Author Topic: Exterior renovations  (Read 58403 times)

Offline Rick

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Re: Exterior renovations
« Reply #30 on: March 24, 2008, 09:37:28 PM »
Wahoo.  Just made 2 stars.   LOL

Offline Travis McLain

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Re: Exterior renovations
« Reply #31 on: March 24, 2008, 10:39:50 PM »
I have noticed that there are a lot of hatches cut into the deck.  These are obviously access points to get to items in the super structure.  Does anyone know if the deck was solid, or did it have these access point there?

Rick, my guess would be yes. This is beacuse they stored alot of items along the superstructure, they had alot of places along there to secure things, I was watching the tour the guy from the Silversides did, and he said they stored armature shafts along the superstructure. Also they had to have been able to access all the lines for the main induction valve. But then again there are probably alot of holes cut in the deck from the countless number of years of work done on the Batfish.
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Offline MWALLEN

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Re: Exterior renovations
« Reply #32 on: March 24, 2008, 11:16:36 PM »
if you look at archive photos of the BATFISH, alot of the deck is steel.  Best I can tell...and it's only a guess...it appears that ~ 40% of the deck was steel and the rest teak.
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Offline Fred Tannenbaum

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Re: Exterior renovations
« Reply #33 on: March 25, 2008, 07:11:16 AM »
There are numerous trap doors in the topside deck of a fleet boat's superstructure. They provide access to compartments that store things such as mooring lines, torpedo loading cranes, as well as access to the main vents, air induction lines, mufflers (yes, fleet boats had them), air flasks, bow plane rigging gear, the tops of the ballast tanks and scuppers for chipping, cleaning and painting. Life rafts, and in the early Gatos, motor boats were stored below decks as well. The main induction valve(s) are located below each boat's "cigarette deck."

I have to question if something as precise as spare armatures were stored in the superstructure. First, the U.S. Navy learned before the war that that was a very rough place to keep sensitive things and that's why it designed its boats with storage for torpedoes inside the pressure hull, starting with the Tambor/Gar class; no more "external" storage for torpedoes and attempts to install external torpedo tubes were failures because the "fish" took a beating and could not be properly maintained.

Second, a spare armature for a main propulsion is huge and heavy, and there would have been no way to get it from topside storage down into the motor room at sea without removing at least part, if not all, of the control cubicle. I believe any main propulsion armature needing repair would have been done so in place by the resourceful electrician's mates or at a shipyard. Remember, most of the fleet boats built during the war had the four-motor propulsion configuration. Only later in the war did they devise a two-motor setup with a large motor on each propeller shaft. A spare armature for a motor-generator set could have been stored somewhere in the pressure hull.


Offline Fred Tannenbaum

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Re: Exterior renovations
« Reply #34 on: March 25, 2008, 08:40:46 AM »
I meant to say:

"Remember that most of the fleet boats built during the war had the four-motor propulsion configuration ALLOWING THE FLEXIBILITY OF HAVING ONE MOTOR TAKEN OFF LINE FOR MINOR REPAIRS IF NECESSARY."

Sorry all!

Offline Mark Sarsfield

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Re: Exterior renovations
« Reply #35 on: March 25, 2008, 08:59:35 AM »
Fred,

  When you say "4-motor propulsion", I assume that you are talking about electric motors.  I think early boats had 2 engines until probably the Gato class when they started using 4 diesel engines.

  I saw a few pole-like items being stored in the bow below deck.  I figured that they were either for loading heavy items through the hatches or for securing power cables when moored to a sub tender.

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Mark Sarsfield
USS Batfish reenactor



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Offline Rick

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Re: Exterior renovations
« Reply #36 on: March 25, 2008, 09:01:10 AM »
Fred,
Thanks for the information.  It sounds like we will have to address each access point as we come to it.  I have also noticed that several of the hatches were decked over at one point in time or another.  I do intend to open this access up again.   If not for use, for general looks and education purposes...


Offline Rick

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Re: Exterior renovations
« Reply #37 on: March 25, 2008, 09:04:13 AM »
mark,
That may have been some of the deck wood that we were storing for a short term.  We ran a test run on the deck several month ago using a group of sea cadets that came down and visited.  That was a lazy moment.

