Posted on 06/12/2012 3:51:05 PM PDT by JerseyanExile
Crews have been working 24-hour days to keep up with extraordinary amounts of water leaking on board Battleship Texas.
The historic ship, which just turned 100 years old in May, is only one of six remaining that served in both World War I and World War II.
The ship manager says crews noticed the unusual amount of water coming on board sometime on Saturday. Since then, workers have been at it day and night just trying to keep up.
A number of pumps have been brought to the site as the water is being directed back out into the channel. Staffers with Texas Parks and Wildlife, volunteers, a separate contractor and a salvage diving company have teamed up to take on this task.
There’s a big concern about oil getting into the channel. That’s why there is a boom placed near the ship, essentially collecting any excess oil that might leak out.
Workers are also trying to scoop the oil out of the lower portions of the ship. It is then being filtered out through pumps.
The goal is to have this fixed by Wednesday and to make sure no other leaks pop up.
“We’re dealing with a 100-year-old vessel…so you’re dealing with something that wasn’t designed to last this long. We think we can probably manage a patch, a repair on it, but this is always a concern that this could sprout up again in a different place,” said Andy Smith, the Ship Manager of Battleship Texas.
The ship manager said the lower portions of the ship have been closed to the public. People have still been allowed on board the second deck and above.
“We got a lot of hoses working and pumps working, and we don’t want to create a situation where someone might slip on some water,” explained Smith.
Workers still have not been able to pinpoint exactly where the leak is located. They are still working day and night to deal with the water that is coming on board.
For years, there’s been a plan in the works to dry dock the ship for a multi-million-dollar renovation. The ship manager said coming up with that amount of money has proved challenging, and they’re in desperate need of donors to step in and help out.
One of 6 to serve in both world wars? What are the other 5?
Maybe it is time for a drydock and refit?
National Registry of U.S.S. Texas
http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/76002039.pdf
So far as I knew, the claim to fame for the Texas was it was the ONLY US battleship to serve through both WWI and WWII. Wouldn’t surprise me if there was another one or two.
The other five surviving vessels that hold the distinction of serving in both World Wars are the Medea, which served both the French Navy and Royal Navy, British Monitor HMS M33, the British light cruiser HMS Caroline, the Greek armored cruiser Georgios Averof and the Drazki, a Bulgarian torpedo boat.
Great photo....The interior is amazing you can not believe how much brass they used on this ship.
Divers are scheduled for tomorrow to make an assessment.
Obama can’t even keep Japanse submarines out of Galveston Bay.
The inescapable fact is that the outer hull plating is now so thin that there is real danger that the Texas could suffer a hull breach, take on water and sink if she had to be towed. She has several active “seepage”-type leaks that are kept in check by monitored submersible pumps. As recently as May 2008, she suffered a significant hull breach that placed her in jeopardy of sinking. Trim Tank D-12 is a compartment directly below the After Steering space and there is an active 4-5 gallon per hour “seepage”-type leak in that compartment. Without warning, the leak rate increased to over 40 gallons per minute, in excess of the capacity of the pump in the space. Fortunately, a team of divers were at the ship that day conducting training. A diver was sent down, in scuba gear, to locate the breach by feeling along the hull for the suction that identified the hole. As the diver was feeling for the hole, her hand pushed through the paper-thin hull plating causing the water influx to increase to an estimated 200 gallons per minute. Fortunately, the dive team placed a temporary patch on the breach and additional portable pumps were brought in to pump the water out.
from link above on dry berth
One is the HMS Caroline, a British light cruiser that saw service in both world wars and fought in the Battle of Jutland.
Another is the Greek cruiser Georgios Averof. Fought in the Balkan Wars, as well as the two world wars.
The third is a Bulgarian torpedo boat, the Drazki. Fought in the Second Balkan War, and both World Wars.
The remaining ships are a smattering of vessels that were either light support craft or not in fighting service during the Second World War (converted into hulks, ect.).
There may come a day that we have to recommission ships like these to shell the barbarian coasts of the islamic caliphate as President James Madison did when he sent the United States Navy to shell the Barbary Coast.
She is also the only Dreadnought-type battleship left in the world.
Seems to me I remember this was quite a peice of technology to have been designed so long ago. Wouldn’t its plans had to have been drawn up in the 1890s?
She actually was drydocked back in the 1980s, and underwent major repairs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eBfaz8bB0Q
The Texas is an amazing Battleship. One of the pieces of trivia I have about her is that the Naval Architect who was in charge of her design slipped in the ratios for Length Width and Height of Noah’s Ark as described in the bible.
I also remember that the Texas was described by her commanders as the most stable ship they had ever had the pleasure of commanding.
