Fleet submarine drawings

[pekelney]

Folks,

I have added drawings to the collection on the Pampanito web site.
http://maritime.org/tech/drawings/index.htm

If you have not looked at this in a while, you will find many interesting drawings that could help in some of your projects.

rich

[pekelney]

We added more drawings, now over 400 drawings.

[Mark Sarsfield]

Thanks, Rich.  I was glancing over the plumbing drawings and was hoping to see a San. Tank #2 access, but I didn't see any.  There has to be some way to get into the hollow space below the crew's head.

[Tom Bowser]

Hey Mark
I believe the access is in aft battery, Let me know what it is like in there 
Tom

[Mark Sarsfield]

We've been down in the battery well.  We haven't noticed an access hatch to get to the other side of the aft wall.

[pekelney]

Mark,

Sorry for the delay, I do not look on the BBS very often.

On Pampanito the access into #2 sanitary tank is below the step under the water tight door that leads to aft engine room.

As it happens, we were working on clearing a stuck check valve in the drain from the scullery sink.  Sadly, this valve is behind the battery tank aft and outboard of the sanitary tank and is accessible only by either removing one of the battery fresh water tanks in the battery well, or a portable plate that has a main engine heat exchanger bolted to it from the engine room.   We finally blew this open with 90 lb air on 6 Feb. 

Note that I added more drawings over the weekend, now up to around 270.  This includes the sanitary and fresh water piping for #2.  I have not found a drawing of the tank itself (see the other messages below we did find it, it is in the bulkhead drawing.)  We really want this because we are considering building a fishtank like smaller tank in #2 sanitary out of a frame and rubber bladder.  Even with cleaning and painting #2 is degrading between drydocks.

rich

[pekelney]

FYI,

The structure of sanitary tank #2 is in the drawings as part of the bulkhead just aft of frame 77.  See:

http://www.maritime.org/tech/drawings/bulkhead-7.25inch-aft-fr77_basic490891_5400-05-0209.jpg

Top of the tank, with the hatch is at:
http://www.maritime.org/tech/drawings/platform-deck-aft-battery-galley_basic387270alt13_5400-03-0220.jpg

rich

[Mark Sarsfield]

Nice photos.  I wonder why they put asbestos on the drain lines?

So, in addition to a floor hatch in front of the crew's head aft water-tight door, am I also to believe that there is a manhole access from the FER lower flats?

[pekelney]

No, the boiler type man hole that is from the forward engine room just gets you access outside the sanitary tank.  There is a void open to the fresh water for batteries and air bank outboard of the battery tank.  It is in this void that the drains from the heads come down, join with a Y and then enter the tank on its side.   It is also where the drains from the scullery and deck drain between the heads have a check valve and stop valve.  Our check valve has gotten stuck, and our plug valve that acts as the stop valve is not fully open.  It would be really nice to be able to get to these, but it will not be easy.  Sanitary tank # 2 does not extend the full width of after battery.  There are voids on either side of it.  The man hole must have been added to get access to the check valve and stop valve from the drains leading into the tank.  However, given how much stuff is in the way on the engine room side, this would be a nightmare to get open.

We really want a better plan than using the tank walls to contain the sewage.  We want to minimize the corrosion and the expense of confined space entry. 

rich

[Mark Sarsfield]

Yeah, I could tell from various boat plans that the #2 san. tank only takes up about 1/4 of the void space below the crew's head/wash area.  I wonder if creating a new hatch (i.e. cutting the deck with a torch after removing the tiles) near the doorway to the crew's berthing would be the best way to go.  You could make it look professional, as if the Navy meant it to be there.  I'm amazed that they didn't go that route to begin with.  Having to remove a large heat exchanger to gain access to a void is a poor design.

[pekelney]

The only non-historic access that might make sense is to put a manhole to get to the void in the battery tank.  However we might just move the water tank to get access to the void.

rich

[Darrin]

Mark,

Remember that these boats were not designed to last 50 years, they were only designed to last a few years total.. with the newer Nuke boats they were designed to last approximatly 20 years so they did have the access plates designed into them so that the tanks could be cleaned and sealed as needed.

Darrin

[drew]

There is some disagreement at the lionfish (ss-298, balao) about the extent of wood decking that the boat originally had.
In the drawings that Rich provided is a deck plan for ss-393.

Does anyone know where such a plan could be found for ss-298?
I have heard that each boat could be different, so checking the drawings for the 298 may be required to settle the issue.
I am assuming that the curator for ss-298 doesn't have the drawing because the question still pops up from time to time.

Thanx,
Drew

[pekelney]

If they do not have them in Baltimore, then the next most likely source is the National Archives.  See:
http://hnsa.org/doc/nara/index.htm

Of course checking for photos of the boat from the war at the museum, in Archives or on the web might also work.
There are some photos on Navsource that have buships numbers. These should be at NARA in College Park (very close to Baltimore).  If not, the Naval Historical Center might have a copy.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08423.htm

rich

[Evil Tracey of Torsk]

Drew, good luck to you finding out.

Decking could be fairly improvised by crew, the USN and shipyards.