Texas & Olympia.

This is coolbert:

Help!! SOS! Our ship is sinking!!

American warships now museum pieces, historical memorials while moored at the dock taking on water and sinking. Monuments that someday will be gone if not remedial and perhaps even drastic action taken!

First thanks to National Public Radio [NPR]:

"Rag Saves USS Texas From Sinking"

 "The battleship USS Texas, which is now a museum, nearly sank at its permanent berth in the Houston Ship Channel. A rag and a backup pump saved the Texas. A pump in the steering compartment had burnt out. A rag was used to stop the leak and more than 100,000 gallons of water were pumped from the battleship."

The USS Texas sinking at dock, the ship having sprung a leak an essential pump having failed, the vessels only saved by bailing out the flooded compartments, ship saved but with complications for the future that cannot be ignored.

The U.S. Navy, having drained the fuel oil from the ship but NOT HAVING CLEANED THOSE COMPARTMENTS OF RESIDUE LEFT A MESS PRECLUDING THE DUMPING OF MINUSCULE AMOUNTS BUT NONETHELESS TAINTED OIL INTO THE HOUSTON SHIP CHANNEL.

And too from the PreservationNation web site the saga of the USS Olympia continues. That flag ship of Commodore Dewey of Manila Bay fame, again dock but in unworthy condition, expedient repairs made repeatedly, much more drastic steps and measures needed and QUICK!

"USS Olympia Remains Afloat, but Repairs are Needed"

"In her nearly 120 years of existence, USS Olympia has shown herself to be a resilient survivor. Today, the world’s oldest steel-hulled warship afloat remains afloat."

Olympia, sitting at dock for some time now, also a museum piece of dire repair, the ship having undergone a series of expedient repairs that work to a degree but solving the problem ONLY IN THE INTERIM!

Both with the Texas and Olympia those warships for some time now having sprung a multitude of leaks and suffering damage at the waterline and below, rust damage from sea water and just plain aging of the steel the culprit. 

Texas and Olympia both steel hulled warships, the former from the Dreadnought era and the latter from the pre-Dreadnought era, BOTH in need of DRASTIC work and rehabilitation, mother nature using the elements of salt water and exposure for a prolonged period to do terrible damage the enemy during war could not do.

MOSTLY if not almost totally exclusively that steel below and at the water line slowly but surely rusting away, steel as strong as it is not impervious to oxidation, rusting, deterioration of a major nature occurring with rapidity unless constant maintenance and repair the norm.

Indeed, modern warships since the pre-Dreadnought era, those steel hulled warships needed to be placed into a dry dock, the hull scrapped and re-painted  periodically or the life expectancy of the warship greatly reduced.

Normally even during peacetime the fleet of a nation a goodly percentage of the inventory in dry dock or port undergoing in some manner repair, re-fitting, periodic and scheduled maintenance, the crew in port enjoying dwell time but often even when not sailing involved in laborious and very dirty PM [preventative maintenance].

What exactly that percentage of ships not on the seas at any given moment I am not aware of. Routine maintenance and overhaul incapacitates a quarter [?], a third [?], a half [?] of the naval inventory? This I am not sure of.

Please be aware of that all man-made objects made of steel are subject to rapid deterioration unless properly maintained. Given several thousands of years and even the most ponderous of items made of steel will degenerate rather quickly when compared to other metals and become a pile of rust and iron powder. Just is a fact. Make those ships of brass and they will last a billion years or so, but not steel!

Lots of money needed and quick to keep both the Texas and Olympia afloat and where is all this going to come from?

coolbert.