"New" scope on the way
 

We have a new periscope coming to the Batfish in the near future. I took the huge periscope manual home with me to read over. We're trying to see if we can swap parts out with the scopes in the boat and maybe get one of the optics working again. Apparently water leaked into the scopes and damaged the magnification mechanisms.

Where are you guys getting the scope from? That is going to be awesome, are you going to replace the whole scope, or just switch out parts from the scope that is coming?

Good question. Are you replacing the whole scope? If so, start looking up a crane company now!

Right now the scopes are being supported by metal beams, and one of the subvets told me that to get the periscopes to their raised position, they had to get the water company to blast over 400psi of water in order to get the scopes up and the beams in place.

I think they are using it for spare parts, but they never really said what their intentions were. I informed them that the average scope weighs about 2000 pounds.

I believe the Torsk scopes were craned up. Currently they are chained to the ceiling (ob scope) and the attack scope is blocked with wood under it. We can still spin it around etc.

The Pampanito had some hydraulics company donate time and parts in order to get their periscopes housings operational. Of course, her machinery works, too. I don't think we're going to bother with too many mechanical devices on this boat.

Where is the scope coming from? I can't wait to see a working scope.

I forget where the scope is coming from. I think it's an observation scope and the museum would like to get one of them working on the boat.

I have been reviewing the hydraulic system for the scopes and I think that it will be a major project whether we replace the scopes with a crane or try to get the hydraulics working, raise the scopes under power, and then repair the observation scope while it's installed. Right now both of our scopes are propped up.

I told Rick that probably the higher priority at this point is to restore power to the circuit panels in the control room, since a lot of boat functions are routed through there. Once that happens, things like a working 1MC, radar, hydraulics, etc. have a better chance of becoming a reality.

It would be nice if a local hydraulics company donated their time to restoring our hydraulics, but I'm not holding my breath.

Yea, we probably should restore power to the circuit board before anything else, it is too bad that Dick Fogle (a WWII sub vet) passed away last fall, since he was an electricians mate, he would be a real help.

Give that task to Rod Mish down there, he is kind of the greeter guy, and good at talking to people, so im sure he could get it done.

I think one of the other vets that I met at the meeting in January is also an electricians mate. He's the one that told me that the wiring in the equipment is very stiff and "crunchy" because it's covered in asbestos. I thought it was mainly due to dry rot, but was glad to hear that the wiring would not catch fire, if and when we power everything up in the 1MC stack.

Have you guys located the tubes for the 1MC you were looking for? As far as the hydraulics, major undertaking but it can be done. We were fortunate to find a hydraulic pump on a ship strip. The con in the Torsk needs a lot of work.

I found a few suppliers for the tubes. Very easy to obtain and very cheap for the most part. The fun part will be replacing all of the capacitors. :huh:

As far as I could tell when I was in the pump room our machinery appeared to be 95% - 99% intact. One of the pumps looked like it was missing a small cover, but it could have been laying on one of the nearby work benches. We probably need to make an assessment of that system in time to loot parts from the USS Trout when she becomes available for scrounging. It would also behoove us to keep an eye on the Clamagore to see if the Navy takes her back at some point. Her equipment will probably be more valuable than the Trout's due to not being left to rot for 35 years in mothballs.

We definatley need to get more lights put up in places, because when I was in the pump room, I had to use my cell phone as light to walk aound in there. We need to take a look at the motor room, and see what it is like, or has Rick already done that?

There are a few lights in the pump room that adequately light it, but it does need a few more bulbs. You have to turn the lights on once you get down there. There's a switch panel near the ladder.

I haven't been in the motor room, yet. Rick has been down there lots of times. The motor room is useless to us as far as getting the hydraulics and electronics running in the control room/conning tower. The hydraulic pump and motor are located under the control room and the power more than likely comes from one of the switch panels above... or we can rig it up to do so.

The maneuvering room and motor room are tied into the diesel engines and batteries (which no longer exist). It's basically an electrical sub station that determined if power came from the generators or batteries and what motors to send it to, as well as other shipboard equipment. The control room has two A/C busses that we can tap directly into from the museum, essentially bypassing the maneuvering room altogether. We might have to disconnect the lines going between the maneuvering room and control room, so that we don't back-feed a generator and cause a fire.

Yea. When Rick and I were in the Pump room it was the first time he had been down there so we were just looking at how things were. Im sure he has found alot more stuff since then.

Does Batfish have a rectifier? The Hydraulic system motor, and everything else (EXCEPT the lighting, interior communications, radio, radar and sonar systems), runs on 145 to 345 volts DC. Attempting to run any of those systems on 120 volt AC will result in at best chattering contactors, and quite possibly serious equipment damage and or fire.

I would suggest looking at raising the scopes with a hand pump connected directly to the hydraulic cylinders themselves. If you only intend to raise them once, I would avoid the extra work on getting the rest of the system operational.

Most of the equipment in the control room runs on 120 VAC from the circuit boards in that room - the frequency is mainly 60Hz with a few exceptions. We will have to see where we need to attach shore power to the A/C Bus #1 located in the control room switch/circuit boards to get the right results, since we are no longer converting the power from the generators. We have a lot of electrical schematics and we're in the process of getting more from the Torsk.

If the hydraulic motor requires a different voltage and frequency, we could always install a transformer and anything else needed to make the conversion or maybe use a 120V motor in place of the existing one.

The periscopes were raised with high pressure water a long time ago and then metal posts were placed under them in the conning tower to keep them raised. As a museum, we're trying to restore equipment to its original functionality.

I'm wondering if they pumped the water into the hydraulic lines or used some other means. My idea is to disconnect a lot of the hydraulic lines to the dive planes, steering transmission, outer torpedo doors, etc. and replace the ones needed to operate the scopes.

Take a look at Chapter 4 of the Submarine Electrical Installations book of the Fleet Type Submarine Training Manual for details on the electrical auxiliary equipment.

http://www.hnsa.org/doc/fleetsub/elect/chap4.htm

But suffice to say, you will need a 250 Volt Direct Current rectifier to energize the appropriate switch boards.


As for the hydraulic system, when we got Hornet and started work on restoring the aircraft elevators we quickly found out that the hydraulic fluid already in the system was rather caustic stuff. That fluid was likely from the 1960's, I believe the fluid used in WWII was probably more dangerous, as well as being fairly flammable. Please use appropriate caution.