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I'm going to assume that it's because Ryan's bosses expect him to be doing a lot of other things than walking around the battleship going "Hey, look at this!" And that his family might want to see him at home on a regular basis.😁
And remember, it used to have a very LARGE crew to keep it running. Uncle Sam has a large labor pool. Although manning and maintenance are one of the reasons the BBs got sidelined. Tied up too much resources.
@@actaeon299 That, and people forget the period starting around 1990 was "the peace dividend," where the military budgets (and personnel) were being reduced, since we'd won the Cold War. Battleships were an easy target for those cuts.
Fun video suggestion. Take us to a space which has been restored, and then go into it's duplicate which hasn't been restored yet. Kind of a, this is how we got the ship and this is how it looks now. I would also for sure watch a series of Ryan and Libby going compartment by compartment through the entire ship.
your suggestion has been deposited in the circular file. Thanks for playing and be sure to try Magic Spoon cereal, the cereal of choice for battle minded humanoids and their offspring!
20,000 hours is about 9.6 years of a regular 40 hour work week, no vacation & this man only been at it for ~7 years. That's impressive dedication & the way you present these videos reflects it. I enjoy my job well enough, but i wish I had this kinda energy about my career 👏
He only one I've seen the last 5 plus years ! So yes I'm very happy he has put the time and sacrifice for our education. Ty Ryan keep up the hard work.
Sounds to me like you need a space inventory where you can record visits to spaces, not just by Ryan, but by assistant curators and select other staff too. Also record the contents, even in general terms like "two large cardboard boxes full of unknown stuff". By working at the list methodically, you will eventually have every space covered at least once, and then you can loop back to find out what is in those "two large cardboard boxes full of unknown stuff". Creating and maintaining such a list sounds like a perfect job for a volunteer working within the curatorial department. Since the entire ship is your primary museum artifact, such documentation is really part of collection management.
As a former museum curator, I can say that most people have no idea how much paperwork occurs. Documenting the current state of every artifact, insanely bureaucratic grant processes, meeting donors, giving presentations, planning preservation and restoration, and of course interpretation also requires planning.
I was just thinking that. Charity, so trustees, insurers.. Hey, we need a complete inventory and asset register. By next week. I imagine the challenge for large museums is much the same, ie large amounts of boxes stored away on or offsite that may not have been opened for years. But must also be rather fascinating, like "Hey, I found a thing!" and then figuring out what that thing might be. Which I guess must also be a challenge for museum artefacts in how to describe said thing in a way that may allow future people to find it in a database again. Describing a very large screwdriver sounds easy compared to other artefacts. Stone disk, possible burial seal, inscription translates to "Do not remove least ye unleash the nameless horrors!".
@ Truth. I had some space artifacts. The official software to record the artifacts had no ability to specify “rocket engine” even though I had several. I had the white outer garment thick went over a training spacesuit used by Armstrong, when he was a backup crewman. It was a non-standard piece intended to make an A6L look like an A7L. Later, someone sewed the Apollo 11 patch on it. Describe that so someone who just liked science stuff could understand it. I might spend a day carefully cleaning stuffed birds, or taking researchers through the wilderness to record environmental data, or talking to children about the infrared and ultraviolet cameras, or talking to adults about why one of my F-1 engines had a spike in the combustion chamber and the others didn’t. Time to explore, or share my geeky enthusiasms with the visitors, were all too rare and precious.
The permission to fire keys are really kind of spectacular but for me, it was the key to the reduction gearbox. As a light manual machinist myself, those gears are nothing short of a work of art. They're beautiful.
Agreed, but I was still insanely uncomfortable as he was hanging out over top of that open hole into the gearbox. Take a picture, put it in a frame next to the hole, and never open it again. 🤣
@@ShanesGettingHandy I believe he said their intent was to put a clear cover over the access so the gears could be seen without any danger of anything getting dropped into it.
As a Chief Engineer aboard a 610' LSD in the Navy, there were very few spaces I had not seen by the end of my tour. I also had the opportunity to serve aboard the same class as a plankowner earlier in my career and explored the ship for hours in the shipyard prior to commissioning as we verified that everything was built to spec. I still love exploring museum ships when I get a chance.
@@christianfritz6333 Yeah, take the "the decks run fairly linear, but do twist around things" of a battleship and add the "cut out the hangers and fuel depots from the decks" of a carrier and MC Escher would get confused at the diagrams.
If you think that many spaces is a lot, you ought to try a modern Supercarrier! On the Constellation, we had a crew of 6,000 when the Air Wing was embarked.
In college I took an English class from a professor who specialized in Shakespeare. He said he hadn't read everything that Shakespeare had written. He said he was doing that on purpose because he wanted to have something left to discover. I think one of the pluses of this channel is that Ryan still has a sense of discovery and his enthusiasm is contagious. I'm glad he still has more to discover -- and share with us.
A 90 story building laying on its side. That gives perspective. With regards to other vessels, I had to laugh when you mentioned submarines. I qualified on my boat in 1984, and there were a few spaces where they like to keep other ratings out. Radio and sonar come to mind immediately. It would have been fun to explore the New Jersey, but all those stairs and ladders! Great video!
I was on a boomer, so add the Missile Control Center with the targeting computers and launch panel to the list of places that almost nobody ever got to visit.
I was an EW-T in the Australian Navy for a long time. We were never on board any ship or sub for much more than a few weeks at a time, though our work areas were always off limits to very nearly everyone - in some cases, absolutely everyone. Kind of surreal at times, 20 something year old nobodies telling the Captain where we need the platform to go, and when. We also cleaned toilets, washed dishes, chipped and painted rust spots just like everyone else, so there was never any animosity :-) Fun times.
I was a Storekeeper while in the Navy. There was one main store room and 2 or 3 other rooms. Shelves full of tools, pens, paper, repair parts ,mops, toilet paper etc. Separate paint locker in the forward part of the ship. Have you ever shown these spaces. The Supply Officer and all the logistics of supply is an important part of running a ship.
I can't think of anyone that might make a better curator. You have a great enthusiam for your work. Regarding not having explored every corner of the ship I would think that just increases the adventure of working on such a large ship.
One reason Ryan and Drachinifel are so complimentary is that Drach gives us something interesting from or about so many different ships and events and Ryan gives us so many different interesting things about one ship.
