Repairing a Damaged Warship - Ship Triage and Treatment

Comments · 645

• DR

  @Drachinifel · 3 years ago · pinned

  Pinned post for Q&A :)

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• IN

  @InternetEntity · 3 years ago

  The long awaited sequel to "Survival at Sea - Oh Lord the ship is on fire/sinking/exploding/disagreeable"

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• MI

  @mitchm4992 · 3 years ago

  The most important part of repairing a ship? Replacing all the binoculars the admiral threw overboard

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• EG

  @egocyclic · 3 years ago (edited)

  My employer&apos;s late father-in-law was an officer on USS New Orleans (CA-32) during the Battle of Tassaforanga. After the entire front quarter of the cruiser&apos;s length was blown off by a Type 93 torpedo and subsequent magazine explosion, the ship had to lay to Tulagi the next morning. <br><br>While the crippled ship was laid up in Tulagi for more than a week, the captain ordered the ship camouflaged with netting and coconut palms. The story passed on to me is that the hard-pressed crew had little confidence in the ruse, convinced that Japanese aircraft would appear at any moment to finish off what little was left after the destroyer&apos;s aggressions. So the captain sent up their floatplane to circle the ship from above. Upon return, the aircrew confirmed to the captain that the New Orleans did indeed appear to be an immobile target covered in palm branches amidst a slick of oil.<br><br>Then the captain took to the ship&apos;s PA to confidently declare to the crew: &quot;Our efforts have been a complete success; we are now invisible to the Japanese.&quot;<br><br>The crew then famously jury-rigged the missing bow with coconut logs just to limp to Sydney, before eventually sailing stern-first all the way back to Puget Sound.

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• CA

  @camrontabler7543 · 3 years ago

  Early step in the triage process: &quot;Is there any unexploded ordinance on the ship?&quot; No body wants to start draining the drydock only to find an armed torpedo or 14 inch shell sticking out of the hull.

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• TW

  @twrecks4598 · 3 years ago

  Don&apos;t forget the cleaning out of the damaged spaces... including bits and pieces of people, sludge/oil/grease buildup, grey water, etc. As a Navy Veteran of the 90&apos;s ... I cannot fathom the experience sailors had during the world wars... truly the greatest generation

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• TR

  @trevorday7923 · 3 years ago

  Honestly there are an awful lot of photos there which show just what a Herculean task the crews did with their damage-control procedures. With a lot of them it&apos;s a case of &quot;how the hell did it survive THAT???&quot;. Some of those chuffing great holes look way too wide to have survived.... but still they did. &nbsp;My respect for the sailors of various navies has gone up several points.

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• KE

  @kevsim70 · 3 years ago

  This was actually my grandfather&apos;s job during WW2. He was the foreman of a repair crew at a naval shipyard in the San Francisco area that the ships damaged vs the Japanese in the Pacific would be sent to. He worked there before the war, actually. After Pearl Harbor he went to enlist but the military turned him down flat. They said that he was in an absolutely war-critical role, and he could contribute FAR more to the war effort by staying right where he was than he could by enlisting.

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• PH

  @ph89787 · 3 years ago

  Yorktown &amp; Enterprise: That&apos;s enough repairs. I&apos;m going back to sinking ships.

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• JE

  @jeffholloway3882 · 3 years ago

  I would very much like to see a video &nbsp;on the salvaged ship&apos;s of pearl harbor and what repairs/ modernization were done to them

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• TI

  @TimelyAbyss · 3 years ago

  A note re: avoiding splicing wires. &nbsp;I can confirm, at least in a mining environment, when re-building equipment we ALWAYS re-cable. &nbsp;Any splice, no matter how carefully done, will quickly corrode and cause problems. &nbsp;I can imagine this is much worse in saltwater spray environments.

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• JO

  @johnniewoodard648 · 3 years ago

  I watched your video on the salvaging/raising of the ships at Pearl Harbor. We always hear about the attack, that was the first time I realized the scope of the horrors that were faced and overcome by the men and women in the aftermath. My heart simultaneously swelled with pride and died at the same time. I hope that made sense.<br> On a lighter note as an US Navy veteran I enjoy your content, Thanks for your continuing efforts.

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