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Battleship Texas

noelekal
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The subject in my avatar has been on the move and just within the past few days!

It's the Texas. It's the only battleship remaining which served in both World War I and World War II.

https://www.google.com/search?q=BB3...VUg2oFHU3wAuMQ4lYoAnoECAEQJg&biw=1265&bih=843

I've been keeping up with this project, but had gotten a little behind on the actual date of the beginning of the restoration project and only learned of it yesterday. The Texas was just towed to dry dock August 31st, which happened to be on Mrs. noelekal's birthday.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/l...A11j4mO?cvid=c747a4525a67401bb3d035a40162dc2c

The Texas has acquired some patina, quite a lot of patina actually. It's debatable among the battleship collecting fraternity if the patina is attractive or detracting and many may dispute any restoration effort at all in favor of all factory originality, but the elderly battlewagon isn't factory original anymore and hasn't been almost since its launch on May 18, 1912.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_br_p4504_0126.pdf

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/uss-texas-battery-hamburg-1944

I've been enthused about the Texas ever since my parents placed me, still bawling and squalling, on one of its guns for photograph in 1960, having just bonked my head on one of the guns of No. 4 barbette while climbing around on No. 3 barbette. That photo is somewhere within the mounds of their "colored slides."

I have to go down and check on the Texas every few years whenever I'm in the Houston, Texas area, just 'cause.



Here's the entire photograph that I used to create my Forum avatar. I'd wanted the photo in its entirety to grace my avatar, but am too ignorant to have pulled that off when setting up the avatar back when I joined the Forum. The system abbreviated it.


The San Jacinto Monument as seen from the parking lot near the Texas.


The Texas as seen from the top of the San Jacinto Monument.
"This is the back of the house, with Uncle Ted coming round the side to the front." Monty Python fans will understand.





Some YouTube clips of the event. This stuff really "floats my boat!




 
Donn Chambers
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Very cool. Thanks for sharing. I didn’t know this was happening. Have visited the Battleship Texas many times, starting when I was a little kid.
 
MRC
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I, a Brit, have been aboard USS Texas. Just amazed how men could live, work and fight in that horribly cramped environment.
 
Waltesefalcon
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I've been following it also. I've only visited it once but it's an amazing piece of history. I'm really looking forward to seeing it once the work is done.
 
Spruce
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Great research. It’s done well to survive two world wars and 110 years including 36 (?) in commission
 
Walrus
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Cool thanks for the write up and pics I’m always interested in history not only of warfare but generally speaking.
 
UncleBuck
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Great post, Bryan,
While maybe she has looked better, she definitely has looked worse!

Since I consider Texas a foreign country, I can't get as worked up as if it were the Missouri!

We get all fixed up for the Steven Seagal movies.

You, on the other hand, look splendid!

All my best and all my love, Brother!
 
dsio
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Its a remarkably difficult thing raising the funds needed to keep historical warships like this afloat and in good shape. There are two here in Brisbane that I’ve been very fond of since a child that are sort of up in the air and potentially looking for a new home, both of which are very important to Australia and our state of Queensland. Great to see the Texas still surviving even if she isn’t perfect
 
JwRosenthal
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Very cool to see this is still alive and well. I have visited the Yorktown and Clamagore in Charleston, both really give you an idea of how people lived in these vessels.

We here in Baltimore have a couple gems including the Taney (one of the few remaining vessels that were at Pearl Harbor on the morning of the attack), and the crown jewel, the USS Constellation

089F8A3B-CA52-4AF3-B6FE-6ED11E8FE826.jpeg


https://historicships.org/

The Constellation was in rough shape about 20 years ago (about 90 years since it’s last major restoration) and taking on water. A massive campaign was launched using private and public funds for the restoration and its back to its former glory and used as an education/tourist vessel now.
 
noelekal
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MRC MRC
I, a Brit, have been aboard USS Texas. Just amazed how men could live, work and fight in that horribly cramped environment.

And I, a Texan have been aboard the HMS Victory. I was also amazed at the cramped environment.

AT 6' 3" I was far from being able to stand erect below deck.
 
ghce
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Here in NZ, people / Govt are too penny pinching and they just go to scrap which to me is a great shame.
The past should be celebrated not forgotten or worse actively buried by the short sighted.
 
