The jealousy is real. I don't care how old I get, I would feel like a kid on the worlds best jungle gym scampering around the off limits parts of the ship! For the record, I hit the thumbs up BEFORE watching the video! Thank you Tom and God Bless Texas!
I don't do much scampering anymore, but I know what you mean. Believe me, I know very well how lucky I am to have access. By the way, it isn't as free and open as it may appear in the videos. I reflect back to the spring of 1998 when I went on board for the first time as an adult. I remember peering down a passage through a locked wire gate, wondering what was at the other end. I certainly didn't think at the time that I would end up shooting hours of videos showed and described it!
@@tomscotttheolderone364 Given my own age or more specifically, width, I know I was being generous with "scamper" as a descriptive term. It's our collective love for USS Texas that makes us look at those dark, dirty, hot, cramped spaces that don't seem to hold much interest to anyone else and think to ourselves, "man, I would love to see that with my own eyes!" knowing full well we never will. I am very grateful that you at were able to make it a reality and are decided to share your explorations and discoveries with the rest of us! Salute!
Wow the armature as , resistors and even a drum controller for a starter , takes me back to the days of my early career working on DC. ships . All very basic but achieving a great level of control and performance of the ships functions . It's amazing all these spares are still there , ready for action in most cases I expect . I'M guessing there should be some bearings to go with the armatures and I haven't seen open brushgear on a motor for a very long time . Given Texas age she looks in pretty good shape considering she's in refit and it's reflects great credit on those who look after her .
I don't recall seeing any bearings. It could be that they would have still been useful. However, I suspect there wouldn't be any use for the armatures since they were specific to 120 volt d.c. motors that were obsolete by the time Texas retired. I have also seen some small and medium size brushes packed in cardboard boxes and wood crates.
The ships I worked on were 220dc , including the HMY Britannia . Some of the armature with double windings were for motor generators as transformers don't work on DC . Thanks for the info , a very interesting video .
@@DavidSmith-cx8dg There are M-G sets all over the ship that were used to either produce a different dc voltage or convert to ac. The 40mm anti-aircraft guns installed in the last half of WWII all required 440vac. and two very large M-G sets were installed in 1926 to power the fire control director transmitter circuits. They required ac in order for their self synchronizing gear to correctly function.
In the early 1990s, I worked in an ice cream dairy that had been built in 1946. We ran anhydrous ammonia. But two of our compressors were Frick 3-cylinder high-pressure units. They looked very similar to the R-12 compressors you filmed. Compressors like that give off A LOT of radiant heat.
There are large compressors on board used to produce ice that run on CO2. Ammonia was the preferred medium in1912 when they were built, but it was far too dangerous to have on board a warship.
It is not how often they fail, but when at sea and you have a failure, there is no repair shop except what you have on board. It only needs to be useful that one time.
I agree. While they certainly had the ability to rewind most armatures, there would be many occasions where they did not have the luxury of time required to do it. Once changed out, they could take the bad armature and rewind it at their leisure. However, there were major motors, such as those that drove the hydraulic equipment that rotated the turrets and elevated the guns, that couldn't be easily repaired or rewound. In that particular case, they had mechanical linkages that allowed them to change to a second rotating mechanism and motor, or link the two guns in the turrets together so that one motor and gear could elevate the two guns together. That changeover could happen in a matter of seconds.
Absolutely and totally awesome/ outstanding. 10 years as a volunteer on the overnight program and I never knew about all this. Lucky bag..... I'd love to see you find all the graffiti that the men left behind. That adds the human touch to it Sir
Fascinating video! Thanks for taking time to document these things on board the battleship. I had the pleasure of taking the drydock tour last Sunday and it was fascinating. Keep up the good work!
"She's equipped NOT stripped!" Still hard to believe how old She is AND what She's been though,both during Her working life as well as in Her retirement. Not to mention the neglect She's endured over time..... Great Video 😊📸👍🇺🇸.
My Uncle was one of two signalers on the USS Texas during Pearl Harbor!!! I can't wait to see this beautiful ship when the renovations are completed. I would love to see that signaling box one day.
Wow! What a Fantastic video Tom. I liked👍 the video before watching because as usual top content. it's amazing these little treasures are there, probably not moved or possibly touched since they were put there 80+ years ago i wonder what else there is around the hidden parts of battleship texas.
WOW! Those parts are priceless! I can imagine being thousands of miles from any support facility and having a breakdown, and being able to pull the correct part from spares! Those parts being on hand would save time and lives!
Howdy from the Piney Woods! You are the best ship tour guide !!you really rejuvenate the spirit of the old battle wagon! You remind me of my Dad, gentle and kind nature really compliment your deep knowledge! Long and good health to you, Sir....
I was a TAD MAA onboard the Eisenhower for a month. I got to explore the entire ship from bilge to the bridge. All sorts of voids and storage areas that I would never have been able to see normally as I was an AT/ Final Checker and worked the flight deck. Was way interesting to explore my ship.
As an old industrial maintenance guy, I really enjoyed this video. We always like lots of spare parts!! I wonder how they cataloged all these spare armatures. You obviously didn't carry the old one around and look for a match. Were there tags on each one with some kind of part #? I assume then that the Engineering Dept had reference books so you could figure out which motor took which armature....and maybe where that part was stored? Also, many of these parts were in tough places to get to and would be VERY heavy. Did they have any clever ways of moving these parts around....or just lots of manpower? Thanks for all you do!!
