The Hardware Store for Museum Ships: Where We Get Our Spare Parts From 

A Deli operating on board would be the most New Jersey thing ever.

You're not only helping restore the battleship to its 1990 configuration, you're preserving pieces off of other naval ships that will never get an opportunity to become a museum. Glad you got the two meat slicers.

While the drydock of USS New Jersey is monumental, I am having far more fun watching "The Worlds Happiest Museum Curator" soak this all in. What an amazing experience!

You are correct, it's better to have a door open with nothing or little in it than closed and have people wondering what's in there.

I'm sorry but all I can think of is what Don Martin would do for a cartoon: First frame, ship pulls up to the dock and crew disembarks. Second frame, crew returns to find ship up on blocks by the dock missing the screws , rudder, half of the hull and all of the upper works. Great video Ryan, thanks much!

Ryan, this window into the thought process that you go through to provide thoughtful experiences on the New Jersey is brilliant. Museum ship curation is as much creative inspiration as well as historical research, engineering, and science. I have never before thought of how much goes into telling the thousands of small stories that a museum ship or any military museum must tell to be successful.

Ryan, this has got to be one of the best videos you’ve made. Every single video shows how much you care about the ship, but this one really proves that you care about giving people the experience. I love how you let the historical nuts know there is some flex and it’s all about getting people through the doors and talking about it and it’ll become perfect later. I can’t imagine the immense work you have to do everyday to make New Jersey what she is, but BZ to you and the team!

Your excitement explaining the 'phone book holder has really made my day. Brings back memories of calling my mum from a (British!) red phone box at the rail station, to tell her my country bus had got me that far, and could she please come get me! That smell of extremely stale cigarette smoke and damp concrete... Ryan, you are a gem.

Granpa was a cook on missouri. He described it perfectly in his stories before he died. When i visited the ship, the galley was exactly how he described. It was the most soreal moment in my life.

Don’t forget mops and brooms, blankets,pillows! Sheets! Medical supplies!

I've got quite a soft spot for seeing the phone equipment restored and interpreted. My dad was a phone man for 45 years, much of that time in Longview, WA. Some of his work involved connecting and disconnecting the phone systems for the ships at the port. He was there in 1990 when New Jersey visited Longview and took me to see it while it was open to visitors. I was only 9 years old, but I already had Antony Preston's book on battleships and was able to get it signed by a few of the crew.

I like your comment about walking past an empty room everyday and being a little bit embarrassed, and using that as motivation to restore. I know it worked for me when I had similar restoration projects.

Pay phone booths and telephone books, I suddenly feel old 😂. Thank you New Jersey for sharing. I love your videos and I love that you are preserving our history.

Post office stuff. We had to write a letter and wait 10 days for an answer. Paper, envelopes, stamps or franking stamps.

It's certainly an experience on a dead ship especially if there isn't any temporary lighting . Always a mixture of sadness ,especially if you worked on it , and delight if you find the right items you are looking for in good condition to give your ship something badly needed .

This is an old Navy tradition.I was in Boston Navy Yard in 1969 when our ship was being refit and we went to one of the warehouses that had items removed from decomissioned ships. We loaded a pickup truck and traded the gear to destroyers and other ships in port for what we needed. IE: Rack lights for coffee from a destroyer and grain alcohol from the Naval Hospital for coffee. etc...

I'll be fascinated to see that deli meat slicer someday to explain why it was so heavy. The ones I see in shops and on that one Seinfeld episode seem clearly not too heavy for one man to carry. So these navy versions must be something!

Yeow! 76 years old here (23 in reserve military service) and Ryan has just made me painfully aware of just how much history I’ve LIVED through! Not only do I remember pay phones, phone books (and standing in line to use them), but I even remember beer vending machines in barracks (they didn’t last long).

I have 4 1980's Long Beach/South Bay area phone books for you and I'll bring them with me on Saturday morning to the dry dock tour. Your wish will be granted.

Ryan, your enthusiasm makes me want to seek out a full time staff position on a large museum ship, and spend the rest of my days restoring.