I am just finishing up reading Dreadnought, by Massie.
An excellent book dealing with the period between about 1885
and 1914.
Tyhat’s a lot of firepower!
They were smart to berth her in fresh water. Those ships that are in salt water are going to have problems a lot sooner.
Wow post’s go up fast! I thought I caught tyhat THAT. Darn fat fingers!
Put her hand through the shell plating? NOT GOOD! Drydocking her is going to be tricky! Hope the keel, framing and the rest of the shell plating can support her.
It was launched in 1913. Lots of battleships were redesigned after the battle of Tsushima in 1905 and the launching of the HMS Dreadnought in 1906. What I found interesting when I toured the Texas a few years ago was that she had triple expansion steam reciprocating engines rather than steam turbines even thought the Dreadnought had steam turbines in 1906. This explains why the Texas was decommissioned immediately after WWII ended.
The battleship Schleswig-Holstein was built in 1904 and fired the first shots of world war 2, what criteria is your list using?
It was too bad the Germans didn't take the Goeben back when the Turks offered her for sale in the 70s, considering her role in the beginnings of WWI. They scrapped her shortly afterwards.
The Arkansas,Utah,Wyoming, and other ships served during both wars.
I thought she was berthed in concrete, long ago. Maybe that was just talk some time back. Would make more sense than towing to drydock and re-plating, she ain’t going anywhere anyway.
I don't think they enjoyed it as much as I did. But they humored me.
In 2004 they approved a plan to dry-dock her. Still raising funds to execute the plan.
I made a point of seeing the Texas when I last visited Houston ten or fifteen years ago. I really hope they can keep her in the water. Theres something intrinsically wrong with a warship being permenantly moored in a drydock. Or worse, in landfill like pre dreadnought Mikasa is in Yokosuka.
I wonder how much it would cost for some very rich person to build a modern, heavy armor battleship with 16” typical range rail guns. Here’s the logic.
To start with, modern anti-ship missiles are designed to attack very light ship hulls. On the typical ship they are devastating, but would hardly scratch the paint of a WWII-era battleship. However, armor today is much, much better than it was then, as well as much lighter, so a modern heavy armor battleship would be far harder to kill than even a WWII ship.
Add to that a typical 16” HE round, but not propelled by powder, but by a rail gun. Naval rail guns are designed to propel very small projectiles at extreme speeds over vast distances, but similar technology can heave a heavy projectile about the same range and speed as powder, but much more safely.
But why do such a thing?
For a very good reason. Coastal bombardment, which today is done with cruise missiles and other high tech toys, is very small and precise. However, sometimes you do not want precise. You want a sledgehammer.
And nobody who has ever experienced a US Navy 16” round has ever forgotten it. It can pick up the side of a mountain and shake it, hard. No finesse is involved. Importantly, no one who has ever experienced this wants to experience it again.
And that can be very useful in war.
The 70s were too close to WWII. Even though the ship was from WWI, perhaps the Germans were afraid of appearing to glorifying their previous militarism.
To be still existing today.
It is really brackish water there. Some tidal influence. Better than salt but not quite fresh.
I’m sure thats what they were thinking. The soviets would’ve had a field day.
No way. They realized a decade ago it was a losing battle after a century of steel in water.
In 2004 they approved a plan to dry-dock. They just need to finish raising the money.
The sole preserved type VIIC U-boat from WW2 faced the same problem when the Norwegian navy surplussed it. Despite petitions from the U-boat crewmens’ association to purchase it as a war memorial, the West German government was unwilling to do it.
The U-boat association’s members raised their own money and bought it themselves.
Technically the Utah was a total loss at PH also, but she was just a floating target at that point.
Well then I’m glad I saw her in her natural state.
Its sister the Arizona didn't survive its first day in WWII, obviously.
During WWI, they both spent the war near the US, being oil-fired, and the logistics of long range fueling were still being worked out, the Europeans being behind the curve, and of no help on supporting them.
does it still have all five main gun turrets???
Torpedo beneath the hull will break her back. Unless the armor is exotic stuff like the frontal armor on modern MBT's, even relatively small shaped charge warheads will easily punch holes through traditional thicknesses of rolled homogeneous armor plate on battleships.
Absolutely beautiful! (Scarey too!) Why does the deck zig-zag near the bow while the hull near the waterline describes a smooth curve? I suspect it must have a purpose as every inch of that ship screams "purpose".
Regards,
GtG
Arkansas and New York. The New York was a sister of Texas. The Nevada class was active as well in both wars. Though, as was stated the Texas is the only remaining Dreadnaught. The Iowas, Massachussetts, Alabama, North Carolina are not strictly speaking in the Dreadnaught style.
Gun positions which were removed and the ports sealed off.
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