Sir you are the hidden treasure aboard USS Texas. I am most appreciative of the tutorials you create for those of us who can not visit. As I Have said before I’m not sure of your association with the ship but you are the best ambassador USS Texas has. Please continue to share your videos.
I continue to be amazed at the quality of work done by Taylor Marine on the ship’s structure and tank tops. It was a monumental task rebuilding the Texas from the inside!
Considering the age of the ship some of these compartments have held up pretty well . The gyro room is a real treasure , brings back a few memories and we'll worth learning about for those interested . A lot of respect for you for all that climbing , the cable trunk looks pretty full , on a warship there are likely to be a lot more added cables over its lifetime and they all have to pass through watertight bulkhead s .
People need to stop whining about her rotten wood and rusted hulk. She is 100+ years old and all of it is repairable if the money is available. I think she is very happy that she didn't suffer the fate of all the other 1900s and 1910s battleships that were scrapped, sunk as target ships, or vaporized in nuclear bomb tests.
ALL of that, inside a ship half the size of the Lexington. Yet Texas still felt bigger when i visited in July 2021. And I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s still tons of ship you haven’t showed us yet!
Wow! Thanks for this. Really conveys the complexity of the ship. I can understand how easy it would be to get lost in there. And every nut, bolt and rivet had to have been hand drawn (or at least accounted for in ‘typical’ details and schedules) on paper in the design process to build the ship.
As a look about, I'm always struck with a melancholy wonder; who was the last blue jacket to climb that ladder and pass through that hatch? Who was the last striker detailed to chip, scrape and paint that bulkhead? Who put in that lightbulb and how long ago? The nameless lost to history…
I know exactly what you mean. That is something I frequently think about when I am below, especially when I see handwriting, either graffiti or to provide information like on indicator cards.
The most interesting thing about Texas is if it were not for the disaster at Pearl Harbor she would have stayed as a training ship during WWII and would never have gone to combat and then later scrapped. Them activating Texas for escort and then actual combat duty makes me think that Utah would have been refitted and become a battleship if she hadn't been sunk and escaped any damage during Pearl Harbor. Texas and her fellow ancient sister battleships Arkansas and New York were essentially the emergency replacements for the lost battleships at Pearl Harbor. Incredible how Texas survived all that it had gone through for 100+ years and became the only battleship to serve in the amphibious landings at Torch, D-Day (Omaha Beach!!!), Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Even without those WWII battles she would have been a historic ship to keep forever.
Always amazed with the complexity of some of the systems. Still great photography/presentation even if not intended for public viewing. Thanks for documenting areas we might not otherwise see!
at a shipyard some years ago, a ballast tank hatch was opened on a boat on the main deck to allow access. Worker lowered a ladder climbed down and was gone for some time. His helper yelled, got no response so he went down after him. They both suffocated as the rust in the tanks had consumed all of the oxygen. They were found much later.
My respect for the men who crewed the ships of this time frame continues to grow. These ships were designed to fight with little regard for crew comfort.
Thank you so much for sharing your photos and videos! I am truly grateful to you. Seeing these spaces aboard USS Texas gives me a much better appreciation for the immense size of a dreadnought battleship and the vast, labyrinthine passages throughout her. I have been aboard USS North Carolina countless times and I never get see the spaces that really want to see.
Texas' unique history and classification as the only surviving dreadnought as well as the only battleship to serve at Torch, D-Day, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa just makes the 7 other modern fast museum battleships look like cookiecutter plain ships. Whatever the cost it will be to renovate Texas will be worth it. She was already a cheaply (but high quality construction) built battleship at the cost of $6 million. We got a bargain for her since she served bravely all throughout WWII in 4 of the most famous amphibious landings ever to replace the destroyed USS Arizona and Oklahoma and the very long waiting period for West Virginia and California to be rebuilt.
its nice to see some more obscure areas of the this wonderful ship. of course its sad to see the corrosion but its nice knowing its all getting fixed up now.
When my sister and I were kids(in the 50's and 60's) we used to love going on board for self guided tours with our dad. He was born the same year she was launched, 1914. I used to marvel at all the hidden space that were locked and not available to the public. Perhaps this curiosity and love of caves had an impact on my current profession. I am a Certified Marine Chemist, close to retirement. Now I get to go into all sorts of dark, dank spaces on commercial vessels! I have really enjoyed the Navy ships that I have been into the bowels of!