When Ryan pulled out that binocular case, it looked very familiar. Turned out that my step Dad brought back something from WWII that looked just like it and gave it to me. I had not used it in many years but I decided to pull it out and compare it to the one Ryan had. Unfortunately, mine does not say ADMIRAL on it. It is, however, a Mark 28 like the one Ryan has. It does not have the Mod.0 designation after the model number like his has (Maybe that's the Admiral option!). Mine is a 1944 model. The case is a Hood model B8. It appears that Ryan may have the same case from the looks of it. Both the binoculars and case are in pretty good condition and appear to be complete. Too bad I did not get any history from where it came from.

You may already have restored and equipped this area but I would like to see the signal flag area as my Dad was a Signalman 3rd Class on the U.S.S. Boyd DD - 544 in W.W. # 2. Thanks for all you folks do.

Thanks for helping us better understand your role as a curator of a national treasure!

I would love to see berths full with sheets, blankets and pillows. Clothes. Personal belongings. Books. Photos of sweet hearts and family. Pinups. Shaving kits.

Stuff I found important:(In No particular Order) Rack Light, Privacy Curtains, Rack Safety Strap, Bookcases for reading material (kind of like the take one, leave one concept) Post Office......Clocks, Irons.....Every ship I was on had an exercise room (weight equipment, treadmills).

From my time on the Halyburton, bug juice machines with random colored juice every day. I remember the bread cutter and covered dispenser. Napkin and salt / pepper dispensers sliding across the floor were memorable.

If you ever finish working for the Battleship NJ, it would be great to see you do videos on all the various museum ships around the country. You'd have endless content.

Love your quote: “best is the enemy of good enough “.

That payphone card dispenser thingy: build an interactive “call your mom” payphone experience! Borrow (or buy as a souvenir) a card, fill it with real money at the card machine, and call your real mom from a real payphone on a real battleship, just like an old-timey sailor. You could even simulate some authentic analog static and satellite delay. That would be a small but steady income for the museum, a fun experience for the whippersnappers among us who have never used a payphone or any non-cellphone, and we should all call our mom anyway.

We would spend a lot of time in our division lounge and I think the public would like to see that. Couches, chairs, TV, tables with card games, chess/checkers boards, magazines and books. A bulletin board with notices including a watch-standing list.

I love how he is so excited about what to us would be mundane items or equipment. Seeing those items on the ship wouldn't trigger a reaction necessarily, however Ryan understands that their absence would go noticed

I know it's inevitable but thinking about you eventually moving on to a new gig is very depressing. You've done such a great job opening up the ship and its history and this drydock sequence is just the most recent wonderful example.

The payphones and charge machine are a fantastic pick up.

Beat-up, red, roll-around tool chests and cabinets in the engineering spaces. An ashtray full of Winston Light butts, a can of potato sticks from the geedunk, and a cup of hell-bent-for-leather black coffee for the HMFIC's chair in the engine control room. BTW, Its a pleasure to see a situation in which the right guy is in the right job.

As a visitor, there are two types, those that have not served and have no idea what life was like and is a great learning experience. Or those that have served and live that life style. For me, as a retired sailor, (Dessert Storm and Iraq Freedom), if I visit a ship, active service or retired service, it’s more like a trip down memory lane which could bring on flash backs to times when something good or bad happened. Either way, I am glad that you are doing what you are doing with the ship and the videos that you produce on RU-vid. I may not visit New Jersey, just because of the flash backs that occur in my life. I wish you all the best and for others, please visit New Jersey. It will be an experience that you will learn how sailors live and work onboard our country’s Navy fighting ships.

As a GenXer and one of the last people to experience the military before mobile phones, in particular smartphones, became widespread I think having the payphones on exhibit is a fantastic idea.

Ryan, don't ever mention leaving New Jersey again!!!! You arent allowed to lol. You are by far my favourite museum curator, for any of the ships, and New Jersey just wouldn't be the same without you. You're going to retire on board her lol.

I like the insight into the curation process, the concept of "period of interpretation" being a specified date, and the compromises in the realization of it in the ship.

I went on a strip trip to the Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay for parts for the Red Oak Victory years ago. It was quite the experience, something I will always remember. It is an eerie feeling to be on a dead ship with some compartments completely ransacked and others that looked like the sailors just left. We were able to load up containers that were lifted with a crane and taken to the dock for us to load in our trucks. So, when you guys visited the Red Oak, some of the radio equipment was stuff I helped to get.

