Inside the Fuel Tanks, Outside the Pressure Hull: Submarine Drum
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- Опубликовано: 8 июл 2024
- In this special episode we're at Battleship Memorial Park, home of the USS Alabama and USS Drum. We're taking a deep dive into the skin of the ship.
For our episode on the Drum being on Dry Land coming out on 5 Oct 2021:
• Why Is That Sub On Dry...
To support Drum:
www.ussalabama.com/
For Battleship Alabama's RUclips Page:
/ ussalabama60
To support this channel and the Battleship New Jersey: www.battleshipnewjersey.org/v...
“ Hi I’m Ryan Szimanski curator of the Battleship New Jersey museum and memorial. We’ve been trying to reach you about your submarine’s extended warranty”
On Ryans previous ship, the submarine would get those calls all the time. Like uh sir. This is a submarine. Please stop calling us.
😂
@@BattleshipNewJersey on a more serious note: I was watching a lecture by a former employee named Jason. It appears that Jason passed away at a much too young age. He was obviously incredibly brilliant and gave a wonderful lecture. Did Jason pass due to the brain tumor that he referred to at the beginning of his lecture?
I would ask if they would extend the warranty for my 1/24 scale Munsters "Drag-u-la". I won a 3rd place at the IPMS Nationals in Columbus, OH. They would quickly hang up! I never thought of asking about a sub!
@@klsc8510 what is IPMS
He is slowly becoming the forgotten weapons guy for the navy
The Ship Jesus?
Drac is the Navy forgotten weapons.
A crossover video with all three would be interesting.
@@hamaljay Bloke on the water.
@@Tagawichin Noah?
The Drum also has a very rare feature for a Fleet boat, 2 anchors. As far as I have read only 3 boats were finished with both and after that the various yards picked a side and stuck to it. Electric boat and Manitowoc build boats have them on the starboard side and Mare island and Portsmouth built boats have the anchor on the port side.
Interesting bit of trivia
Now that some inside baseball facts. Why they each do it different?
@@studinthemaking if you know, I'm all ears. I'll be very amused if they had two sets, each with a jig for each side and instead of making another two sets they just sent the extras to increase the number of yards with a single jig from two to four
It also has a different tower from a different class as the one drum came with got damaged to bad to fix during ww2 and the navy did not have another tower from this class so to get here back in the war they used one they had at the repair yard
About the tanks and voids: I worked in shipyards before spending time in the US Navy. I have been in more tanks and voids than I can remember. Some of them are nothing more than dry, empty spaces filled with air, while others are ineffably disgusting. Some are even frightening when you first go inside. It is interesting to be both frightened and disgusted at the same time. Ships are a unique world, unlike any other I have ever experienced.
I got to poke my head into a ballast tank on the Texas about 20yrs ago. It was their ‘hard hat tour’ and we went all through the bowels of that ship, at times walking across narrow planks over deep voids in pitch black other than headlamps. Spaces you could tell were submerged for years and awaited restoration. So cool to ‘go there’ way beyond the pretty painted and restored areas.
Answer: Yes - Unfortunately - USS Georgia 729 - I have been in the superstructure area, forward ballast tanks, Sonar Dome, and forward Sail superstructure as a SONAR Man. Ballast tanks are very slippery until the blasted out with hot steam water by the dock workers and dried when dry dock. The Sonar Dome is also very slippery inside which requires the use of dedicated hand and foot holds to replace zincs and inspect cables and tranducers. Climbing in tanks is the second worst activiy in my opinion. The only thing is that is worst is cleaning the 50,000 volt applifiers for under-ice sonar. I have been injured twice from those monster capacitors..Later.
I am a retired US Army tanker so I have spent a lot of time inside various tanks.
USS Cod (SS-224) just returned home to Cleveland after about 8 weeks in dry dock, her first time in dry dock since 1961. She's the only Gato that is still in her original WWII configuration with no alterations at all.