I have seen scans of exploded parts drawings for motors and other equipment that were produced by their manufacturers and almost certainly used to identify parts. I cannot say with complete certainty where on board drawings and inventory records were kept; however, it is reasonable to assume that they were kept in an engineering office. Mechanical parts, gaskets, bolt, etc. were kept in engineering store rooms located throughout the ship. As you saw in the video, electrical parts had their own storerooms. While I have not seen clear documentation, I feel it is reasonable to assume they used card files, similar to the old Kardex system. It had a card for each part, with cards organized by part number; each listing part number, brief description, location and quantity on hand. As far as armatures, it's pretty unlikely that they failed very often. That being the case, the goal would be to find a place to store these heavy, bulky parts where they didn't take space needed for more commonly used items. If that meant having to crawl to get to them and drag them out, so be it. That's what 19 year old sailors were for!
Thank you very much for the video! It would be wonderful if you all could be able to get some of the electrical systems operating with the stores you found.
I'm glad that you enjoyed it. As far as making things work, unfortunately, no. There are several reasons, a major one is that almost all motors require 120 volts d.c. It simply isn't practical to produce that in a usable amount.
Getting ready to reserve a tour while she is in drydock, I could spend ages on her cataloging all the parts and love every second of it. I wish I could be in a more active role of preserving her legacy and stories.
I’m happy to click like after watching this entire (very interesting) video, and even leave a comment to boost you in the algorithm. 🙂 Keep up the great work keeping this history alive and vibrant. Oh, also a request, could you show the interior of the fire control stations in the fighting tops? I’ve always thought the standard(ish) era battleships post-lattice mast fire control directors looked fascinating, but I’ve also wondered how the heavy window framing affected their operations. Thanks!
There isn't anything to see up there. All of the equipment was removed by the Navy when the ship was being prepared for donation, leaving the compartments completely empty. It's my understanding that it was done to remove their heavy weight from that high on the ship. They had a bad effect upon stability with the ship in its extremely lightened condition caused by removal of ammo, most fuel, crew and supplies. That's a good question about interference, I've thought about that myself and have never found a discussion of it. Having said that, Mark 3 fire control radars almost totally replaced the optical directors during WWII.
Thanks for a fascinating tour! As you entered space A-111 there was a faded sign in large red letters on the left bulkhead. May I ask what it says? Electric motors were still pretty new in 1914 and I seem to recall reading that the lacquer used at the time to insulate motor windings wasn’t very reliable. A salt air environment wouldn’t help. So I’m not surprised that the ship carried a lot of spares. May I ask what was the working fluid in the refrigeration plant? The OLYMPIC and TITANIC, built about the same time, used carbon dioxide.
@2:20, the line tags indicate F-12. This is likely "Freon-12", the commercial name for dichlorodifluoromethane. Freon-12 wasn't available before 1928. Likewise, the Frick compressors are 1940s-era. And if the system was installed in Hawaii, then my best guess would be that it was installed sometime between December 1944 and January 1945.
@@doktorscottdiabolical You guess was dead on! The compressors were installed as part of yard work at Pearl Harbor from December 13, 1944 until January 3, 1945 prior to taking part in the invasion of Iwo Jima. They also added another small system to cool auxiliary combat information center and the infirmary.
Thanks, but I don't think that I should. First, I am not in the center of the action the way that Travis and his staff are. Also, Travis' knowledge of the ship is so extensive that I go to him with questions.
Absolutely fascinating. I'm a retired DC Master Mechanic. All the spare armatures demonstrate the breadth of having everything needed to keep the old girl battle ready and sea-worthy.
The Condenser Water piping you noted is just the overboard piping. Pump suction is in the bottom of the ship under the Main Circulating Pumps for the condensers
The electrical stores space is in amazing shape. The humidity must have stayed lower in the space. The paint in there is very good shape compared to many other spaces on board.
You are right. Many lower spaces forward of the boiler rooms are pretty clean and corrosion free. There was little water penetration into them and they normally stayed closed.
Really cool to see the stash of items still on board. Not like that they will ever be called into service, but better to have than need. Look forward to more vids like this.👍
I have watched quite a few videos of your wonderful ship. I realize being over one hundred years old, time plays havoc on things. However, the one thing I have noticed is the poor condition of most painted surfaces. I understand money is always an issue and you have to rely on mostly volunteers, but many areas could use a good scraping and a coat of paint. I hope some of this can be accomplished during her time in drydock. Just an observation, keep up the good work.
You’re right, but the good news is that they would be closed and sealed with no one in them during combat. If they needed something, they’d open the hatch long enough to get it, then leave. Having said that, there were many manned spaces that would be very hard to exit.
We had her here in Norfolk for the reserve fleet till she went to Texas. Dad saw her many times as he went back and forth from Norfolk to the Philly Naval Mothball fleet.
Yes, she spent time at Norfolk when deactivated, then again while being prepared for donation. She also spent time in Baltimore while the politics involved in the decision to donate her played out.
Great finds Tom, and another outstanding video! I was wondering if there was anything left in her machine shop? I personally would be interested in a video if there is anything left to see. As many times as I've been aboard over the last 50 odd years, I don't recall ever seeing the shop myself.
The ship has a large, very well equipped machine shop that still has most of its equipment. In fact, the motor on its large lathe was rewound about 20 years ago and was used after that to produce simple metal parts. The shop is located on third deck between turrets 3 and 4 on the starboard side. It is caged off to protect it from destructive hands, but can be seen in detail when the ship is open to the public.
This is the stuff I want to see if I can't make it to the ship myself, but even then... would I be able to go see these same things? Hidden treasures for sure! Ex-Navy myself & even on modern vessels, lots of parts stored everywhere.... and I mean EVERYWHERE! Oddest one I recall is a valve part behind XO's bunk, outboard locker. :)
Those old steam lines are they still covered in asbestos! If so, I hope the covering is in good shape. I didn't realize that all those spare parts were still on the old girl.