I have been fortunate enough to have toured the "Show Boat" Battleship North Carolina several times and The Chapel always intrigued me for many reasons. I hope that the Battleship New Jersey has It's Chapel intact so that tour groups can see the spiritual part of military life exists even on the high seas.!

These videos are the next best way of seeing the ship if you can’t travel to see it in person. GREAT Job! Thank you.

I remember all the "extra" stuff we relocated to the ocean floor while underway. USN 1984-1988

The "pay phones" on the Kitty Hawk were called Sailor Phones, and you used phone cards to pay for talk time. I used them a couple of times between 1996 and 1998 until the ship computers were upgraded to allow for email. Modern ships still had them in 2014 when I retired, but not many.

A kid in a candy store!!!😂 You really are the right spirit to preserve and polish a great American legend. I got to do the same thing for the USS Agerholm DD826 in 1973 from the mothballed destroyers in San Diego. First time I got to see a trough toilet. After that I thought my modernized WW2 can was a luxury yacht.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe when you did videos about the gym and laundry spaces the crews built, there wasn’t any equipment there. It would probably be great to get some “near enough” equipment and restore those spaces. Both to show the kinds of things the sailors did to boost morale, but also shows the human side of the crew. But damn Ryan, this is a cool haul

I served on a Knox class Fast Frigate in the early 80's. No phones on board and we could only call home when we got to port. Mail was the main way to communicate, and we received mail during most refueling onloads and but that was usually old news. Thanks for the videos I enjoy them.

You are almost as excited about the phone book stuff as Steve Martin was in his movie "The Jerk".

I'm in the historic house restoration game -- and I completely agree with your approach to interpreting things.

Went to USS Hornet this weekend. Was looking to see how many of the "Biscuit Wrenches" were still onboard. Surprisingly, most of the brackets I came across were filled. Even if they were loose and able to be removed, good to see people haven't pocketed them all.

What's sad is that you even have to have an expectation that people will steal items form the ship. I've been on so many ships in my life as a civilian and it never even crossed my mind to take something that isn't mine. Just very sad that is where people's moral compasses are today!!

I like how you get so excited going to a boneyard Ryan. I do to!

I think it’d be great to see a personal locker/closet for enlisted, Chief, and officer filled with what they would have had and where it would have been. Uniforms, civilian clothes, hygiene bag, towel, etc. Make one space for each grade look like someone still lives there.

Absolutely excellent custodianship. Kudos to Ryan & crew. Fantastic level of passion and attention to detail. Seems like the ship is getting forever younger and more fit every year thanks to the tireless work of these people.

I love how Ryan said he wants the ship to appear as if the crew just left and were somehow sneaking on board lol

I think your idea is correct Ryan. Throw the doors open. Also if an item fits the part but may be out by a couple of years, it's still better to have it than it be the perfect fit. The perfect fit may never turn up. Be good to have the phones working so people could call home an say "hey I'm plcalling from BB62". I for one would love too do that.

Thank you for the effort you put into the New Jersey as its curator. I grew up in Rhode Island and spent many days on the Massachusetts in Fall River. I also got to visit the North Carolina and Alabama. It is so important for the public to see these ships as they were during their service life, and your efforts are most appreciated. The Lexington, here in Texas gets a good number of visitors, and that is my go to ship when we go to Corpus Christi. Thank you for your fine videos and the work you do for the public, and especially for me, an old former Marine.

Don't forget to get plenty of sound powered telephone jackbox caps! I'm sure there are a bunch missing, and if you don't already have some, the early 1990's coke machines! We had them on our ship.

One thing I would like to see Ryan discuss, is the plausibility of the ships guns using shells equipped with ramjet technology. The reason I bring this up is because if they did reactivate the ships, that's what might make them potentially viable.

In the Royal Navy in the 80s and right through the 90s ships had card payphone. I have installed, wired and maintained many of them when the ships were in dock in Portsmouth.

