Let's save the USS Drum,

[Darrin]

ALL,
Tom and Leslie are trying to save the Drum and she needs our help, I don't know if anyone on here can volunteer their time to help them but like I have posted on Rontini's bbs I need an address for Tom and Leslie so I can send them a check for $20.00, while this isn't much it is all that I can do for right now and who would like to match that?? or beat that

[Lance Dean]

Some of the ways (not all) that you can help the Drum are listed here, including where to send monetary donations:

http://www.drum228.org/help.html

The Drum cannot host overnights, as there are no bathroom facilities available after-hours. 

[Tom Bowser]

I appreciate everyone interest in helping us. The problem with overnites is we do not have toilets on the Drum and the director will not let us overnite volunteers on the Battleship but I am working on that. The other problem is we just don't have the equipment to supply a work party, I am also working on that to see if we can't do something next year, All the work that needs to be done is cutting welding, sand blasting and painting and the majority of it needs to be done before 0930 and during the week due to visitor traffic. The Park being open everyday all day really hurts. We are trying to do a shipyard overhaul with handyman tools inside an amusement park and it gets to be a real challange.
Tom

[emeacho]

Tom, all of us on Torsk know the feeling.  We have major work that needs to be done, some for safety resons, but we can't get the work done because it can't interfere with visitor trafiic.  Try replacing portions of the deck in Crew's Berthing without interfering with visitor traffic.  All you can do is nibble away at it.  Fortunately for us, the boat is secured on week days during the winter (not many visitors to Baltimore when temps are in the teens and twenties).  So, we can get some major interior projects completed during the winter months.

[Lance Dean]

Tom, have you thought about asking for the Drum to be closed to visitors when they begin moving the lighthouse in next door?  You know, for safety reasons?   

This would allow for some good work time on the Drum.

[Fred Tannenbaum]

What lighthouse? Sounds intriguing.

Fred

[Lance Dean]

What lighthouse? Sounds intriguing.

Fred

Take a look at this website and scroll down.  The 2nd image is the Mobile Bay (Middle Bay) Lighthouse.

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/lighthouse/al.htm

1885. Active; focal plane 48 ft (14.5 m); red flash every 6 s. 48 ft (14.5 m) screwpile lighthouse (sibling of Hooper Strait MD) with hexagonal frame keeper's quarters, painted white; lantern removed 1967. 155 mm solar-powered lens on 6 ft (1.8 m) mast centered on the roof. The original 4° Fresnel lens is on display at the Fort Morgan Museum. The Coast Guard has a historic photo, and Google has a satellite view. A well known landmark, the lighthouse was saved from demolition by citizen protests. In early 2001 the lighthouse was in very poor condition, but later in the year Thompson Engineering was awarded a contract for its restoration. The lighthouse received a new, historically accurate slate roof, rotten wood and corroded tie rods were replaced, and the building was painted. However, David Rencher's March 2008 photo shows the lighthouse now in need of another repainting. In July, the Alabama Lighthouse Association proposed a plan to relocate the the lighthouse to the USS Alabama Battleship Park on the US 90 causeway east of Mobile. Meanwhile, a lantern room and 4° Fresnel lens supposed to be identical to the originals are on display at Mobile Regional Airport; this display will be moved to a new maritime museum, the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico, scheduled to open in Mobile in 2010. Located in the middle of Mobile Bay. Accessible only by boat. Site and tower closed. Owner/site manager: Alabama Historical Commission. ARLHS USA-505; Admiralty J3488; USCG 4-5255.

The lighthouse is supposed to be put in on the port side (the usually unseen side) of the Drum.

[Rick]

"Damn the torpedoes and frull speed ahead..."

We experience the same thing her a the Batfish.  Right now our budget is very low and we have to make due with what we have.   I would suggest a donation box.  We are able to get a lot of things this way. (hand tools, adn the like).   Do your best to block off the work area from the visitors and let them watch.   I know it is not fun being in a fish bowl like that, but the visitors do enjoy it.  It really breings the boat alive.  You do have to keep the visitors saftey in mind though.   

Just a few thoughts from the Batfhis.

[Lance Dean]

Well, the trouble with the Drum is that the USS Alabama battleship is the star, the firstborn.  The battleship takes top priority at the Park.  Tom is a volunteer.  I don't know where the decisions are made, but I don't think Tom has the option to work when visitors are present.

I am curious as to *IF* bathroom facilities were available (either via the battleship or a port-a-john) would there be enough interest to have work weekends?  I have no idea if any of the locals have mentioned they'd be willing to do that.

[Tom Bowser]

The Light house will be going aft of the Drum on pilings just in in water but will not interfere with visitors going to the Drum, darn,.

There is enough interest for work weekends but again we don't have the equipment to keep a bunch of volunteers busy and most don't want to stand around doing nothing and the majority of what we need done is on the outside requiring heavy equipment. We pretty much decide what will interfear with the visitors and schedule our work and area around them and they do enjoy watching us work. We have been geting alot of attention while working in the stern.

We have asked about a donation box on the Drum and were told they would be gland to put one in but they would not seperate out the money from the other donation boxes and so we would not get it for the Drum. Instead I have a sheet in the aft torpedo room with the patrol chart and brief history on one side and an address to send donations to on the other for visitor to take with them and we are doing fair off of that. A donation box would really help but it would have to be a real strong one welded to the deck or the scouts would snatch it.

Lesley and I decide what work needs to be done and when we are going to do it, the Park management doesn't come to the boat and rarely looks at it from the parking lot, too making junk aircraft in the way to see it clearly. We appreciate the freedom to make our own decisions on the work, otherwise they would have us planting roses along the walkway.

Next year we are going to have to paint the deck inside the boat and we do that at night and hope the paint is dry enough by morning. I sure do envy you northen boats that close down for the winter or a couple days a week.
Tom

[Darrin]

Hey Tom,
A number of our volunteers bring their own tools for the work weekend to include one of our welders who brings his own rig and our scope guys who have brought a porta power and left it onboard for us to use, that and Torsk put up a list of tools that were needed and over the years voluteers and others have donated those tools and then some for the boat.

[Tom Bowser]

We need a couple 600 cfm air compressors and 400lb sand blasting pots.
Tom

[Darrin]

Tom,
I could have given you a 2 175PSI Air compressors a few weeks ago as long as you were willing to pay shipping, now sadly they will be in a pile of rubble when two of my buildings are demolished around them...