Today Ryan has taken a fieldtrip to Staten Island, New York to see the Destroyer Escort USS Slater go to drydock. To support Battleship New Jersey: www.BattleshipNewJersey.org/GIVE To support Slater: www.ussslater....
I was in Philly shipyards in the Navy and was a firefighter in the drydockswith the Forrestal when she went for SLEP in 1984,you have no visceral idea how big this warship is until you've walked under one in drydock,amazing
Battleship Texas is expected to be dry docked sometime early 2021. In the case of the Texas, she is expected to be getting an entire hull replacement. This is due to her deterioration from sitting in a shallow berth for the last several decades in brackish water. For the last 18 months, the Texas has been closed to visitors and every artifact onboard is being restored by volunteers in a nearby warehouse. For the last several months, Resolve Marine Group has been contracted to handle the moving of the ship to the dry dock. This requires the removal of everything on deck and the foaming of 30 tanks below the water line in order to increase her buoyancy. It has not been announced which shipyard will be handling the work or where she will rest after the work is completed. Battleship Texas is expected to be in dry dock for 12 months. I implore you all to follow the story of Battleship Texas.
@@eddiekulp1241 We are keeping the original armor belt in place. Her hull is separate from the belt armor. She also has a second hull on top of the armor in the form of the torpedo blisters that were added in 1925-27. It's all 3/8 shell plating like slater but in much worse condition.
@@johnknoefler Air is less dense than water making it negligible. The boat is buoyant because the water displaced by the hull creates a force that overcomes the weight of the ship. This is a huge deal. Just from a quick Google search it appears as if the USS Slater displaces 1,240t of water. That's a lot of force being generated.
@@__hjg__2123 One metal will be acting as anode and one as cathode. What is what depends only on your metals electronegativity(its 1.83 for Fe, 1.65 for Zn, 1.61 for Al and 1.31 for Mg). Metal with lower value of electronegativity will be dissolving. I can imagine that you want to use Mg for cathode if you planing to drink that water, extra Mg in your water is safer and potentiany benefitial for your health and you do not want to overdose the Zn. Al is used in salty waters because you need Cl ions in the water to avoid aluminium passivation but here i can imagine that Zn is easier to mount and this ship is in a river so not so much salt is in the water. The fact that you have salt in the water helps with the transfer of the current and that is why cars rust more in places where in the winter the salt is used to protect roads from snow/ice. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacrificial_metal
Usually the zinc anodes and metal that they are protecting are not covered in paint... But in this case its different story and if paint is holding then there should be no contact with the water = no sacrificing.
When I was young ,I worked on two floating dry docks for Bethlehem steel shipyards. I consider that time my college. I learned so much about marine industrial craft. I moved on for forty years and am now running all electrical work for a major American city. I couldn’t have made it here without that hands on training in many different crafts. Mainly it taught me endurance. It was very hard work.
I spent a lot of time on a floating drydock, much of that time was spent shoveling sandblast shot from under ships that were being repainted. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity to transfer to the plate shop, where I learned to cut the steel for new ships that were under construction.
At around 9;02 the plug in the bottom of the rudder is to preserve the rudder on the inside. The newer DDG's and most other class ships have one on the bottom and two on the top of the rudder. The process is know as flow coating. The process goes like this you pump in a preservative and then pump in potable water to float the coating to coat the inside of the rudder till it comes out of the top plug hole. Then you would start draining the water back out to coat it again then reinstall the plugs preserving the inside of the rudder. Yes I work in a shipyard and we do repair work on US Navy ships just in case anyone wondered how I know this. We do this prior to coming out of Drydock.
I was on the USS Prairie AD15 in the mid 70’s. We had basically identical ships. Ours was in dry dock when I reported for duty on her. I remember my first night on board. I was laying on my bunk (the old hammock style) and as I’m watching the ceiling, there is a red glow slowly traveling across. They were welding above deck. All I could think was what the hell did I get myself in to.