Omegafanman
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Interesting post thanks.
Not my photos and a much smaller and older ship, in the UK they did a great job with the SS Great Britain. I had a small involvement with the project. It looks amazing from the deck and the glass ‘water’ ceiling in the dry dock also allows them to dehumidify the lower hull - so largely stopping any corrosion, Shame they can’t get the Texas out of the water but I imagine it would be a huge engineering challenge. That would secure it long term and reduce ongoing refurbishment costs.
.
Edited:
 
3C2BDC43-4E04-4E75-BD59-59CEC9F35219.jpeg 849CCC18-0052-4660-8CA5-B4DC31FFC804.jpeg E96AD4C5-5BCF-4878-942F-CFA8FDD4B32F.jpeg
Waltesefalcon
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Omegafanman Omegafanman
Interesting post thanks.
Not my photos and a much smaller and older ship, in the UK they did a great job with the SS Great Britain. I has a small involvement with the project. It looks amazing from the deck and the glass ‘water’ ceiling in the dry dock also allows them to dehumidify the lower hull - so largely stopping any corrosion, Shame they can’t get the Texas out of the water but I imagine it would be a huge engineering challenge. That would secure it long term and reduce ongoing refurbishment costs.
.
One of the proposals for Texas' future is to dry berth her. Which I think would be fascinating.
 
krogerfoot
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noelekal noelekal
I've been enthused about the Texas ever since my parents placed me, still bawling and squalling, on one of its guns for photograph in 1960, having just bonked my head on one of the guns of No. 4 barbette while climbing around on No. 3 barbette. That photo is somewhere within the mounds of their "colored slides."
I think I might have hit my head on the same gun soon after my family moved to the Texas frontier sometime in the late 1970s.
noelekal noelekal
The Texas as seen from the top of the San Jacinto Monument.
"This is the back of the house, with Uncle Ted coming round the side to the front."
I wasn’t expecting the Spanish Inquisition.
 
Pvt-Public
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Somewhere amongst my old photos I have a couple aerial shots that I took of the U.S.S. Texas, from when I had the opportunity to fly a Cessna 172 around the Houston area. Going to have to find them now. Damnit, something else to do today.
 
JwRosenthal
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It didn’t occur to me until this thread that keeping wooden tall ships navigable is far less costly that keeping these massive steel ships navigable. Not just in terms of regular maintenance but the cost of keeping them actually seaworthy (sails vs diesel engines).
Rigging and staffing a ship like the Constellation for a day trip is probably a fraction of the cost of fueling and staffing the Texas.
 
UncleBuck
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krogerfoot krogerfoot
I think I might have hit my head on the same gun soon after my family moved to the Texas frontier sometime in the late 1970s.

I wasn’t expecting the Spanish Inquisition.
 
river rat
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Cool photos of the of the USS Texas. Just after I retired before I moved out of California, they pulled the USS Iowa out of moth balls to become a museum ship they had it over in Richmond CA they were asking for volunteers to help paint it. Tell you when I was E-3 and below I hated chipping paint and painting, but I volunteered. Help paint the flight deck clean windows on the bridge on scaffolding after we removed the covers off them that protected them in moth balls, got to put the bloomers on the 16-inch guns and hook up the towing cables when it was time to tow it out of San Fransico Bay to LA. A few photo's.
gamSS5O.jpg
wKJ5bH8.jpg
OA0xcvo.jpg
OCkODOh.jpg
See the black covers those are bloomers you sat on the 16-inch gun to bolt these hoops on then the bloomers come on bolted down with large clamps. Who can say they sat on a 16-ich gun barrel.
e5gRTnK.jpg
They configured it to when it was recommissioned in the 1980's with the anti-aircraft \missile Phalanx CIWS see-wiz they look real from a distance until you get up close but a good job.
RNS72wQ.jpg
The fight deck I helped paint. We removed all the old paint to bare metal then repainted it.
u5Bwz5x.jpg
Me I sure looked younger then looked a hell of a lot older now. One of these days need to go see how she turned out never saw how she looked when she was ready to open up as a museum and all the work was done.
Edited:
 
Omegafanman
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river rat river rat
Who can say they sat on a 16-ich gun barrel.
Now you have made me share this Cher image... USS Missouri so 16inch? - thankfully fully decent with her bloomers on :0)
Great pics and memories in your post by the way.
.
 
Cher Missouri.jpg
JwRosenthal
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Omegafanman Omegafanman
Now you have made me share this Cher image... USS Missouri so 16inch? - thankfully fully decent with her bloomers on :0)
Great pics and memories in your post by the way.
.
Thanks, now I have that song stuck in my head. Here it is for all of your to rejoice!

 
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