Battleship Texas Second Deck Walk-Through 

You don't need to apologize for the shape of the ship. She's a grand old lady and sometimes you gotta make a mess to clean a mess.

She's still here, and she will be for generations. That's what's important. Paint is easy, keeping the water out is not. Y'all are doing amazing. Keep it up!

Shes in pretty good shape for her age. And atleast she exists in any condition

Nothing wrong with a little "character"- given the cost of just keeping the ship above the water, you guys have done a great job providing tours this entire time (until you closed obviously). I took every tour you offered and saw the unrestored parts of the ship and felt privileged to do so. I don't think Howard Carter entered King Tut's tomb and said "ewww- there's sand everywhere". The Texas is a national treasure and we love her as such. Whatever improvements can be made will be welcome, but as soon as you open back up, we will be there.

Big love from London here I can't wait to come and visit the Texas. Coming from the UK it's such a shame that none of the the Royal Navy's Battleships never got saved from the scrap yard, especially HMS Warspite! So to see the last dreadnought class ship in real life will be very surreal for me. The closest we've got in the UK is the WW2 Light Cruiser HMS Belfast which has a great story (like the Texas she served in the Arctic Convoys and fought in one of the last big gun battles in 1943 in the Battle of North Cape), it's a fancisting visit but it's not the same as one of the big battleships. You're doing amazing work, keep it up!

There is nothing wrong with what I see. You are taking care of a wonderful piece of history. Keep up the great work!

When I was little back in the late 60's and we would visit there all those hatches and rooms were open and we would have the most awesome games of hide and seek throughout the ship. It was a blast going up and down those vertical hatches and finding all these rooms to hide in. The engine room was a blast too. Most of the ship was accessible back in those days.

Having served in the United States Navy from 1983 until 2003, I find this ship to be absolutely fascinating!!! She’s the only dreadnaught still afloat. No doubt, at her age, keeping her afloat isn’t an easy task. She needs to be moored in fresh water. It’s obvious that she’s in need of having the entire outer hull replaced, and replaced soon. Otherwise, the cost of saving her will only increase exponentially as time slips by. She’s a national treasure and should be getting maintained as such. Obviously, that means that the federal government needs to get involved and give her a complete top to bottom, inside and out, restoration back to her original glory. Then dock her where she’s not going to be subjected to salt water corrosion. It’s scary to even think about how much of her hull and supporting frames have turned into flakes of rust. There’s a whole lot of this ship that’s simply deteriorated away into power as the salt atmosphere keeps right on eating away at her. Obviously if she had a full crew being able to maintain her daily she’d be in much better condition, but that too, would be prohibitively expensive. But there’s no excuse why, as a country, we can’t afford to properly maintain the few battleships, WWII aircraft carriers, and other historic museum ships that we have left. Personally, I feel that at least one ship out of every class built should have been saved for historical purposes. I hope to get the opportunity to explore all over the USS Texas someday in the future before I’m too old and decrepit to get around the ship. When I had entered the Navy, there’s nothing I wanted more than to serve on board one of the four battleships. Unfortunately, that opportunity never presented itself. I did however, get to take some amazing photographs of the USS New Jersey during a full broadside firing of her guns, and an underway replenishment between my ship and the USS Iowa during sunset. Those are some of my favorite photos from my time in the Navy.

I think we all agree here. Your efforts care concerns safety are well regarded. You know how incredible this is. Some of us do too.

You have no reason to be embarrassed. You’re doing your best. It’s not easy maintaining a ship, especially one so old and large. Keep up the good work!!!

Not bad for 100 year old ship.

Hi Travis, When I look at old cars and see potential ... not dirt. In that regard, the ship looks beautiful to me. A little elbow grease and a can of paint and she'll be looking pretty once again. Thanks so much for the walk-through.

I wish I lived closer to volunteer to help clean and paint. I don’t have money to spare but I would happily volunteer my time to help if I was local. Awesome work keeping her afloat and safe!

I can smell this video……. And I miss it

I prefer to see this kind of condition…it’s real. Cleaned-up and pretty, sure, but old and original…priceless. I’d love to see the ship from the bilge to the mast from the fore peak to the stern, look in every space, every locker, every room - clean or as-is. The more original the closer we get to her soul.

Ryan sent me here...

i don't care what she looks like she's a beutiful battle ship!! you all are going to fix her so it's all good!!👍🖖😉

I toured this ship years ago. Glad to see it being restored.

