below the waterline. Between that and other repairs, the ship will have a major reset that puts her in good watertight condition. Her management has also been transferred from a state agency, Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept., to Battleship Texas Foundation, a non-governmental organization. She will also be moved from her current location to one yet to be determined that should greatly increase visitor traffic and income. Between that and private and corporate donations, the goal is to generate enough income to provide a sustainable maintenance and periodic dry docking plan. Again, dry berthing simply wasn't financially possible, but the current plans should assure the ship's survival for decades.

I think she'll raise more tourist revenue once she's been moved to the new site. But will it ever be enough to keep up with her need for constant upkeep? I can't imagine. So unless either the state legislature allocates some funding or some private groups band together to raise some serious money, her days are numbered.

Yes because it's impossible, simply impossible to teach anyone how to remove rust, bolt/weld and replace pannels. Just impossible. Once the current gen passes away we'll never be able to engineer anything again because its just impossible to teach these things.

@@bobbyrayofthefamilysmith24 Just takes one generation to cause the gap that takes multiple generations to fix.

@@compmanio36 the skills needed to maintain this ship in a deactivated but good cosmetic condition are skills that are used to build and produce current technology. Basically metal work. Which aren't going away. If you are talking about maintaining the ships engines and its various analogue systems in working order then I'd agree that the know how and any specialist skills needed will largely dissappear or already have disappeared. Along with the fact that they'll be close to zero spare parts available, many if not most of the original equipment manufacturers won't exist any more making difficult and expensive to re engineer any replacement parts. It's safe to say the ship will never again be functional save one or two limited systems. So all any museum need to do is keep the ship structurally sound and in good cosmetic shape. Perhaps maintain one or two systems of interest (one gun turret for example) in a semi functional state.

unknown 1984 - Remember the old saying: You should never say never 🧐

He was a tough man who knew how to work! If he was an actual stoker, he had a tough job, not only because of the heat, dirt and exertion, but it required a lot of knowledge and skill with the shovel. He had to be able to read the fire and not let the bed of coal get too thin where it would cool down, or pile it on too thick where it would create a lot of smoke and choke down. He had to know how to throw coal with a twist of the wrist to evenly spread it over a large area or how to throw a shovel of it through the fire and across the grate to fill in a thin spot in a far corner. That meant looking into the fire at a close range that would burn his face and sing his hair. He also had to frequently move the fire around to remove clinkers and other junk that could clog up the grates and interfere with burning, and periodically clean the fire. All of that had to be done with the boiler running. Again, it was an incredibly tough job that required a lot of skill.

@@tomscotttheolderone364 he was quite the tough man. After getting out of the Navy he sheared sheep around the country. He farmed and eventually became a police officer. He learned to box from another fireman and was hired as a police officer based on his boxing skills. It was truly a different time. I should add he was born in the Oklahoma territory and the family moved back to Iowa just prior to WW1. The person who taught him to box was a man of color (he spoke very highly of) and defended the reputation of the Arkansas as a light heavyweight. He passed in 1999 at the age of 96.

Yep, now that it has been proven she is actually floating with the tides. I have no doubt this grand old lady could be repaired in dry dock and sail under her own power to Normandy for the 100th anniversary of D-day if we were so inclined.

@@JefferyAClark The expense would be prohibitive

If you think about it. It's excellent to see her in such excellent condition. Given that all her contemporaries are sunk or recycled.

Hopefully she'll be in dry dock after hurricane season. The Houston Chronicle published an article last week answering questions about when Battleship Texas will go into dry dock. November at the earliest was the answer given. The Battleship Texas Foundation is confident in the viability of moving her into dry dock. She's expected to be in dry dock for 12 months.

@@cats400 good to know. Given that the USA is the worlds largest economy and such. I assume the work will be next level. We have no ships of her size preserved in England. But the big ships we have (victory, warrior etc) are treat like the nation treasures they are.

Thanks. It's not only next to impossible to be in frame without an assistant, I'm too ugly to be in it!

@@tomscotttheolderone364 Heheheh I can relate! I'm so ugly mama had to tie a pork chop around my neck just so the dog would play with me! Once again my thanks.