I've worked on a museum ship for about 2 years now (USS Hornet CV12), and we have over 2800 compartments onboard. I have only been in a small fraction of those. Whenever I'm able to get into a new space, I think it's just so awesome! I love it!
Having been aboard this past Saturday I can personally attest to the sheer size and multiplicity of compartments that comprise an Iowa class Battleship. In regards to my favorite space visited aboard I would say it was the Primary Conning station at the 08 level high on the tower mast. In addition to the helm and engine controls there is a chart room with navigation equipment and a wrap around exterior bridge with excellent views both fore and aft. I can see why it is referred to as the " Primary " conning station. As an aside I would like to thank Ryan and Libby and all BB - 62 staff I encountered for the great reception I received during the Symposium on the Battle of Leyte Gulf as well as meeting one of my favorite authors Commander Paul Stillwell and Drachinifel amongst others.
I know from experience, that in order to enter most tanks, you have to have tanks gas free checked, a top man ( person near the tank opening ), a source of light . Even if Ryan did want to go and explore tanks, he would need helpers to do it. I have found the entire series of videos very informative. I am amazed at all of the engineering and workmanship that went into building New Jersey.
Great video! Long overdue. People just do not understand how big the ship is and how much stuff is in it. I served three years on the USS America CV66. The number of compartments I was in was minuscule..
The nuke keys for sure! Especially when you tossed them to me and let my turn them myself for a while - something not many people have ever been able to d!
Wow, just stumbled onto your channel by chance.. Talk about a way back machine😮 ...imagine being in seas SO ruff that those two turrets behind you are awash...completely awash.. for 2 days. Yeah, the ship was like a 57k ton cork. On 3 engines because one shaft had to be welded in place due to the carrier bearing had failed and the prop was working against us. Talk about sea sick, have you ever seen a man actually turn green as a blade of grass. 😮 not good. Clashed with my dark hair, not a good look and it felt way worse..lol Anyways.. thanks for what you do. That ship is very special, nice to see her still alive.. K❤
Years ago I was on the USS Massachusetts down in Fall River Mass. You can roam the ship alone minus what’s locked up. I’m not claustrophobic but you can certainly lose your sense of direction. When you go deep enough you get the feeling I should turn back before I get lost. Thankfully there are exit signs everywhere. Lol
Served onboard New Jersey and Missouri and wish I could have seen much more. Watch schedule, operations didn't permit it. Walking on the decks of such ships and their history was something I thought about every day onboard.
I have boxes in my two story house I haven't opened in years, I can imagine your 90 story macro artifact will still have unopened boxes after you retire. Your ship is magnificent btw.
Cheer up, Ryan. I live in the same house my family has lived in for 150 years. While I think I have been in every space (except one crawl space -- I've looked in there, though -- there are some I don't get into even once a year. And the house is a lot smaller than a battleship!
My house has a small closet under the stairs that was blocked off when previous owners put in carpeting, and it absolutely drove me nuts that there was a space I couldn't see or get into. I eventually took the door off by the hinges and it was all cobwebs and moldy water-damaged spare ceiling tiles. Glad to have it cleaned out!
When I was stationed on the USS Constellation, one of my favorite things to do when my shift was over, was to go exploring the ship. I found so many interesting spaces, things, rooms, tools, machinery, old abandoned things. So much fun.
@ 6:00 You were also rather actively discouraged from just wandering through spaces that were not part of your divisions assignments. Passageways are one thing, but actual workspaces often contain active industrial hazards, and even if not, might normally be too crowded, or have information not meant for general dissemination, etc, and your shipmates would rather not have rubberneckers underfoot while trying to do their job.
Well battleship New Jersey is a huge ship and has many,many spaces that we don't know about. Exploring is a time consuming task but can find lots of interesting things along the way. Kinda like when Clark and Lewis Exploring the western frontier and discovered many things along the way and can't wait to get back to civilization to tell people about it. Ryan is doing the same when he has time to do so. Also safety first is a must during Exploring voids and etc. Ryan, you've done an amazing job on battleship New Jersey and hope you stick around for many years to come. Your videos are never boring and its apart of our history learning about the ship.
I'm not much for rhymes, so comment section please go easy on me! Also feel free to add. I've been everywhere, man I've been everywhere, man Crossed the quarterdeck bare, man I've breathed the salt sea air, man Of curating I've a-had my share, man I've been everywhere I've been to the portside, starboard side, topside, underside, inside, outside, quarterdeck, main deck, mess deck, barber shop, machine shop, Broadway, Holland Tunnel, down the funnel, void space, tight space, I'll go anyplace...
Ryan, it's great you share all of the discoveries you and your staff have made in the time you've been doing these videos. 6:30 I'll point out that even in the USS New Jersey's period of interpretation there was the surface navy's Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist (ESWS) qualification program: that qualification didn't (or doesn't) have the thorough grounding that the submariners Dolphins have (as you recounted, and I recall) but would give general knowledge of the ship's systems and especially a thorough damage control grounding. Especially on deployments and times when someone had to stay onboard as part of the duty section, going around to get signatures for your qualification would allow visiting and learning outside your rate and duty stations. Some ships even had evening ESWS classes for Sailors to get lessons and signatures in their qualification book.
Spent multiple years on CVN’s and there was 1/4 of the ship you never saw even when you did your ESWS quails. Totally agree all about the scale of the ship. On my first DD ESWS was easier.
@@miketreffinger7525 No disagreements that in a typical tour on a ship you'd never see every space (unless it was something like a minesweeper or such).
Hey! Leave Ryan alone.... the man (and the rest of the crew) are obviously Dedicated to their work! 😆 thanks for another great video! Been on tours with you and many a video.... great work Ryan and crew!
I had a friend who had a big house. He said "there are rooms in my house that I've not been in, in more than a month" I can imagine a battleship is like a REALLY big house not to mention, you are busy.
Not going into a room for a month isn't unusual. Plenty of people with normal sized houses won't go in their guest bedroom for a month. You have no reason to go in there unless you have a guest and need to prepare it. With a truly big house, there can be rooms you don't go in for years.
Top marks for your job as curator. I know this won’t go to your head but your steerage of the channel keeps me coming back and making the occasional donation.