Given her Age she is good shape. Yeah she’s dirty but she is over a hundred years young. You guys have done an excellent job at keeping her A float. You guys are doing everything right. Godspeed Texas

I first set foot on this ship in the late 50s. I was just a kid then. It is amazing to see her out of the water. It gives you a whole new way of looking at her. Y'all will have her looking great soon enough. Thank you all for looking out for such a great ship.

Thank you and the crew for all your work keeping this piece of history available for this generation and those to come!!

I would like to thank you for the efforts you and your staff have done. my family and myself got to visit the old gal, its one of my fondest memories.

Hey, you're doing great! don't feel bad. I appreciate the tour through the deck! Wish you the best from all the way up here in New England.

I'd say it looks pretty good for how old it is we will definitely come visit after your back up and running in 23 can't even wait to see what you guys do in the next year

Man, this is a 27K ton mass of fight, not a modern Scandinavian dining room. It's beautiful in every way!

I toured the USS Texas when I was in Houston back in 1995 pretty cool can’t wait to see it when it’s all picked up painted

Hope the dry docking and move go smoothly love the vids little snippets of history

I'm glad she still with us, I wish they didn't scrap the Oregon

Great video, we all need replacement parts when we age, so there's that. I think she's aging beautifully. I also know it's got to be hot in there, Texas heat and humidity is brutal! I'd love to volunteer to repaint and clean, but I, like her ain't the spring chicken I used to be. That, and I no longer live nearby. 😥

Anything you want to show us is interesting. I am thankful she is being loved. I just bought a champ shirt, you actually had 4XL!

That thing is a classic its older than anyone watching so cut it some slack impressed its still around at all

Thank you. I just found these pages...

❤Go Texas and those who are work on her!!!❤❤😊😊😊

This is great. I first visited the Texas back in the early 1960’s. I would be like a kid wondering around this area. From one end to the other. So much to explore. All considering it doesn’t look that bad. Growing up in Baytown and Houston I’m very familiar with the heat and humidity of the area. Curious about ventilation. Thought that came to my mind is it may hard to find a lot of people to spend long amounts of time it takes to restore such massive areas. In Tennessee where I now live they have a adopt a highway program where individuals adopt a short stretch and take responsibility for keeping it clean of trash maybe have volunteers adopt a room or a area where each group or person could help for a few weeks and restore a small area. That way they could see the progress in their adopted area and even get competitive with those working in other areas. Maybe after they’re done a small plaque acknowledging them for their contribution in the area they adopted. Just a thought. I love Texas and her history. Good luck and I hope to visit her the next time I visit my friends and family in the area.

Great video thank you

Thanks for this video. I really wanted to see where my Dad slept onboard.

I was in the Navy when smoking was the norm and non smokers the rarity. Up until the 1990’s enlisted non rated and deck department spent a great deal of every day chipping paint, removing damaged linoleum tiles, and then priming, painting, polishing and maintaining the ship in near perfect contrition, even at sea. It was a never ending battle. Cigarette smoke turned everything yellow/brown in a matter of months. Cleaning but off was possible when the surface was very smoothly painted. On the exterior we use to hang in what so called a swing… very similar to a child’s swing over the side, up on the super structure and even off the bow. We just didn’t let the ships run down like the Navy does today between cruises and or workups. My guess is the Texas was in pretty good shape in 1946-7 cosmetically but she was in need of a deep refit and serious maintenance. At a time when the US was still the world largest ship builder and large fleets of newer battleships were being mothballed, no one even dreamed of doing anything but scraping the ships that were dated.

That's gonna be one hellava long field day!

She is looking a little rough compared to the last time I saw her. Can’t wait to see her back to her old self. Excited to see what y’all do.

Any ideas where her permanent home will be after she gets her work done? ive always thought galveston would be a perfect fit

I know this is an old video but I was wondering if you ever done a video on the caption cabin.

YEAHHHHH! YEAHHHHH!

Fill the brigg with nonviolent volunteer convict welders and painters and let them serve out there time restoring her. Or community service. It would be something they could tell there grandkids about.