When I was in the Navy we were told that the ship had two separate blocking plans and they would alternate which one they used each time the ship was dry docked. So parts that did not get blasted & painted in one yard period would get taken care of next time. Of course with active USN ships they are typically dry docked every 5 years at least which is not feasible for most museum ships due to funding issues and in some cases lack of suitable dry docks. (if Iowa or Midway needed to dry dock they would need to be towed to either Hawaii or Seattle)
Now, for an additional charge, they "fleet" the vessel, which is to say they move her forward or aft a few feet on the blocks, and pump out the dock to get the areas that were covered by the blocks. It's a great time to check for leaks.
Nice Video! My neighbor's brother Frank Slater was on the USS San Francisco CA 38 & was killed on it & the USS Slater DE 766 was named after him. He mentioned how the whole Slater family went to christen this ship.
Great video explained very well. Just makes you realise how big this ship is. Such a big job in hand but well worth looking after the lady. Many thanks Geoff living in Spainn
In 1994 I sailed as a crew member on SSV "HMS" Rose (Now "HMS Surprise"). We made port in Boston and docked next to USS Constitution, then in her own drydock. We took the skipper of her out for a day cruise and he told his crew to give us the VIP tour of Constitution. We went underneath her and got to see how they were correcting the hogging, reinforcing her keel and restuffing the oakum. Then, we went into the orlop and saw the new diagonal ribs installed.
This was really interesting! I live in Seattle and have seen ships on blocks both in a dry dock and in a yard but not up close. I would be nervous under a ship like you were. I know it is secure but just thinking about it falling would keep me away. I saw one of those bigger blocks did not line up right and was sideways. I guess that is what your divers are for. They make sure as it settles not all the blocks go sideways or fall out?
I went through dry dock on my ship the USS BADGER FF-1071 in Hawaii they had a barge and a nuclear sub in the dry dock with us! It's a incredible thing how they set down these huge ships on concrete blocks and they get it perfect! It was a great experience and I wish that I would have been smart enough to stay in! I'd still be in at 62 years old if they would let me! Best time of my life!!!
I guess the USS THE SULLIVANS in Buffalo should have had that hull double plate belt based on this weeks news of her near sinking. What a shame. Thanks for this video. Never saw something like this as well documented by you have done.
In 2008 when they planned to drydock the USS Intrepid in Bayone NJ the US Navy was unable to provide the blocking plans. A museum employee actually found a set on EBAY. I kid you not. I am a former Crew member and know the employee that found the blocking plans.
Very interesting video, It's great to preserve history and it's great to see commitment to this by a dedicated number of people. I would love to support you but am unemployed ATM so have subscribed it's the least I can do and keep up the good work.👍
Amazing video! May I ask one logistic question ? When the ship is fleeting ( fleeted ? ... damn, my english isn't good enough ! ), you basically re flood the ship ( submerge the drydock ), then remove the blocks while underwater AND then place a whole new sets, and then re dock the ship like 2 feet away, correct ? To do so, you need a very precise control of the position of a quite huge ship ( I guess that it's no easy feat ... how do you do that ? ), AND you would need 2 sets of individual block adapters , and a very precise sequence of where they would go ( If I've understood correctly, there are specific drawings for this ), and someone who install it underwater ... Correct? It's a huge work even just set the ship where it should go! And a whole lot of complex steps ! WOW!
Journeymen Shipfitter Graduate Apprentice Naval Shipyard Long Beach 1977 - 1997 USS New Jersey ( 1980 - 1982 ) USS Missouri ( 1982 - 1984 ) Shipfitters & Weldors " We Made 'em Fit to Fight"
Yup, i knew that those where sacrificials zinc plates or anodes, that they will rust instead of the steel of the ship. As always, you explain all really well, cudos to you!
