School of the Boat 5 Mar 13 (DC POWER)

[Darrin]

Very nice video's Thomas, I have been following the Slater since she arrived in Albany and have been truly impressed with the work that has been done on her, pull up a chair shipmate and if you can find my fellow wayward Torpedoman John T you maybe able to brib him out of his good Gilly..

Darrin

[Darrin]

Years ago when Torsk held thier work weekend BMM (Baltimore Maritime Museum) used to allow them to sleep onboard the USCG Taney and use her Galley, as time passed the Torsk wound up only being able to use the Torsk and the lightship CHESAPEAK who's galley also works... I don't have any contacts with BMM anymore and Chief Mike knows more about their galleys they I am sure they do   So again if the Chief Electrician from the Torsk would show back up he maybe able to answer your questions

[Mark Sarsfield]

Thanks for all of the info, guys.

[emeacho]

All I know about the galleys on Torsk and Chesapeake is:

!.) The Navy frowns on using the galley ranges or fryer on the museum subs.  For those of you who served time on the boats, you know what a huge fire hazard they were.  They required frequent cleaning and degreasing. One of the items on the NAVSEA inspection list is the galleys.  They must check them to be sure they are not energized in any way.  The other problem is ventilation.  You really need to run the exhaust fans to eliminate the odors and smoke from cooking.  This introduces another huge fire hazard.  The grease collects in the ventilation pipes and can ignite causing a burning, smoking disaster  We had a ventilation duct fire on my boat.  It wasn't pretty.  The Navy made all the boats clean out the piping.

As for Chesapeake, we had acquired replacement parts for the range from an old ship in the James River.  Dave and Frank from our crew worked for several Saturdays rewiring and installing the parts in the galley range over on Chesapeake so we could prepare meals for our annual work weekend.  The museum stopped letting us use the facilities (that worked) aboard Taney (our effort were not as important as the income from the overnights).  Restoring those galley ranges was a lot of work, but it paid off. 

Understand that Dave was an Electrician on the boats and he used to do this when he was on the boats.  Most towns have an appliance parts store that specializes in carrying parts for older ranges.  You might check with them for parts such as thermostats, heating elements, etc.  However, before you attempt repair and actually running these ranges, take them out and steam clean the parts, thoroughly inspect and meggar the wiring.

[Mark Sarsfield]

They definitely need to be cleaned between the rust and corrosion.  We could limit our cooks to not frying anything and mainly using the cook tops as burners for soup or anything in a pot that can be covered.  I agree that frying food on a museum boat would be dangerous and stinky.  Especially, when the blower is running all the time.

[Darrin]

Hey Chief,

That was one heck of a strip ship as I recall when we pulled the parts for the stoves on Chesapeak along with a fully intact Aux Gyro that is now in LLFB..  And as I recall we wound up leaving some tools on the Ex Sunbird due to the lights we had dying and having to hand over hand our way out of the ship from After Steering.

Whatever happened with the MacKay Radio set that we pulled off of the Range Sentenial? That was supposed to go to the lightship as I recall and COB Bill was working on it a few years ago...

Mark, why don't you just go and buy large hot plates and cook in the galley? they are very cheap and can be put away out of the public eye when not in use and no need to rewire the stoves and ovens... Just wondering

Darrin

[emeacho]

Actually, Darrin has a point.  Aboard Torsk we use an electric, store-bought skillet, and electric, store-bought slow cookers to cook and keep food warm.  We also have a microwave in the Aft Battery Well. When we need to boil a lot of water, like for spaghetti, we use one of those gas powered turkey fryers up topside.

I remember that strip ship quite well.  The MaKay is still over on Chesapeake, I think.  We were not allowed to actually install it.  You know who denied it because the ship was a Park Service-owned vessel and supposedly he needed permission from them first.

[Darrin]

Finally after knowing Chief Eacho for almost 9 years I got a "Darrin has a point"..     I am sure there have been a few over the years and normally the good jobs come after I have been sweating my butt off working for him doin the heavy lifting and dirty work...