As First Lieutenant on Sea Devil, SSN-664, I inspected the ballast tanks while in drydock and the sonar free flood space at the bow. The sonar techs got a laugh out of me singing in the sonar dome. The ballast tank was tight but inspection went well until I dropped my flashlight. Then it was dark - really dark.
How you get out of it?
@@studinthemaking If you're experienced with tanks, that's when you take out one of your four backups, and that's only so you don't have to call the person sitting tank-watch for help. I probably wouldn't want to move without light, though it depends on the tank.
US submarines gradually moved away from the hotdog-in-bun design, and by the 688 and 774 classes, ballast tanks have some really scary wide-open areas with sudden drop-offs. There are still tight spaces as well, but falling hazards become a big deal. The only nice thing about open areas is that they're very easy to light.
Ohh yah very dark in the Sonar Dome. I was at least lucky enough to have been able to wait till the dry dock lights were installed. Later.
@@studinthemaking Very carefully I climbed down the space between the circular girders reinforcing the pressure hull like a giant set of monkey bars, retrieved the flashlight (gravity check sat!), and climbed back up until I could squeeze back to the access opening. Interesting story.
Next up on the BB NJ Channel: A contest to guess what space will Ryan crawl into next. But seriously, great vid as always.
I am sure someone will find a dirty oily space to put our intrepid Ryan! Maybe will there do the crawl from the cockpit to the tail gunner on the B-52 in the park?
Live the coal bunker on the Olympia, now a fuel tank in the drum..Way to go Ryan and company. No one goes where your going. Much appreciated.
688 class new construction, Electric boat. Dry dock for some sonar inspection, large blocks along keel. Delivered message to sonar guys in forward ballast tanks. Ladder from bottom into lower vent, which was hinged for access. Hard to see much at my angle due to shadows, but more complicated than I expected.
Inside PSWT, primary shield water tank for final close-out. Had to wear white coveralls and booties. No paint, just black finished steel.
Looked inside main steam engine casing to support inspection of blades after first sea trials. Cramped, flashlights on tethers.
Also saw USS Ohio in another area just before the three main hull sections were welded together into final hull shape.
Neat...
I want to say I'm envious, but ... That'd be a stretch!
I climbed through more than a few huge sub parts in Quincy Fore River 800 Dept. I'd love a cooks tour of one, but that will never happen. Glad to see our dedication and workmanship still going strong.
My wife and I got to tour the Alabama and Drum I. September of 2019 after we got back from a Carnival cruise in Mobile. We ended up getting a tour of the Drum from a volunteer that worked there who was a former submariner. I don't remember his name but he served in the 60's. He was able to show us alot of things onboard and described in detail the life aboard a sub. My wife has never been a big history of military buff like me but due to his private tour she was fascinated.
I am a Navy veteran. When I was stationed at NAS Pensacola, I took a trip to visit the Alabama, and the Drum. LOVED them.
Wife and I went and toured the USS Alabama when we were down in Pensacola to get married. That was such a cool trip, I want to get back down and go through it again
@@awg6397 I remember that when I went, I took my GF at the time, who was also in the Navy, to the Alabama. They were playing WW2 music on the ship, and we had an "interesting" time on board. Use your own imagination.....
@@scottbruner9987 wait wut 😂😂😂😂😂 i would shake your hand sir lol
@@charlescollins9413 I'll never forget.....it was inside the number 2 turret. On one of the shell loading levels.
Air Dale?
Worked in a bunch of hoppers and tank-ish type of things, most were new and fairly roomy, so no big deal. The worst was crawling around inside a fire engine tanker. They're filled with baffles and there's always an inch of water even with all the valves open. I'm a big guy but bendy, had to slither in there and TIG weld a corroded through tube on the very freaking edge down low. Fun, fun fun. On the plus side, it makes for a good story and one more reason to complain about that stupid job.
@Gresvig, cool story. I may as well put my question for Ryan here, “Were you subject to Confined Space regs, in this episode?”.