Nice to see Texas getting well deserved attention! All of that space, and I bet the command staff wished they had more room for storage! It's like an empty mansion full of empty rooms, but as you add the crew and supplies, those rooms fill up and you run out of space quickly! And I bet they used little spaces even as much as the large spaces, as the provisions they carried could mean the difference between living and dying! Seeing the portable flooring, I wonder if they used the under space for storage as well?
My step grandfather was a fireman (coal stoker) on the USS Arkansas (BB-33) from 1920 to 1922. His job was primarily nothing more than shoveling coal into a boiler. He took up boxing while on the Arkansas. He eventually became a light heavy weight boxer and as per his claim a champion Navy boxer during his short stay on the ship. Based on his conversations, the stokers were a good choice for boxers because the work of stoking boilers was extremely physical. I never thought to ask him about a gym on the ship or where he went to train as a boxer. As per my grandfather he was mentored by another stoker who had been on the ship for several years and had a history of being a successful Navy boxer. Apparently at the time the Navy had a very competitive boxing program between the ships and fleets. Watching these videos, I have to assume that during his 2 years on the ship he became very well acquainted with the internal portions of the ship, including some of the rooms described in this video. Those boxing lessons came into good use later in his life when he became a police officer in a small Midwest town. He was often alone and on a Saturday night when the farmers and cowboys came to town he was the only thing between some semblance of peace and utter chaos. He was not hired for his verbal judo skills. His reputation was built with his hands and from what I understand he knew how to use them.
That is certainly a maze of passage ways and rooms. I`m guessing large warships of today would not be that different. Would be a monumental undertaking to even bring some of the lower decks back to some sort of restored state.
You are right on all counts. The complexity is inevitable since a critical damage control feature is dividing lower decks into a multitude of small compartments in order to limit flooding if there is a hull breech. Between the shear number of spaces, all of the pipes, wires and equipment are in the way, and the lead contained in the historic paints, restoring them is a monumental and very expensive task.
@@tomscotttheolderone364 Whatever the cost it takes will be worth it to fully restore the interior rusted areas. She cost only $6 million originally to be built and I mean she is completely worth spending more money to bring her back to glory than what her original cost was. She was CHEAP to build even if that $6 million was converted to today's money.
Amazing that you can see where the flooding was with the water stains on the walls within the hull. Like I said in my first comment is that I hope they correct all these stains with a fresh coat of paint. She definitely deserves to look clean and restored inside and out. I've been inside the battleship Texas twice in my younger days and seeing this video I was shocked to see all the flooding that has occurred since my last visit.
Tom, your videos and technical explanations of what we are seeing are great! I am just amazed at all the small compartments and equipment that you are showing us. I have toured the ship many times with family and had no idea that all this equipment was there. It is fascinating to see all these spaces and think about the men who worked and lived there. Question about the electrical systems, were they all Direct Current systems? Also, will you be touring any of the upper structures, I suspect they are really difficult to get to as there are only ladders to get you there! Thanks again for all the info! Great job!
Yes, primary power was 120vdc. Other voltages and AC power was produced using motor-generator sets that used 120vdc motors to turn generators that supplied the needed power. My primary goal is to show spaces and explain systems fundamental to the ships operation. The vast majority of that is below main deck. The upper works has a couple of major things I may present in the future, but I will never do anything in the mast tops. They were stripped of all equipment by the Navy so there’s not anything to show. Thanks for your questions! Btw, one critical location in the superstructure is combat information center. Go to the Battleship Texas Foundation RU-vid channel for an excellent presentation of that given by Travis Davis, VP of Operations.
In the mid '50's I met a man that said he had served on the Texas between the world wars. He said that Texas school kids were saving snd donating pennies for the restoration of the ship. He also said that many of the portholes at that time were square. I have tried to get a broadside close-up picture of the square portholes with no success.
I have never seen square portholes in any drawings or in hundreds of photos of the ship, taken from 1912 through the early 1940's when they were all removed and plated over. There were square windows in the navigation bridge that were removed because their wood framing had deteriorate and were failing. They were replaced with round ones. There are also square windows in the fire control tower on the foremast and fire control tower immediately aft of the smoke stack.
Very interesting tour and video! I have to say though, when I watch these below deck tours I can't help but think "lead paint" and "asbestos". Thank you!
There is a lot of both on the ship. However, the asbestos has been encapsulated and the lead simply isn't messed with. If painting is to be done, the existing coating is tested and remediated by a licensed contractor before any other work starts. Oh, and I wash my hands thoroughly before eating anything!
