Today is our Hard Hat tour of the Battleship Texas. These tours are conducted during the cooler portion of the year and let me tell you, it was cold and drizzling outside. Our group is ten total (Rick, Kathy, Jim, Pete, Bob, Gary, Brian, Cindy, Mary and myself,) but our tour has a total of 14 people. We check in and are given our hard hats. Trust me, you'll need it if you are tall. The average person back then was 5' 8". We are given a quick briefing of the do's and don'ts. Do not stray from the tour. Some compartments lack oxygen. Watch where you step. Some of the floors are extremely rusted, and you can fall through. Don't worry. They point out all the bad spots. Don't touch anything unless told to. There are many levers and knobs that you will be tempted to play with, but these could snap right off.
Our intrepid adventurers.
I now understand why they call it a flight of stairs. You just about have to fly to get there. We climb a series of steep -- and might I add -- slick stairs to the top. Our first stop is the pilot house.
Our docent gives us a quick history of the Battleship Texas. It served in the War with Mexico and both World Wars. It was in Normandy, and it was in Okinawa. It is over 90 years old and is considered a very lucky ship. Only one person died due to battle action. When it was first built, it did not have anti-aircraft guns and had a crew of 1200. Anti-aircraft guns were added before World War 2, and the crew was increased to 1800 to man these guns. Hammocks were installed for the extra men. I heard that the sailors didn't get as seasick in a hammock, so many did prefer a hammock over a bunk. The first experimental radar was installed in the Texas. Being experimental, it was not the best, but it received a better one later. The Texas was destined to be part of the atomic bomb test at Bikini Atoll but was saved at the last moment. Unfortunately, the Navy had gutted it beforehand so many things had to be restored. The Texas is the last of two dreadnoughts.
Brian looks over a drawing of the first USS Texas, this Battleship Texas when it was first built and the World War 2 version of the Battleship Texas. What we have today is the World War 2 version with a Pacific paint job.
A diagram of the Hard Hat Tour
A short set of stairs behind the Pilot Room leads to the Captain's Sea Cabin where he would stay in case he may be needed on short notice, a radio room and the Chart Room which is shown above..
Our next stop is the big 14 inch guns which you see to the right.
The armor on these turrets are three inches of cast steel. The turrets just rest in place. If the ship was to turn over the turrets would just slip out. Believe it or not but we were able to fit 14 people in here.
Here we are inside the turret behind one of the guns. At Normandy, the temperature would be 85 degrees, but in the Pacific it would be a sweltering 115 degrees in here. They can load and fire every 45 seconds, but this was not sustainable. The guns have a 15 degree elevation. The newer ships could fire further because they had a 30 degree elevation.
Loading the gun is similar to loading a cannon. One difference is that after it was fired, air would be blasted through the gun to clear it of any fiery particles. The gun would be lowered to zero elevation.The breech would be opened and the barrel will be inspected for fire. If there was a fire, water would be sprayed inside. The shell is loaded first followed by the powder. Two guys below this gun would raise up 150 pound bags of cordite to two people standing where our docent and Brian are standing. They would load it onto the tray, and the two bags would be rammed in. The red side of the bag would be loaded to the rear. The rear portion has gunpowder. Two more bags of cordite would be loaded. The breech would be closed and a fuse would be loaded. At this point it can be fired manually or electronically. They will set the switch to ready and the gun will be elevated again. That means the breech drops down and that the two sailors below the gun will have to lay flat on their back. They had to keep their mouths open or their ears would pop due to the movement of the breech. It wasn't really loud inside there, but outside, the smaller guns near these turrets would be left unmanned if these turrets were firing. Both the loader and the gunner who rotates the turret and elevates the gun will hold their switches down. The computer waits till the ship is 0 degree horizon and fire.
Navigating the stairs/ladders was tricky especially when I have my Canon 20D and external flash. No, I didn't bring my case, so I didn't want it to bump around. I preferred to walk down the stairs/ladder and lean way back.
Some of the hatches are pretty tight.
Forward Distribution Room - there are several huge switches here.
Central Station is another location where the ship can be navigated. Damage control is also performed from here. A narrow vertical tube connects this room to the pilot house which is several decks above. Wiring covers the wall of this tube, and they assure me that a skinny man can fit inside to do repairs.
Originally, the plotting room did not have AC, but before the Texas moved to the Pacific, they installed an AC so that the sailors would not be dripping sweat onto their charts. Plot also has several circuit breakers for the guns as well as a Mark 1 computer which would fire the guns when it detected zero horizon.
This little gizmo kept track of the ship.
The Boiler Room used to be underwater till 1988 when the Texas was renovated. The Texas was originally a coal fired ship fed by sailors. The Boiler Room had positive pressure so that the fire would not back up when the big guns were fired. The Texas has basically 3 hulls. There are five boilers. It takes 12 hours to get a boiler to temperature. It only requires one boiler to make 10 knots, but all five to make 21 knots. The bow wave absorbs most of the energy. The boilers are on the centerline so that the water won't slosh around as much. 80% of the water is used to make steam. Steam is used to turn the propellers, the electric generators, and drive the ship. The water is made by evaporation and not reverse osmosis.
What a style A Boiler looks like when it's restored. The three holes in front would normally be covered. That would be where it spray the fuel into the boiler. This would have to be cleaned every so often just like your lawnmower engine.
The firebrick inside the boiler. It shouldn't look like this.
What an unrestored boiler looks like.
The powder handling room. The powder is just behind those white doors. The little hatch you see in the wall is where they will put the powder bag.
On the opposite side are these things. You pull a lever, and the powder drops down. This keeps the powder away from any possible sources of fire. This room supports the turret above.
This entire mechanism including the ladder rotates with the turret. Huge buckets of water are in the center. If there is a bad powder bag, it is soaked in the buckets in the middle so that it cannot accidentally explode. With the powder bag in your arms, you walk around this mechanism clockwise, till...
...you find this and you load the powder bag which is then raised to the turret.
The 14-inch shells weigh 1200 pounds and are stored in a separate room. They are dragged by overhead rails to...
...here. You connect the chain to it and turn the crank of the dial you see to indicate that it is time to haul up the shell. There are dings in the floor where a shell was dropped on the deck. Don't worry. There is no fuse in the shells yet.
Aft Steering is the last place that the ship can be navigated from. You can steer the ship by steam, electric or even manually. Sixteen sailors (2 on either side of a wheel) would turn those wooden wheels you see in the background.
Gary and Bob checks out the electric steering.
Pete "steers" for awhile.
It is dark by the time we leave. Our 3 hour tour took 4 hours but it was well worth the $30 donation which helps save the Battleship Texas. Its hull is thinning, and the federal government took away money that they were going to give for restoration. The State of Texas isn't helping much either.
It was funny leaving the park. It was past closing and we were trying to find our way out but they had barricaded the only exit I knew of. So here's a convoy of 4 cars circling around the park looking for an exit. I try the same exit again and find the gate has been opened.
Everyone had fun even the more claustrophobic who had no problems with any portion of the tour.
Bob suggest that I organize a tour of the Port of Houston. I told him no problem but I'll organize it when the weather was better...maybe March. Cindy wanted a haunted tour. I've heard of one and told her that I'll look for it again.
