We go to ship strips. You can find these fuses on just about all the old surface skimmers and we get them off the Trout that is in Philapelphia. The Trout is set to be scaped. The winning bidder is announced next week. Once we fine out who won and where they are going with it, we call them and ask if we can secure more things off of her before the torch cuts her up. We are hoping she ends up in Baltimore like the Orion did. She just my stay in Philadelphia to be cut up. Not sure right now. Fortunate for Torsk a few of the volunteers either earned their dolphins on the Torsk or sister ships to the Torsk. Their knowledge is priceless. Other than that, we have some very industrious volunteers that collect odds and ends over the years. We could probably build a second sub with the amount we have in the aft battery room!

At any rate, Gino inquired about the TDC and if it functions. It has not been powered up in a long time. Also, it needs two pieces to complete the circuit to the scopes and TBT. In short, she can work but needs some TLC. Other than that, we know it is one of the rarer TDC and possible the only one in existence. Today we discovered the Torsk was cut open twice in the aft engine room. Uncovered a painted plate stating that BU Ships needs to be contacted if the plate was removed 4 times. We could not figure out what plate the plate was talking about. Then we made the connection, the plate was mounted on the hull plate were she was cut open twice. We followed the weld lines!!! She was opened over the generators. Either to replace those or install the reefers. At any rate, I cleaned up the paint someone painted it with and remounted the plate.

In all honesty guys, the amount of detail and work that went into one of these in the 40's is astonishing. Solid brass, quality chrome and steel. Truely a piece of work! You can see the pride in the work!

USS Pampanito has a fully operational TDC. They have a blurb on their website about how intricate and delicate the machine is along with a few pictures of the inside mechanisms.