This page is a collection of blog posts that were created during the 2016 drydocking of Pampanito. The posts have only had minimal editing and are meant to show the evolution 2016 drydocking, not to replace a formal report. The dates below the posting and photos are when posted and are usually the same or next day after they were taken.
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Saturday, November 12, 2016, Return to Pier 45
Thanks to the the incredible crew of Manson Construction, with help from Westar Marine Services, Pampanito is safely back at Pier 45. Pampanito has a really challenging mooring system. Re-installation of the anchor chains requires a well trained crew and we feel very fortunate that Manson Construction donated this really difficult work. Manson Einer crane barge mobilized at 7:00 and was shortly after at Pier 45. They first pulled our anchor chains up to the connection ring for inspection. Everything looked good so the chains were laid back down into the mud without resetting the anchors. At Bay Ship and Yacht, there were some delays in moving DD-1 with Pampanito outboard of HMB-1 because of traffic in the Oakland estuary. This had consequences later when Manson was reinstalling the anchor chains later in the day when there is more swell (waves.) It also made for a very long day as they did not finish until 5:00 PM or so.
While the barge was in place, we installed our recently restored Bofors 40mm gun. It will take several busy days of hard work to prepare the boat for visitors. However all the high risk evolutions are completed.
My last post from the drydock. Aaron Washington and the crew will ride Pampanito home tomorrow. Manson and Wester will get her to Pier 45 and safely back into her mooring chains. Today is Veterans day. Our Association's mission is bring maritime history to life. I have always felt that Pampanito does two things really well, she honors the men and women that serve, and she sends a distinctly anti-war message. She does this by facilitating empathy for her sailors. The more accurate our restoration and interpretation, the easier it is for our visitors to understand the true cost of war to her sailors, their families and the country that supported them. Of course this is in the context of WW II which reminds us why we still need the very best sailors, submarines, and leaders to use them wisely.
The crew from Autodesk Recap, and 3D Robotics brought a collection of world class equipment from Topcon, Leica and 3D Robotics and spent our last day in drydock scanning and photographing the hull. They had to work around the moving shipyard crew, climb ladders with heavy $80K scanners, and dodge curious birds while flying. If all the collection went as well as they think, the Recap software will merge the laser scans with the photography to create an accurate 3 dimensional model of the submarine.
The yard is full of characters. I have posted some cool shots of the welders and riggers, but there are painters, production support, crane operators, PIC (oil, water), safety, admin, etc. that all have to work together to get the job done. We were well served by a great crew.
Master Chief (ret) Charlie Butcher came in his Navy uniform this morning. It would be really hard to overstate how important his help has been to this drydocking's success. Charlie retired from the US Navy as a Master Chief after 30 years of service in nuclear submarines and special warfare. In service, he was legendary for being able to fix almost anything, esp. diesel engines. He currently works for Manson Construction as their West Coast Equipment Manager. In this role he has managed many millions of dollars worth of drydocking services. Charlie embodies the best of Navy Chiefs, a leader, teacher, technical expert and mentor to those lucky enough to work with him. I had trouble with the photos. There also were a lot of photos of the top of his head when squeezed into some tiny space. In addition, other than when in front of the camera he always has a big smile on his face.
It seems a good time to thank Aaron Washington, our ships manager for an outstanding job managing this drydocking. He has remained unfailingly cheerful in the face of 4:00 AM wakeup calls, 16-18 hour days, managing operations at both the yard and Pier 45, coordinating with a dozen outside organizations, etc. He has the full responsibility and authority for budget, quality, and safety on this complex project. It has been incredibly well done. We will have more to say about the budget, etc. once back at the pier.
The yard will have a swing shift working late tonight. Painting, aft torpedo tube door gaskets, housing the bow planes, demobilization of lifts and scaffolding tomorrow, but we are getting close. There will be a lot of activity at Pier 45 preparing the mooring lines, etc.
As described in an earlier post the newly designed and built torpedo tube gaskets are too hard. This made us nervous about the seal. To mitigate the risk, we glued a soft, flat, 1/8" gasket onto the face of the gasket. We also put a bead of sealant around the bronze (not on the rubber) before the final close of the door, and the shutter doors are bolted. The gasket alone probably would have sealed, but with the additional measures we feel good about staying dry for the next 7 years. Of course we keep the inner shutter doors below the water line, tube drains and vents shut at the pier.
All 6 forward are sealed today. I should also point out that the cheery bearded wonder in the torpedo tube is Craig Williams, Bay Ship and Yachts project manager for this drydocking. Craig wanted to glue the first gasket. Craig has been a critical part of the success of this drydocking. Completely unflappable, always prepared, knowledgeable, quick to learn, professional. We feel really lucky that he was assigned to our project.
The aft torpedo shutter doors are reinstalled. Note two pad eyes that have been left on the doors. This is non-historic, but reversible. Our thinking is to leave them on to avoid grinding them off and re-welding new ones on in the future. They are ugly and non-historic, but documented and will avoid damaging the metal in the historic fabric of the shutter door by reheating multiple drydockings. The second photo shows the new door locking mechanism that will avoid the same type of heating. A 1" bolt will go through the two holes, when tightened it locks the torpedo tube door closed and applies a small but consistent pressure on the torpedo tube door. Notice that they have also re-painted the draft marks.
The shipyard finished re-installing the forward torpedo tube shutter doors, and the new gaskets aft. They have also been working on the 40 mm gun foundation where we removed our old gun while Pampanito unmoored, and plan on installing our newly restored 40mm Bofors gun when re-moored. They continue to work on the hand painting.