One of the true really fun days on the waterfront at PHNSY was when I got an insider's tour of the USS Missouri. The ship was in port during RIMPAC '88 and we had done some repairs on the ship. We managed to clear a couple of things off the Chief Engineer's work list that had been there since the ship had been re-commissioned, so the ship's Repair Officer took me on the tour. Good day.
And I'm still not convinced the T-handled "screwdriver" was a screwdriver. Looks like something used to activate the capstan, or some other piece of deck equipment. As someone mentioned in the previous video, we had something like it, but with a 6 sided end, like a large socket. Used for flipping the deck cleats over. And maybe something else. (I only spent so much time topside)
People have made explorable 3d maps of the titanic I think. One thing I wish had happened was that a similar 3d map of all the rooms in one of the Forrestal carriers or the enterprise had been mapped that way, maybe with one of those google maps backpack 3d street view mappers. And of course the same thing would be amazing for the Iowas and all ships. Tangentially, it would be interesting if there were, say, four berthing compartments on say the tour route, to have one restored to ww2 condition, one to Korea, one to Vietnam, and one to Desert Storm, or at least say, repeating parts of a room, or even simply have a model/diorama of different ways a given compartment might have looked at different times during the ships life.
This is the perfect example of why Willy Wonka had all those Oompa Loompas working for him. Better ask the board to approve hiring some. Thanks for all you do Ryan and team. By making these videos you are contributing great knowledge to the museum ship community.
Alt title: "Iowa-Class Battleships are really damn big and being a museum curator is a full-time job" It's tempting to think "why aren't you guys documenting these spaces and what's in them over time?", but then I realise how long it would take to not only do my job but also take copious notes and document every aspect of every job while I'm doing it, and how inefficient that would make me. The work of maintaining and operating a museum ship has to take precedence over documenting it or you'll be left with nothing to document.
Early start tonight , back to GMT. in the UK . I worked on ships for over fourty years running cables through many compartments and finding routes and can honestly say there were always new spaces that were a surprise . A brief inspection of the accessible , just looking in might take days on a ship the size of New Jersey , and that's assuming you have all the keys . Part of the fascination with the videos is Ryan making discoveries and I'm sure there will be many more to come .
i love a good dig through historical stuff, but it takes more time than people think! i worked at my old lab for years before i even learned it had an entire chip fab plant moth balled in the basement lol
Just at the beginning of the video, I have to ask, "how many square feet is your house? How many square *inches* have you personally sniffed?. These are huge vessels, with MANY repeating rooms. They're doing what they can, with what they have. Slow your roll, and enjoy the ride.
I served on a P3 flight crew for a while. Considering it's a tube of air flying through the air, about the only space folks weren't allowed was MY BUNK! There were two on the P3, and one of them was reserved for the ordnanceman, which I thought was a mighty thoughtful consideration!
I get asked about the same question. you been doing this for how long why haven't you X.. I always answer with; You clean your kitchen often? When was the last time you cleaned behind your refrigerator.. You don't always go into every corner or empty space. You know it might exist and that there might be dirt, but in the end there ain't time or priority to go or do that.
I served on the USS Kittyhawk, and I remember literally a thousand spaces that once served a purpose converted excess storage space. I would imagine it's probably probably a thing on the New Jersey also.
You reference the other departments from time to time; it would be interesting to see some highlights of the other folks and the work they do for the museum. I have to imagine it takes quite a few.
I feel like you guys should get a group of volunteers or kids or something to get a super special tour where they bring a bunch of 360 degree cameras and just poke your head into every room and take a photo of it and mark it down on a map and then get another volunteer to build an interactive map. I bet you could get some students at tech school to do it as a final project
On the other hand... you've been in more of the ship's spaces than most of the sailors who served on her, who typically stuck to their own berthing, work center, assigned cleaning/maintenance areas, and a few public spaces like the mess decks and ship's store. I was on the Missouri for nearly 3 years, in 2 different compartments, and qualified surface warfare during that time, and probably hit only a fraction of all the spaces, although I did get to see a pretty good cross-section.
I’m with those people. I’ve never thought it judgtngly, but it’s a cool battleship. You obviously seem to like it. I would think that you would wander through just out of your own curiosity and I understand that it’s huge. But I’m at the beginning of the video so I digress I’ll watch the video and see what your answer is :-)
Probably my favorite space discovery was the one a while ago around one of the masts, that was just door after door after door into increasingly cramped and obscure void spaces
During my career as a Maintenance/Facility Manager, I looked after many large facilities and always enjoyed exploring and learning all I could about my facilities. During the ship's deployment, what one person on board knew the most about the ship? Would it have been an engineering position, or maybe the head of damage control? Thanks for a great channel!!!!
I am surprised there is not a macro document that is searchable (by keyword) of the entire ship space by space with notes and photos of everything in that space!
I'm curious now: given the sheer size of the ship, have you ever had a visitor get lost in it? Somebody just takes the wrong turn somewhere and ends up way off course? Or intentionally wanders off? What do you do if somebody is unaccounted for at closing time?
did you get to visit the interdimentional portal room? it was set up by admiral halsey and was activated only briefly during the solomon campaign. there were thoughts on reactivating it during the korean war but it was decided that dealing with the koreans and chinese is more than enough for a battaship? personally i would have also tried visiting the tesseract engine room. it is surprisingly small for a void that housed three galaxies. incidentally this is the room responsible for the disappearance of the ice cream machine
Perhaps consider hiring a company to scale out the entire ship. Then enlist them to document, in detail, the entire spaces. As a former Document Control Specialist with both Chemours (duPont Edgemoor) and GE Aviation (Newark), this was critical for our daily operations. Granted, some things are secret, so therefore must be within a controlled environment.
Love these videos where Ryan explains how his time is spent as curator (to some degree), *and* how big the _USS New Jersey_ actually is. One correction though ( 2:38 ) : 887 feet is not enough space for "a *90* story office building" - just the habitable space is 10 feet per floor, then you have the floor itself, the building structure, and things like pipes and air circulation ducts. Builders usually just call it around 12 feet for each story of something like an office building, so... Battleship New Jersey is equal to a *74* story office building.
