News

Since our last restoration update, we and the Gulf Copper crews have continued to make progress on this big beautiful blue battlewagon.

Wood Decking: the almost all of the margins and planking for the bow is fitted and waiting final installation and bedding. Over 75% of the bow is installed.

Paint: aside from spot blasting two small areas (and the foretop), exterior painting is done and cleanup has already started. Those two small areas will get taken care of this week. Blasting also uncovered a lot of damaged steel on the Superstructure Deck, enough to keep our steel crew busy.

Steel work: the good thing about abrasive blasting to remove old paint is that it shows you where weak spots are in the steel. Because those weak spots usually turn into holes. Fitters and welders are continuing to work on the midship area repairing damaged steel uncovered by abrasive blasting. Since the last update they repaired deck drains above and in the Galley, repaired a galley shutter opening, straightened warped hatches, repaired bulkheads, and started on repairing the intake for Boiler Room 4 (now that the scaffolding is out of the way). They should finish up in this area this week and start on the repairs on the Superstructure Deck.

The forced draft intake for Boiler Room 4 was plated over in 1948. It has been a source of water intrusion into the ship over the years, so we are fixing it. When we are done you will be able to tell that it is an intake and rain water will not be able to get into the interior of the ship.