Gary and Dylan from Pampanito's crew continue to paint inside the boat. In case the Ships Manager did not have enough to take care of on the boat in drydock, please remember that we have 24 hour operations continuing at Pier 45, annual budgets, startup issues at the triangle space, meetings, etc. The Port of San Francisco has been making good progress on repairing the cleats and bollards that hold Pampanito, and has restarted work on face piles. Both are critical to the safety of the boat/crew/visitors and we are really grateful to have the work moving along. Also at the pier, we replaced the receptacle that supplies Pampanito's shore power (480 3P 100amps). The new Metric DSN150 is a big safety upgrade. The crew has finished painting all the bunk frames from crew's berthing in after battery. They have also painted the pier side visitor handrail stanchions, ticket booth, etc. A new surface has been applied to the floor in the triangle space. In the midst of all that, we had the delivery of our restored Bridgeport mill, and new Buffalo Machine Inc. drill press. Both required borrowing a forklift, unloading, etc. These are the last big pieces of a year long project to build our first machine shop capability.
There was a lot going on in the yard this morning. They are re-installing the forward torpedo shutter doors, and replacing the gaskets in the aft torpedo tubes. The sacrificial zincs have been installed.
One of our other goals for quite a while was to create non-historic, long, strong backs for the torpedo rooms to allow shifting of the torpedo loading trays (also known as torpedo skids). This required modifying the non-historic ladders that lead into the torpedo rooms. A description of the problem and solutions is at strongback project notes. Today we lifted the ladder, and shifted the torpedoes to port for the first time. If all goes well we will move them all on Thu. after cleaning and maybe some painting on starboard. We also took the opportunity to rotate the bottom outboard starboard torpedo that had been loaded upside down to its correct orientation.
The yard completed installing the 6 new gaskets in the forward torpedo tube nest. We chalk tested the new gaskets this morning and were not satisfied that there was a consistent seal the way it worked on the #1 tube. We are considering several possibilities why:
- The gaskets were specified at 50 Shore A (a measure of how hard the rubber is), however they arrived at 85 Shore A (much harder than they should be.) - The face of the torpedo tube, or the doors might not be as flat as they should be. - The gasket may have been stretched and bunched while installing. - The gasket design might not have been tall enough. We are not sure which, and do not have enough time left in drydock to test. So in the interest of safety, we are going to make a 1/16" thick flat gasket and glue it to the top of the new gasket, and we will add a bead of silicone outside of the gasket (not on the rubber,) and we have change the design of our safety tabs on the outer door so they will keep pressure on the door with a bolt. We will have more photos after we complete the extra top gasket and glue them in.
It is interesting that the drydock Pampanito is in was also built during WW II (Aug 1944). With a review of secondary sources (caveat emptor), it seems that it was built up river from Norfolk, VA and probably was towed directly to Alemeda, CA. It was operated at the leased Hurley Marine Works site by the government as the Naval Industrial Reserve Repair Facility on the Oakland side of the estuary from 1944-1951. From 1951-1991 Crowley Maritime Corp. operated the site leasing the facilities including the drydock. The drydock is now owned by the National Park Service and is leased to Bay Ship and Yacht about 1/2 mile from the WW II site at its Alemeda island location.
It is remarkable that the drydock is largely unchanged from WW II except for the removal of equipment and the replacement of the mobile crane. She has been in pretty much continuous operation for 75 years. Remnants of the original crews galley, heads, showers, berthing, refrigerator, heating, ventilation, etc for 89 men are still in the wing walls. The diesel generators are gone, but the large foundations are still in place. The original pumps are in use, but with most of the motors replaced. The 40 mm Bofors gun tubs, and second mobile crane are gone. The boom crane in the enclosed photo of another ARDC is stored in one of the wing walls.
Some web links with information about this class of drydocks: John Hassna, Dockmaster provided an incredible tour of the drydock top to bottom. He has worked on this drydock for his pretty much his entire adult life. We shared stories from Pampanito's 1999 drydock when there was a casualty aboard the drydock while undocking. I was aboard Pampanito scrambling to throw off lines while he was in the wing walls doing damage control and rescuing the dock.
The sacrificial zincs anodes will protect the coatings until they wear out. The ones outside the hull are bolt on, and in theory can be replaced by divers at the pier. The ones inside the free flood superstructure are welded.
Painting continued, but now with rollers and brushes instead of spray.
The shipyard crew finished the last of the big sand blasting and painting. So today the painting crew demobilized the containment tarps. It was like a breath of fresh air. They were doing small welding projects and hand painting. Next week they will complete the painting.
Charlie Butcher opened the forward torpedo tube doors and the shipyard crew removed the old torpedo tube gaskets and cleaned the machined surfaces on the tubes. We do not know when the gasket retaining rings were last removed, but is has not been done in the museum period. It has probably been 50 years. With LST penetrating oil and careful work by the machinist they got all the screws and rings out without damaging the rings. There is still a lot of work to finish before we undock on 12 Nov.
More cleaning under the superstructure preparing for paint in the afternoon. The area around the engine exhausts and mufflers is really tight so cleaning and painting is hard work. The yard is tasked with painting from the tank and hull top plus 18". The coatings above 18" should be a high priority when we get back to the pier. I am including a couple of photos of the completed paint on the bottom.
The shipyard crew spent the day prepping for painting the top of the hull under the superstructure. The only photos would have been of them crawling in too small portable plates (covered holes in the deck.)
Enclosed are photos of some of the lacy material removed from the four torpedo tube outer doors that were repaired, and photos of the completed torpedo shutter doors in their painting area. With Bill Doll's help, we finished re-installing the newly created visitor proofing on the Mk 18 torpedo electric torpedo.
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