Revealing the Interior of CSS Hunley

Via Stars and Stripes.

A two-person team outfitted in safety uniforms have been inside the sub since early last year, using stainless steel orthopedic tools and a pneumatic chisel to gently remove the sea’s encrustation that slowly enveloped the sub after it went down on Feb. 17, 1864, said project conservator Johanna Rivera-Diaz of Clemson University.

Their work has turned up many small bones – fingers, wrists and teeth, Rivera-Diaz said.

Most of the bones have been traced to first crewman Arnold Becker, who sat closest to the Hunley’s captain, George Dixon, near the sub’s bow, turning the propeller crank, she said.

“When I find something, I step back and say, ‘Wow,’” Rivera-Diaz said.

Status of CSS Hunley Restoration

Article from the Charleston, SC Post & Courier.

Working slowly, painstakingly and methodically, scientists try to learn the secrets of the Confederate submarine.

Graffiti Left On Transport Ship Tells a Vietnam Tale

Drawn on canvas racks - - bunks - - that soldiers and Marines travelling to Vietnam slept on.

Another One Bites the Dust*

US Navy: USS Saratoga (CV-60) to be scrapped.

Any non-nuclear aircraft carriers left at this point on active duty?

*when I attended US Navy boot camp in Orlando, Florida, in the fall of 1980, Queen's hit Another One Bites the Dust was a hit song. It was appropriate as our company was reduced in size from nearly 100 young men to around 80 at graduation, would have been even lower than that but we picked up some sailors from other companies who had been held back for one reason or another.

Yet Another Historic Ship Destined For the Scrapyard

USS Williamsburg, once a presidential yacht used by Harry Truman, now sits quietly rusting in an Italian shipyard.

She's a pretty thing:

At a cost of $55M to spiff her back up, though, there won't be too many willing to take on the project. A shame.

The Ship Skeleton That Was Found At the World Trade Center Site...

...during cleanup after 9/11 has been identified as to type, but no name yet.

It is a Hudson River Sloop and was active during the American Revolution.

Sad Day

"Ex-supercarrier Forrestal arrives at scrapyard."

They can't all become museums. Mark, sing a song for me, would you?

Headline of the Day

"Could Russian ghost ship infested with CANNIBAL RATS beach in Britain? Experts fear storms have driven cruise liner towards the UK after it went missing a year ago."

CANNIBAL. RATS.

Wish It Wasn't In Snow Country

It's the bow of an old Great Lakes cargo ship, doing new duty as a cliffside home:

It served as a sort of yacht to Henry Ford, who designed much of the elegant interior. Click the link for more great photos. It's the perfect sort of home for someone who's into ships/the sea and doesn't want to own an actual boat or ship.

Shipwreck Blog: Japanese I-400-Class Submarine, 1946

2300 feet down, near the coast of Hawaii.

It would have looked similar to this:

It was taken as a war prize by the US at the end of WWII and apparently was sunk to prevent the USSR from having access to its technology.

Torpedo ME, Would You?

Think I'll just give you a taste of my keel.

A UK merchant ship captain who rammed and sank a U-Boat during WWI after it attempted to torpedo him won the Distinguished Service Order medal, which is now being auctioned.

John Bell DSO.

Meanwhile, Off North Carolina's Outer Banks...

...the crew of the tall ship replica of HMS Bounty are abandoning the ship in the face of Hurricane Sandy:

Donning survival suits and boarding life boats, the crew of a tall ship in distress off North Carolina's Outer Banks abandoned the vessel as Hurricane Sandy swirled toward the East Coast, the Coast Guard said early Monday.

The 17 people aboard the HMS Bounty got into two 25-foot lifeboats with canopies, wearing survival suits and life jackets, Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class David Weydert in Portsmouth, Va., said.

The Coast Guard was trying to determine whether to use cutters or helicopters to rescue the crew, based on the current ocean conditions, Weydert said. Winds of 40 mph and 18-foot seas were reported at the ship, about 90 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C.

Click the link to read the rest. Not for nothing is the area off the North Carolina Outer Banks called "the Graveyard of the Atlantic."

Update:She sank. Possibly 2 unaccounted for.

The Dedication of the True Fanatic

A man in UK spent ten years building a scale model of Admiral Nelson's flagship HMS Victory:

More photos of this magnificent work at the link.

I got to visit Victory in the early 1980's when I was in the US Navy, on a port visit to Portsmouth. I had photos of the ship with the US flag flying at the mainmast as a courtesy; those didn't follow me here to the US when my marriage broke up and property was divided. Wonderful old ship.

Old Veterans Need Expensive Care

And when the veteran is the WWII-era submarine USS Clamagore the decision to pull the plug on her is easier than if she were a human veteran.

The death panel will meet in the next few months to decide whether Clamagore will end up as a reef.

Down In Charleston This Weekend...

HMS Bounty.

A replica of the ship made famous for a South Seas mutiny. Captain Bligh, Fletcher Christian.

"Flog that man, Mr. Christian!"

"But Sir, he's dead!"

"Mr. Christian, I said flog that man!"

Looks Like Ingalls Shipbuilding...

...is selling pre-rusted warships to the Coast Guard.

I guess it's sort of like buying pre-ripped jeans for the "cool" factor.

The Restored Cutty Sark

The last of the tea clippers has been restored after a fire nearly destroyed the famed ship, and the UK Daily Mail has its usual wonderful photos.

Sample:

That's the copper-sheathed hull of the ship, something you normally never see. The copper plating prevents teredos (shipworms) from boring into the wood and weakening it.

Meanwhile, Down In Charleston...

...conservators removed a truss from the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley.

The article doesn't really explain what the truss was used for, but I'd guess that it held the boat immobile so that it wouldn't break apart. If I'm wrong, someone please let me know.

With the truss gone, treatment of the boat's hull to keep it from further deterioration will now proceed.

Here's a pic; the boat is in pretty good shape, considering it was on the bottom of Charleston harbor for over 100 years:

Redcoats At the World Trade Center Site?

Apparently so; they traveled by ship, and one of them left a button behind that helped to identify his regiment:

Taking Care of a Veteran

The veteran in this case being HMS Victory, Lord Nelson's flagship from the Battle of Trafalgar.



I've been aboard her myself, back around 1982. She's small in comparison to modern warships, but the history can't be matched. When you go down to the orlop deck where Nelson died:



It's hard to repress a shiver. The orlop shown in the painting is not drawn accurately, either; in the ship itself the overhead timbers are so low as to make tall men stoop.