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Say, Rusty, I thought and you thought at the time that the starboard anchor was up on the deck when she docked at Benicia? On one of the overhead videos I didn't see an anchor anywhere up front. Did I miss seeing it there or is it elsewhere?
I found it strange also. However, asking around I discovered that the anchors were to be lifted by MARAD's floating crane they had moored alongside the ship for the past year or so.
The anchors were also held down in place with two other anchors placed there by MARAD. So they had to use the floating crane to pick them up. Everything went fine until it was time to raise the starboad anchor.
Murphy's First Law: "If there is ANYTHING that could POSSIBLY go wrong -- it WILL".
The crane broke down.
So the nearest detachable link on the anchor chain had to be taken out so our anchor is still up there in Siusun Bay. But don't worry, we will still get it back.
If I may reask my question....do they exercise the 5"/38 and 16" turrets so they don't freeze or are they left to their own devices?
As Dreadnought said complicated and expensive. While I am sure a 16" turret maybe a bit more complicated that an aircraft elevator I would imagine they cost the same. Our machinery may need to be rebuilt once in awhile as far as seals are concerned. Our biggest issue is the parts of the elevators that are exposed to the environment. When Elevator #2 dropped 5 feet all by itself one day we saw that the tracks had expanded out due to rust behind them. Tom actually removed the tracks after drilling out many of the large rusted bolts holding them in place to clean everything up and insert new bolts. What an undertaking but he did it. Elevator #3 has to be lifted off and placed into it's proper position after some welds done in an earlier time are removed. Then all the cables have to be replaced. When that happens we will have all 3 elevators operational. The power to run these motors does spike our power bill every month we use these elevators. The ship's electrician is always harping on that aspect.
Im thinking one reason as to why they are being sunk instead of being scrapped is so others "eyes" cannot see how and where they are protected although they are of older building concepts. With how fast pics travel the net of things like this its good safe practice. The other is that they do make a great artificial reef once they are stripped and emptied..
I agree with you, but I thought there were RFPs out for breaking up the Saratoga and others. The only safe way to break them up would be to have the Navy directly supervise the process.
I knew it was a little more difficult than cranking a traversing wheel on an M1, M2....or an M41!
I like the new avatar as well.
The funny thing is that when her Main Battery FC system was woke up a few months ago after being dormant since 1991 it wanted to start transmitting those gunnery orders to the equipment from her last FC solution from what I understand. Talk about a good memory from a computer that is analog cams and gears. I think even Steven Jobs (RIP) would have been impressed with that kind of memory almost 70 years old.
I found it strange also. However, asking around I discovered that the anchors were to be lifted by MARAD's floating crane they had moored alongside the ship for the past year or so.
The anchors were also held down in place with two other anchors placed there by MARAD. So they had to use the floating crane to pick them up. Everything went fine until it was time to raise the starboad anchor.
Murphy's First Law: "If there is ANYTHING that could POSSIBLY go wrong -- it WILL".
The crane broke down.
So the nearest detachable link on the anchor chain had to be taken out so our anchor is still up there in Siusun Bay. But don't worry, we will still get it back.
Someday.
Of course! We talked about it a little on the pier in Benicia. Tom told me about the trouble with a brake on the crane but didn't tell the the time frame involved. So it is still sitting in the mud???
Actually I believe the anchor windlass was working if I recall correctly what Dick told me. The port anchor was lifted one or two weeks ago before the move. Once again if I heard correctly. Both anchors were in the water and both anchors had other anchors attached to them to string out the line down the bay. I would imagine you would need to raise the other anchor attached to the Iowa's anchor in order to free it from the line and then use the anchor windlass. That crane has off and on problems over the years so it is quite possible it had equipment issues right after doing the disconnect on the port side.
Soooo the Starboard side anchor was cut loose at a connecting link and is still there? Hmmmm so much for the towing plan.
Dick, so Im assuming that you didnt have anchor windlass up and running prior?
If we still had 440 VAC feeding to the windlasses, they would work just fine. Thanks to another board member who dug up a spare manual from the Wisconsin. But once you break loose from the shore power, then you're literally lifeless unless you have a pretty good size diesel generator bolted down to the deck.
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