It is definitely asbestos lagging that has been encapsulated. They are extremely careful with it. If any is damaged, the compartment or passage it is located in is sealed and a licensed contractor is brought in to remediate and repair it.
@Tom Scott, The Older One Good deal, I worked around that stuff for over 35 years. Although it actually is one of the best fireproofing materials, it's definitely nothing to mess with. I worked with a guy who smoked like a freight train and would wollow around in it. Not for sure if he's doing good or not. Didn't like working with him anytime we worked around this stuff. Great video. How much of the ship is going to be open to the public when everything is done.
@@georgedistel1203 It is very unlikely that much more will be open than what was prior to the ship closing. That includes 2nd deck passages, 3rd deck, aft of the boiler rooms and the starboard engine room. Opening up more than that greatly increases the possibility of falls and injuries since it would require using vertical ladders. The other issue is vandalism. It is easy to see what used to be open to the public by the level of damage to equipment that was destroyed by visitors when the ship was largely open from the late 1940's through the early 1960's.
@@georgedistel1203 There are hard hat tours that cost extra and that will likely start up again once the ship is in its new home port and open to the public. They included #1 turret gun house, its handling room 4 decks down, boiler room 3 and air compressor room that used to be part of the torpedo rooms removed in 1925. Also included were the navigation bridge, chart house, combat information center, main battery plotting room, forward dynamo room, forward electrical distribution board room and central station. Much of what I show in the videos will never be on a tour because the excessive ladder climbing is too difficult and takes too long to get a group of 10-12 people in and out the spaces. It also did not include the engine rooms because they were open to the public and we concentrated upon what was normally inaccessible.
It certainly looked better than it does now. All it takes to keep it clean is a couple of million in annual maintenance funds and a crew of 900 sailors!
@@tomscotttheolderone364 It makes me wonder how all the other battleships manage to look so pretty. I suppose they spend a lot of money on regular maintenance plus most of them have been through dry dockings and repairs in the past 20 or so years. Are there any pictures of the interior spaces of Texas from when she was new?
🤣 That's one of the ways the military keep soldiers, sailors and Marines out of trouble; it's called a *_"fatigue detail"_* , & it does precisely what the name implies - keeps people busy and wears them out so they're too tired to make trouble. Also known as make work/busywork, because Idle hands are the devils playground!
How handy would a laser paint & Rust removal device be for cleaning up the USS Texas given that that everything seems to be covered with a layer of rust? If you had to choose a paint color then what would you go with for the interior?
There is still a great deal of paint in place that must be removed when repainting. That is extremely expensive to do since it is lead based and must be remediated by a licensed contractor. Current restoration work uses epoxy based paints that have excellent adhesion, corrosion resistance and life. As far as colors, they go to great effort to match what was used on the ship during WWII since the ship is displayed as she was in 1945 at the end of WWII. Most decks are typically painted a specific shade of read. Most passages and compartment bulkheads and overheads a shade of white, officer's country bulkheads light green and most compartments, store rooms and ammunition handling spaces in lower parts of the ship have silver bulkheads and overheads.
@@tomscotttheolderone364 I wish it wasn't lead because I bet you could crowd fund some high end equipment such as a few paint/rust laser removing machines so multiple people could work in a team to methodically remove rust & paint room by room. For instance you could split up 1 wall of a room in half so you could have 2 guys split the work load in half. Maybe you could strip a whole room down to shiny machine metal surface including the floor and ceiling in a single work shift. That would be 1 team of volunteers and you could have 2 or 3 teams of surface strippers. Set goals such as each season you would strip 100 percent all of the metal surfaces & equipment of 1 deck level down to shiny bare metal. Once you strip the metal to shiny bare metal & do a good paint job I could see the rooms lasting decades. Speaking about licensed contractors, I wonder how difficult it would be to get a license... I bet the State of Texas could compensate somebody the way restaurants compensate their workers for getting certified in safe food handling. If I was a young man again I would see the USS Texas as a nice portfolio project. A big project, but something Amazing if the USS Texas were to be 100 percent stripped down to shiny bare metal like it was recently machined at the ship yard, repainted, and for a 360 VR tour including annotations of what different equipment & gauges do. A project like that would land a young man into a team leader role at company that compensates it's workers well. It would be so cool if you could do VR tour, click on a gauge, and a tour guide would go into the nitty gritty details of what's the purpose of the gauge and what could go wrong if you don't pay attention to that very specific gauge that you clicked on. Perhaps while doing a VR tour you could look at technical documents would be scanned, for instance a official repair manual for a specific hydraulic pump. If you did that then you'll easily land your self some sort of management role making six figures. I bet you could spin that VR work off for instruction manuals for equipment such as those massive Marion mining drag line excavators that have a machine shop in the excavator machine. The US military is doing augmented reality glasses so that technicians are able to see where on the f-35 steath jet the Error codes are saying you need to replace a part. That way they don't need to thumble around for an hour to find some small sensor.
Fascinating stuff Tom, thanks for showing us all this! Absolutely astonishing how many spare armatures they stocked her up with. Any idea how many total spare armatures compared to how many total motors she actually had installed?
I would assume that they are for that and many other things. The storeroom is directly below the ice making room that contains several large CO2 compressors, along with both condensers and evaporators. The compressors naturally had a number of shaft seals and gaskets. The condensers and evaporators were assembled from scores of threaded pipe sections and elbows that used gaskets.