And hey, Sir, were you impacted by the modern regulations and requirements about that? Supplied air, perhaps, or a ‘buddy’ observer at the entrance?
Cheers.
That museum complex there near Mobile is one of the best I have seen. The Drum was great. I was distressed to see all the pitting in the hull. It's good to know it doesn't bother you.
Its jast patina! I actually dislike old things that look new. I prefer semi-ruined castles to refurbished, manicured ones for example. Its just more interesting.
I was the Main Propulsion Officer on a Fletcher Class Destroyer in Vietnam. We had to crawl in and inspect many tanks; some of them exceedingly small. I have claustrophobia to this day.
Thank you for all you do to keep museum ships afloat.
A comment about the remark of how the submarine would become lighter as the fuel was burned off, if the tank is a "compensating" type with water being admitted as the fuel is used or vented, the boat actually becomes heavier. The specific gravity of water (fresh or sea) is heavier than the diesel fuel in that tank. Use up the fuel and the boat loses buoyancy and must actually be "trimmed" to return to the slightly positive buoyant state that most submariners prefer.
Modern destroyers and cruisers also use fuel tanks that bring aboard seawater to replace the fuel as it is used in order to help keep the ship ballasted so she remains "grey side up." Earlier ships like the WWII Fletcher class DD did not replace fuel with seawater in the same tanks, normally not a real problem if you are refueling every three or four days, UNLESS you are short of fuel, have a bunch of empty tanks and are headed into heavy weather (Halsey's Typhoons for example.) You either flood the empty tanks to ballast the ship to keep the keel down or you could run the risk of capsizing.
Also this would be rough calculated before diving and trim adjusted and then done shortly after diving (trimming the boat) as no more diesel would be used until the boat surfaced or in the unlikely case of snorkeling if they were in the midst of a convoy. (Which the USS Drum was incapable of doing in any case though some Gato Class boats were upgraded for this ability later.)
Yes, I was on USS Cochrane DDG-21. I worked in Gun Plot which was compartment 2-99-2-C. We went in the yards in July 81 and had major equipment removals and upgrades. This changed the ship's center of gravity. When we pulled the deck plates up in Gun Plot during the yard period, behind the MK-47 computer was a bolted-down manhole covering a fuel tank. That tank had to be drained of fuel, cleaned, and certified gas-free by the yards at Pearl. The reason was that the fuel tank had lead ballast bricks at the bottom. The yard had to add some bricks to compensate for the weight shifts caused by the multiple upgrades going on around the ship. I imagine the same process occurred in other tanks but since this one was in my workspace I had to work with the yard birds on it. Even after they re-sealed the tank Gun Plot wreaked of fuel oil for months.
Last time I was at the Alabama Museum was in the 80s as a young kid. I got to go on a tour of the Drum and the Alabama, and that help cement a long time love of military history.
I served aboard the USS Taluga AO 62 which was a fleet oiler . At the end of our deployments we would enter the fuel tanks and clean them before going to the ship yards for repairs .
As a junior officer on USS Alexander Hamilton (SSBN617G) I had deck division for a while and spent a good part of one refit crawling through the superstructure and some of the ballast tanks on that ship. Lots of ways to bang your head. We also had a fire in one of our ballast tanks when we were in dry dock when I was the duty officer. Someone had left a drop light on some plastic sheeting and it caught on fire. No damage but there was a mess that needed to be cleaned up.
Never been in a tank before but I've been inside the Drum, it's awesome seeing videos of it being made. I hope there is a video on the torpedo rooms since they have some beautiful brass in them.
