Posted on 07/13/2020 2:26:03 PM PDT by NRx
Lol, not 200 years old, though we all feel like it sometimes. FIL began his service during WWII, got out briefly after the war, then reenlisted after his lumber mill went bust and made a career of it. He retired in 1968. Just Googled the ship, and it was retired in 1971, so I’m sure that’s the one, thanks!
For real?
Aluminum components and superstructure over a steel hull.
Bonhomme has essentially become an aluminum smelter.
Realized that as soon as I posted it:
1) Write
2) Read
3) Reread
4)Post
I always loved it that we had a carrier named the Bon Homme Richard...great name! Sailors referred to her as “The Bonnie Dick” which, as a kid, I always found funny...
Well, it doesn’t take much to get a dirty snicker out of a dirty minded little boy, that’s true...
I have always been fascinated by the fire, and happy not to have experienced it.
When I served on a carrier, it was never far out of my mind. I always thought:
“It could happen here.”
Just out of curiosity, how do you scuttle a docked ship? Would it do any good, there can’t be that much water under the ship’s keel?
Modern US warships are designed to take severe damage, brought back to dry dock, repaired and fight again.
To scuttle a docked ship, you could open the Kingston Valves (often referred to as “sea valves”) which allow water to flow freely into the hull of a ship.
It isn’t unprecedented, but usually a last ditch effort.
True. But this one is 22 years old and gutted. Do you spend ten figures repairing her or do you invest the money in replacing her?
I don’t know. It all depends on how many LHA’s are in the new construction pipe line. If a new on is one (LHA) is near completion maybe you start a new one as a replacement. These are the type of strategic decisions usual made during wartime, it is very unusual to have to make these kind of decisions in peace time.
Four, at least.
I stand corrected! Thanks for that.
}:-)4
Yikes! Wouldn’t surprise me if she’s done and dusted at this point. The repair costs would almost certainly run into the tens of millions at the absolute minimum, more probably the hundreds of millions. (The Miami would have cost $450m-$700m to repair, which is why they scrapped her.)
}:-)4
I’m stunned that they rebuilt the Belknap and she served fifteen more years.
}:-)4
Like you said, I would think that the air wing would not fly off for a visit into Pearl Harbor, only for when it was going into its home port after a deployment, and the air wing would go back to whence it came.
When you get into your home port, the only planes left aboard are the unflyable hangar queens...
I had the misfortune of having to stick around after a deployment to repair a plane they had to crane off the ship. It sucked.
I was set to go home on leave, but had to get the engine changed out and a bunch of lesser components and I was chosen to lead up the team.
I admit, it was interesting to tow the plane up a street from Pier 12 with cars all around us to a little hangar, and we worked from the moment the ship docked until 6 am the next morning, and I was beat.
As we were cleaning up, I was sweeping the floor, and paused to rest my crossed forearms on the end of the broom handle...and promptly fell asleep.
I awoke to painful blinding stars in my eyes...I had instantly fallen asleep standing up, my forearms slid off the broom handle which then went right into my eye socket...I was lucky I didn’t put my eye out!
But I wanted to get home...:)
She was a nice looking vessel, no doubt...
I often wonder where the value is in refitting and repairing rather than scrapping.
I suspect it may be due to the way funds are allocated. Refitting and Repairing may come from a different part of the budget and easier to access than getting money allocated for a new vessel to replace the scrapped one.
Two under construction, one on order.
One report on the earlier thread had tires on the pier acting as fenders smoking due to the radiant heat coming through the starboard hull. Even with the fireboats cooling it on the port side (but not continually), the strength of the steel hull has to be compromised. If that is the case, there is no way to repair it from the waterline and above. The decision then is to strip it to the waterline and rebuild, or scrap and recover machinery untouched below the fire impacted decks.
They will probably just order another new one. Transfer this crew to the 2nd one under construction. But that is only a guess.
Seeing how many shipboard fires are started by welders during refit, turning off the Halon was one stupid decision!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.