On ships? Or On ships?? As in Ship yard???
Back in my Navy days one of the commands I was stationed at was SRF Guam aboard the AFDM-8 a medium class floating dry dock.... We primarily docked nuclear subs.... Typically one every 4-6 weeks...
Who Likes Ships? We Have Aircraft and Trains.
- Thread starter mrhemi
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Back in my Navy days one of the commands I was stationed at was SRF Guam aboard the AFDM-8 a medium class floating dry dock.... We primarily docked nuclear subs.... Typically one every 4-6 weeks...
Nutso
Well-Known Member
We were in the shipyard in those photos but I am a marine engineer.
Frank Mopar
Well-Known Member
I work on ships!
Very cool!
I used to haul steel out of the Bethlehem Steel shipyard in Sparrows Pt, Md
Always amazed the size of the various ships under construction at the dry dock.
3sloppydogs
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Sparrows point kept Baltimore alive, it's long gone and everything that it brought economically. Everyone knew or still knows someone that worked there. It would be a different city if it was still there.
Nutso
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There are only a few shipyards left equipped properly and large enough to build 900+ foot ships. The one in Philly (can’t remember the new name -Kvarner?) and NASSCO in San Diego. There were a few in Louisiana but I think they’re closed now. We go to Korea…they have beautiful shipyards.
67 Mopar
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Here on the East Coast we had, and still have, the Shippingport ARDM-4 located at Subase NLON.
I took this shot a good many years ago... YES, I had a Camera Pass for the Base as it often pertained to my job.
themechanic
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Beautiful... A dock that actually gets maintained.... The dock I was on was decommissioned in 1947... But Was still in constant use... Decommissioned simply means they quit spending money to maintain it... 30+ years with little maintenance meant the wing walls were so rusty you could literally poke holes in it by flicking away rust with your bare fingers....
There were coffer dams patching both wing walls....
There were four generators which mostly weren't used because the dock was supplied with shore power but we were required to run them once a month as part of PM's... During testing the exhaust temps varied by as much as 1200 degrees.... I filled out reports about needed maintenance but with no money..... So then we had to dock the USS Foster a DDG much bigger than a boomer & much more power required..The DDG took all the shore power, none left to power the dry dock... At the bare minimum we needed to keep the pumps running to supply cooling water to the ship...Three out of the four generators failed.... We were putting in long hours trying to patch up generators to get them back on line... Lots more to the story but I' sure y'all get the idea...
67 Mopar
Well-Known Member
Yes, the vessel is very well maintained, or at least it was the last time I saw it.
When the Navy first asked me to take a look at it, it was in pretty much in the same condition you described. About the only thing that worked on that vessel were the absolute essentials, the bare minimum required to get the job done. Hundreds upon hundreds of valves and only 10 or so that were operable, and many missing altogether. Numerous electrical systems wired incorrectly. You could flip one switch on an alarm panel and set off alarms all over the vessel. Even the dumb stuff like basic lighting systems were all hosed up.
PMS is bad word to a Sailor, as it relates to work, and that's a Four Letter Word. It's a wonder they could even keep it afloat.
I went over there with a small group of officers, a Commander, Lieutenants & Lieutenant Commander, etc. to get the vessel back into shape. There were initially just 6 of us in total, and I was the Token civilian. We took command of the vessel and began righting all the wrongs. There were no ranks or divisions during that period, everyone worked, everyone lent a hand where needed or asked. It was a team effort. I wrote most of the EDOP's, Isolation Guides, PMS cards, etc.... Drew up a new "correct" set of diagrams for the vessels Mechanical & Electrical systems. Made design changes to a number of the systems on the vessel, mechanical and electrical. I could go on all day here...