Thank You for showing the spaces deep into the interior. I was a sailor in the Merchant Service and viewed the tight spaced in the cargo ship. But they do not match those of this Battleship. Battleships are expensive as compared to the vessels I worked on. Thanks!
Could they use the stored compressed air to start the engines? The Iowas & modern bunker fuel cargo ships have that feature. I really wish it wasn't for the lead-paint regulations because I see plenty of high-school graduation volunteer hours down in that ship of yours.
There was no need to use compressed air for the reciprocating engines. The only possible issue is if one was at top dead center when they try to start it. If that happened, they could easily correct it using its jacking engine.
True, but there was one thing that all old salts instantly identified when they came on board, the smell. Until a few years ago when they managed to get the last of the fuel oil out of tanks and other locations, the entire ship had a slight background odor of it. Old sailors instantly recognized it and in many cases, it brought back a lot of memories.
Not in a long time. However, I always carried a reduced set of deck plans with me the first couple of years that I was on board. Having said that, there is one area that is crazy-easy to get lost in. The good news is that it wouldn't take more than 4-5 minutes to finally find a ladder out. Here is a link to a video I shot there: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1mrI5yKCHz0.html
Deck plans! I carried a reduced size set with me at all times the first 2 years I was on the ship! I still occasionally need them. As far as crew, few needed them since the vast majority generally navigated in and around their berthing area or duty station. That and second deck where they could visit the canteen, gedunk or post office.
Why would the Navy replace / upgrade Texas's gyro compass after she was already retired? That does not seem like something just done on a whim based off of the location and size of the compartment.
That is a very good question that I have also wondered. I know that it is true because I have seen the Navy's list of equipment adds and deletes created during the ship's preparation for donation.
@@tomscotttheolderone364 possibly took out the original from the ship as it worked and replaced it with a damaged one? Or perhaps it was one of those moments where someone told the to replace all ships’ gyro compasses & someone didn’t pay enough attention?
*_"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"_* or, in this case, bureaucratic inertia. I'm sure that somewhere, once upon a time somebody approved the upgrade and it surfaced in the bowels of the bureaucracy and was carried through before anybody noticed it was wastefully redundant. At which point it was more effort (read: paperwork intensive) than it was worth to stop the process. I encountered this personally at the ALCOA plant in Rockdale Texas. While the company was fully aware it was going to close the plant in 2008, the maintenance division was unaware and therefore replaced at moderate expense a seldom used powered vehicle gate . This gate probably hasn't been opened a score of times in the last decade and a half, and now sits chains shut with the power and telemetry wires cut.🤷♂️
They had to use the hatches that I used to descend to the 2nd platform and hold deck spaces since they are the only means of access. As far as how, I have never seen any procedures, but I assume that they were hauled up or down using ropes since it wouldn't be possible to hold a crate while climbing the ladders. However, getting them from the main deck to the 1st platform would be pretty easy. They could lower them in large crates using cranes using the same hatches and doors used to load 14" ammunition, then carried to the doors and deck hatches you see in the handling room.
I first visited Battleship Texas 69 years ago and could visit many obscure rooms such as these. I remember seeing a propeller shaft as it exited a room below deck. It was the biggest steel rod I have ever seen. I know flooding and damage caused much of these hidden places to be closed off. Wonder if modern safety considerations will keep much of the ship off-limits?
There are two major reasons for keeping most of the ship closed to the public. First, is the very high of falling off of ladders that could result in serious injury. The other reason is to protect against vandalism. Many more compartments were open during the first 25-30 years the ship was open as a museum. Just about everything in them have been damaged or destroyed, not limited to gauges in the dynamo room, ice making room and evaporator room where their lenses were smashed and needles torn off. There's no reason to think that it wouldn't be as bad or worse if these and other spaces are reopened.
I am surprised that they don't require people to have a buddy with them when going through the ship. If something were to happen, nobody would know where you are. Never know if you trip and break and ankle etc and couldn't get out deep down in the bowls. Great video by the way! 😁👍
You incorrectly assume that I didn't follow safety protocols, that they didn't know where I was, that I couldn't be easily found and that I didn't check in with them at a pre-agreed upon times. Thank you for the compliment!
Is the silver paint from original build, WWII, or more recent work? I'm guessing silver was a typical interior color down below. I know from tours of the USS NC had different colors for the Captain and Admiral's area so a sailor knew when he was in that area. My 9 yr old son and I love all of your videos as watch as soon as they are posted! Thank you!
