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Ship Photo of the Day

USS Abraham Lincoln corrosion. There are ships that went through WWII that had less corrosion. Is this a function of current coating methods, lack of command attention to ship appearance while underway, or other considerations? During my WESTPAC in the mid-80's there as an LPD, I think is was the Deluth, that looked like it just came out of overhaul. Immaculate cleanliness and paint. You would see sailors chipping, needle gunning, and painting, every time you landed on her. Her officers and crew had incredibly high morale, and were proud to show you "their" ship. So again I ponder, what lead to this level of visible corrosion.

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PhrogPhlyer said:
USS Abraham Lincoln corrosion. There are ships that went through WWII that had less corrosion. Is this a function of current coating methods, lack of command attention to ship appearance while underway, or other considerations? During my WESTPAC in the mid-80's there as an LPD, I think is was the Deluth, that looked like it just came out of overhaul. Immaculate cleanliness and paint. You would see sailors chipping, needle gunning, and painting, every time you landed on her. Her officers and crew had incredibly high morale, and were proud to show you "their" ship. So again I ponder, what lead to this level of visible corrosion.

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Coating methods is a big one but there’s honestly a lot to unpack there.

We stopped using lead based paints. Some of it is definitely EPA driven, but the crew HAZMAT lead exposure aspect of it is honestly a stronger one (all that chipping and needle gunning has that now aerosolized lead going…somewhere). Modern ones supposedly work just as well, and better in some protective aspects, but generally need more professional application and prep than untrained 19 year old kids can do.

We generally dont pay for the time needed. If you want a real good paint job, you really need some down time during the right environmental conditions. Ideally a dry dock availability. Painting a ship in San Diego summer? Not too bad. Doing one in Norfolk? Flip a coin if the weather supports. Operationally, we have also been riding the dwindling Fleet like a rented step mule for decades.

Crew size reductions didn’t help either on the manpower side - not as much labor to do all that chipping, grinding, sanding, painting upkeep. But to clarify for this one specifically though - can’t really put this in the crew. Very limited what you can do when deployed and underway doing combat ops continuously like they were.
 
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