No apologies should be needed. What most non-sailors don’t realize is that on a navy ship, every space is assigned to or owned by a division. Sailors in that division would clean and maintain the spaces on a daily basis. There were many sailors every day, sweeping, swabbing and otherwise cleaning the ship every day. On a ship this size there would be dozens, if not hundreds of sailors cleaning every morning. Chiefs, Division Officers, Department heads, and even the XO would doing daily walk throughs inspecting the cleanliness and upkeep. Repainting, as needed, would also have been constantly ongoing someplace throughout the ship. I had an XO once who was very particular in his inspections and it was very hard to live up to his standards. I asked him about it once and he explained that people live here, it is important to maintain high standards to provide the best possible living conditions for the men. While he was “hard to please,” he appreciated the effort it took for the upkeep. This ship is unmanned and has been unmanned for decades. The sheer number of volunteers needed on a daily basis to simulate the upkeep capability of a fully crewed ship would be overwhelming. Travis mentioned that these spaces were last painted in the 1990s. That’s over 30 years, longer than the entire lifespan of many ships.

Thank. You. Everyone. That. Pitch. In. To. Fix. The. Uss. Texas. Again. Thank. You. So. So. Much.

I first saw TEXAS when I was a kid, around 1962. THe ship was glorious! The next time I saw it was in 1984 and I was horrified by what I saw!!! In the intervening 22 years, in the interior, everything that could be broken or unscrewed and stolen had been. It was a RELIC at that point. There was standing water in the bottom of the ship with lots of trash floating in it. I'm guessing much of this was just from rain being alowed to enter through open doors. Negligence! Disgraceful!!! The ship had basically been abandoned to the ravages of the disrespecting public, rather than preserved and properly displayed as a museumm piece. It was clear that the proper resources to monitor and maintain the ship had not been provided for a very long time. Now, there is an effort to restore the ship, but where will they find all the proper period fittings to replace all the missing parts? It is terribly sad that the state of Texas allowed this treasure to be pillaged.

I know it is a big undertaking, but I hope you are planning on restoring, furnishing, and opening for viewing all the officer staterooms. I've been on the ship several times in year's past and have never seen one of the staterooms. In fact, I suggest the overall goal be to open every space in the ship for viewing, recognizing that not all visitors will be physically able to access all spaces, but a lot will. Looking forward to future videos that fully document the activities that will take place in the shipyard. I'm particularly interested in seeing all the damage before it is repaired, the repair process, and the finished product. Thanks for all your efforts!

When were the various spaces sealed up with plexiglass & expanded metal? It’s been since the early 80’s when I was there last, but I seem to remember most of the spaces being wide open back then.

How about a video of the forward mast above the folskel and the bridge.

See if you can use low level inmates for Texas DOC for jobs like that. I sure there are many ex-sailors / military guys who would love the work on the ship.

Are you keeping the ship in Galveston when you are done in dry dock in order to attract more tourists. I was just down in Galveston and was bummed I couldn't take the dry dock tour. It wasn't a total loss, I was able to see the other two museum ships down there.

You should do one on the Goat Locker and the junior officer quarters

What are those large slanted poles?

I hope I look this good when I'm 108!

This looks like a movie set

A great lady

Wonder if they considered room sponsors, where a company or group sponsors a room for refurbishment. Then can use org cash to refurb common areas and rooms that don't get sponsored.

Anything taken out should be put back in. That’s what people want to see. Keep it original or cut it up for scrap

it always fascinates me how a ships interior can deteriorate over such a period of time, that said the areas that have had some attention don't look that bad compared with those that have had none, or worse been subject to flooding, and considering the many years of servicemen who kept the ship immaculately clean with toothbrushes etc, you'd think the rest room would be in very good shape, ready to use but naturally down to finances, available materials and time, modern paint jobs may not always be the best or using the correct paint, some might even be peeling in a short time, but you can also say that of much of the old paint in areas where there had been much heat throughout its lifetime, drying and engine rooms etc, either way this is a sad sight and becomes a course of concern in how to tackle, do you scrape off the lose and repaint risking more peeling later, or completely remove all paint and start from scratch, never an easy choice, because one might last short term before needing more attention and the later just prove too expensive, some areas will get the right attention and others left for longer as we see today painting a Battleship is no easy feat, it beggars believe at how much paint it took to fully paint a ship of this size inside and out, i would love to know the numbers and the costs involved, and compare to present day maybe a plan ahead might be for the public to join in, have 'painting parties' where they pay for paint (specially selected) and come and do the work for free, of course it means enrolling, going through the health and safety channels, but actually that all seems insignificant to the possible free labour you could get personally i would love to get my hands on her, i have worked in aircraft restoration, done my bit, gone into much detail and seen the results years later when things have been repainted, horrible, but under the right instructions, things can be made good in surprisingly good time, (that not being the issue) but its the man hours put in and of course at what level do you restore, make look like new, or leave all the years of grime built up whatever you guys do, you are doing a Sterling job, the guns are stunning

Hello! I loved the video, since the battleship is closed to the public, could we get some more virtual walk-throughs like this?