Having 'lived' in campervans and even narrow boats (OK, holidays but you get the idea) there are so many nooks, crannies, storage points etc. in those, scale that up to a battleship. Officially she may have 1600 rooms, you can bet there are a few "undocumented" bits of storage, some have always been there, others have been added over time because, well, bored sailors who want to stash some things to take home (and sometimes they even remembered to take them home).
and then of course that there is the pipe organ room. some in the navy administration rejected the need for a full organ in a combar vessal but in the end greater minds prevailed. it was a key component in the arsenal and of course, could not be uninstalled, once it was set up. incidentally, the air intake for the organ doubles as the redundant air intake for deck 4 starboard
I work in a 58 acre building with most areas having 3 stories, sometimes as much as 12 though. There are 2 rooms I haven’t been in within 2 years. I don’t have badge access, and haven’t had the need, and I haven’t been in the powerhouse. 2/3 of my building(s) are abandoned, and somewhat decommissioned, but I’ve still managed to see most of it. There are a couple roofs that were too sketchy to really explore, and there are a few corners that I didn’t get lit by flashlight. Lots of areas are blocked off, but there are ways around the locked gates.
Have you ever done a video on battleship garbage disposal? I remember in "Away All Boats" about an Amphibious Attack Transport . There was a hillbilly who took his "Garbage Grinding" duties very seriously. I also loved the scene where the engineer was distributing the weights on the model ship, trying to figure out how to counterbalance the ship well they where trying to stop it from sinking. Does New Jersey have a similar room?
Did several cruises on the USS America (and USS John F Kennedy) and never saw a fraction of the spaces. You had your routine and learned those spaces and pretty much never went elsewhere. I was an Airdale so never saw machine spaces. It wasn't until the decomm in '96 the current skipper told us this was your boat too go wherever you like that I specifically went down to the engine/boiler rooms because I had never seen them before. Pretty sure the lowest I had ever been was the 3rd, maybe 4th deck until then.
What's I'm curious about is what is it like living abroad the ship. Where are the bedrooms, and bathrooms, are there showers, and toilets? Where would you eat and have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, what's the kitchen like.
i served on it for 3 1/2yrs.i had not been in all the space's many i had no reason to be in.i can think of several he probably has'nt been in but i could tell him what they were for.
I was stationed on an ammo (AE)ship. There were many spaces we weren’t allowed access to. I was always curious about nuclear weapons and the radio room but I wasn’t curious about the brig.
Coolest object found: Nuclear PTF key Coolest space on ship - Machine shop Coolest space discovered - I remember you finding a space, I think in one of the 16" turrets, that had been essentially officially unused in the ships later career, that some skaters had claimed as their secret nap/relax space where the petty officers couldn't find them to give them more work to do, and drawn/wrote extensively on the walls.
Oh, I don't know, I think the time there was one curator's worth of curator in one of the main boilers, or was it one of the condensers? That was pretty cool. . .
Love these videos. Always something new to get us thinking. I wonder if your staff and volunteers should wear body cams while aboard. That would provide video records for future curators. They are expensive, though. Curious about the organization chart. I always assumed the curator would be the boss, but if the gun crew has keys that you don’t, how does that work? Kept under separate lock and key for security reasons?
Sounds like a great place to conduct search and rescue exercises. Place a couple of dummies in different location for the agencies to locate and recover to shore. Not an easy task. Now imagine what happens when a visitor gets lost!
On leaving my last RN frigate I left a bunch of hand written training notebooks. Tucked in deep behind an electrical panel. Often wondered what eventual scrapyard workers made of such 'classified' material. Maybe fuel for toasting sandwiches.
I think the favorite object I've seen you guys find was the fuel oil mixture/testing setup. Flipping the question around, are there any particular places that you've wanted to go into and explore, but haven't been able to make the time to do so?
Ok, new rule. Anyone who has a key for the ship, they give Ryan a copy. Then, on Fridays, all other Curator jobs are on hold until Monday, he is given a couple snacks and water, and left to roam.
I've always wondered what percentage of people asking "how" have actually been on an Iowa class Battleship. 7 years ain't much all things considered for a ship this size. Think about moving and how long it takes to pack up a room. Sure, you're not doing THAT all day, but it helps translate the scope. There's well over 1000 rooms (I say 1000 to exclude the non-habitable rooms) And as you've said, you're *WORKING* :). I would be surprised if there's any place that no one has been since the most recent decommissioning... but not very surprised. It's only been 33 years. I'm curious who has worked on the New Jersey the most post-decommission. Like what previous curators and the like may have been there even longer than you.
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Have you eaten every flavor of cereal?
I was mildly curious about Magic Spoon before, but now that I have a link that will also help the battleshipI am going to order a couple of boxes.
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@@jwenting L
I'm going to assume that it's because Ryan's bosses expect him to be doing a lot of other things than walking around the battleship going "Hey, look at this!" And that his family might want to see him at home on a regular basis.😁
His family can come aboard an get a tour of the ship
Jobs do have a way of sucking the fun out of it, don't they.
And remember, it used to have a very LARGE crew to keep it running. Uncle Sam has a large labor pool.
Although manning and maintenance are one of the reasons the BBs got sidelined. Tied up too much resources.
@@actaeon299 That, and people forget the period starting around 1990 was "the peace dividend," where the military budgets (and personnel) were being reduced, since we'd won the Cold War. Battleships were an easy target for those cuts.
If the museum wanted Ryan to have a family they would’ve issued him one
I think this should have been subtitled "do you know how damned big a battleship is??"
THIS!
It's an office skyscraper lying on its side.
That aint a catchy title. Its a WW2 ship. Obvi its gonna be damage in some extent.
@@26IME he said Damned, not damaged
@@christopherpapelino889 Bots still aren't good at reading.
Fun video suggestion.
Take us to a space which has been restored, and then go into it's duplicate which hasn't been restored yet. Kind of a, this is how we got the ship and this is how it looks now.
I would also for sure watch a series of Ryan and Libby going compartment by compartment through the entire ship.
your suggestion has been deposited in the circular file. Thanks for playing and be sure to try Magic Spoon cereal, the cereal of choice for battle minded humanoids and their offspring!
20,000 hours is about 9.6 years of a regular 40 hour work week, no vacation & this man only been at it for ~7 years. That's impressive dedication & the way you present these videos reflects it. I enjoy my job well enough, but i wish I had this kinda energy about my career 👏
He only one I've seen the last 5 plus years ! So yes I'm very happy he has put the time and sacrifice for our education. Ty Ryan keep up the hard work.
