USS Hornet blog

[tbm3fan]

Last Wednesday the 7th what do I see when looking up from my car? The gun is now in place.

[tbm3fan]

Awhile back the Lexington covered her entire flight deck with asphalt and it seems people on the Hornet were well aware. Our Chief Engineer (30 years Navy) couldn't understand why that was done. Our machinist couldn't understand why it was done since asphalt and steel don't expand and contract at the same rate. Much less is it water proof. So last week during the rains the Chief Engineer took me down to look at our critical points under the flight deck - the expansion joints. He shows me these boxes that the Navy used to collect water from drain pipes above and dispersed ti to another drain pipe. I asked but he had no idea why the Navy did that since these boxes accumulated debris over the years. For our ship that is 28 years worth so naturally corrosion set in and we get leaks every winter. The pictures show a box, the passage way under the mid-ship joint and the sheet metal trays built to catch all the water leaking from the drain the entire length of the joint.

[SlaterDoc]

He shows me these boxes that the Navy used to collect water from drain pipes above and dispersed ti to another drain pipe. I asked but he had no idea why the Navy did that since these boxes accumulated debris over the years. For our ship that is 28 years worth so naturally corrosion set in and we get leaks every winter. The pictures show a box, the passage way under the mid-ship joint and the sheet metal trays built to catch all the water leaking from the drain the entire length of the joint.

tbm-
It brings to mind two things! The copper shower trays installed under the shower floor as a secondary measure and the drip trays one finds in refrigerators. They would seemed to me (not an engineer) that they would be a cheap and lightweight solution to a more hazardous condition like a slippery and wet deck in the passageway. Especially when one considers that the drains may include some assortment of fuel and lube residuals! One thing that is easily (for most) and cheaply repaired is lightweight sheet metal. Plus, it may be the "debris" that was caught that was an intended result. Being able to have an idea of what kind of debris is making it to the flight deck is a possible important piece of info. Me thinks they were meant to be inspected and maintained on a regular basis and not meant to go that many years unattended.

[tbm3fan]

Today, when I got on board, I stopped at the flight deck to say hi to the Wednesday docent crew like always. There was a new face there who was a docent in training. The really interesting thing about the guy is that he was an officer in the Vietnamese Air Force during Vietnam and flew Chinooks. Got out on a fishing boat when it all fell and made his way to the U.S. eventually. Naturally settled in San Jose and opened a furniture store, then had six furniture stores plus a manufacturing plant for furniture. After many years of that he went into real estate, retired awhile ago and moved to Alameda. Didn't get the chance to ask him why he volunteered to be a docent on the Hornet. So now we have two Vietnam veterans who flew helos, one US Army and the other this new docent, and neither any connection to the Navy.

[tbm3fan]

Video of the vintage aircraft flyover from Veteran's Day/Neil Armstrong Memorial Day.

[tbm3fan]

One more as the C-47 performed two flyovers. Alameda and Santa Barbara. Didn't know there were that many YAKs in the U.S.

[tbm3fan]

Our USS Oriskany anchor on the pier.

[tbm3fan]

With the rain and standing water had to move inside and got the chance to start the painting of the inside of O10. First the overhead.

[Navy2000]

I would love to build a model of this ship in 1/96 scale. I have not had any luck in finding the correct info for that of the hull with the blisters that were added. I would need a good set of hull lines or many of the actual hull frame cross sections. If any knows of any info out there please let me know. I have even checked out Floating Dry Docks site with no luck. All the drawings show the original hull design.

Duane

[tbm3fan]

Ok, here is what I know about plans to the ship. We do have a log room stacked full with blueprints of the ship. In talking with Tom, 10 minutes ago, I find that we are missing all blueprints that deal with the hull. Those were the first ones he looked for in 1996. We have systems blueprints, machinery blue prints, compartment blueprints, et al but nothing on the hull.

[Navy2000]

Thanks for the info. I do have some plans that show each deck level for the Yorktown. I guess I will have to scale them out along with the original hull lines and make marks on the cross sections to make a new set of frames from.

Duane

[qaz14595]

While this is not about the Hornet....This is in relation to another Museum Carrier - Just though this persons story/first hand account is just too great not to share! ;)

[tbm3fan]

Suisun, 12/04/12

We immediately head for the USS HOLLAND as she is known to have steel plate that we now need. The plates are 1/4" thick and measure 5 x 10 feet each. May only need two but Tom thinks big so we get four. They are hidden between three steel cage fences, welded of course, and then a steel column so that we have only 6 inches of access. Needed the chain hoist just to slide them out since they could not be budged.

Once four were out we then pondered how to move them from Deck 4 to Deck 2. The hatch was only 9 feet wide so we had to pull up from an end which luckily had holes cut. They just reached the 2nd deck, by 1 inch to spare, to be tipped over and switched out to another chain hoist. This hoist moved them to the machine shop just aft. Again, we had 1 hoist, and so the second hoist was pulled from Periscope Repair on Deck 1. One at the hatch to the aft machine shop we transferred the plate to a third hoist that we moved around on the overhead tracks.

Ten trips and all the plate and the stainless steel rod were aft for pickup later through the top of the ship. The first plate took 1 1/2 hours to get up while the other three took 20 minutes each as we were getting good.

[tbm3fan]

Lift continued

[tbm3fan]

Next two and the batteries were fading in the camera. Gives you an idea of dark. Last photo is of the stainless steel rods which were 4-5 feet long and either 3" or 5" in diameter.