Damn shame about that MacKay Radio set, it was the right make and I believe it may have been the right model for the Chesapeak and no I am not surprised about it not being installed at all thinking back through all of the struggles that we have had with that wonderfull person and the people he works for/with.

It was nice when the crew would pull the hot plates out and cook bacon and eggs in the galley, you could smell it all over the boats   that and a few volunteers over the years have brought chili and meatball subs and other fun and interesting dishes

[Mark Sarsfield]

Guys,

  Since Aug. 2008 we have been using electric roasters, griddles, coffee pots, etc. at all of our boat functions.  We also use the stove in the museum, as needed/available.  The people that do all of the cooking at our events have asked us for years to 1) get running water into the galley and scullery, again, and 2) eventually getting the cooking appliances working.

  As it stands right now, the boat needs probably 3 more 100A amp services added to her for various uses, including cooking.  Sometimes we pop the breaker and kill the lights in the middle of tours, because we have too many appliances running on very few receptacles.  Also, our cooks bring a LOT of stuff with them to the events and I think their thought process is that it would be nice not to have to lug all of these modern appliances in and out of the boat, in addition to cookware, food, etc.  Setting up and tearing down from a living history event weekend is a lot of work.

[Jim]

Where are the amps going? A normal house with all the appliances is usually 150-200 amps.  Are we losing that much in DC conversion?

[Mark Sarsfield]

Nothing that runs on DC is operational on the boat, except for the call bell system, which we only activate during event weekends.  We have one 100A service dedicated to the A/C units (and the Legion Room).  The other 100A service is dedicated to the boat lights and receptacles.  Based on the number of operational conventional lights in each compartment, the power consumption is quite enormous.  Tax that same service with several heating appliances and pop goes the breaker.

I think Wade (the ham guru) has a basic power consumption write-up showing why we need more services added.  It's been an on-again/off-again topic of his, mine, and Rick's.  First step is for Rick to contact the power company and find out what the max amperage of the current service coming onto the property, including going to the museum building.

[Darrin]

Well Mark it sounds like you do have a power problem onboard and I can understand your volunteers wanting to cook and what not onboard during their stay onboard.

I am not a submarine electrician, I was a attack helicopter electrician by trade and from what little I know about the Batfish it does as Jim noted make me wonder where all of the power is going..

Now as all of you remember during the School of the Boat we did discuss how and for the most part where power is brought in and where it goes to for distrobution and IF I remember correctly from what Mark has said that their Cubicle has been gutted out  and a LOT of the wiring has been cut from the switch gear. That alone may now provide to be a hazard if the wiring has shifted over the years and at least on Torsk I have seen some wiring that had barely been electrical taped in some spots to keep them from arcing and sparking..

That also lends itself for the next question.. How many of your fuse panels are currently energized and do you know where all of the power is going from those panels? and I can only a/ss/u/me that those circuits were all tested and verified before someone put a fuse back into them hoping that they didn't burn the boat down.

For those that don't remember we went over that it was I believe in AC Power a couple of years ago, that may help some I hope

Darrin

[Mark Sarsfield]

Darrin,

  We only have lighting fuse panels energized on the boat and, in a few cases, hardly even that.  The outside lighting fuse panel in the CT above the CR ladder only has one or two switches operational for CT lighting.  Someone rigged the box to only operate those two switches.  None of the outside lights (and we only have the port and starboard light sockets left) are capable of being energized at this time.

[Darrin]

Mark,

I thought you or someone from the Batfish had told me that a few years ago and I wanted to make sure that I wasn't mistaken because I have worked with a couple of museums since we started this thread to include working on Trains.. And after going through some of the previous posts regarding shipping you were talking to Chris about transporting the 5" gun and not me and I have not seen his name on the Torsk BBS or on here in a while.

Darrin

[Mark Sarsfield]

Roger that.  Yeah, I guess it was Chris.  I thought he mentioned something a few years ago that he might not be trucking much longer.  A personal message will still get to his email address, if he hasn't changed email (like some of my relatives do every 6 months).

EDIT:  What is Chris's handle on here?