Sounds to me like you need a space inventory where you can record visits to spaces, not just by Ryan, but by assistant curators and select other staff too. Also record the contents, even in general terms like "two large cardboard boxes full of unknown stuff". By working at the list methodically, you will eventually have every space covered at least once, and then you can loop back to find out what is in those "two large cardboard boxes full of unknown stuff". Creating and maintaining such a list sounds like a perfect job for a volunteer working within the curatorial department. Since the entire ship is your primary museum artifact, such documentation is really part of collection management.
To add to this, something like a 360 degree camera would do wonders for this work, and would also open up the possibility of online tours.
sounds like time, and time requires money
As a former museum curator, I can say that most people have no idea how much paperwork occurs. Documenting the current state of every artifact, insanely bureaucratic grant processes, meeting donors, giving presentations, planning preservation and restoration, and of course interpretation also requires planning.
I was just thinking that. Charity, so trustees, insurers.. Hey, we need a complete inventory and asset register. By next week. I imagine the challenge for large museums is much the same, ie large amounts of boxes stored away on or offsite that may not have been opened for years. But must also be rather fascinating, like "Hey, I found a thing!" and then figuring out what that thing might be. Which I guess must also be a challenge for museum artefacts in how to describe said thing in a way that may allow future people to find it in a database again. Describing a very large screwdriver sounds easy compared to other artefacts. Stone disk, possible burial seal, inscription translates to "Do not remove least ye unleash the nameless horrors!".
@ Truth. I had some space artifacts. The official software to record the artifacts had no ability to specify “rocket engine” even though I had several. I had the white outer garment thick went over a training spacesuit used by Armstrong, when he was a backup crewman. It was a non-standard piece intended to make an A6L look like an A7L. Later, someone sewed the Apollo 11 patch on it. Describe that so someone who just liked science stuff could understand it. I might spend a day carefully cleaning stuffed birds, or taking researchers through the wilderness to record environmental data, or talking to children about the infrared and ultraviolet cameras, or talking to adults about why one of my F-1 engines had a spike in the combustion chamber and the others didn’t. Time to explore, or share my geeky enthusiasms with the visitors, were all too rare and precious.
The permission to fire keys are really kind of spectacular but for me, it was the key to the reduction gearbox. As a light manual machinist myself, those gears are nothing short of a work of art. They're beautiful.
Agreed, but I was still insanely uncomfortable as he was hanging out over top of that open hole into the gearbox. Take a picture, put it in a frame next to the hole, and never open it again. 🤣
@@ShanesGettingHandy I believe he said their intent was to put a clear cover over the access so the gears could be seen without any danger of anything getting dropped into it.
As a Chief Engineer aboard a 610' LSD in the Navy, there were very few spaces I had not seen by the end of my tour. I also had the opportunity to serve aboard the same class as a plankowner earlier in my career and explored the ship for hours in the shipyard prior to commissioning as we verified that everything was built to spec. I still love exploring museum ships when I get a chance.
Battle Ships are like ol castles or mansions, with all their secret hiding spots and walkways
I'm sure battleships are bad, but nothing tops a carrier.
@@christianfritz6333 So True,
@@christianfritz6333 Yeah, take the "the decks run fairly linear, but do twist around things" of a battleship and add the "cut out the hangers and fuel depots from the decks" of a carrier and MC Escher would get confused at the diagrams.
If you think that many spaces is a lot, you ought to try a modern Supercarrier! On the Constellation, we had a crew of 6,000 when the Air Wing was embarked.
In college I took an English class from a professor who specialized in Shakespeare. He said he hadn't read everything that Shakespeare had written. He said he was doing that on purpose because he wanted to have something left to discover. I think one of the pluses of this channel is that Ryan still has a sense of discovery and his enthusiasm is contagious. I'm glad he still has more to discover -- and share with us.
Well put!
A 90 story building laying on its side. That gives perspective. With regards to other vessels, I had to laugh when you mentioned submarines. I qualified on my boat in 1984, and there were a few spaces where they like to keep other ratings out. Radio and sonar come to mind immediately. It would have been fun to explore the New Jersey, but all those stairs and ladders! Great video!
Yes, sonar gets into spooky stuff, and radio gets into even spookier stuff.
I was on a boomer, so add the Missile Control Center with the targeting computers and launch panel to the list of places that almost nobody ever got to visit.
I was an EW-T in the Australian Navy for a long time. We were never on board any ship or sub for much more than a few weeks at a time, though our work areas were always off limits to very nearly everyone - in some cases, absolutely everyone. Kind of surreal at times, 20 something year old nobodies telling the Captain where we need the platform to go, and when. We also cleaned toilets, washed dishes, chipped and painted rust spots just like everyone else, so there was never any animosity :-) Fun times.
I was a Storekeeper while in the Navy. There was one main store room and 2 or 3 other rooms. Shelves full of tools, pens, paper, repair parts ,mops, toilet paper etc. Separate paint locker in the forward part of the ship. Have you ever shown these spaces. The Supply Officer and all the logistics of supply is an important part of running a ship.
The coolest Space i can remember was that chill-out room/makeshift sleeping berth in one of the 16in turrets 👍🤓
Lmao imagine finding someone's 50 year old forgotten Playboy and beer stash
Thats one impressive alarm clock
@ oh yes. Now I have the picture of Tommy Lee jones in under siege in my head, standing right next to the 16in turret as seagal fires it 🤯🤣
I can't think of anyone that might make a better curator. You have a great enthusiam for your work.
Regarding not having explored every corner of the ship I would think that just increases the adventure of working on such a large ship.
One reason Ryan and Drachinifel are so complimentary is that Drach gives us something interesting from or about so many different ships and events and Ryan gives us so many different interesting things about one ship.
That's on point
I've worked on a museum ship for about 2 years now (USS Hornet CV12), and we have over 2800 compartments onboard. I have only been in a small fraction of those. Whenever I'm able to get into a new space, I think it's just so awesome! I love it!
If nothing else - it's more fun knowing there are still places to explore and things to be found.