Thank you for the kind words! I am especially glad that your son enjoys them. The somewhat fresh looking silver on the decks and some of the framing is on work performed in 2014-18 when they replaced a lot of framing, tank tops and inner bottom.
Yes, there was a door there that lead into C-28-P, Ship's Service Stores. It shows on the 1914 certified "as built" plans and on the 1931 booklet of plans. As a guess, it is possible that the door wasn't badly needed, so they sealed it off in order to improve the ship's compartmenting against flooding.
8:31 interesting to see the overhead rails that split into so many different compartments. *_"WTD NO 17M P"_* = watertight door number 17, munition, port? From the diagram that follows it looks like those doors opened to 40mm stowage?
Sorry, I guess this was a little confusing. The room with the rails is turret 3 handling room and the rails carried 14" shells from the magazines to the hoists. The door numbers don't necessarily match the rooms, but identify that door on a set of plans that showed the types and locations of all doors and hatches on the ship. The diagram immediately following that is on second platform, one level below the handling room. The 40mm magazines that you saw on the diagram could not be accessed through the trunks and passages in this video. They could only be reached using deck hatches farther forward in the ship from 3rd deck. In fact, here is a video I shot walking through them: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1mrI5yKCHz0.html
I haven't make anything on the AAA. All of my efforts have been on systems that are difficult to find anywhere else. My understanding is that the guns will be available to the public as in past. They have not decided how available the restored 5" will be for the public to operate. The breech plugs will certainly be secured so that folks cannot hurt themselves on them. The big issue is on training, or rotating, them. They want to find a way to limit them since it is possible to train the barrels far enough to strike the sides of the openings through which they extend and damage something.
@@tomscotttheolderone364 Thank you. Either way whether static or movable will be fine for me. Those AA guns are so fun to play with. I don't think any other battleship museum allows people to play with them. The 5" guns actually fought at Normandy and should be handled carefully also.
It is always exciting to hear from family members of former crew. It would be wonderful if you have a photo of him while he was a member of Texas' crew that you could share with Battleship Texas Foundation. I know they would greatly appreciate it if you could contact them to see about sending them a good quality scan of it. You can reach them at: info@battleshiptexas.org
@@tomscotttheolderone364 Unfortunately the photograph of the Ship was produced by the Navy. I do not have a photo of him as a crew member, but I do have the very long basic training photographs.
Is there any logic behind the compartment labels deviating from the normal "PESO" system? PESO = Port Even, Starboard Odd. C-11 and C-13 make sense, but then we see C-14 and C-16 also on starboard side, which looks unconventional.
You are right, ladders or ladder rungs are typically permanently attached to bulkheads. I assume you are referring to the silver painted ladder propped against the deck hatch on second platform. That was left by museum staff members.
@@tomscotttheolderone364 Were there spaces in the ship that required a ladder to access that didn’t have them permanently mounted? Wondering why your staff needed a moveable ladder?
@@Whitpusmc Just to correct, I am just a volunteer and no one reports to me. As far as why they may use a portable ladder, because it is a lot safer to use a ladder that is tilted so that you can lean into it rather than a vertical ladder that you hang from.
@@tomscotttheolderone364 OK so the vertical ladder is still there you just added the additional one for safety purposes. I understand. I didn’t mean that “you” were in charge, I should have written “the battleship’s staff” vs “your staff.”
How interesting this video but sometimes I think that the dispensers has been added as an afterthought! That said I think that there some differences between the US cable trunks compared to the Italian battleships (I'm Italian!) and I noticed that the cable trunks are virtual tunnels that runs almost the whole length of the ship at the bottom and possibly suspended to avoid much as possible condensation or whatever. Please continue doing such a great job on "my" favorite battleship! 👍👍👍
The dry dock work will likely last through February. She will then tie up at a dock where repairs and restoration will continue until a new, yet to be decided, home port will be ready to take her.
After all this work being done! Why not keep it on dry land? It'll still be a museum PC and can see the whole ship top to bottom... cause it will never be put to war and never be effective..
That was a goal in the early 2000's. Proposals were made to create a permanent dry berth that would largely eliminate the maintenance required to keep the ship in the water. During all of that, it was determined that the ship's hull structure was too degraded to support her out of the water, or even tow her anywhere. As a result, $50 million was spent on hull and frame repairs that was on top of any attempt to dry berth her. When the $100 million cost of the project was given, the state legislature refused it. Ultimately, they provided $35 million for the current repair project that will put the ship in good enough condition to survive for hopefully another 100 years in the water as long as she is periodically taken into dry dock for hull servicing. Another issue that got in the way of a dry berth solution was that influential people did not want her to be kept at the San Jacinto Battleground. Their argument was that while people were used to seeing her there, the ship was very much out of place in the 1836 site where Texas won her independence from Mexico. That is also a major reason why she is not going back there when she leaves dry dock.