Ryan: you are not in a NFO fuel (Normal Fuel Oil tank) but a FBT (Fuel Ballast Tank) FBT# 3, 4 or 5. NFO's don't have a flood valve in the bottom like in your video here, FBT's do. When fuel is consumed it is replaced with seawater by the sea water compensation system. When an FBT is empty of fuel it gets converted and used as a ballast tank. As one commenter said for every gallon of fuel consumed, in both NFO's and FBT's, it was replaced by seawater. The diving officer and his helpers have to keep track of all weights (fuel, food weapons, etc) removed or added and adjust the boats trim to keep from sinking or staying on the surface when trying to dive. It's very similar to aircraft weight and balance sheets. Diesel oil weighs less per gallon than sea water so the boat needs to adjust its trim to equalize it's buoyancy as it's comsumed. Because of the thin tank plating they are considered "soft tanks" and must be completely full of liquid, fuel and/or sea water, when submerged so they don't collapse. There are other tanks that are are considered "hard" and can resist the sea pressure when submerged. They are generally used for trimming the boat to make her neutrally buoyant when submerged and also adjust her to keep her level fore and aft.
PS: yard workers did cut holes in the tanks to gain access for repairs and maintenance, that's why you see the circular and oval shaped "patches:" on the ballast tanks.
When the Drum came to Mobile, my Grandfather (PFC WWI, DC1 WWII) who served on a Gato Class came to town to see it. My dad (AOAN) and grandpa showed my sister and I (AT1) around, talked a bit about getting stuck on a sub when he wasn't a submariner.
I Make working models of submarines . And this is the first video is the first video I have seen of the inside of a submarine tank . As always fascinating stuff , thank you for posting !
You continue to amaze me!
Ryan, I appreciate and understand that many naval museums have knowledgeable staff, but I find they don’t know how to communicate to the general public the way you do. Kudos, keep up the good work.
Brilliant. Thanks for sharing.
Can't wait to see the battleship video.
The hotdog bun lol that gave me a decent chuckle
Looking forward to it.
Your vids are interesting & informative, thank you for all you do to help preserve our military history.
Awesome! I remember that sub well from many trips to the USS Alabama in the '80s and '90s.
Love these videos, Ryan!
40 years ago i toured the USS Ling museum on the Haversack river. very interesting tour, we went from the forward torpedo room all the way thru to the aft torpedo room, checking out all the spaces on it. very cool tour
Been looking forward to this video! I watched you making it, for a few minutes! Can’t wait to get to come to USS New Jersey
Another Awesome Educational Video! You won't be able to get to look at these spaces anywhere but Here. BZ Brother! Thanks
Yes I’ve crawled around the inside of a Sherman tank before
My brother and I volunteered aboard the SS Lane Victory back in the early nineties. We scraped, cleaned and Re coated the fresh water tank with Portland cement. A very tough job and an experience I will never forget.
Good stuff
Had a chance to visit the Alabama and drum just 2 months ago. Walking through the drum there was a former nuclear sub commander explaining every single detail and instrument to his grandkids present and I'm sure his sub was vastly different but overhearing him explain things was like a private guided tour.
I also toured the U-505,the Torsk,the Constillation and been out to the USS Arizona.,And the USS Iowa before her accident in the gun turret .
Thank you for visiting BMP, I am a resident of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and have visited BMP many times. You provide great information on other museum ships. My Father served aboard CVE 73 USS Gambier Bay. I have been been interested in Naval History since I was a kid.
Interesting video! Always nice learning stuff like having the fuel oil on top of sea water because I had no idea they did that
Well I haven't been inside a tank but I have been inside the Drum. It's absolutely amazing to actually go inside & see what they put up with for freedom.
My time in the Navy got to go in several tanks, most recent was potable water tanks on KITTY HAWK under 3MMR and ballast and peak tank on NIMITZ. They all needed closed space access and deep access fall protection on NIMITZ
I was there for the USS Alabama and the USS drum spring of 2002 and I loved it. The only thing that was a little tough to deal with was the humidity.
Dude just found your channel. This is fantastic. You are hilarious in a strange way. We had a submarine Tour at OMSI in Portland that I was able to go to but I’ve never been in a ballast tank. Fascinating stuff.
Welcome aboard!
Great video.
My favorite WW2 era submarine.