The rudder brake was controlled manually using a hand wheel located on the aft bulkhead, just above and inboard of the large mahogany wheels. That location suggests that it was not something easily or frequently used. I don't think that there was much slop in the steam operated steering equipment between the steam steering engine and the steering gears. However, there was likely noticeable lag between input at the helm and response from the rudder. The design of the screw shaft and mechanical rams that actually turned the rudder is such that it would naturally resist being turned by force applied against the rudder. A good analogy is a car screw jack because it operates on the same principle. You turn the screw to raise the car; however, the weight of the car cannot force the screw to turn, thus the car remains raised. The same types of forces and resistances apply to the steering gear. My best guess is the brake allowed them to clamp down on the steering crosshead attached to the rudder post to hold the rudder in position if they needed to disconnect or service any of the steering gear while under way.

@@tomscotttheolderone364 That makes more sense!

I'd like to do one. However, the videos I have in the engine rooms will not work for this purpose. They are simply fast shots that I used to orient myself when editing still photos that I took in them. I could do something using stills, but they lose the live feel and most folks simply don't want a slide show. Maybe in the future...

Спасибо, мы позаботимся о ней!

@@tomscotttheolderone364 🤝✊️. Может когда-нибудь моя мечта сбудется и я смогу поднятся на борт этой легенды🙂. И на BB- 63 тоже интересно сходить🤤🤗. Удачи вам парни!! 🤝👍

And hasn’t been functional in the last 60 years lol

@@mikeadler2755 I think it's better to say it hasn't been maintained for 60-70 years. My point was they designed and built these ships in the 1910's.

The ship is currently closed to the public while being prepared for tow to a shipyard for hull repairs. When opened almost none of these spaces are available to the public. However, many are visited during special "Hard Hat Tours".

I've never seen a unified document, nor do I know if one existed when the ship in active service. I am aware that there were procedural manuals largely by division, but I've only a few things that could serve as parts of an SORM. The most precious one that I have acquired is the engineering casualty manual written during WWII by the ship's engineering officer that I have used as a primary source of information for a couple of my videos.

Well if I win the lottery I'll donate half of it to make sure the ship gets rebuilt in preserves for the next generation

*couch cough*,,,,, I think I got lead poisoning just watching this video,,,,, ;)

The rudder is still frozen at 14 degrees to starboard and will stay that way. Any bad effect of the rudder on the ship only occurs when the ship is being towed, which is very infrequently. It is easily offset by having a small tug either push against the stern or pull on it using a line rigged to the stern while the ship is under tow. Correcting the rudder was studied during the ship's last dry dock in 1988-90. It was determined that any repair would required cutting the rudder post and remove the rudder to free things up. That would require a very large amount of money and heavy damage to the ship and rudder.

@@tomscotttheolderone364 Thank you for the reply and your explanation makes sense. You are right, 14 degrees isn't much to counter with a tug. It would only need to work if she could move under her own power. That would be a dream to see her drive under her own power again, but the costs to and the part availability would most likely be prohibitive. Your video series here is amazing and hopefully will be around for generations to come, just like the Texas herself! Hopefully you will have these available on other medias other than youtube so they will be preserved.

Degaussing has to do with demagnetizing, not dissipating static electricity. In this case, it was done to lower the ship's visibility to magnetic anti-shipping mines. As a ship passes by a mine, its metallic mass disturbs the Earth's magnetic field and triggers the mine. The goal in this case is to match the Earth's magnetic field to be invisible to mines. The ship has sets of heavy electrical cables that encircle the hull on the inside, both horizontally and vertically. Electrical currents are passed through them to vary intensity and polarity. If you watch the first part of my video on stem and stern castings, you will see the windings. If you watch the one on generating electrical power, you will get a brief glimpse of one of the controllers.

Good question; I have no idea. I find it difficult to believe that a magnetic compass could reliably work down there. The stand is empty and I would have guessed it contained a gyrocompass repeater, except you wouldn't need the compensators mounted to it.

@@tomscotttheolderone364 Supernumerary? 🤔A lot of work to haul it topside, but…🤷‍♂️ I’ve seen stranger things. It was the right way, the wrong way, and the Navy way! Or maybe after she was struck, somebody thought that would be a dandy place to put one. Be interesting to see if it was on the original TO&E.

The prevailing reason given is that 14 degrees starboard was the last rudder order given as the ship was towed to her berth at San Jacinto in 1948, and no further order was given to center it. Why that wasn't given or why it wasn't later straightened by Battleship Texas Commission staff is not known.

