School of the Boat (21 Jan 2013) - Plumbing System

[Mark Sarsfield]

Back in 2008 we had a thread on the boat's drain system that primarily focused on the drain/bilge pump and what it drained, but as far as I can tell, we never discussed the boat's plumbing system (supply and drain lines) in any School of the Boat discussions.  So, now would be a good time to start, since we're looking at tapping into the system and getting it partially functional again on the Batfish.  Thanks.

[emeacho]

These drawings might help.  These are for the fresh water and sanitary systems (plumbing systems) aboard Torsk.

[Mark Sarsfield]

Thanks. Our big question right now is where the hell is the access to the #2 San Tank?  As far as we can tell, the tank is right below the crew's head/shower area, but Correy can't find an access to it or its plumbing connections.

Also, I noticed that you guys installed a hot water tank, instead of on-demand heaters.  We're thinking of doing the latter.  Have one unit for the mess area (galley and scullery sinks) and one for the crew's showers and sinks.  We just need to run another leg of power into the boat dedicated to the water heaters and maybe also switch the receptacles in the galley to that leg so that we're not always blowing the breaker for the lights when we hook up warmers, slow cookers, coffee pot, etc.  Until that happens, we'll at least have cold water running to the boat and the water can be heated in the galley for cleaning dishes.  No more hauling buckets of dishes between the boat and the museum building, anymore, which is very time consuming.

A third thing that I noticed is that Torsk has 3 sanitary tanks (I guess this was part of the refit/GuPPy program) and according to your drain schematics the expulsion heads either flush overboard or into San. Tank #2.  As far as I know, the two expulsion heads on the Batfish (one in the crew's shower area and one in maneuvering) can only flush directly overboard.

[Darrin]

Mark,

The best advice that I can give you is to go through your archives and look for a former sailor's qual drawings/builders plans, if there aren't any then you will have to do the drawings yourself... the old fashioned way... hand over hand piece by piece.

I sadly am not qualified in the Balao class boats, I am qualified on the first flight Los Angeles class boats and even our piping tabs (drawings) were different from hull# to hull# so it was best to hand over hand every pipe and wire so not to mess a system up or hurt someone.

Check the Pamp's web link here on this bbs because they have put up a LOT of information and drawings over the years.

Darrin

[Mark Sarsfield]

Darrin, we have hand-over-hand drawings from the 1950's when they did the Batfish refit/recommissioning.  We also have your Torsk drawings for comparison and I've examined the plans for other that Rich posted recently.  We know where the san. tank is and what hooks up to it.  We just can't seem to find an access point to get into the space below the crew's head/lav area to actually access the tank and shut-off valves.  I'm wondering if they tiled over it in the 50's - we have two layers of asbestos floor tile on the boat.  It sounds really stupid, but I don't put anything past the government.

[Darrin]

Mark,

FYI, Chief Mike and the Crew did the drawings and NOT me, I sadly had not reported onboard for that and I am not willing to take credit for work that I have not done.. Thank you for the compliment but it does not go to me it goes to Chief Mike

The hull plate is still there, every few months or years the MM's had to scrape the poo off of the inside of the tanks walls to keep up the amout of poo that would could be held in them, sadly I have had to do that as a TM because I pissed my TMCS and the MMCS off at the same time..  IF it were me I would go through the FER lower flats and then go to the Refer deck under the deck in the Galley, reason behind that is that you didn't want anything in the battery well but the batteries and in the engine rooms you didn't want poo in there but CFO, LO, Water and the Hardy-Tines High Pac Air Compressors

Send me what you have and give me a few days to compare a few drawings that I may or maynot have still buried online

Darrin

[Mark Sarsfield]

If i remember tonight, I'll look to see where I saved the scanned hand-over-hand plans on my computer.... OR ... I can get Correy to send them to you or just post them in here.

We're pretty sure that the space below the crew's head is its own, separated area from the FER and the aft battery well.  This makes me believe that there is an access hatch in the deck of the crew's head to access the san. tank.  As far as I can tell looking at several boat schematics (all of them Portsmouth boats), the san. tank should be right below the aft hatch way and the two showers.  It does not take up the entire lower space, but looks like it's only about 1/4 of the size of that space based on the shipyard detailed drawings.

We have a closet where the washing machine used to be.  I wonder if the access is in there?

[Mark Sarsfield]

Rich P. posted a bunch of photos from the Pampanito under "Museum Submarine Discussion".  It sounds like our access hatch is in front of the water-tight door in the crew's head and has been tiled over.   It also sounds like there is a man-hole access to that area from the FER lower flat.  Correy and/or I will have to go back and see which would be easier to tackle.  Based on his photos, it looks like the hatch in the floor only accesses the top of the san. tank for cleaning and draining and if we wanted to actually access the compartment, we would need to go through the man-hole in FER.

[emeacho]

Our access hatch is just inside the watertight door from the Forward Engine Room.  I have not seen one in FERLL, but then again, I haven't really looked.  Next time I go down there to work on diesel cooling water and lube oil, I have to investigate.

[Darrin]

After thinking about it Chief Mike is absolutely correct as to where the San #2 access hatch is located at, I had forgotten and had made a guesstimate as a possible location

[Ctwilley]

I'm headed over today to look at the access covers. There's a rudimentary metal box/step under and forward of the WTD between the FER and AB. I wonder if the end of our long search is just under that box? 

[emeacho]

Soooooo?  What did you find?

[Ctwilley]

Ooooook. We apparently never thought to look under the metal box. Lifted the cover and under an inch of dirt, there she was.

The catch is, it now has a triple weld (or so it appears under so many layers of paint).

Next I went into the FER lower deck. There they were, not just one but TWO access hatches. If that weren't enough, ours doesn't have anything attached to them and there's about 3 feet of clear space around them! 

I'll post pics when I get them uploaded.

[Ctwilley]

The first pic is the infamous metal box.

The second is the hatch.

The third shows our two access hatches for the san. tank.

[Mark Sarsfield]

Good finds, Correy.  Nice to see that Portsmouth did something right with the two FERLL access points, but then they went and did something stupid by welding the access shut that goes into the top of the san tank.   

As I mentioned in a text, we should probably look into rerouting gray water into one of the ballast tanks.  For everyone else in on the conversation, what ballast tank is below the crew's head and FER?  I'm guessing that it's a FBT.