I wish that ship could talk and tell you the things it seen and done it always amazes me when it was built and commissioned people were still riding horses and just started transitioning to automobiles
Sir. It was a real.pleasure to watch your video and click that like button. The video and your knowledge was great. Best of luck. I will also subscribe and watch more of your videos. Thanks again. BTW, dad served on the USS Pennsylvania, turret 2 gunners mate.
Thank you for your kind comments! Your dad worked with exactly the same guns. In fact, some of the ones on Pennsylvania were removed after their bores were worn, rebuilt and found their way onto Texas in 1944! The only difference is that when on BB38, they had vertically operated breeches. He also had to work in even more cramped conditions since Pennsylvania had 3-gun turrets that were spaced closer together in a space not much larger than those on Texas and had three gun crews!
@tomscotttheolderone364 Thanks Tom, theres something I never knew. You sure know your facts. Dad served 41 / 45 and luved that ship. I have been on 3 battleships so far. The size and magnitude astound me. I also have watched 2 more of your videos. You go places in them that others dont. Thanks again and keep up the great work.
in this, the ship looks almost abandoned because of how dark it is, and how those parts are laying there, as they were since the ship was decommissioned. I hope the lack of paint doesn't affect the metal in any way
I have been reading numerous news articles about the drydock. They keep reporting that the federal government provided a $35 million matching federal grant to the Battleship Texas Foundation in matching funds with the $35 million provided by the state of Texas government. So she has $70 million to work with for her drydock refit??? That is awesome! She needs more private donation money to build the new museum and parking and other infrastructure at her new homeport though.
How were locations for these items cataloged, particularly when the parts are in a completely different part of the ship from where they are used, such as the thrust bearings? Would there be a note in the thrust bearing maintenance manual saying where they were or would there be a central directory that you would need to go to to track down the parts you need for a given job?
Most certainly! In the case of the thrust bearing shoe, engineering department would pull a drawing for the thrust bearing they have on file and get the shoe's part number off of it. An inventory card, kept in a filing system, would be pulled that gave part number, description, quantity on hand and location. Every time a part was used, quantity would be changed on the card to show it. If its storage location changed, the card would be marked to show that. Engineering maintained inventory for mechanical and electrical parts. General store keeper maintained the same for general ship supplies that included light bulbs, toiler paper, paint, scrapers, tools, screws nuts, and other parts not maintained by engineering or other major departments that maintained their own specialized inventories. One of those was ordnance division that stored parts and supplies required for the weapons. Then there was food stored and tracked as crew provisions.
I’m 30. It’s crazy to think this ship was decommissioned when my grandfather was 7 and this ship was going to war in Europe when my great grandmother was born (1916)
If you are referring to the thrust bearing shoes, it's not too hard. Unbolt them from the retaining bracket, tie a rope to one and haul it up through a deck hatch to third deck. It can then be carried down to the engine room where the thrust bearing is located.
Still amazes me that pre WW1-2 warships were drawn up by hand on paper and then built all by hand. Some serious talent went into these ships
Amazing engineering for the time!
Absolutely loved this treasure hunt! Thanks for taking us.
The jealousy is real. I don't care how old I get, I would feel like a kid on the worlds best jungle gym scampering around the off limits parts of the ship!
For the record, I hit the thumbs up BEFORE watching the video! Thank you Tom and God Bless Texas!
I don't do much scampering anymore, but I know what you mean. Believe me, I know very well how lucky I am to have access. By the way, it isn't as free and open as it may appear in the videos. I reflect back to the spring of 1998 when I went on board for the first time as an adult. I remember peering down a passage through a locked wire gate, wondering what was at the other end. I certainly didn't think at the time that I would end up shooting hours of videos showed and described it!
@@tomscotttheolderone364 Given my own age or more specifically, width, I know I was being generous with "scamper" as a descriptive term. It's our collective love for USS Texas that makes us look at those dark, dirty, hot, cramped spaces that don't seem to hold much interest to anyone else and think to ourselves, "man, I would love to see that with my own eyes!" knowing full well we never will. I am very grateful that you at were able to make it a reality and are decided to share your explorations and discoveries with the rest of us! Salute!
It reminded me of watching a mine exploring video sort of.... You just never know what kind of artifacts you are about to see.
Amazing video of areas I would never see, any other way! Thrust bearing shoes.... wow. Huge steam line.... wow. Just so much to see!
Wow the armature as , resistors and even a drum controller for a starter , takes me back to the days of my early career working on DC. ships . All very basic but achieving a great level of control and performance of the ships functions . It's amazing all these spares are still there , ready for action in most cases I expect . I'M guessing there should be some bearings to go with the armatures and I haven't seen open brushgear on a motor for a very long time . Given Texas age she looks in pretty good shape considering she's in refit and it's reflects great credit on those who look after her .
I don't recall seeing any bearings. It could be that they would have still been useful. However, I suspect there wouldn't be any use for the armatures since they were specific to 120 volt d.c. motors that were obsolete by the time Texas retired. I have also seen some small and medium size brushes packed in cardboard boxes and wood crates.
The ships I worked on were 220dc , including the HMY Britannia . Some of the armature with double windings were for motor generators as transformers don't work on DC . Thanks for the info , a very interesting video .
@@DavidSmith-cx8dg There are M-G sets all over the ship that were used to either produce a different dc voltage or convert to ac. The 40mm anti-aircraft guns installed in the last half of WWII all required 440vac. and two very large M-G sets were installed in 1926 to power the fire control director transmitter circuits. They required ac in order for their self synchronizing gear to correctly function.
