Nice find there Rick!

[Darrin]

Here's the thing John, we needed the tube space to store some aluminum storage lockers that used to fit in the tubes and on the stow's and the only tubes that we currently have serviced for that is Tube#7 which has a Mk 27 hanging out of it and Tube #2 which is on display and all lit up.  So as more stuff appears from various different things we have done over the years (strip ships and parts acquisitions) that have been stored at people's houses who are cleaning out their stuff in prep for retirement or they have just gotten tired of looking at it. 

Yes you can put a scrapper on a pole and push it down the tube and a small push broom to get the big chunks out so that someone can go back in the tube a little safer, I still prefer to flood the tube and have brought that up to the staff and they are going to address the issue to the museum heads.

[JTheotonio]

Flooding would be easier for you for sure and safer   I'd rather clean bilges than get into a tube these days. 

[Darrin]

I would also rather have a nasty bilge then a nasty torpedo tube because I can almost always find someone willing to dive a bilge

[JTheotonio]

  Shop Vac!  and a warm body and you have clean bilges 

[Paul Farace]

Please make sure there is plenty of ventilation!  Mud, rust, etc. eat OXYGEN!  This is a confined space entry issue. So if you crack open a tube, get a fan, blower, etc., and ventilate it, especially if someone is inside with cleaning products.  Be safe!

 

[Wesley Green]

After reading this post I still can't get one thing out of my head. I'm the smallest adult volunteer....
I wonder what I get to look forward to helping on after the deck is done 

[Darrin]

Wesley,
at 6'3" and 230# I am one of the largest volunteers the Torsk has and I have been in some very tight places and made it alright    Cleaning the torpedo tubes tends to be a LOT of fun if they are not full of 30+ year old crud. Enjoy whatever job that they give you for those whom volunteer on our museum boats are saving history

Darrin

[Wesley Green]

I enjoy it or I wouldn't keep coming back 

[Darrin]

SO after 3 something years since this post started has anyone been BRAVE enough to dive the tubes and clean them out? because it sounds like you have a new volunteer that may want to try to spear head that evolution

Darrin

[BrokenArrowtiger]

hehe....mark would deffintly have me clean out the tubes..im the shortest and skinnyest adult XD.

[Mark Sarsfield]

I would like to dig out the bow some more and see what we're dealing with on the outside, before we make another attempt at opening tubes 5 and 6 from the inside.  We're also long overdue digging out the rudder and stern planes.

[Jim]

Just say when Mark/Rick and I'll bring out the back-hoes and the dozer.

[Mark Sarsfield]

Rick doesn't view these boards much.  So, any work proposals should actually be written up in a Word document and then sent to Rick with Mark Allen CC'd.  It doesn't have to look like an official job proposal, but the more details that it has, the better.

My only concern with using heavy machinery is hitting the boat while digging.  We would have to take it nice and slow.  Probably bring out a large piece of rebar and "feel" for how deep the stern planes are before removing dirt.  I'm just really afraid at what we will or won't find.  "Are you sure this boat had stern planes?"

[Jim]

Shouldn't be a problem Mark, its my equipment.   

[Mark Sarsfield]

Cool.  I'm tied up for the next 6 weekends, but starting in April I will be a lot more available.  I would like to be there when the stern gets unearthed.

A pressure washer will be necessary, as well, once the bulk of the dirt has been removed.