The phones are a good find - somebody somewhere has one of those mammoth phone books stashed in the attic!

since you mention bulletin boards, find some examples of messages received over the teletypewriters printed on rolls of paper, cut them and pin them up. I was in Army Air Defense in the 1980s and for units that were widely dispersed, the most common way to distribute routine, administrative messages was by teletype over the tactical radio network. Sometimes the message that printed out on the rolled paper would be cut into strips and photocopied onto Disposition Forms, or DFs. Other times the strips would be pinned up straight from the teletype. The Navy at that time must have been doing something similar.

This is a great video for several reasons. First, I appreciate your honesty in saying that some pieces are going to eventually get stolen from the museum. It's not a pleasant reality, but it is true. And you need an inventory of spare parts to keep up with that attrition. Mentioning the three Perry-class frigates reminds me of how quickly the mothball fleet is disappearing. Just last year, there were about a dozen of them in the ship basin. I'm sure that even those last three will be gone before too long. But there will probably be parts to be salvaged from the Ticonderogas! I agree with you and the fellow commenters who say that it's better to have a space open and partially restored than closed off and inaccessible. As long as it's safe for people to visit, let them see what they can. And yes, I think that the perfect is the enemy of the good. Finally, your admission that you're not going to be the curator of New Jersey forever was a bit of a shock, though it shouldn't have been. Everyone wants to move forward in their career, so why shouldn't you? I do hope that you stick around long enough to make many more videos, and that the next curator will want to follow your example!

We recently toured the USS Silversides, and seeing the (decommissioned) 'bathroom' was eye opening. 70 men in an enclosed space with a toilet that had something you could barely call a door was eye opening. And nostril closing.

This is a GREAT video. I would enjoy more of these, "What we get on 'strip trips'...."

i agree, OPEN UP THE SPACE fill it later. pay phones are great. so are bread slicers. i love the post office stuff too!

Would have loved to have a couple battle laterns from my ship USS Deyo DD-989....lol

I can remember as a young boy visiting the USS Lexington CV-16 at NS Mayport. I was super impressed when we were given warm fresh baked biscuits from the galley. It's too bad the NJ isn't allowed to do something similar in the galley areas of the ship. I am sure you could find numerous volunteer veterans who were Navy bakers to run the program. I'm guessing any food served on board is catered from local restaurants.

Ryan was super excited about a phone book holder. How awesome!

Ryan, I think you need to represent a small office space filled with guys sitting on desk tops or standing, chain smoking. You need the Navy issued aluminum ashtrays. This space was also our ET duty station underway and so guys would congregate with the guy on watch when they were off duty. This was the 80's and before, Navy culture which I believe you are trying to represent on the ship. Also, you could play Star Trk: Next Generation on a loop in the berthing compartment, which was extremely popular on my ship in '87 and '88

I was in the navy in the mid 90s and i remember that prepaid phone. On the ship I was on, it was located in the ships library. I do remember that it was quite expensive to use.

This guy has the best job in the world!

Interesting - on the FFGs I served aboard - we didn't get payphones on board until 1995 - you had to go ashore to make a phone-call - for that matter - pagers were HIGHLY restricted. I was aboard Kitty Hawk in 1996-97 and that was the FIRST time I saw phones that could be used while at-sea. Called home to Dad mid-cruise to wish him Merry Christmas from The Persian Gulf. I get a HOOT hearing you wish you could make the Galley operational - as an Aircrewman those where NOT my spaces, but on two Perry Class frigates I deployed on - the Mess Chief rigged a small area - for the Aircrew to make box-lunches for our flights and our OWN little fridge space. I think of your Strip-Trips like our DRMO trips for "used" DoD gear for an air detachment rather than trying to buy new. What I would like to see - POLISH that danged SeaSprite you have - it would have NEVER been allowed to get that faded.

Thank you for your support making the ship better

Another great video with wonderful stories told in a timely manner. Really can’t wait to come out and see this ship, especially since I’ve never been to or seen a dry dock in-person. Keep up the incredible restoration work!

Haven't seen you happy for awhile. Yes, more Strip Trips videos!

When it comes to finding a phone book for that holder, the Library of Congress has the "U.S. Telephone Directory Collection" and there is a pretty good chance they have a phone book from Long Beach in the late 80s to early 90s that might already be digitized.