In the early 1990s, I worked in an ice cream dairy that had been built in 1946. We ran anhydrous ammonia. But two of our compressors were Frick 3-cylinder high-pressure units. They looked very similar to the R-12 compressors you filmed. Compressors like that give off A LOT of radiant heat.
There are large compressors on board used to produce ice that run on CO2. Ammonia was the preferred medium in1912 when they were built, but it was far too dangerous to have on board a warship.
@@tomscotttheolderone364 yeah one leak would have killed many people.
Thanks Tom. Can’t get enough of these off limits to the public spaces. 👍🏻
Awesome look into some unique spaces and artifacts, one must wonder just how often those armatures failed to justify having so many.
It is not how often they fail, but when at sea and you have a failure, there is no repair shop except what you have on board. It only needs to be useful that one time.
I agree. While they certainly had the ability to rewind most armatures, there would be many occasions where they did not have the luxury of time required to do it. Once changed out, they could take the bad armature and rewind it at their leisure. However, there were major motors, such as those that drove the hydraulic equipment that rotated the turrets and elevated the guns, that couldn't be easily repaired or rewound. In that particular case, they had mechanical linkages that allowed them to change to a second rotating mechanism and motor, or link the two guns in the turrets together so that one motor and gear could elevate the two guns together. That changeover could happen in a matter of seconds.
I love the use of the ships general plans in your videos! It gives a good sense of where exactly you are in the ship!
Love seeing whats left of the spare parts and armatures sitting in their racks! Very cool!
Holy crap for spare armatures,
Thanks so much Tom.
Also cool to see those compressors, very cool stuff
I love how much was left aboard her when it was deactivated. It’s sad when everything is stripped out and left empty
Sir once again thank you for the educational tour of off limits spaces on the ship.
lots of weird little spaces on that old girl, awesome video as always!
Thanks!
I imagine the storekeepers library must have been huge. No microfiche everything in big volumes and cards to locate
Absolutely and totally awesome/ outstanding. 10 years as a volunteer on the overnight program and I never knew about all this. Lucky bag..... I'd love to see you find all the graffiti that the men left behind. That adds the human touch to it Sir
brilliant treasure hunt i love to see the inside structure of the old girl she's in good shape thank you Tom (more please)
Videos like this remind me of the hard hat tour I took about 15 years ago, can't wait to take another one.
Fascinating video! Thanks for taking time to document these things on board the battleship. I had the pleasure of taking the drydock tour last Sunday and it was fascinating. Keep up the good work!
Your amazing Tom the complexity of these ships are a testerment to what man can build it's mind boggling
"She's equipped NOT stripped!" Still hard to believe how old She is AND what She's been though,both during Her working life as well as in Her retirement. Not to mention the neglect She's endured over time..... Great Video 😊📸👍🇺🇸.
Thanks for another wonderful tour!! Please keep them coming!!
Well done climbing and crawling through that maze. You're a better man than I. 🙂
My Uncle was one of two signalers on the USS Texas during Pearl Harbor!!! I can't wait to see this beautiful ship when the renovations are completed. I would love to see that signaling box one day.
Wow ! Amazing how much is still there parts wise. Thanks for the Tour 😉
Watching, liking, appreciating your videos. Thank you.
Thanks, I appreciate your interest and your clicks!
Wow! What a Fantastic video Tom. I liked👍 the video before watching because as usual top content. it's amazing these little treasures are there, probably not moved or possibly touched since they were put there 80+ years ago i wonder what else there is around the hidden parts of battleship texas.
WOW!
Those parts are priceless!
I can imagine being thousands of miles from any support facility and having a breakdown, and being able to pull the correct part from spares! Those parts being on hand would save time and lives!
So nice there are still these parts and supplies. Who knows how they will come in handy or be important in the future.
Love the ship. Appreciate preserving history.
That was absolutely fascinating, loved it!
Liked and shared. @battleshipnewjersey needs to collaborate with you. I think you and Ryan would make a fantastic video.
Indeed. Ryan should borrow the idea and do the same sort of video. It would be intriguing to see what was left behind in but Iowas
Amazing how even an ac unit was so aesthetically pleasing back then. Pride in the details.
Very interesting spaces. Thanks for the tour.
Love the off the wall episodes like this, purely for fun
Howdy from the Piney Woods! You are the best ship tour guide !!you really rejuvenate the spirit of the old battle wagon! You remind me of my Dad, gentle and kind nature really compliment your deep knowledge! Long and good health to you, Sir....
That was a great video! Seeing the nuts and bolts of what made these magnificent machines run is fascinating!
Wonderful!!! Please keep them,coming!!
It's interesting to see what the Navy left behind and what they thought important enough to remove.
What a Great Tour, thanks Tom!
My pleasure!
I was a TAD MAA onboard the Eisenhower for a month. I got to explore the entire ship from bilge to the bridge. All sorts of voids and storage areas that I would never have been able to see normally as I was an AT/ Final Checker and worked the flight deck.
Was way interesting to explore my ship.
Outstanding video, thank you.
Loved seeing the treasures!
Thank you Mr. Scott! Such a treat to see these rare spaces!
As an old industrial maintenance guy, I really enjoyed this video. We always like lots of spare parts!! I wonder how they cataloged all these spare armatures. You obviously didn't carry the old one around and look for a match. Were there tags on each one with some kind of part #? I assume then that the Engineering Dept had reference books so you could figure out which motor took which armature....and maybe where that part was stored? Also, many of these parts were in tough places to get to and would be VERY heavy. Did they have any clever ways of moving these parts around....or just lots of manpower? Thanks for all you do!!