I wondered that also. Seems like a lot of time and expense to get to those small spots. But I guess it does need to get done. I thought maybe they put new blocking in the freshly painted areas and pounded in some wedging to take some weight off the original blocking and then knocked out that blocking to get to the spots. Apparently that would not work or take longer and be more work than repositioning the ship by flooding the dock.
Painting is important here, but its also about looking at the hull for issues. Fleeting gives you the whole picture. Ships that don't do it have problems down the road
As he said in the video, they're designed for efficiency rather than speed. Destroyer Escorts like the Slater were designed to have a top speed of only 21 knots. They were intended as economical convoy escorts. They didn't need to be fast to keep up with a convoy plodding along at 12 knots, they only needed to be quick enough to run down a submerged submarine, most of which could only get into the low 10s of knots at best. Cannon-class destroyer escorts are small ships, so they needed their powerplants to be as efficient as possible in order to make the long voyages across the Atlantic and Pacific.
Damn but that takes me back. The last ship I took through a drydocking was a 'little bit' larger than Slater, a 40,000 ton amphibious assault ship. Even while in drydock we had to feed water to parts of the ship's engineering plant and to the saltwater fire mains via large hoses from the sides of the dock. Overboard discharge was also active so we did have water being discharged through some of the seachests even while work on the hull was on going. She sat much higher above the dock floor than Slater is here, it was possible to walk from one side of the ship to the other with this big 'steel cloud' overhead. Neat! The two six bladed screws were huge, about 18 feet diameter and she had two rudders.
Where on the East Coast is a drydock large enough to hold her? I can see Norfolk having the facilities (and being actively used by the Navy for aircraft carriers), but do similar sized drydocks still exist in Philly or New York/Brooklyn? BTW, I love your channel. I binge-watched several hours of content and learned so much about these venerable historic objects. My expertise is in historic military vehicles, so I appreciate the challenges (and expenses) your operation faces in preservation and interpretation of something the size of a Iowa-class ship. Looking forward to more content!
Came across an interesting story about USS Iowa being drydocked in one of the big floating drydocks during the latter stages of WW2. Her Captain (who was apparently something of a hot dog), rather than following the directives of the floating drydock crew and moving into the dock very slowly, charged in at about 10kt, , then backed down full to stop. Of course, that knocked over some of the blocks, and sure enough when they pumped out the drydock and picked up the ship, one of those out-of place blocks punched a hole in the outer hull.
From Wikipedia: USS Louisville (CL/CA-28), a Northampton-class cruiser, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the city of Louisville, Kentucky. She was active throughout the Pacific War. USS Louisville was the first large warship to be built in a drydock - 1931.
Ionic corrosion is prevented on the iron and steel with zinc plates. This is a process that happens naturally! They are not there to protect against stray electrical currents! :D You _could_ say that the process of corrosion produces a current, though! Your description was perhaps minorly confusing for people who don't understand.
This reminds me of dry docking the Andrew Jackson SSBN 619. We had a guy free hand paint draft marking which turned out to be all wrong. This occurred when the chief engineer ordered a standard bell coming up the Thames river in New London CT we were suppose to have a midshipman and dependents cruse haha. We ran a ground divers came out cut off some rudder to free us. Big investigation. We had to transit to Charleston on the surface couldn’t dive put the boat in dry and turned over the boat to the Blue crew and went back to New London for Off crew when they fixed our mess. Lol. It was hilariously funny. The 3 day turn over went something like “we broke it you fix it”
Very Interesting... the Sonar Dome... why didn't they streamline instead of just a cylinder? Wouldn't that cut down on the speed of the ship and increase tracking noise when is service? Thank you for posting these videos!! :-)
This one ties in quite well with the other video about why ships aren't docked on dry land. As you said, 3/8" steel is not a lot, and quite easily will collapse when the entire mass of the ship rests on it. You also can't rest the ship on blocks for any extended length of time because eventually the ship will sag between blocks. Some great information you are giving everyone who watches. Now those crappy documentaries with repetitive video and mostly someone in a dark room talking could watch these, they may learn a thing or two.