Source for old military electronics: Fair Radio in Lima Ohio is closing June 28th, 2024 with an auction scheduled for August 15, 16, 17 This is a 50 year old business with endless piles of equipment.

The Navy and other Branches also used MARS phone patches to allow family members to phone home while overseas. I have family member who ran phone patches for our service member in Vietnam and aboard ship.

I think personal items make a museum interesting. I volunteer at an old mine, I operate the steam winding engine. We have the original wooden bench used by past operators. Its from 1840, make the engine room look more interesting

What is the etiquette on who gets what? Is it first come first served, or is there an agreed upon hierarchy?

Phone books etc.: I'm an old man and wouldn't give it a 2nd thought. But I've seen videos on YT about teenies not having any clue how to use an old phone with a disc dial. So YES, bringing these things from the 90s back is a great experience for the younger half of your visitors ;)

What a wonderful (another !) video. The things we don’t think about - open our eyes.

The help I could have been with my tools & some strong backs to carry out whatever I could detach.

This is one of the coolest videos you guys have put out! To me at least. I really enjoy seeing items not in circulation on public tours or being refurbished for such a purpose. Thanks you Ryan and the rest of the team for your amazing job keeping the ship in such great condition. I hope to visit some day. Keep up the awesome work! ~ Cheers from Canada

Many of those 'missing' parts are just down the coast being used on the Kitty Hawk which is being dismantled. The Carriers being sold for $1.00 when they have the ability to provide civillian rescue services in Hurricane aftermaths. While in Bremerton PSNS, the NJ was our parts store, only open after 0030 to 0400. One might be supprised at the amount of parts that went from the BB to a CVA's Engineering Stores. Thousands upon thousands were saved for our drydock when we were berthed alongside the NJ.

You're a fabulous curator Ryan. I never considered any of this type of equipment when you said you were going on that strip trip.

Before powdered or liquid laundry soap was a thing (like in WWII) they used to have a soap chip maker in all large ships that could make thin shavings of soap so that it could be used in washing machines (so the soap would all become liquid when in contact with water). I doubt that you are going to be able to find one if you don't already have one, but it used to be an important part of life on board ship.

We didn't have telephones on USS Ingraham (FFG-61) when I commissioned it and they had not been installed before I moved on to my next command. Other ships I served on did have telephones, but not for personal use. 1984-1994

I was crew on the Kauffman FFG-59 in the 90's. The Red Sea was no pleasure cruise.

Television sets in the berthing compartments.

What is a Biscuit wrench? I would like to see a BBQ that the crew would use for cookouts. Like when crossing equator we would have a cookout. HT's on New Jersey I am sure must have made some. I made 3 or 4 during my time on the USS Mobile LKA 115 We would split a 55gal drum and weld some legs cut some air holes and make a grill from expanded metal. HT2 Scott 77'-83'

Looking forward for my drydock tour

Maybe tack weld the tools that can be stolen.... great content and seeing this great piece of history so well preserved

Rotary Dial or Push Button ? ...Stay Safe...Glad your Thinking Ahead...Carry On...

Ryan, you are accomplishing your goal. I visited the Ship on December and I felt I was in an active waship. The feeling is incredible. You feel that in any moment you can run into Halsey or Spruance😂. I was on Intrepid too and you feel in a museum, is good , but the feeling on Uss New Jersey is an other story. Great work of all involved. I hope to visit again soon.

I remember, years ago, you made a video about emergency power and biscuits and I thought, "those biscuit wrenches are going to get pilfered". I say, you should violate your oath of authenticy and find a way to bolt them down.. And how many of those yellow battle lanterns have you lost?

Thanks + I like that you are getting your hands dirty to get stuff for a living museum.

The small butt cans on the end of the racks. Was on my tin can in the 1980’s but not on the newer ships I served into the 2000’s

Could be handy to remind people that on ship in 80s and 90s there would've been books, magazines, comics for entertainment. Along with CRT TV VHS/Beta machines and tapes, also a good chance of laser disc player back then too and both sizes of discs. Don't forget to put out some training VHS or cassette tapes like how to speak (language) in 10 days, etc.

As we used to say, "Any port in a storm"