I’m here at the drum now and watching your video about it
Yes, forward ballast tank to replace a transponder with the QM. After testing for flammable sand sufficient O2 we could enter. Had to coordinate with a diver who placed a WT fitting on the outside of the hull. One of the coolest jobs I did as a DC.
Crewman on the USS Ronquil, SS396 for several years, late 50's. In drydock at Hunters Point, SF and crawled up in side one of the ballast tanks and carved my name into one of the zinc bricks that were in there. Very tight quarters!
I don’t think I have enough space to talk about all the tanks I was in, but let’s try!!
USS NJ, condensers, oil storage tank, main reduction gears.
USS Roanoke, AOR-7, all cargo fuel tanks, stripping tanks.
IMF/SIMA Pear Harbor. I worked in the safety office, we did confine space entry for all the boats on the waterfront. So I have been in CHT, impulse, surge, ballast, sonar domes, every tank on the fast attack boats there.
What fun climbing around.
In the Sturgeon-class, nuclear attack sub USS Bergall, SSN-667, prior to reflooding the drydock toward the end of the sub's mid-life refueling overhaul at Mare Island: I took a self-guided tour of one of the forward, port Main Ballast Tanks (MBTs) while the massive gratings that normally guard the seawater flood ports were still removed. All fresh, white paint inside. The clean smell is mixed with the salt breeze and the oil and steel air of the shipyard. You start out on your back against the outer hull and click on your flashlight. Lying there, looking up, the inner hull ("the people tank") is in front of your face; there's a curving space of about two feet between the two, concentric surfaces. Within that two-foot envelope, it's easy to slide on your back along the smooth, new paint, upward, against the outer hull... at first. Soon, your head is well above your shoes and it rounds the outermost flank of the ship, halfway to the top. You're sandwiched between two, curving, mostly vertical walls, fifteen feet outboard of where your entered. You can turn your head forward and aft and see the flat, vertical, bulkheads to either side of you, perhaps ten feet apart, that divide your MBT from its adjacent tanks, but you cannot see around the curve of the inner hull, looking either up or down. It becomes very dark when you switch off the flashlight, very confining and a little alarming, especially since no one knows you're in here. But the muffled sounds of drydock work make their way through the hull to your hiding place, and a faint light is now discernible, above, so you plant the edges of the soles of your shoes against the two, parallel walls, and continue your scramble, upward.
In a few feet, what began as your ceiling is becoming a steep hill, and then, gradually a floor, so now you must turn over to put your back against the inner, pressure hull. You use the toes of your shoes to push on against the outer hull, and the faint light from above becomes somewhat more defined, though its source is still around the curving wall, out of sight above your head. Distinct taps and the voices of workmen are coming through the hull, above you. It's a little precarious, at first, as it would be easy to lose your footing here and drop between the two hulls, sliding onto your face as your feet bent toward the keel. Pressing on, however, it gets easier. You have climbed upward some thirty feet from where you entered, and you've become channeled now beneath the deck of the submarine, forward of her sail, with your back resting on the hull of the Bow Compartment. As you slide the last few feet to the top, your head moves up beside the Main Ballast Tank vent valve and its lever-like operating mechanism. The MBT vent is open. This is the source of the faint daylight that had guided the end of your climb. The flat, dish-like plate of the valve disk is retracted at a slant, beside you, withdrawn downward, into the MBT, perhaps open only a couple of inches at most along its forward edge. You can shift your torso and tilt your head around to look out through this slit at blue sky, the sail of the ship, and the scaffolding, above. Yard workers move about on the deck, unaware you are there, their boots walking just over your face. Their footfalls on the steel just in front of your nose are as loud as you might expect, but this is a marvelous spot from which to consider the vast progress made rebuilding your ship.
You take a moment to rest, mentally sketch the arrangement of the vent valve operating mechanism for your upcoming ship's quals, then breath deep and resign yourself to the slow, careful slide, back down to the keel, where you can reemerge from the flood port (a flash of anxiety: it IS still open, isn't it?), checking cautiously that no one has seen you....
