Yet another question...

[Karen D.]

I'm just full of random part questions. This time I asked one of our long time volunteers first and he had no idea. And this was a guy who served on Cobia when it was in Milwaukee so he's hard to stump.

We found this in the ATR...anyone know what it is or what it was for?

[Tom Bowser]

Karen
What is the diameter of both? the top one could be a valve from the air compressor. How thick is the bottom one? if thin it could be a diaphram from an air reducer pressure valve.
Tom

[Darrin]

Tom maybe on to something however it looks like it finished it's life up as an ashtray (the burn marks look really familiar)   But then again I have been known to be wrong, i only smoked for 20 years

[Lance Dean]

Karen, can you take a photo of it from the side?

[Karen D.]

The diameter is 7 in. The side view is below. 

Since I'm on the subject of mystery parts, the second picture is a very heavy object we dug out of a corner this morining.

(Thanks for anwsering all my questions. I don't have many guys around here I can ask)

[Tom Bowser]

I withdraw my previous guess, I haven't a clue on either one, we haven't found anything like those yet, sorry.
Tom

[Karen D.]

Huh, interesting.

We were thinking the bottom one was a strongback for the torpedo loading hatch in the ATR because of the rounded ends. Does that sound right?

[Darrin]

Karen,

I am still looking that up but that maybe a possiblity, we have our stronbacks onboard the Torsk and I will see if I can't dig a picture of them being installed (they weigh a couple of hundred pounds) there is another possibility that I am still tracking down is that the piece of equipment may have been used when loading weapons.

[Gil Bohannon]

Sure looks like a strongback to me. Very similar to ours on Torsk.

[croesch]

Well, the semi-official analysis from the USS Silversides is:  I don't have a clue what any of these part are.  Charley Roesch

[Paul Farace]

The strongback is indeed a strongback. It normally is tensioned between the longitudinal frames in the loading hatch bay to provide hull strength when underway. It is loosened and gently allowed to hand down when loading fish. Gatos had one in each torpedo loading hatch bay. Them pesky Balaos and Tenches had two in each bay; they needed the extra strength because they were thick skinned and dive deeper.  Since you guys cut out the torpedo loading hatches for visitor access, good luck figuring out what to do with it!  But don't toss it or drop it on your feet....   

The disk is not something I have seen. My guess is that it might be the contact pad for the strongback brace... remember this thing was screwed out to press into concave castings in the frame. This might be the convex "male" portion--not to get too "sexy" here... 

It would not be any part of a weapons loading outfit that I've seen aboard a Gato.

[Karen D.]

Thanks for the confirmation. I'm just going to clean it up and put it back under the desk in the Log Room where I found it. Well, somone else is going to move it, becuase I won't budge that thing! I had to move it out of the way so I could clean and paint in there. I think it's about time I post some pictures on my progress...

[Paul Farace]

Log room?  Is that near the massage/steam room? Or right next to the bowling alley? 

Some point in the future somebody is going to "find" it again. Why not put it under the decking in the torpedo room, near where it was used? Maybe even tag it with an ID tag...   

[Darrin]

OH MFG putting more CRAP under the deck in one of the TORPEDO ROOM's that will NEVER see the light of day EVER again..............    Jayesus Keeerist Paul DON'T TELL folks to do that because US TM's have to clean that CRAP out from under the decks from time to time



OH wait... they belong under the decks in the Rooms....... Carry on Paul

[Karen D.]

Who do you think I am Paul?    I'm not going to hide it again. It will be out of the way in a safe place yet still visible. Settle down guys, it's all good, I got this!