To begin with, Christmas came early for SLATER this year. Or, more properly, as far as some of us are concerned, it may as well have. One problem that people seem to think keeps coming up for the restoration of SLATER is the parts. I mean, where do they all come from? Surely, after 60 years, technology has advanced to the stage where many of these parts are unavailable, right? Well, not really. Many of the items I have noticed around SLATER are the same as those used aboard ships today. Case in point: Sharples Lube Oil Purifiers. If you want to look at one, you can sneak onto your local Navy base and try and get down to the engineroom of a nuclear powered ship or submarine. Due to inherent risks, I would recomend visiting the enginerooms aboard SLATER. Yup, almost part for part, the exact same piece of machinery used in the fleet today. Many of the interior communications equipment, the sound-powered phones, etc. is exactly the same as was used during the Second World War. So whenever the Navy is scrapping or decommissioning a ship, we manage to get aboard and take whatever we need. Hence Christmas in June. A group of dedicated volunteers went down to Newport News and brought back a plethora of whirlies and gizmos. Pistons for diesels. Tachometers. Pyrometers. Hoses for CO2 fire extinguishers. Boxes upon boxes of fuses. Breaker panels. Valve caps and valves and springs and injectors for the diesels. For a mechanic, it looked like the biggest toybox you could imagine.
Beyond that, there was other work to be done. Down in one of the forward spaces, there was a mountain of old life jackets, kapoks, that needed stacking and re-arranging. Also there were bags of sand for the sandblaster that had been moved forward to the forcastle and had to be lowered belowdecks. After that, the collection troughs that catch leakage past the main shafts before it collects in the bilges had to be drained. And by "collection troughs" I mean of course, kitty litter buckets. Yup, Tidy Cat, the (semi) official cat litter of US Navy museum ships in the greater Capital Region. For all the mechanic nerds out there (both of us), I went ahead and snapped a photo of shaft alley, which is right before the shaft penetrates the hull. The top of the picture, where the shaft goes into the bulkead? That's the shaft seal, and beyond that, the Hudson. 
Of course, the shaft seals were designed for a small amount of leakage, just to cool and lubricate the seal. And based on the small amount of water that had collected over the week, a small amout is what we got. But after that, it was back to my pet project: valves, valves, and more valves.I decided this week that, come hell or high water, I was going to get one of those gate valves I've 
been putting off onto the work bench and make it look good. Not to spoil the ending, but I should have prepared myself with a water bottle and a kapok of my own. I decided to go back to work on the gate valved I've mentioned earlier, the one that had the problem with the bolts shearing. Well, on one side, the nuts and bolts came off, no problem. And since sheared bolts are useless, I decided that, since there was a 3' section of pipe adjacent to the valve, I'd take the valve and the section of pipe off with it. After a few minutes of persuasion, my plot worked, and I had the valve and pipe section out of the engineering spaces and where I could better work on it.
been putting off onto the work bench and make it look good. Not to spoil the ending, but I should have prepared myself with a water bottle and a kapok of my own. I decided to go back to work on the gate valved I've mentioned earlier, the one that had the problem with the bolts shearing. Well, on one side, the nuts and bolts came off, no problem. And since sheared bolts are useless, I decided that, since there was a 3' section of pipe adjacent to the valve, I'd take the valve and the section of pipe off with it. After a few minutes of persuasion, my plot worked, and I had the valve and pipe section out of the engineering spaces and where I could better work on it.
Let me just say that when a bolt and nut have fused together over 50 years, there's no getting them apart with a mere set of wrenches. To this end, I was introduced to several novel ways of removing nuts from bolts. The first came to me by a veteran who also went to dive school. With a large enough hammer and a good enough chisel, it's not too difficult to chisel through the nut and break it free that way. An interesting solution, for sure, and one I'll have to keep in mind should a similar problem face me in the fleet. The other solution to which I was introduced came from one of our welders. He simply put his welding torch to the stuck nut and just melted the damn thing off. I'm not a welder, but if I know where to find one in the future, it wouldn't be a bad way to go.So, once I had the pipe free, I returned it to the system below, and began work on the valve. I
spend hours on that valve. I put small wrenches on that valve. I put larger wrenches on that valve. I put a few excessively large wrenches (if such things exist) on that valve. I oiled the valve. I cursed the valve. I begged the valve. I threatened the valve. I cajoled the valve. I coaxed the valve. I did everything to that valve but take it apart. Not only that, it remains completely frozen. Won't move, won't budge, won't do anything but sit there and mock me. We even went so far as to put a propane torch on the valve, hoping to get some extra clearance, but it was no dice. The valve remains completely frozen, even now. But mark my words, that valve, before too long, will be disassembled, cleaned, and returned to the system. That or it will become the Hudson River's newest artificial reef.
spend hours on that valve. I put small wrenches on that valve. I put larger wrenches on that valve. I put a few excessively large wrenches (if such things exist) on that valve. I oiled the valve. I cursed the valve. I begged the valve. I threatened the valve. I cajoled the valve. I coaxed the valve. I did everything to that valve but take it apart. Not only that, it remains completely frozen. Won't move, won't budge, won't do anything but sit there and mock me. We even went so far as to put a propane torch on the valve, hoping to get some extra clearance, but it was no dice. The valve remains completely frozen, even now. But mark my words, that valve, before too long, will be disassembled, cleaned, and returned to the system. That or it will become the Hudson River's newest artificial reef.Perhaps the Valve Gods demand a sacrifice? I wonder where I can find a white ram, a bronze dagger, and a dark-haired virgin at this time of the night...
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