When the turret on the Iowa blew up, the Navy originally wanted to repair it.
But they found that no-one had welded steel that thick since 1945 and by the mid-1980’s the knowledge was lost.
They knew vaguely that the procedure was to weld part way and then peen the weld to stress relieve it. But the exact procedure documentation could not be found, and the Iowa was scrapped.
>>But they found that no-one had welded steel that thick since 1945 and by the mid-1980’s the knowledge was lost.<<
Where I worked, the term was “tribal knowledge” — information that was passed from older members of the team to new members, but never documented. It was regarded as a bad thing, to be remedied when realized.
I think we had similar issues with the details of building the Saturn V rocket.
They should asked me. I still remember how to peen welded steel from a stint in a food factory years ago. Easy if you follow the procedure(s) - which I am certain are in my archives.
“no-one had welded steel that thick since 1945”
My grandpa did that. He went to Pearl Harbor to weld damaged ships back together. Apparently also had a randy old time with the locals that nearly destroyed his marriage. I wear his 1960s Pendleton shirts and custom Wyoming shearling coat.