I have seen scans of exploded parts drawings for motors and other equipment that were produced by their manufacturers and almost certainly used to identify parts. I cannot say with complete certainty where on board drawings and inventory records were kept; however, it is reasonable to assume that they were kept in an engineering office. Mechanical parts, gaskets, bolt, etc. were kept in engineering store rooms located throughout the ship. As you saw in the video, electrical parts had their own storerooms. While I have not seen clear documentation, I feel it is reasonable to assume they used card files, similar to the old Kardex system. It had a card for each part, with cards organized by part number; each listing part number, brief description, location and quantity on hand. As far as armatures, it's pretty unlikely that they failed very often. That being the case, the goal would be to find a place to store these heavy, bulky parts where they didn't take space needed for more commonly used items. If that meant having to crawl to get to them and drag them out, so be it. That's what 19 year old sailors were for!
All the best for battleship Texas.
Thank you very much for the video! It would be wonderful if you all could be able to get some of the electrical systems operating with the stores you found.
I'm glad that you enjoyed it. As far as making things work, unfortunately, no. There are several reasons, a major one is that almost all motors require 120 volts d.c. It simply isn't practical to produce that in a usable amount.
Getting ready to reserve a tour while she is in drydock, I could spend ages on her cataloging all the parts and love every second of it. I wish I could be in a more active role of preserving her legacy and stories.
I’m happy to click like after watching this entire (very interesting) video, and even leave a comment to boost you in the algorithm. 🙂
Keep up the great work keeping this history alive and vibrant.
Oh, also a request, could you show the interior of the fire control stations in the fighting tops? I’ve always thought the standard(ish) era battleships post-lattice mast fire control directors looked fascinating, but I’ve also wondered how the heavy window framing affected their operations.
Thanks!
There isn't anything to see up there. All of the equipment was removed by the Navy when the ship was being prepared for donation, leaving the compartments completely empty. It's my understanding that it was done to remove their heavy weight from that high on the ship. They had a bad effect upon stability with the ship in its extremely lightened condition caused by removal of ammo, most fuel, crew and supplies. That's a good question about interference, I've thought about that myself and have never found a discussion of it. Having said that, Mark 3 fire control radars almost totally replaced the optical directors during WWII.
Thanks for the tour!
Thanks for a fascinating tour!
As you entered space A-111 there was a faded sign in large red letters on the left bulkhead. May I ask what it says?
Electric motors were still pretty new in 1914 and I seem to recall reading that the lacquer used at the time to insulate motor windings wasn’t very reliable. A salt air environment wouldn’t help. So I’m not surprised that the ship carried a lot of spares.
May I ask what was the working fluid in the refrigeration plant? The OLYMPIC and TITANIC, built about the same time, used carbon dioxide.
If you are referring to "FMCO M-2", I believe it stands for Fire Main Cut Off.
Thanks!
@2:20, the line tags indicate F-12. This is likely "Freon-12", the commercial name for dichlorodifluoromethane. Freon-12 wasn't available before 1928. Likewise, the Frick compressors are 1940s-era. And if the system was installed in Hawaii, then my best guess would be that it was installed sometime between December 1944 and January 1945.
@@doktorscottdiabolical You guess was dead on! The compressors were installed as part of yard work at Pearl Harbor from December 13, 1944 until January 3, 1945 prior to taking part in the invasion of Iwo Jima. They also added another small system to cool auxiliary combat information center and the infirmary.
Great video Tom! Thank you
Love this video. You should take over the restoration updates. Bravo. Terrific Thank you Mr. Scott.
Thanks, but I don't think that I should. First, I am not in the center of the action the way that Travis and his staff are. Also, Travis' knowledge of the ship is so extensive that I go to him with questions.
Great content Tom. Thank you!!
Watching the progress from Toronto Canada. Thanks for all the updates. I imagine she will reward you with a big treasure as you restore her soul.
Absolutely fascinating. I'm a retired DC Master Mechanic. All the spare armatures demonstrate the breadth of having everything needed to keep the old girl battle ready and sea-worthy.
The Condenser Water piping you noted is just the overboard piping. Pump suction is in the bottom of the ship under the Main Circulating Pumps for the condensers
I used drawings specific to this ship to identify the pipes and devices.
Amazing the efficient use of space.
I'm not going to wait for 11 minutes to click the like button Tom. I clicked it right away and there's nothing you can do about it :p
:)
I did the same.😁😁
I'm watching this twice. :)
The electrical stores space is in amazing shape. The humidity must have stayed lower in the space. The paint in there is very good shape compared to many other spaces on board.
You are right. Many lower spaces forward of the boiler rooms are pretty clean and corrosion free. There was little water penetration into them and they normally stayed closed.
Very good finds !!
Really cool to see the stash of items still on board. Not like that they will ever be called into service, but better to have than need. Look forward to more vids like this.👍
Wow! awesome discoveries! I can only imagine what the total pile of parts would look like if everything the Navy removed was still on the ship.
I have watched quite a few videos of your wonderful ship. I realize being over one hundred years old, time plays havoc on things. However, the one thing I have noticed is the poor condition of most painted surfaces. I understand money is always an issue and you have to rely on mostly volunteers, but many areas could use a good scraping and a coat of paint. I hope some of this can be accomplished during her time in drydock. Just an observation, keep up the good work.
Thank you.
Wow. All I can think of is how frightning it will be to be stuck in one of those compartments if the ship was sinking!
You’re right, but the good news is that they would be closed and sealed with no one in them during combat. If they needed something, they’d open the hatch long enough to get it, then leave. Having said that, there were many manned spaces that would be very hard to exit.
loved this treasure hunt Fascinating video!