You appear to be correct. Even though the wheel is missing, the builder's "as built" drawings show that it had one and it appears to be the only way of applying the brake. On the side of the bulkhead opposite from of the brake wheel and manual steering wheels is a coupler that engages and disengages the manual steering shaft from the turning gear. There is a similar coupler for the powered shaft. I reviewed my detail photos of the steering gear and saw that it is possible to simultaneously disengage both the powered and manual shafts from the gears. That being the case, the brake would certainly be useful for holding the rudder in position if both were disconnected at the same time such as when changing from powered to manual steering. I haven't seen any documentation that addresses when the brake may be used, so your reasoning sounds as good as any explanation I can think of.

@@tomscotttheolderone364 do you know the full story why her rudder is turned over and wont be set straight?

I like that thought. I have some original drawings of the gear that I'll dig up. I don't recall that it shows anything, but it's worth another look. I'll let you know if there is anything additional there.

Clifton, Good Call! I found a drawing dated July 1914, 4 months after commissioning meaning it is a record drawing showing the equipment as built. It shows a hand wheel on the shaft so it is definitely a hand actuated brake! It's too bad I cannot post a clipping of it in these comments so that you can see it.

@@tomscotttheolderone364 That's awesome! Glad I could be helpful! I guess spending my childhood playing on junk turn-of-the-century farming equipment has done some good!

It wasn't.

The rudder post has been frozen in its current position for at least 50 years. Inspection of it during the 1988-89 drydock repairs determined that trying to free it would cost too much and require too much cutting and welding to be feasible.

Using manual steering on Texas would be slow and difficult. I suspect that even if it was not really needed, low cost and ease of design made including it on the ship an easy decision. Also, at that time, it was a doable design for all warships, regardless of size. I haven't gone to any effort to find out, but I would be very surprised to find out it is used on modern aircraft carriers and other ships having multiple rudders. Ship size and complexity, combined with limited effect, should pretty much rule it out as a practical addition. Short of some pretty wild speculation about its use on Texas, I find it difficult to imagine a scenario where they would have to resorted to manual steering while under way. Having said that, it would be very useful if they needed to reposition the rudder without firing up the steam or electric steering engines. This would certainly be the case if it was required while in dry dock.

A distinction needs to be drawn between the steam steering engine room and aft steering. The steam steering engine is in a small compartment adjoining the aft end of the starboard engine room and its output shaft carries aft to aft steering. Go to the following link to see a drawing that shows aft steering and the steering gear room. The scale in the centerline of the drawing shows frame numbers that are 4' apart. battleshiptexas.info/images/Drawings/DeckPlans/1944/2ndPlat.html

Yes, it kinda does. The volatiles in the oil slowly evaporate, and you are left with a crusty powder that doesn't lubricate anything. That can end up flaking off like dust or rust scale. You are often left with a powdery coating that looks like dusty rust. This takes years, but Texas has been sitting there for enough years.

@@lwilton makes one wonder, if nobody thought about doing a greasing run every few years

They had Texas out of the water in 1988 and repairing the rudder was carefully studied by at least one marine engineer and shipyard workers. The consensus was that a repair would require cutting the rudder off and effectively destroying the rudder post. Since there is no reason to have a moveable rudder and it is easy to overcome the deflection caused by the rudder's current position during tow, the decision was to leave it. Also, the rudder post packing had leaked since the ship first went in the water, throughout her active career and during retirement. This was a major source of the flooding in aft steering. So, they welded around the post to permanently eliminate the leak. Again, the thing to keep in mind here is that the ship will never be operational and there's no need for a working rudder. Also, a primary goal of that project was to eliminate leaks and there was only one reasonable solution to eliminate this one.

@@tomscotttheolderone364 I didn't know that, thank you! I tend to think in terms of preservation through restoration and repair, often through restoring function. You and they are correct in this case, restoration of function is not necessary nor even desirable in this case. I guess serving at sea colors my thinking.

@@robertf3479 yeah it's kind of sad but without billions and billions of dollars and a whole lot of legal hoopla/power restoring the ship to any kind of functionality is going to simply be impossible

She is the best preserved dreadnought, because the others are all gone.

It was flooded for many years due to leaks from several sources. Those were all repaired in 1988-89 when the ship was in dry dock and there hasn’t been any flooding issues since then. It hasn’t been restored because it is pretty stable and limited resources had to go to higher priority issues.

@@tomscotttheolderone364 looks like you have alot of light! Dosent look as bad as you would expect to be under water for years

@@tomscotttheolderone364 didn’t they also partially flood her intentionally to set her on the bottom to resist tidal movement when she initially arrived at San Jacinto?

The Navy commonly used parts from old ships to maintain newer ones.