Texas looks good to me

She's beautiful

I personally think that with a ship of this age... the unrestored unpainted and uncleaned areas are cooler than the restored...

4:34 what's that box?

The ship looks reasonably in good shape for being over 100 years old

Please tell us about the spaces you are walking by..... we understand these areas aren't in great shape.

The old lady doesn’t look bad for her age

Wish there were more commentary on what we saw.

Yes the ship looks bad. I've watched videos of the 3rd deck and below and they're even worse. When I reported to my ship AS-33 she was only 9 years old and already been through the shipyards for upgrades. She was in great condition. Nearby was the floating drydock Oak Ridge. As a WWII ship she wasn't in good shape even though maned by a crew. Old ships are going to look rough.

Experimenting with cold-white lights instead of warm-yellow lighting could make the interiors more clean looking too, at least it works for a house. Maybe interior-decoration trickery like switching lightbulb color temperatures would work on a battleship as well? 🎱 👋 And happy valentines! -2022

UM UM UM UM UM UM UM UM UM AND UMMUMUM

I'd doesn't look too bad for her age-the humidity doesn't help /lack of ventilation has an effect -when she was on active duty there were men constantly doing said maint-as a Navy vet I can see the crew doing thier work.

You need a goofy haircut like Ryan.

I wish you would point out more things as you go by😢

If the Texas park service let it get that bad down through the years it needs to be in private hands to get the work done. They have done a bad job managing the ship overall. Way to many years to get it fixed and it's not

2nd deck doesn’t look too bad to me for the most part. I wouldn’t expect anything that old to be in pristine condition as though it was just built. Anyone that hasn’t donated or shown up to volunteer should keep their criticisms to themselves. And Thank You, staff, and volunteers for keeping this piece of history alive for the American public. Keep up the good work. I think that your audience would enjoy seeing maintenance/refurbishment tasks being done.

Texas is my fav US battleship and I would love to volunteer, but unfortunately I live in Germany. So maybe one day I can at least visit the ship.

Lots of civilian modifications made since handed over to the old parks service. Most notable is the padlocks on most of the doors. Sad that they would change even a small detail such as that because over time they add up and completely alter the looks of the original ship. Big job ahead and years of work to be done.

so that grime is 30 years of the public traipsing through it. just think of it as a big badge of history teaching honor lol. and on such an old historic ship, a little dirt is to be expected. makes it look "lived in'.

Why were the bunk beds / racks out in the open? Why not in rooms? Seems like sleeping sailors would have been awakened by sailors still working.

No need to apologize for a work in process. I would like to see more of a narrative on what we are looking at not the condition.

I can’t even explain how frustrating it is to see our Navy decommissioning perfectly good ships and using them as targets instead of modernizing them. It’s inexcusable. The Navy tries to claim that they’re creating artificial reefs. What a load of rubbish that is. These ships are all being sunk down in really deep waters where sunlight doesn’t penetrate. They’re down, typically around 15,000 20,000 feet deep. The real reason they’re being sunk that deep is because they’re not cleaning up all the toxins that these ships are full of. There’s no excuse for sinking these ships at all. We’ve sunk ships with barely 30 years of service, yet our Air Force is flying Bombers older than I am!!! Tough question here, but would you rather be sailing on a 40 year old ship or flying on a 70 year old plane???

You all should be ashamed of how ascent you have been during the ships restoration. Almost no videos and literally no educational videos about the restoration. The New Jersey made daily videos and used the time to ensure future generations could see in-depth documentary level videos. Shame on the Battleship Texas foundation.

Neat ship with lots of history......but not impressed with docent...

I'm confused... My dad took us on a second deck walk thru around '60/'61... I took my boys on a second deck walk thru around '93/'94... I recall a Coca Cola Soda Bar (complete w/upright column tap dispensers) at the ships stern on the second deck... I didn't see it on your video tour... Have I lost my mind or was it removed in it's entirety ? Note: Toured the destroyer & sub on Pelican island, but never toured the Lexington at Corpus... Hence, the USS TEXAS has to be where we saw the Coca Cola Soda Bar... As to the Bunk Sections, Infirmary, Ward room, Etc, we remember them well... And yes, it looked 100% better on our past walk throughs... ~~~~~~ Topic: Disabled but still mobile... Volunteering is possible, but I need to know your Berthing / Light's Out protocol as I reside 350 miles away...