Check out the videos on the USS Cod. She is finishing up her drydocking in Erie PA and is going back to Cleveland ( Aug 17th I believe). Unbelievable transformation from start to finish
We certainly believe so. We do regular checks and are keeping a close eye on it. We're in fresh water and that helps. The hull itself is less of a concern than specific points where there are openings in the hull (like for the propeller shafts). They aren't currently allowing water in, but thats a point of failure we look at especially close.
Iam not knowledgable at all on ships, but damn those keel blocks look sketchy as hell. Some of them are leaning like a mofo... Does this ever go wrong? Ship not lined up perfectly and falling over or something during the dry dock being pumped out?
Thanks for this video it was very enlightening and confirmed the fact that the ship is refloated moved a bit then raised again to clean and paint the parts covered by the blocks.
Would it be less maintenance to permanently dry dock a museum ship? I remember seeing a submarine somewhere which was pulled onto land and permanently dry docked on blocks.
that is why BB Texas was put into a permanent dry dock 'berth'.........maintaining it to stay in a normal water berth was just too difficult to maintain.
I would love to see the New Jersey go into dry dock. he'll, I'd just like to get back on to walk the ship again. If memory serves the last time I was on board was about ten years ago for an overnight with my boy scout troop.
If you have a hot water heater in your house it also has a zinc anode just like they have on the battleship well it’s smaller but still serves the same purpose
What would your opinion be on the condition of the old unfinished Slava Class cruiser's hull? Im guessing it would be beyond repair. Maybe im wrong. Anyways i love your videos. And i love how you're the voice of reason among the crowd wanting to reactivate a battleship. Lol
Not really, our camera person tends to get claustrophobic in the void spaces though. And she's afraid of climbing the mast. Under the ship you're pretty secure.
This was amazing. I was surprised at how small the propellers are. The ones on the Titanic seemed much larger. Also, if the sonar dome hits something, could it tear off and put a hole in the ship?
i think you are confused by the size and type of vessel shown here. USS Slater has only a displacement of 1,260 t to Titanic's 52.310 t. this is not the USS New jersey that at her peek weight 61.000 t according to Wikipedia. for te sonar dome, as far as i know it is a separate compartment sealed from the rest of the ship, but i expect it probably wil cause at least a hole in the bottom if the dome hints something because the backside wil push upward.
Interesting. None of the ships I was assigned to ever did a drydock cycle while I was aboard. I'm probably lucky. It's cramped and noisy and very rushed from what I've heard. SLATER looks like she's been partially stealthed! I doubt that's the case, Maybe it's the paint job?
I just wonder what's happen battleship Texas and North Carolina? Both battleship more longer than new jersey repair. Both battleship haven't repair long time but you said New Jersey repair by 2014?
Has the New Jersey been drydocked since becoming a museum ship? Is there even a DD that could handle it around Philadelphia these days? I know it would be an astronomical cost.
..What they did not drive it in like they did with the Iowa in Christmas Day 1943 when Capt Holloway drove it into the dry dock at 4-5 knots and reversed the engines....lol.
You can see her rather extreme specialization as an escort - her main guns were only 3x 3" without even gun shields. This was less then the old flat dockers which had 4x 4" and were of lesser displacement.
RYAN, YOU SAY THEY PLACE WOODEN BLOCKS IN CERTAIN PLACES TO SUPPORT THE SHIP BEING DRYDOCKED. HOW DO THEY KEEP THE BLOCKS FROM FLOATING AWAY WHEN THE DRY DOCK IS FILLED PRIOR TO THE SHIP SETTLING ON THOSE BLOCKS?
Surprised that the blocking is not placed under the hull frames, especially with thin plates. I would be concerned the plates might collapse in such an old ship. Destroyers always look like the hulls are made of tissue paper over balsa wood ribs.
if there're enough of them the weight gets distributed to make each spot within its tolerance. I would think the navy took that in to consideration (he said they followed the navy's plan)
