Drum progress

[Tom Bowser]

The movie crew is coming back the last week in March and the first two weeks in April, we hope. Navy inspection is 4 April so Lesley and I will be having lots of fun. We have put the rest of the bunks in the after torpedo room starboard side except one so we can so off our restored cutie, (MK 27 torpedo that is, Lesley doesn't need restoring). We brought the other half of our TBL radio transmitter up out of after battery well and have started cleaning it up today. We found the blue prints for the mounting of it in radio and will make what we need to reinstall it properly.
Tom

[Lance Dean]

Hey Tom, where'd those bunks come from?

[Darrin]

That torpedo room is looking real good their Tom, you and Leslie are doing one heck of a job

The TBL transmitter has seen better days and I am sure that you two will do a remarkable job of putting it back together also

[Tom Bowser]

We found four bunks on the target that matched ours so we relocated them to a better place. Today we got all the meters, switches, etc off the TBL and will start cleaning it all up tomarrow, we are having fun now.
Tom

[Darrin]

I know that I don't have to say this but..... PLEASE take pics of EVERYTHING prior and during the restoration (just in case) that and other boats may need some help later with their TBL's and other equipment

[Tom Bowser]

We are taking many photos. We are not trying to get the TBL working, it is corroded to bad from being in the refrigerator and after battery for 50 years in a damp inviroment, we are lucky that we can display it at all.
Tom

[Darrin]

Thank you Tom for doing the work to display it once more, while it may not work it may bring back memories of those whom once served on the boats and for the children of those whom served on the boats and their dad/grandfathers have passed they can tell their grandchildren that their dad's/grandfathers once sat at a station just like that one.

I have seen many WWII submarine movies and then had the honor to walk the decks of Pamp, Cod, Torsk, Bowfin and Clamagore and I have always been surprised as to what I see next and to know as a submariner what it meant to the crews who served onboard them and to the families of those whom served that those of us whom are donating part of their lives to restore something that was forgotten so many years ago.

It truly means alot, Thank you to all whom give their time to restore our past so that future generations may learn.

[Tom Bowser]

Hey Guys, here are some photos of the TBL radio back together again and in radio where it is supposed to be, after fifty years. One shot is of the mounting plate we made according to blue print and the amazing thing is it worked. Notice it is on rollars and we believe they are the origanal rollars.

[Tom Bowser]

Here is a photo of Lesley cleaning up the meters before reinstall in the radio, sorry its kind of dark. Also two photos of a food order September 45, I think it was their load out  before leaving Pearl for home after the war ended. We found all kinds of old invoices, the earliest 4 August 1941, for office supplies. I am going to try to scan them.
Tom

[Darrin]

Tom and Leslie,
Those are incredible finds and scan them and display the copies, the origionals.. personally I would store them in a cool dark place with little to no humidity (future use if needed)..

Outstanding job on the TBL, I didn't expect it to be displayed this soon.. Keep up the hard work

[Tom Bowser]

Darrin
They are in a Submarine, can't get much cooler or darker than that. Seriously we are moving all of our papers into the ammo storage under the galley and they are all in heavy dark envelopes and the boat is air conditioned.
Tom

[Mark Sarsfield]

Definitely lots of storage space in the ammo lockers.  The Batfish's 5" ammo locker has a vent that leads up to the galley.  It looks like  the vent was added some time after the boat was originally built.

[Lance Dean]

What's new down there Tom?

[Tom Bowser]

We completed filming the movie Seaviper, two weeks ago Saturday after 14 14 hour nights. We are just about back on normal schedule again but still really tired. The filming went good and I feel we have some really good scenes, especially the one loading a MK 27 in tube 7.

Attached is a photo of  the latest acey-duecy board we restored and copies of the submarine cards, this is mainly for Paul.

We are now sand blasting and painting the periscope and radar shears and will move back into the stern in a couple of weeks.
Tom

[Tom Bowser]

As Lance pointed out, wrong photo above, Try this one.
Tom