My grandaddy was always proud of his contribution of pocket change that was put towards bringing the Texas to, well,Texas.
Bizarre to still find piles of spare parts in various spaces of the ship.
Does give a sense of a time-capsule.
We had her here in Norfolk for the reserve fleet till she went to Texas. Dad saw her many times as he went back and forth from Norfolk to the Philly Naval Mothball fleet.
Yes, she spent time at Norfolk when deactivated, then again while being prepared for donation. She also spent time in Baltimore while the politics involved in the decision to donate her played out.
Quite enjoyable - thanks for that. (liked it of course)
An amazing ship. An amazing career this battleship had. It would have been awesome at one timee to see her recommissioned
The cam axle for the crane is about the same as what you find in a tram's motor controller.
Great finds Tom, and another outstanding video! I was wondering if there was anything left in her machine shop? I personally would be interested in a video if there is anything left to see. As many times as I've been aboard over the last 50 odd years, I don't recall ever seeing the shop myself.
The ship has a large, very well equipped machine shop that still has most of its equipment. In fact, the motor on its large lathe was rewound about 20 years ago and was used after that to produce simple metal parts. The shop is located on third deck between turrets 3 and 4 on the starboard side. It is caged off to protect it from destructive hands, but can be seen in detail when the ship is open to the public.
@Tom Scott, The Older One Awesome, I'll look for it the next time I'm there. It's good to hear that some of it has been returned to service as well.
Love the videos keep them coming!
Amazing - more vids like this please !!
Ooo, the new restoration can really use the fresh thrust bearing parts
This is the stuff I want to see if I can't make it to the ship myself, but even then... would I be able to go see these same things? Hidden treasures for sure! Ex-Navy myself & even on modern vessels, lots of parts stored everywhere.... and I mean EVERYWHERE! Oddest one I recall is a valve part behind XO's bunk, outboard locker. :)
Love your videos!
Those old steam lines are they still covered in asbestos! If so, I hope the covering is in good shape. I didn't realize that all those spare parts were still on the old girl.
It is definitely asbestos lagging that has been encapsulated. They are extremely careful with it. If any is damaged, the compartment or passage it is located in is sealed and a licensed contractor is brought in to remediate and repair it.
@Tom Scott, The Older One Good deal, I worked around that stuff for over 35 years. Although it actually is one of the best fireproofing materials, it's definitely nothing to mess with. I worked with a guy who smoked like a freight train and would wollow around in it. Not for sure if he's doing good or not. Didn't like working with him anytime we worked around this stuff. Great video. How much of the ship is going to be open to the public when everything is done.
@@georgedistel1203 It is very unlikely that much more will be open than what was prior to the ship closing. That includes 2nd deck passages, 3rd deck, aft of the boiler rooms and the starboard engine room. Opening up more than that greatly increases the possibility of falls and injuries since it would require using vertical ladders. The other issue is vandalism. It is easy to see what used to be open to the public by the level of damage to equipment that was destroyed by visitors when the ship was largely open from the late 1940's through the early 1960's.
@@tomscotttheolderone364 do they ever do like a deluxe tour that people pay extra for?
@@georgedistel1203 There are hard hat tours that cost extra and that will likely start up again once the ship is in its new home port and open to the public. They included #1 turret gun house, its handling room 4 decks down, boiler room 3 and air compressor room that used to be part of the torpedo rooms removed in 1925. Also included were the navigation bridge, chart house, combat information center, main battery plotting room, forward dynamo room, forward electrical distribution board room and central station. Much of what I show in the videos will never be on a tour because the excessive ladder climbing is too difficult and takes too long to get a group of 10-12 people in and out the spaces. It also did not include the engine rooms because they were open to the public and we concentrated upon what was normally inaccessible.
awesome video!!!!! "like" button clicked immediately
Wow, the inside of Texas is grimy. It makes wonder how she looked when she was new.
It certainly looked better than it does now. All it takes to keep it clean is a couple of million in annual maintenance funds and a crew of 900 sailors!
@@tomscotttheolderone364 It makes me wonder how all the other battleships manage to look so pretty. I suppose they spend a lot of money on regular maintenance plus most of them have been through dry dockings and repairs in the past 20 or so years.
Are there any pictures of the interior spaces of Texas from when she was new?
🤣 That's one of the ways the military keep soldiers, sailors and Marines out of trouble; it's called a *_"fatigue detail"_* , & it does precisely what the name implies - keeps people busy and wears them out so they're too tired to make trouble. Also known as make work/busywork, because Idle hands are the devils playground!
Great video
Awesome!
Glad you think so!
How handy would a laser paint & Rust removal device be for cleaning up the USS Texas given that that everything seems to be covered with a layer of rust? If you had to choose a paint color then what would you go with for the interior?
There is still a great deal of paint in place that must be removed when repainting. That is extremely expensive to do since it is lead based and must be remediated by a licensed contractor. Current restoration work uses epoxy based paints that have excellent adhesion, corrosion resistance and life. As far as colors, they go to great effort to match what was used on the ship during WWII since the ship is displayed as she was in 1945 at the end of WWII. Most decks are typically painted a specific shade of read. Most passages and compartment bulkheads and overheads a shade of white, officer's country bulkheads light green and most compartments, store rooms and ammunition handling spaces in lower parts of the ship have silver bulkheads and overheads.
@@tomscotttheolderone364 I wish it wasn't lead because I bet you could crowd fund some high end equipment such as a few paint/rust laser removing machines so multiple people could work in a team to methodically remove rust & paint room by room.
