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Ship Photo of the Day

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
The Museum at the Navy Yard in DC has a really neat cut away model of a Fletcher class. Beautiful lines. Have a model of one waiting to be built.
Make sure you visit the Cassin Young in Boston before you build!
 

Randy Daytona

Cold War Relic
pilot
Super Moderator
Some very positive news out of the state of Texas: the project to save and restore USS Texas (BB-35) - the last remaining WW1 super-dreadnought battleship in the world - is moving forward.


10/27/21 – GULF COPPER SHIPYARD IN GALVESTON SELECTED FOR REPAIR OF BATTLESHIP TEXAS​


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Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Some very positive news out of the state of Texas: the project to save and restore USS Texas (BB-35) - the last remaining WW1 super-dreadnought battleship in the world - is moving forward.


10/27/21 – GULF COPPER SHIPYARD IN GALVESTON SELECTED FOR REPAIR OF BATTLESHIP TEXAS​


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I don't know why they don't just permanently drydock her, like the HMS Victory, or put her in cement, like the Mikasa. Same with the USS Olympia. I guess the upfront costs and the size would be the biggest deterrents?
 

Randy Daytona

Cold War Relic
pilot
Super Moderator
I don't know why they don't just permanently drydock her, like the HMS Victory, or put her in cement, like the Mikasa. Same with the USS Olympia. I guess the upfront costs and the size would be the biggest deterrents?

Good question- but I hope they find a way to fully preserve the ship. One of my bucket list items is to tour every battleship and especially with the Texas being a WW1 dreadnought, I would certainly like to see it.
 

Notanaviator

Well-Known Member
Contributor
I don't know why they don't just permanently drydock her, like the HMS Victory, or put her in cement, like the Mikasa. Same with the USS Olympia. I guess the upfront costs and the size would be the biggest deterrents?
Not sure if this is a better way to allow for proactive maintenance and repair, or was simply a design to accommodate river levels, but the USS Kidd in Baton Rouge (most recently used to film bunch of Greyhound) has sort of a cradle that allows it to float for six months a year (in freshwater, if thats helpful and if that’s indeed what we’re calling the Mississippi River) and effectively be dry docked for the other six. Always kinda odd to cross the river and looking at her floating over the river when it’s low.
 

jmcquate

Well-Known Member
Contributor
Size matters. The Texas is just too big to move on anything but water. Never been on her, Seen her many times from the water.
 

Max the Mad Russian

Hands off Ukraine! Feet too
I don't know why they don't just permanently drydock her, like the HMS Victory, or put her in cement, like the Mikasa.
When I've askesd the same question about cruiser Aurora and nuclear icebreaker Lenin, permanently moored at St.Petersberg and Murmansk respectively, I've been told this is a matter of money - no ship is intended to exist for good, and even extended lifespan as a monument afloat with all possible restore spendings is in sum cheaper than funeral of the ship ashore in the cement or drydock since both ways take amount of land square which otherwise could be used with more profit. It is far from being evident but big city management is generally hostile to such a permanent installations.
 

Jim123

DD-214 in hand and I'm gonna party like it's 1998
pilot
The VB-10000 looks like it should combine with four other, similar machines, each one run by an individual with varying and endearing traits (age, gender, body type, personalities), each one a bright but different color that may or may not ascribe to their personality quirks, and together they form a futuristic crime-fighting super robot that takes on super villain super robots in one-on-one combat.
 

wink

War Hoover NFO.
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
The VB-10,000 is a heavy lift catamaran barge used primarily for oil platforms. It is capable of lifting 6,800 tons.

Length: 277 ft, Beam: 314 ft
8x1000HP thrusters




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VB-10,000 prepares to place a decommissioned jacket as an artificial reef off the coast of Louisiana

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Made me think of Project Azorian and the Glomar Explorer. The documentary on Amazon Prime is very good. The engineering challenges and accomplishments were far more significant than I thought. Not just a cold war spy story.
 

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
Good question- but I hope they find a way to fully preserve the ship. One of my bucket list items is to tour every battleship and especially with the Texas being a WW1 dreadnought, I would certainly like to see it.
I have been to nearly preserved naval vessel in the US (including the Texas). I still find LST 393 and the SS Lane Victory among the nest because they can still move under their own power. Every submarine I have been in seems exactly like the others…including the German and Soviet models. Maybe I lack imagination?
 

Randy Daytona

Cold War Relic
pilot
Super Moderator
IJA Akitsu Maru was either an escort carrier - or amphibious landing ship - of the Imperial Japanese ARMY. Originally designed as a passenger liner, she ended up with a straight deck but no hangar. In addition to its aircraft, it carried 27 landing craft while also having a well deck that could be flooded. Speaking of aircraft, in addition to airplanes, the Akitsu Maru was one of the first ships to operate rotorcraft, in this case the Kayaba KA-1 autogyro which carried a couple of depth charges to attack submarines.

The Akitsu Maru was sunk by the submarine USS Queenfish on 15 November 1944.

Length: 471 ft, Beam: 64 ft, Displacement: 11,800 tons



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Randy Daytona

Cold War Relic
pilot
Super Moderator
The German Auxiliary cruiser Atlantis (HSK-2) was one of the most successful commerce raiders of WW2. She covered over 100,000 miles in less than 2 years, capturing or sinking 22 ships with a combined tonnage of over 144,000 tons, eventually being sunk by the heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire on 22 Nov 1941 after an intercepted Enigma communication.

Of extreme importance was the capture of SS Automedon by Atlantis on 11 Nov 1940.

The Germans boarded the stricken ship and broke into the strong room, where they found fifteen bags of Top Secret mail for the British Far East Command, including a large quantity of decoding tables, fleet orders, gunnery instructions, and naval intelligence reports. After wasting an hour breaking open the ship's safe only to discover "a few shillings in cash", a search of the Automedon's chart room found a small weighted green bag marked "Highly Confidential" containing the Chief of Staff's report to the Commander in Chief Far East, Robert Brooke Popham. The bag was supposed to be thrown overboard if there was risk of loss, but the personnel responsible for this had been killed or incapacitated. The report contained the latest assessment of the Japanese Empire's military strength in the Far East, along with details of Royal Air Force units, naval strength, and notes on Singapore's defences. It painted a gloomy picture of British land and naval capabilities in the Far East, and declared that Britain was too weak to risk war with Japan.

After reading the captured Chief of Staff report, on 7 January 1941 Japanese Admiral Yamamoto wrote to the Naval Minister asking whether, if Japan knocked out America, the remaining British and Dutch forces would be suitably weakened for the Japanese to deliver a death blow; the Automedon intelligence on the weakness of the British Empire is thus credibly linked with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the attack leading to the fall of Singapore.


The Atlantis was armed with 6 single 150 mm (5.9") cannons, torpedo tubes, mines and 2 seaplanes. With diesel power, the 501 ft, 17,000 ton cargo ship had a top speed of 17 knots and a phenomenal range of 60,000 miles at 10 knots.

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2016/11/08/the-atlantis-the-kriegsmarines-last-corsair/

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Atlantis disguised as Tamesis, 1940.

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