I was in the US Navy for 8 years, 5 of which i was an internal communications electrician 3rd class. I maintain the Wsn2/5 gyros, depending on what the ship had. I am not understanding why a ship thats not functional would have the gyro replaced.
@@tomscotttheolderone364 my guess the idea was being passed around the Navy to reactivate the Texas at some point for whatever reason. Due to the hardware that uses the Sperry, not very much of the fire control would have to be upgraded for the time since it had limited capabilities. My WSN 5 had a lot more to it seeing as though it primarily had synchro amplifiers for each compartment that had x amount of indicators
@@Tomcatntbird By the end of WWII, the U.S. had 10 fast battleships that were 5 years old or newer, equipped with 16" guns and in good operating condition. Texas was the next to oldest battleship in the U.S. fleet, was obsolete in every imaginable way and worn out. Her only future was to be sunk as a target, sunk in the atomic tests or fortunately, donation as a museum ship. All of this is to say that the ship would never be reactivated and I really don't know why they removed the Armas and placed the Sperry on board. There was no future need for one since the only movements the ship made after 1946 was under tow. She I could make a couple of wild guesses, but I am almost always wrong when I do, so I'll resist temptation.
There is a long and complex history to the reasons why the ship's interior is in the condition that it is. Every possible effort has been made to prevent what you see, but it has been inevitable due to leaks over the last 75 years in the riveted construction of the hull plating and wasting of its 100 year old steel. it is impossible to keep the inside dry without directly addressing these issues, which requires dry docking and a budget of $50+ million. Fortunately, that is exactly what is happening now. The ship has been in dry dock for almost a year where she is undergoing repairs that will leave her hull in better watertight condition than even when she was in service as a warship. By the time it is complete, more than $100 million will have been spent, including critical hull framing repairs, that were performed less than 10 years ago. Once completely watertight, the interior can be stabilized and future corrosion largely prevented, if not eliminated.
Whoever eventually gets this ship, which I understand will be Galveston, is going to need a large contingent of volunteers to clean up, paint and maintain these spaces to prevent further rust and decay.
I agree, but getting good volunteers is difficult. It's easy to find people who will come out a couple of times and do light work. However, it is very hard to find and retain volunteers who will come out time after time, for days, months and years. Those are the ones most desperately needed since you can spend resources training them, know they will be around for a long time, trust them to not damage anything, and work on projects to completion. Having been involved with the ship's volunteer program that did this kind of work for 20 years, perhaps 1 in 10 new volunteers are there a year later, and 1 in 50 ten years later. Historically, that narrows it down to an approximate 10-20 people who last 10 years. Most folks come out, do some work, have some fun, then disappear without forming a strong bond with the ship and other volunteers. That's okay, it's just how it works. It is probably the same with most volunteer groups. Even with an adequate number of trained volunteers, there are many things they cannot do. Much of the restoration work involves removing lead base paint by licensed contractors, and welding and painting in confined spaces that are inherently dangerous. All of this work is very expensive and shouldn't be done by volunteers.
I know what you mean, but there was a great deal of logic to the design. The basic idea was to divide the ship's lower levels into small, watertight compartments. The ship was also divided into separate sections by major watertight bulkheads that extend above the waterline. That can be seen by the way compartments on the lower decks start with the letters A, B, C, or D, which gives the area between bulkheads where they are located. That way, if there is flooding, it is confined to single or a few spaces. In the case of major, large damage, the bulkheads stop progressive flooding into the rest of the ship. Deck hatches and vertical passages, called trunks, are located to provide access into small clusters of compartments on each level. The overall effect is that while it can be difficult to access at times, the design offers a great deal of resistance to large scale flooding and sinking.
I understand your sentiment and somewhat agree with it. Much of the damage was generated by poor decisions made when the ship was prepared as a museum and an initial lack of understanding of the cost and effort it would take to maintain her for years and decades. However, I have come to the conclusion that if they had, they would have pulled the plug on the project and we wouldn't have the ship now. Instead, she would have been expended as a target or scrapped along with the other older battleships after WWII. So, I agree, but I'm glad she's here!