For instance you could split up 1 wall of a room in half so you could have 2 guys split the work load in half.
Maybe you could strip a whole room down to shiny machine metal surface including the floor and ceiling in a single work shift.
That would be 1 team of volunteers and you could have 2 or 3 teams of surface strippers.
Set goals such as each season you would strip 100 percent all of the metal surfaces & equipment of 1 deck level down to shiny bare metal.
Once you strip the metal to shiny bare metal & do a good paint job I could see the rooms lasting decades.
Speaking about licensed contractors, I wonder how difficult it would be to get a license...
I bet the State of Texas could compensate somebody the way restaurants compensate their workers for getting certified in safe food handling.
If I was a young man again I would see the USS Texas as a nice portfolio project.
A big project, but something Amazing if the USS Texas were to be 100 percent stripped down to shiny bare metal like it was recently machined at the ship yard, repainted, and for a 360 VR tour including annotations of what different equipment & gauges do.
A project like that would land a young man into a team leader role at company that compensates it's workers well.
It would be so cool if you could do VR tour, click on a gauge, and a tour guide would go into the nitty gritty details of what's the purpose of the gauge and what could go wrong if you don't pay attention to that very specific gauge that you clicked on.
Perhaps while doing a VR tour you could look at technical documents would be scanned, for instance a official repair manual for a specific hydraulic pump.
If you did that then you'll easily land your self some sort of management role making six figures.
I bet you could spin that VR work off for instruction manuals for equipment such as those massive Marion mining drag line excavators that have a machine shop in the excavator machine.
The US military is doing augmented reality glasses so that technicians are able to see where on the f-35 steath jet the Error codes are saying you need to replace a part. That way they don't need to thumble around for an hour to find some small sensor.
Fascinating stuff Tom, thanks for showing us all this!
Absolutely astonishing how many spare armatures they stocked her up with.
Any idea how many total spare armatures compared to how many total motors she actually had installed?
Sorry, no idea.
@@tomscotttheolderone364 no worries. Appreciate the reply!
Indeed. Really said something about the failure rate doesn't it?
Enjoyed the video.
Great treasure hunt, Tom.
Thank you for this
the refrigeration parts store - the seals - are they axle seals for refrigeration compressors ?
I would assume that they are for that and many other things. The storeroom is directly below the ice making room that contains several large CO2 compressors, along with both condensers and evaporators. The compressors naturally had a number of shaft seals and gaskets. The condensers and evaporators were assembled from scores of threaded pipe sections and elbows that used gaskets.
I wish that ship could talk and tell you the things it seen and done it always amazes me when it was built and commissioned people were still riding horses and just started transitioning to automobiles
Sir. It was a real.pleasure to watch your video and click that like button. The video and your knowledge was great. Best of luck. I will also subscribe and watch more of your videos. Thanks again. BTW, dad served on the USS Pennsylvania, turret 2 gunners mate.
Thank you for your kind comments! Your dad worked with exactly the same guns. In fact, some of the ones on Pennsylvania were removed after their bores were worn, rebuilt and found their way onto Texas in 1944! The only difference is that when on BB38, they had vertically operated breeches. He also had to work in even more cramped conditions since Pennsylvania had 3-gun turrets that were spaced closer together in a space not much larger than those on Texas and had three gun crews!
@tomscotttheolderone364 Thanks Tom, theres something I never knew. You sure know your facts. Dad served 41 / 45 and luved that ship. I have been on 3 battleships so far. The size and magnitude astound me. I also have watched 2 more of your videos. You go places in them that others dont. Thanks again and keep up the great work.
in this, the ship looks almost abandoned because of how dark it is, and how those parts are laying there, as they were since the ship was decommissioned. I hope the lack of paint doesn't affect the metal in any way
I have been reading numerous news articles about the drydock. They keep reporting that the federal government provided a $35 million matching federal grant to the Battleship Texas Foundation in matching funds with the $35 million provided by the state of Texas government. So she has $70 million to work with for her drydock refit??? That is awesome! She needs more private donation money to build the new museum and parking and other infrastructure at her new homeport though.
This is the first that I have heard of a $35 million federal grant. Can you tell me where you saw these articles?
This was awesome!
How were locations for these items cataloged, particularly when the parts are in a completely different part of the ship from where they are used, such as the thrust bearings? Would there be a note in the thrust bearing maintenance manual saying where they were or would there be a central directory that you would need to go to to track down the parts you need for a given job?
Most certainly! In the case of the thrust bearing shoe, engineering department would pull a drawing for the thrust bearing they have on file and get the shoe's part number off of it. An inventory card, kept in a filing system, would be pulled that gave part number, description, quantity on hand and location. Every time a part was used, quantity would be changed on the card to show it. If its storage location changed, the card would be marked to show that. Engineering maintained inventory for mechanical and electrical parts. General store keeper maintained the same for general ship supplies that included light bulbs, toiler paper, paint, scrapers, tools, screws nuts, and other parts not maintained by engineering or other major departments that maintained their own specialized inventories. One of those was ordnance division that stored parts and supplies required for the weapons. Then there was food stored and tracked as crew provisions.
@@tomscotttheolderone364 Thank you for that detailed reply!
I’m 30. It’s crazy to think this ship was decommissioned when my grandfather was 7 and this ship was going to war in Europe when my great grandmother was born (1916)
great video - how in the world would they get those thrust bearings out of that compartment?
If you are referring to the thrust bearing shoes, it's not too hard. Unbolt them from the retaining bracket, tie a rope to one and haul it up through a deck hatch to third deck. It can then be carried down to the engine room where the thrust bearing is located.
I love these videos