I classified myself as a Service Engineer because unlike most college educated engineers, I design it, I build it, I test it, I install it, I maintain it, and I write the owners operating instruction manual for it, complete with the replacement parts list. I also rewrote a number of Vendor Furnished equipment manuals as well. I remember being down in SC one afternoon overseeing the load testing of a vessels Capstans. One capstan kept slipping when braking, so I informed them that they had not assembled the braking system incorrectly, and where the problem was. The Capstan manufacturers rep insisted that I was wrong, he had assembled the unit himself. The rep then broke out the companies tech manual for that piece of equipment to show me how I was wrong. At which point, the crew members performing the test began to quietly giggle. The vendor rep wanted to know what they were laughing at, when one of them spoke up and said... He wrote that tech manual for your company. He disassembled the unit and found the problem right where I said it would be.
I enjoyed working for the Navy in those days, especially during that time period. I still keep in touch from time to time. I considered it an honor the day the Navy asked me to come down out of the mountains to witness the docking of the Historic Ship USS Nautilus. That was a truly historic event...
Coincidentally, the wood I used to build the Shadowbox that holds a few of my retirement items, was salvaged from the old wooden top deck of the USS Nautilus. Shipyard workers involved in the refurbishment of the vessel saved some of the original wooden decking and delivered it to me.
When the Navy first asked me to take a look at it, it was in pretty much in the same condition you described. About the only thing that worked on that vessel were the absolute essentials, the bare minimum required to get the job done. Hundreds upon hundreds of valves and only 10 or so that were operable, and many missing altogether. Numerous electrical systems wired incorrectly. You could flip one switch on an alarm panel and set off alarms all over the vessel. Even the dumb stuff like basic lighting systems were all hosed up.
PMS is bad word to a Sailor, as it relates to work, and that's a Four Letter Word. It's a wonder they could even keep it afloat.
I went over there with a small group of officers, a Commander, Lieutenants & Lieutenant Commander, etc. to get the vessel back into shape. There were initially just 6 of us in total, and I was the Token civilian. We took command of the vessel and began righting all the wrongs. There were no ranks or divisions during that period, everyone worked, everyone lent a hand where needed or asked. It was a team effort. I wrote most of the EDOP's, Isolation Guides, PMS cards, etc.... Drew up a new "correct" set of diagrams for the vessels Mechanical & Electrical systems. Made design changes to a number of the systems on the vessel, mechanical and electrical. I could go on all day here...
I classified myself as a Service Engineer because unlike most college educated engineers, I design it, I build it, I test it, I install it, I maintain it, and I write the owners operating instruction manual for it, complete with the replacement parts list. I also rewrote a number of Vendor Furnished equipment manuals as well. I remember being down in SC one afternoon overseeing the load testing of a vessels Capstans. One capstan kept slipping when braking, so I informed them that they had not assembled the braking system incorrectly, and where the problem was. The Capstan manufacturers rep insisted that I was wrong, he had assembled the unit himself. The rep then broke out the companies tech manual for that piece of equipment to show me how I was wrong. At which point, the crew members performing the test began to quietly giggle. The vendor rep wanted to know what they were laughing at, when one of them spoke up and said... He wrote that tech manual for your company. He disassembled the unit and found the problem right where I said it would be.
I enjoyed working for the Navy in those days, especially during that time period. I still keep in touch from time to time. I considered it an honor the day the Navy asked me to come down out of the mountains to witness the docking of the Historic Ship USS Nautilus. That was a truly historic event...
Coincidentally, the wood I used to build the Shadowbox that holds a few of my retirement items, was salvaged from the old wooden top deck of the USS Nautilus. Shipyard workers involved in the refurbishment of the vessel saved some of the original wooden decking and delivered it to me.
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Nutso
Well-Known Member
That’s really cool. The drydock that just hauled us out was pretty rusty because of the salt water service but the speed which we came up was impressive. They had four large generators to power the pumps…we popped out of the water like a cork!
As an operating engineer I sometimes have a bone to pick with design engineers that never have to operate, maintain, or repair their equipment. Sometimes it is incredibly difficult to work on, it’s too small, or it’s operating much to close to the limits of the materials used to build it. I have rewired equipment and updated drawings because the equipment didn’t operate properly…but I haven’t had to make too many drawings from scratch. Pretty cool!