.
I live in Mobile. This is awesome.
Just visited this museum last weekend it was great and this video peaked my interest as I really wanted to know more about the sub
I got to close out a main ballast tank in a 637 class submarine... entered through the vents at the top.. about 18" or so in diameter... but I was real skinny back then... crawled all the way down to the bottom where the belly band was keeping the water out... and back up on the other side of the boat... looked pretty similar to this video.. less rust though...
Correction, they did not run on fuel while submerged. They operated on batteries.
Correct and I don't think US fleet boats got Snorkel conversions until the Guppy modifications post WWII.
I have climbed around the inside of a tank. I climbed around in the ballast tanks of USS Stonewall Jackson (SSBN-634), a 627 class 41 for Freedom boat. During my five patrols onboard, we went into drydock twice where I was able to go inside the ballast tanks. I've also climbed around under the superstructure and inside the sail many times.
Hi Ryan: I was in the Navy 68-72 station in Charleston SC and Key West FL. I was a IM Instrumentman. (a disestablish rate now) On the tender AS-16 Howard W. Gilmore. We repair and calibrated mechanical instrument clocks, gauges, torque wrenches, typewriters and adding machines. On the old diesel boats all the tanks had gauges that measured the amount of what ever the tank held. The ballast tanks had a hydraulic system kind of like the float in a toilet tank. The ball on the end of a arm compress a bellows that moves another bellows in the gauge inside the ship. Since the ballast tanks ran all the way up the side of the boat there were many ball arm things in one tank 5 to 6. I spent a lot of time in ballast tanks and the worst were fuel tanks.
Yup in tanks... SSN 720, 754, 759, 770, 771, 772, 773 and SSN 776, 782, and 786. Good times...
We toured the Drum way back when it was still in the water.
Holy smokes, Ryan. Is every museum ship now contracting you out to do PR for them? I know you're good and all, but don't forget about your main squeeze. Poor old BB-62 is probably missing you!
I like how you do your presentations… very informative
Thank again for sending the info about the battle ships steam boilers/heating systems
I was wondering also the mechanics of a SubmarinesEnvironmental controls too
Crawling through ballet tanks prior to leaving drydock. What fun looking for empty pop cans that can rattle and welding rods and tools that can jam the vent valves. Always found trash.
Every tank I've ever climbed into required a "Hazardous Space Entry and Retrieval System" Mostly waste tanks, both manufacturing waste, and sewage tanks.
Yeah they should be careful going into rusty
Confined spaces due to lack of oxygen.
I am a Navy veteran and I been in a void and a tank in the service.I was fire watch in a shipyard.
I had a chance to tour her several times while she was still in the water. They had the periscope up and pointed towards down town Mobile. It was amazing to get photos through the scope. What struck me the strongest was how all the brass and copper hardware inside made her look like a work of art, which she is. One thing about a sub, you can't get lost, unlike the battleship which had me chasing my tail more than once. LOL If you get the chance and time to visit, make it an extended weekend and visit Pensacola NAS museum. It's just down the road along with Eglin air museum. Made a heck of a vacation for me and my then wife. Take care and God Bless, Paul from Florida.
Yes I got to climb inside a ballast tank on the research ship FLIP in San Diego. Very interesting how they flood and blow the tanks when in use.
Never been in a liquid tank, but I’ve had to hang off a ladder to put a light in a corn hopper.
Yes I have been in a tank. Standing fire watch on the USS Brunswick ATS-3 during a engine refit. Lots of fun let me tell you sitting in a tank with a fire extinguisher and a flashlight.
My goal when visiting an active duty or museum ship is to walk through shaft alley. Been on Drum twice since 1982 but never there Ryan! Cool stuff. Love the Fleet Boats!
Ryan: Have you ever gotten around to climb around inside of a tank?