Having been aboard this past Saturday I can personally attest to the sheer size and multiplicity of compartments that comprise an Iowa class Battleship. In regards to my favorite space visited aboard I would say it was the Primary Conning station at the 08 level high on the tower mast. In addition to the helm and engine controls there is a chart room with navigation equipment and a wrap around exterior bridge with excellent views both fore and aft. I can see why it is referred to as the " Primary " conning station. As an aside I would like to thank Ryan and Libby and all BB - 62 staff I encountered for the great reception I received during the Symposium on the Battle of Leyte Gulf as well as meeting one of my favorite authors Commander Paul Stillwell and Drachinifel amongst others.
"Like a 90 story building on its side". However, I'm about 70% sure the building wouldn't float very well. So NJ has that its favor.
I know from experience, that in order to enter most tanks, you have to have tanks gas free checked, a top man ( person near the tank opening ), a source of light . Even if Ryan did want to go and explore tanks, he would need helpers to do it. I have found the entire series of videos very informative. I am amazed at all of the engineering and workmanship that went into building New Jersey.
Great video! Long overdue. People just do not understand how big the ship is and how much stuff is in it. I served three years on the USS America CV66. The number of compartments I was in was minuscule..
The nuke keys for sure! Especially when you tossed them to me and let my turn them myself for a while - something not many people have ever been able to d!
Wow, just stumbled onto your channel by chance..
Talk about a way back machine😮
...imagine being in seas SO ruff that those two turrets behind you are awash...completely awash.. for 2 days. Yeah, the ship was like a 57k ton cork. On 3 engines because one shaft had to be welded in place due to the carrier bearing had failed and the prop was working against us. Talk about sea sick, have you ever seen a man actually turn green as a blade of grass. 😮 not good. Clashed with my dark hair, not a good look and it felt way worse..lol
Anyways.. thanks for what you do. That ship is very special, nice to see her still alive..
K❤
I’m gonna say, 1,600 someodd compartments, 300-ish of which are voids/tanks - lots of redundant spaces.
Years ago I was on the USS Massachusetts down in Fall River Mass. You can roam the ship alone minus what’s locked up. I’m not claustrophobic but you can certainly lose your sense of direction. When you go deep enough you get the feeling I should turn back before I get lost. Thankfully there are exit signs everywhere. Lol
It's a dream job. He's pacing his self to enjoy the journey.😂
I'm not even going to skip your sponsored ad. I want to do my part to make your metrics appealing to advertisers.
same- happens rarely but for this endeavor I watched.
Served onboard New Jersey and Missouri and wish I could have seen much more. Watch schedule, operations didn't permit it. Walking on the decks of such ships and their history was something I thought about every day onboard.
I have boxes in my two story house I haven't opened in years, I can imagine your 90 story macro artifact will still have unopened boxes after you retire. Your ship is magnificent btw.
Cheer up, Ryan. I live in the same house my family has lived in for 150 years. While I think I have been in every space (except one crawl space -- I've looked in there, though -- there are some I don't get into even once a year. And the house is a lot smaller than a battleship!
I wish my house had 1600 rooms…
My house has a small closet under the stairs that was blocked off when previous owners put in carpeting, and it absolutely drove me nuts that there was a space I couldn't see or get into. I eventually took the door off by the hinges and it was all cobwebs and moldy water-damaged spare ceiling tiles. Glad to have it cleaned out!
Thanks for all the hard work and for sharing with us. As an engineer I'd love to the the back of one of the switches on the fire control switchboards.
When I was stationed on the USS Constellation, one of my favorite things to do when my shift was over, was to go exploring the ship. I found so many interesting spaces, things, rooms, tools, machinery, old abandoned things. So much fun.
@ 6:00 You were also rather actively discouraged from just wandering through spaces that were not part of your divisions assignments. Passageways are one thing, but actual workspaces often contain active industrial hazards, and even if not, might normally be too crowded, or have information not meant for general dissemination, etc, and your shipmates would rather not have rubberneckers underfoot while trying to do their job.
Well battleship New Jersey is a huge ship and has many,many spaces that we don't know about. Exploring is a time consuming task but can find lots of interesting things along the way. Kinda like when Clark and Lewis Exploring the western frontier and discovered many things along the way and can't wait to get back to civilization to tell people about it. Ryan is doing the same when he has time to do so. Also safety first is a must during Exploring voids and etc. Ryan, you've done an amazing job on battleship New Jersey and hope you stick around for many years to come. Your videos are never boring and its apart of our history learning about the ship.
I was waiting for Ryan to belt out a battleship version of "I've Been Everywhere Man"
Would be a great April 1st video
Would be awesome to listen to
I'm not much for rhymes, so comment section please go easy on me! Also feel free to add.
I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the quarterdeck bare, man
I've breathed the salt sea air, man
Of curating I've a-had my share, man
I've been everywhere
I've been to the portside, starboard side, topside,
underside, inside, outside, quarterdeck, main deck,
mess deck, barber shop, machine shop, Broadway,
Holland Tunnel, down the funnel, void space,
tight space, I'll go anyplace...
@@KenR1800 Actually fantastic, I hope they see it!
That was really good
Ryan, it's great you share all of the discoveries you and your staff have made in the time you've been doing these videos.
6:30 I'll point out that even in the USS New Jersey's period of interpretation there was the surface navy's Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist (ESWS) qualification program: that qualification didn't (or doesn't) have the thorough grounding that the submariners Dolphins have (as you recounted, and I recall) but would give general knowledge of the ship's systems and especially a thorough damage control grounding. Especially on deployments and times when someone had to stay onboard as part of the duty section, going around to get signatures for your qualification would allow visiting and learning outside your rate and duty stations. Some ships even had evening ESWS classes for Sailors to get lessons and signatures in their qualification book.
Spent multiple years on CVN’s and there was 1/4 of the ship you never saw even when you did your ESWS quails. Totally agree all about the scale of the ship. On my first DD ESWS was easier.
@@miketreffinger7525 No disagreements that in a typical tour on a ship you'd never see every space (unless it was something like a minesweeper or such).
Hey! Leave Ryan alone.... the man (and the rest of the crew) are obviously Dedicated to their work! 😆 thanks for another great video! Been on tours with you and many a video.... great work Ryan and crew!
I don't think people actually realize how immense these ships truly are.
I got a pretty good idea of the size when l was underneath it a few months ago, lol
I liked the little room between the guns in the turret
I had a friend who had a big house. He said "there are rooms in my house that I've not been in, in more than a month"
I can imagine a battleship is like a REALLY big house not to mention, you are busy.
