Whoops! Forgot to post this month's newsletter:
Awesome August VolunteersAugust was a busy month aboard Cobia! We had several groups of volunteers help out with projects both inside and outside the sub and even in and around the museum! The first group was our annual visit from the Sea Cadets. The Cruiser division in Milwaukee has been coming up to the sub for several years to help clean the sub and help with other projects around the museum before spending a fun night aboard the sub. This year they were joined by a group from the Battleship Wisconsin Unit in La Crosse, WI, and two units from the Chicago area. There were 35 cadets and 17 instructors that helped out. The cadets cleaned, polished, and vacuumed the boat from bow to stern, cleaned the pressure hull under the deck, cleaned in the museum, and helped with landscaping around the museum.
The day after the Sea Cadets were here the Reservists from Green Bay were back to continue the work they started the month before. They spent a few hours under the deck preparing the pressure hull for paint. The Cadets didn’t have a chance to finish the prep thanks to a pesky rain cloud the day before. Like the exterior pressure hull, the tank tops under the deck were scratched up by ice last winter and we hope to get a coat of paint on them before the snow flies.
The following weekend we had a group of Navy Chief Selects from NRD (Naval Recruiting Division) Chicago. This is the second year a group of Chief Selects joined us for a day. They volunteer their time on the sub and spend the night on board. This participation is a unique and interesting part of their training. The Chief Selects continued the work on the pressure hull that was started the week before. Unfortunately it had rained during the week and it was unusually foggy and extremely humid the first day they were working so they had to suck up a lot of water and muck before they could continue the prep work. While one group was working on the hull, another worked on polishing the ship’s bell. They did an incredible job and the bell looks better than it has in years! The next day the humidity was still heavy in the air and the rust converter that was applied the day before didn’t dry. We decided to go ahead with painting around the rust and wet areas and go back to that at a later date.
The day after the Chief Selects left, a couple of Chicago area sub vets were back up to work again. This time it was two to three guys and it was raining so they found an inside project to work on. Greg Miller was back with the gears from the bow planes gear box. He brought a new volunteer Ed Dowling and Tom Sheley also stopped by to lend a hand. Greg had removed the gear and worm gear to inspect and clean them. Since this gear box is in the overhead in the forward torpedo room and also made of brass, this wasn’t an easy task. They spent the first day carefully removing the heavy cover on the gear box since I wouldn’t let them flip the boat over for a few hours. The next day the guys lifted the gears back into place using a custom made wood platform. But like every project on the sub, it didn’t exactly go as planned. There was a pipe in the way of one of the corners on the platform so they had to find a way to trim a corner. Eventually the gears were back in place by the end of the day. They ran out of time, so they will have to come back another day to replace the cover. They also have to obtain the proper gasket material and make a casing gasket. After that, they will disconnect the gearboxes to the bow planes to determine if we have binding somewhere in the system and weld lugs or eyes to the planes to be able to move them with chain falls.
Special TripsIn early September, Katelyn Sheck and I attended the USSVI National Convention in San Francisco. We manned a booth in the exhibit area for the week and enjoyed visiting with all the vets that stopped by to chat with us. We promoted the museum and Cobia and the highly anticipated Submarine Fest next summer. After the convention we had an opportunity to visit USS Pampanito and spend time with our good friend Rich Pekelney. Meeting the sub vets and visiting our sister sub was a great experience!
A few weeks later I attended the Historic Naval Ships (HNSA) Conference in Norfolk, VA. I was able to spend time with old friends and network with new ones. There were several great sessions on the care and restoration of historic ships and I brought home a lot of great ideas for Cobia! As a bonus I also had a chance to tour Battleship Wisconsin!
Odds ‘n EndsIn early October, Pat Habel, Ron Takacs, and our new volunteer Paul Kraynek (Welcome Aboard, Paul!) installed the MG set for the TBL radio transmitter that's in the radio shack. Badger Electric restored the unit and covered half the expenses of the repair. The next phase is to hook it up electrically. They were going to do it that day, but they need shrink tubing to protect the insulation on the old wires. They also worked on the emergency lighting system and a few "E" call switches that failed to operate for some unknown reason. The switches were working fine the last time the guys were up, so they think the “Old Gal” is testing them to make sure they keep her functioning!
Crane Engineering is restoring our Viking lube oil pump. For being 71 years old, the pump was in remarkably good shape, but they took it apart to clean it and a replace some small parts. The pump is used in the operation of the main diesel engines.
The staff and volunteers have several projects to keep them busy throughout the Fall-Winter season now that our busy summer has come and gone. These projects include: continue working on the 1MB/2MB, MG Set, and back up lighting system, restore lights/power on the torpedo ready boards, troubleshooting the bow planes gear box, installing permanent aerators along the Riverwalk to prevent ice build up along the sub, and install safety netting along the exterior life lines.
