Drum progress

[Paul Farace]

Amazing results Tom!  You've earned a rest.... have a great Thanksgiving!

The last shot of DRUM's port side really illustrates how big a fleet boat is!

[Tom Bowser]

Hi everyone
Here is the latest update.
We have completed painting the crews head and wash room and installed the washing machine we got from Pampanito.e also put back the cpo sink that the reserves removed in 1964, it was returned to us last year by Garland Summerall who rescued the sink before it was thrown away.
Navy inspection is this saturday.
Tom

[Mark Sarsfield]

Cool.  I didn't know that the CPO's had a sink in the aft battery.

[Karen D.]

Hey Tom,

I hear you are working on FBT #6...I found a piece of it on my desk this morning! I met Alan Ferdinandsen this weekend when he was here for the Jallao reunion. (Hi back!) He left me some Drum bruchures and a piece of the I-beam from FBT #6. Bad enough I have random parts of Cobia around my office and now I have a piece of the Drum.    Better make sure I label it somehow so it doesn't get mixed up with Cobia parts!

Karen

[Tom Bowser]

Hi Karen
I guess I am going to have to put a leash on Al, he has wandered off again. Here is a couple of photos from inside #6B, we have checked most of the rest and they are quite as bad. O'neal steel has already donated and delivered 200' of I beam. I hope all the rest of the boats that haven't seen the inside of their tanks aren't like this. The first photo shows where that piece came from.
Tom

[Tom Bowser]

Hi All
It has been a while. Here are photos of #6B fuel tank after sand blasting the I beams. O'Neal steel has donated the needed beams to replace and we have started that today. Also a photo of the detonator board I had made and it too was donated. Also a photo of our new portable shop I bought to make life easier. (bought with my money, not donations). I also got us a new cutting torch, and rig and a bunch of other tools.
Tom

[Earl]

Seeing as Baltimore's awash in heat (80 degrees at 0730) you all make sure to take as good care of yourselves as you have the boat! No heat casualties down there in Mobile, please!

[Tom Bowser]

You haven't lived until you sand blast and work inside a fuel tank when the temp is hitting 102, without the heat index. Lesley sand blasted the port stern bottom while I was replacing I beams in 6b. She came in and did some of the welding on a rainy day, it was fun with her welding and me cutting 4' away. 6b is finished except for the cleaning and painting and we are starting in 6a, which is even worse, if you can imagine that.
Tom

[Darrin]

WOW Tom,

If I didn't know better I would believe that you are going to relaunch her and take her back to sea once more

You two have done an amazing job

Darrin

[Earl]

Took the words right outta my mouth, Darrin - amazing work, by an amazing crew of two. You two are an absolute inspiration.

[Tom Bowser]

Thank you Darrin and Earl
No we won't try to take her back to sea, as much as we would like too. Replacing the I beams is a necessity, some of them were starting to give and we were at risk of hull sag. We have had cracks in the deck and it could have been from this. Hopefully we have stabilized it and won't find too much more of this in the other tanks.
Tom

[Tom Bowser]

Hi every one,
I realized it has been ages since I posted an update.
We just about completed the work in #6 normal fuel, including cutting out the dent on the port side. We have moved inside and are repainting the forward torpedo room, I can hardly wait to get back inside the tanks where there is some room. I realy envy all of you that get to shut the boats down for the winter.
Tom

[Mark Sarsfield]

Looking good.  I bet you guys are hotter than we are in OK, right now.

[Tom Bowser]

It has been awhile so I figured I had best update. Great work Cobia and Silversides.

It has been a busy year and unfortunately our season never ends. We finished four months of scraping and painting the forward torpedo room, went to south florida for a premier of the movie Seaviper ,(which still hasn't been released)  , replaced I beams, framing and skin in fuel expansion tank, started cleaning rest of ballast/fuel tanks getting ready to sand blast (still working on that) and the best yet- with Navies permission, removed and sold 83.5 tons of lead ballast-so far. we found another 20 tons we and have another 12 still to be removed. We have raised $100,228  with the 83.5 tons. We are hiring out the sand blasting of the tanks. Amongst all this we had three boat reunions, the Drum crew reunion and the south east regional subvet conference and last week a small fire when we cut into the port side of safety tank. Most of the tanks are lined with plastic that burns a little bit but this one really took off, no damage done. The plastic has melted in all the tanks and piled up in the bottom sometimes 6 inchs deep and I have to air chiesel it out. Looking forward to when we close Christmas Day. Check out our photos at www.drum228.org
Tom

[Jim]

Tom, how are the concrete "chocks" holding up under the keel?  Are they holding steady or sinking?  Does the rudder clear the ground or is it part of the supporting structure?