Not going into a room for a month isn't unusual. Plenty of people with normal sized houses won't go in their guest bedroom for a month. You have no reason to go in there unless you have a guest and need to prepare it. With a truly big house, there can be rooms you don't go in for years.
Top marks for your job as curator. I know this won’t go to your head but your steerage of the channel keeps me coming back and making the occasional donation.
One of the true really fun days on the waterfront at PHNSY was when I got an insider's tour of the USS Missouri. The ship was in port during RIMPAC '88 and we had done some repairs on the ship. We managed to clear a couple of things off the Chief Engineer's work list that had been there since the ship had been re-commissioned, so the ship's Repair Officer took me on the tour. Good day.
And I'm still not convinced the T-handled "screwdriver" was a screwdriver. Looks like something used to activate the capstan, or some other piece of deck equipment.
As someone mentioned in the previous video, we had something like it, but with a 6 sided end, like a large socket. Used for flipping the deck cleats over. And maybe something else. (I only spent so much time topside)
The video about the 5 keels was mind-blowing !!!
People have made explorable 3d maps of the titanic I think. One thing I wish had happened was that a similar 3d map of all the rooms in one of the Forrestal carriers or the enterprise had been mapped that way, maybe with one of those google maps backpack 3d street view mappers. And of course the same thing would be amazing for the Iowas and all ships. Tangentially, it would be interesting if there were, say, four berthing compartments on say the tour route, to have one restored to ww2 condition, one to Korea, one to Vietnam, and one to Desert Storm, or at least say, repeating parts of a room, or even simply have a model/diorama of different ways a given compartment might have looked at different times during the ships life.
This is the perfect example of why Willy Wonka had all those Oompa Loompas working for him. Better ask the board to approve hiring some.
Thanks for all you do Ryan and team. By making these videos you are contributing great knowledge to the museum ship community.
Alt title: "Iowa-Class Battleships are really damn big and being a museum curator is a full-time job"
It's tempting to think "why aren't you guys documenting these spaces and what's in them over time?", but then I realise how long it would take to not only do my job but also take copious notes and document every aspect of every job while I'm doing it, and how inefficient that would make me. The work of maintaining and operating a museum ship has to take precedence over documenting it or you'll be left with nothing to document.
Thanks for sharing this, what a perspective. I enjoyed when you went through all the unique office spaces like the random ones in voids
Early start tonight , back to GMT. in the UK . I worked on ships for over fourty years running cables through many compartments and finding routes and can honestly say there were always new spaces that were a surprise . A brief inspection of the accessible , just looking in might take days on a ship the size of New Jersey , and that's assuming you have all the keys . Part of the fascination with the videos is Ryan making discoveries and I'm sure there will be many more to come .
I enjoy your video's of whatever "room" you wander into. Keep up the great work.
i love a good dig through historical stuff, but it takes more time than people think! i worked at my old lab for years before i even learned it had an entire chip fab plant moth balled in the basement lol
Just at the beginning of the video, I have to ask, "how many square feet is your house? How many square *inches* have you personally sniffed?. These are huge vessels, with MANY repeating rooms. They're doing what they can, with what they have. Slow your roll, and enjoy the ride.
Amazing video! It’s dazzling how much like a floating city these gargantuan warships really are.
This was a great vid. I watch your channel from Texas all the time. Watching Battleship Texas all the time too.
I served on a P3 flight crew for a while. Considering it's a tube of air flying through the air, about the only space folks weren't allowed was MY BUNK! There were two on the P3, and one of them was reserved for the ordnanceman, which I thought was a mighty thoughtful consideration!
I get asked about the same question. you been doing this for how long why haven't you X..
I always answer with; You clean your kitchen often? When was the last time you cleaned behind your refrigerator..
You don't always go into every corner or empty space. You know it might exist and that there might be dirt, but in the end there ain't time or priority to go or do that.
I served on the USS Kittyhawk, and I remember literally a thousand spaces that once served a purpose converted excess storage space. I would imagine it's probably probably a thing on the New Jersey also.
You reference the other departments from time to time; it would be interesting to see some highlights of the other folks and the work they do for the museum. I have to imagine it takes quite a few.
Now imagine how many unexplored rooms there are on the Intrepid.
I feel like you guys should get a group of volunteers or kids or something to get a super special tour where they bring a bunch of 360 degree cameras and just poke your head into every room and take a photo of it and mark it down on a map and then get another volunteer to build an interactive map. I bet you could get some students at tech school to do it as a final project
On the other hand... you've been in more of the ship's spaces than most of the sailors who served on her, who typically stuck to their own berthing, work center, assigned cleaning/maintenance areas, and a few public spaces like the mess decks and ship's store. I was on the Missouri for nearly 3 years, in 2 different compartments, and qualified surface warfare during that time, and probably hit only a fraction of all the spaces, although I did get to see a pretty good cross-section.
I’d love a “day in the life of a battleship curator” video
Have you done a New Jersey at night video? Talking about the lights the museum added to highlight the ship?
AND how many rooms are there? 1600 rooms! that is a lot of rooms! your doing a great job Ryan! you need a raise!
I’m with those people. I’ve never thought it judgtngly, but it’s a cool battleship. You obviously seem to like it. I would think that you would wander through just out of your own curiosity and I understand that it’s huge. But I’m at the beginning of the video so I digress I’ll watch the video and see what your answer is :-)
Probably my favorite space discovery was the one a while ago around one of the masts, that was just door after door after door into increasingly cramped and obscure void spaces
During my career as a Maintenance/Facility Manager, I looked after many large facilities and always enjoyed exploring and learning all I could about my facilities. During the ship's deployment, what one person on board knew the most about the ship? Would it have been an engineering position, or maybe the head of damage control? Thanks for a great channel!!!!
haven't watched your vids for awhile now. Glad to see you are stating to get sponsors!
I am surprised there is not a macro document that is searchable (by keyword) of the entire ship space by space with notes and photos of everything in that space!