Offline Mark Sarsfield

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Re: Exterior renovations
« Reply #38 on: March 25, 2008, 09:12:24 AM »
I think some of those "hatches" are the holes that open up over the engine rooms.  I'm guessing that they were there for material loading or just ventilation.  They don't appear to ever have had any ladders.  Putting a wooden hatch over them is still a good idea.

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Mark Sarsfield
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Offline Mark Sarsfield

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Re: Exterior renovations
« Reply #39 on: March 25, 2008, 09:14:11 AM »
Quote
mark,
That may have been some of the deck wood that we were storing for a short term.  We ran a test run on the deck several month ago using a group of sea cadets that came down and visited.  That was a lazy moment.

I saw the wood, but that's not what I'm referring to.  If you look at the port superstructure under the deck at the bow, there are "clamps" on the bulkhead that allow for three metal pipe-like objects to be stowed there.  2 are there and one is missing.


Regards,
Mark Sarsfield
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"If you have one bucket that can hold 5 gallons and one bucket that can hold 2 gallons, how many buckets do you have?" - IQ test from Idiocracy

Offline Rick

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Re: Exterior renovations
« Reply #40 on: March 25, 2008, 09:25:12 AM »
I like to see things work like they are supposed to be.  Even now the engine room hatches would be good to have open when Ed Williams comes down and works on the decks in the engine rooms.  The wood hatch idea is a good one.

I will have to check ont he pipe thing.  I do not remember seeing them.  But 3 kids and an ex tends to make one senial... :)

Offline Mark Sarsfield

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Re: Exterior renovations
« Reply #41 on: March 25, 2008, 09:41:29 AM »
They may have planked over the engine hatches just so that they were two less hatches to worry about dogging down once it became a museum - i.e. two less access points for vandals and thieves.  From the inside, I think it would be pretty easy to chain it shut at night.

Regards,
Mark Sarsfield
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"If you have one bucket that can hold 5 gallons and one bucket that can hold 2 gallons, how many buckets do you have?" - IQ test from Idiocracy

Offline Fred Tannenbaum

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Re: Exterior renovations
« Reply #42 on: March 25, 2008, 10:01:43 AM »
Dear Mark:

Yes, I use the term "motors" for electric motors and "engines" when referring to diesels. The Navy first began using the so-called four-engine, diesel-electric drive, where the engines weren't connected directly to the propeller shafts in the Porpoise-class boats of the early to mid-1930s. It's just like a diesel railroad locomotive, which coincidentally, were being introduced at the same time.

Also something to consider: There may be topside deck access over what appear to be blank hull openings over the forward and aft battery compartments and forward and aft engine rooms. These "blank" spaces may in fact be so-called "soft patches" or large sections of the pressure hull that were secured with a large, riveted flange but which could be removed to permit the placement or removal of extremely large components such as batteries and engines.

Offline Mark Sarsfield

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Re: Exterior renovations
« Reply #43 on: March 25, 2008, 10:12:40 AM »
That's right.  It was the Porpoise boats that they switched to the new power-train format.

I'd like to check out those "soft covers".  Rick wants to turn the aft battery compartment into a work room.  Having a hole to lower things through into the crew's compartment would make a big difference - plus we can charge extra for anyone wanting to sleep under the new sky light. :)

Regards,
Mark Sarsfield
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"If you have one bucket that can hold 5 gallons and one bucket that can hold 2 gallons, how many buckets do you have?" - IQ test from Idiocracy

Offline AVGWarhawk

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Re: Exterior renovations
« Reply #44 on: March 25, 2008, 10:24:51 AM »
The Torsk's aft battery is the work room. All tools are here was well as rag, bags, etc. We have a hot water heater and small frig. It keeps all your things together under lock and key. Also provides a place to work on things when visitors start to board. The forward battery is full with the archive material. In the forward torpedo room as you come through the hatch, there is a space below that we keep all the paints and paint related material. It just helps keep your things organized.       
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