So...after my first 2 workdays aboard the ship, is it possible to do such a good write up as our very own Tourmaster can do. I doubt it, but I'll do what I can. So we start with driving into the parking lot at Gulf Copper. You look to your right and you see her.
We start with a short meeting to hear what has recently happened and what is the plan for the day. The big project, is getting lighting back down in the engine rooms. A couple of very specialized volunteer electricians are working on this project. One of them is holding some parts to a 1940's era rotary switch, which parts are still available for. Hem mentions how he is finding hundreds of screw terminals with the ends of the wore just bent around them and the order of 500 rings to be put on the ends soon. Everything they do here is in big numbers. if you go watch Saturdays video, Travis will take you through a walk through of this. Then he talks about as soon as they can be once, which is getting close, a big asbestos abatement project that come next. Code says to open the area back to the public, it all has to be removed. Then it's onto the carts for a walk up the plank.
O f course I'm going to make a walk all around the ship before i get to my task for the day, which was rolling down an final epoxy coat, in preparation for the wood decking crew getting close to being in this area. The process is starting at the bow, then working their way down the port side, then up the starboard side. You'll find lots of piles of sawdust form the work. As we were leaving Saturday, we all made a pass around the perimeter of the ship to make sure none of it could potentially clog the deck drains.
There's just nothing like making your way to the bow, then turning around to see the big guns.
The chains for the anchors are huge, it takes lot of power to handle them
Now it was time to get busy. Paul, my crew leader for the weekend, was such an amazing guy. He lives 14 blocks fro the ship so he's available any time to help and has become quite the expert on just about everything. he loves showing off the ship, so any time a topic comes up about something, he'll say sure, let me show you.
The final prep for the steel deck is an epoxy coating. There are several pieces tot he new deck, and the final barrier is this coating. it was fun to forever know that I applied this coating to the very tail of the main deck. It will be a long time until someone see;s my work again, after the wood crew makes their way here. I kinda selfishly made dern sure that I was they guy to get to roll this down.
In the video again Travis made a shutout to my crew, which was me, Paul, and a guy that somehow got himself covered int his epoxy paint. I don't know how. I didn't even use gloves and I walked away clean. We painted all the way up to the plank to get o the ship, more than what was scheduled to do.
At the end of Friday, our conversation turn to, wasn't the ship hit with a shell? The answer was yes, twice. The first one exploded and killed one sailor, and injured several others. the second shell hit the water first, then bounced onto the ship, and did not explode. The crew was able to defuse it and put it on a makeshift display, then when the ship was open for tours, the shell was set out for viewing. Right now it's tucked away inside the captains chamber. For some reason, I like to get a picture with my hand on things, to say, yep, I touched it.
The captains quarters were mostly intact. The furnishings are metal, painted to look like wood. A good cleaning and this room will be ready for display again.
Inside the captains room, when the parks department was operating the ship, they cut a large hole in the wall as a window to look in. They weren't really doing a good job of managing the ship, in doing things like this. On the inside of the wall, which they cut away, they almost destroyed a map that is a hnd painting of all the places the ship has been. This map was discovered while in dry dock, and conversation work began. The missing piece was recreated and the remaining is coated to preserve it, and will be a part of an inspection process to monitor it[s condition.
The parks department also took over the admirals cabin as their office, and pretty much removed everything except the ships plaque and a poster. Both have never been displayed to the public.
My second day, we had completed all possible deck coating, so we walked around and sealed all of the open sounding tubes, in preparation for Saturdays rain. These are conduits that stub up into each gun tub, to a speaker. The operator of the gun director will shout orders as to where to aim the guns and when to fire.
***I'll be continuing this after meeting***
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