I'm curious now: given the sheer size of the ship, have you ever had a visitor get lost in it? Somebody just takes the wrong turn somewhere and ends up way off course? Or intentionally wanders off? What do you do if somebody is unaccounted for at closing time?
did you get to visit the interdimentional portal room? it was set up by admiral halsey and was activated only briefly during the solomon campaign. there were thoughts on reactivating it during the korean war but it was decided that dealing with the koreans and chinese is more than enough for a battaship? personally i would have also tried visiting the tesseract engine room. it is surprisingly small for a void that housed three galaxies. incidentally this is the room responsible for the disappearance of the ice cream machine
Perhaps consider hiring a company to scale out the entire ship. Then enlist them to document, in detail, the entire spaces. As a former Document Control Specialist with both Chemours (duPont Edgemoor) and GE Aviation (Newark), this was critical for our daily operations. Granted, some things are secret, so therefore must be within a controlled environment.
Write a big check so they can do it.
Love these videos where Ryan explains how his time is spent as curator (to some degree), *and* how big the _USS New Jersey_ actually is. One correction though ( 2:38 ) : 887 feet is not enough space for "a *90* story office building" - just the habitable space is 10 feet per floor, then you have the floor itself, the building structure, and things like pipes and air circulation ducts. Builders usually just call it around 12 feet for each story of something like an office building, so... Battleship New Jersey is equal to a *74* story office building.
"Battleship New Jersey receives operating support from the New Jersey Department of State......." I've almost got it memorized
Having 'lived' in campervans and even narrow boats (OK, holidays but you get the idea) there are so many nooks, crannies, storage points etc. in those, scale that up to a battleship. Officially she may have 1600 rooms, you can bet there are a few "undocumented" bits of storage, some have always been there, others have been added over time because, well, bored sailors who want to stash some things to take home (and sometimes they even remembered to take them home).
That was really good, thanks for sharing.
Well as a volunteer on the USS Orleck, I have been in every compartment, void and tank on the ship.
and then of course that there is the pipe organ room. some in the navy administration rejected the need for a full organ in a combar vessal but in the end greater minds prevailed. it was a key component in the arsenal and of course, could not be uninstalled, once it was set up. incidentally, the air intake for the organ doubles as the redundant air intake for deck 4 starboard
I work in a 58 acre building with most areas having 3 stories, sometimes as much as 12 though. There are 2 rooms I haven’t been in within 2 years. I don’t have badge access, and haven’t had the need, and I haven’t been in the powerhouse.
2/3 of my building(s) are abandoned, and somewhat decommissioned, but I’ve still managed to see most of it. There are a couple roofs that were too sketchy to really explore, and there are a few corners that I didn’t get lit by flashlight. Lots of areas are blocked off, but there are ways around the locked gates.
It keeps the job interesting that there are unknowns you'll hopefully get to learn more about someday!
Have you ever done a video on battleship garbage disposal? I remember in "Away All Boats" about an Amphibious Attack Transport . There was a hillbilly who took his "Garbage Grinding" duties very seriously. I also loved the scene where the engineer was distributing the weights on the model ship, trying to figure out how to counterbalance the ship well they where trying to stop it from sinking. Does New Jersey have a similar room?
Did several cruises on the USS America (and USS John F Kennedy) and never saw a fraction of the spaces. You had your routine and learned those spaces and pretty much never went elsewhere. I was an Airdale so never saw machine spaces. It wasn't until the decomm in '96 the current skipper told us this was your boat too go wherever you like that I specifically went down to the engine/boiler rooms because I had never seen them before. Pretty sure the lowest I had ever been was the 3rd, maybe 4th deck until then.
What's I'm curious about is what is it like living abroad the ship. Where are the bedrooms, and bathrooms, are there showers, and toilets?
Where would you eat and have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, what's the kitchen like.
I was on board for 2 years form 87-89. I explored a lot of spaces just out of sheer boredom while being out at sea.
Excellent story that was very interesting thank you.
i served on it for 3 1/2yrs.i had not been in all the space's many i had no reason to be in.i can think of several he probably has'nt been in but i could tell him what they were for.
I was stationed on an ammo (AE)ship. There were many spaces we weren’t allowed access to. I was always curious about nuclear weapons and the radio room but I wasn’t curious about the brig.
Coolest object found: Nuclear PTF key
Coolest space on ship - Machine shop
Coolest space discovered - I remember you finding a space, I think in one of the 16" turrets, that had been essentially officially unused in the ships later career, that some skaters had claimed as their secret nap/relax space where the petty officers couldn't find them to give them more work to do, and drawn/wrote extensively on the walls.
Would be fascinating to explore the ole gal.
Oh, I don't know, I think the time there was one curator's worth of curator in one of the main boilers, or was it one of the condensers? That was pretty cool. . .
Love these videos. Always something new to get us thinking. I wonder if your staff and volunteers should wear body cams while aboard. That would provide video records for future curators. They are expensive, though. Curious about the organization chart. I always assumed the curator would be the boss, but if the gun crew has keys that you don’t, how does that work? Kept under separate lock and key for security reasons?
Sounds like a great place to conduct search and rescue exercises. Place a couple of dummies in different location for the agencies to locate and recover to shore. Not an easy task.
Now imagine what happens when a visitor gets lost!
On leaving my last RN frigate I left a bunch of hand written training notebooks. Tucked in deep behind an electrical panel.
Often wondered what eventual scrapyard workers made of such 'classified' material. Maybe fuel for toasting sandwiches.
I think the favorite object I've seen you guys find was the fuel oil mixture/testing setup.
Flipping the question around, are there any particular places that you've wanted to go into and explore, but haven't been able to make the time to do so?
Ok, new rule. Anyone who has a key for the ship, they give Ryan a copy. Then, on Fridays, all other Curator jobs are on hold until Monday, he is given a couple snacks and water, and left to roam.
Still...IMO you have the best job in the world.
I've always wondered what percentage of people asking "how" have actually been on an Iowa class Battleship.
7 years ain't much all things considered for a ship this size.
Think about moving and how long it takes to pack up a room. Sure, you're not doing THAT all day, but it helps translate the scope. There's well over 1000 rooms (I say 1000 to exclude the non-habitable rooms) And as you've said, you're *WORKING* :).
I would be surprised if there's any place that no one has been since the most recent decommissioning... but not very surprised. It's only been 33 years.
I'm curious who has worked on the New Jersey the most post-decommission. Like what previous curators and the like may have been there even longer than you.
Could you do a day in the life type detailing your typical workday on board? That would be cool insight to have I think