The_Chieftan [Nicolas Moran]: Why, yes, I have!
I spent a of of time climbing around in tanks (and bilges) during my time at Avondale Shipyards. Don't miss it a it.
I got to tour the Drum today while on vacation. The inside was tight enough quarters for me. Couldn’t imagine climbing thru a hole or access into that tank.
I did some vibration measurements inside the aft fuel tank of an Egyptian strike craft (over the propellers) while doing 40kts, back in the early 80's. Rubber suit made it difficult to manoeuvre in and out.
Great view inside the sub, thanks as always, I've never been inside a ships tank but as a aviation maintenance mechanic I've visited many of their tanks, the ones your in our like small rooms! Lol. As we say don't ask don't tell! Because if I openly stated I have fuel tank / cell experience I'd be in them my whole career 😂
Visited the park while evacuated from Hurricane Ida.
Cool
5:30 Neat fact I wasn't aware of on the subs. Fuel//ballast would the same tank.
Went through the Drum in '15. They didn't design her for 6'1" 50 y.o.'s who like beer. The sail....I barely fit. Then I went next door to the air museum and got next to the A4. Talk about strapping a plane to your back.
Ryan....please tell me y'all videoed the PBR.
I'd half expect to be taking a tour aboard a museum ship and hear echoing from some chasm deep in the hull *Hi I'm Ryan Szimanski, Curator of Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial*
The way we travel around, you just might hear it
please do a video about the uss batfish, its here in muskogee and it is REALLY interesting. one of the best preserved examples of a balao class sub
It’s engines are named road runner and speedy gonzalez. Neat sub.
Fun Fact, there is still 1 Balao and 1 Tench class sub, still in active service in Taiwans navy renamed to Hai Shih (USS Tusk) and Hai Bao (USS Cutlass)
I so wished I could have come over the week you were down in Mobile, I live two hours away in North West Florida, but got stuck down with a terrible stomach bug that week. Hopefully, one day we can connect. Cheers, - Wright Sublette (87-91 GMG2, USS Austin LPD-4)
Climbed around in the steam drum of a 600PSI boiler. Never actually went into one of 1500PSI ones, though.
Glad to see your in my neck of the woods I have been watching your vids for a while now and wondering if you would ever visit alabama I live in mobile so I have been going there all my life she is not the size of a iowa class but she is still a treasure trove mainly because she is still in her ww2 configuration and the drum I remember when she was still in the water near the fantail of mighty A hope you enjoyed your visit to our pride and joy here in the Port city and oddly enuff me and the alabama both have the same birthday she was christened August 16 42 and I was born same day in 83 fitting for me I would always go aboard on our birthday 🎂 oh the memories would love to see one of the iowas tho that would be a dream come true don't think I ever will would definitely be a amazing experience to see the successors to the alabama
You should see what you have to do to inspect a tank that holds radioactive water. That’s fun - said no one. I remember them briefing us and telling us to remove the plastic bubble around our head if we lost the air supply or we would suffocate.
Not Naval fuel tanks but, I've spent time in the dry bays and fuel tanks... drained and purged of course, of a C-5 Galaxy when I was in the USAF.
Ever make it up to Battleship Cove in Fall River MA Ryan? The Alabama's sister ship Massachusetts is there with the Lionfish, a Balao class sub.
Things I learned today:
1) A submarine is a hot dog.
2) Everyone lives in the meat of the hot dog.
3) The end
My dad would drop us into the chambers of the septic tank after the honey truck would clean it out so we could scoop out residual mulch and had to fix the transfer pipes. This sounds Dickensian as I read this aloud ha ha. Dads.
They did that to the u 505 until they were replacing so much. They built the museum around it.
Can you do a video on the USS Batfish in Oklahoma. I am not sure if the boat is reopen yet. There is nothing more surreal then seeing a WW2 submarine in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
I got to sleep on one of the Drum's sister ships, the Silversides, through Boyscouts
Crawled around a DC10 fuel tank!