Hull Eyelets

Post here about equipment carried on ships
User avatar
Little h
Posts: 1727
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:53 pm

Hull Eyelets

Unread post by Little h »

US Navy

With................

Arleigh Burke's
USS John S. McCain DDG-56 160928-N-WJ640-019 Cmdr U.S. 7th Fleet defense.gov (2).JPG


Ticonderoga's
USS_Chosin_2006_060109-N-9643K-006 wiki (2).jpg


Wasp Class LHD's
USS Bonhomme Richard 10080625 navsource (2).jpg




A top US Navy engineer says the fleet needs to get out and bust the rust
By: David B. Larter   June 30


WASHINGTON — With the U.S. Navy attempting to keep its surface combatants such as the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers for 40-45 years each, sailors and maintainers must do everything they can to keep corrosion under control, one of the service’s senior-most engineering duty officers told attendees of the annual American Society of Naval Engineers’ Technology, Systems and Ships conference on June 20.

Vice Adm. Thomas Moore, the head of Naval Sea Systems Command, said the fleet spends billions to keep corrosion under control and that all levels of maintenance must make that a priority.

“Corrosion is one of the big things if we want to keep the ships around for 40-45 years; we have to do what is necessary on the corrosion side of things,” Moore said. “I don’t have the exact numbers, but we are spending $10 billion on our ship depot maintenance. And I’m guessing that several billion of that is corrosion-related, so it’s a significant portion of the budget.

“We have to stay on top of it. We have to be willing to do the work necessary to limit corrosion on the ship. And it’s not just at the depot. It’s in intermediate maintenance and its with ship’s force. We have to recognize that this is a law-of-physics thing and stay on top of it.”

Moore’s comments were in response to a question from an attendee who cited a number of pictures that have surfaced in recent years of surface combatants looking worse for wear with an abundance of running rust, something the Navy has traditionally tried to tackle. The images have led to naval observers questioning whether the Navy allows its ships to fall into disrepair amid plans to keep them active longer than the hulls were designed for.

Explanations for the proliferation of running rust range from low manning on surface ships to over-tasking to environmental regulations that make it more difficult to remove paint. But, Moore said, it’s imperative sailors stay on top of rust to prevent its spread.

“A lot of times, [regarding] the amount of corrosion on the ship, there is a direct relationship between that and the … commanding officer’s ability, willingness to get after it on a regular basis,” Moore said. “I think its going to take a concerted effort at all levels — the ship’s force, the intermediate level and then at the depot level — for us to stay after it.”

Corrosion on the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers has been an issue in the past, and likely remains one. A 2009 secretary of the Navy brief on surface-ship maintenance cited a 400 percent increase in corrosion control jobs for Burkes between 2003 and 2009. The average age of the Burkes in 2009 was 14 years old. The Burkes in particular will be vital to maintain because the Navy is counting on getting 40-45 years of hull life out of them to get to the required fleet size of 355 ships in the 2030s.

In a commentary that ran in Defense News’ naval warfare newsletter The Drift, a retired naval officer and pseudonymous Navy commentator Cmdr. Salamander recently tied the surface fleet’s mission to show the flag overseas to physical appearance.

“To the citizens of its nation, the condition and performance of their navy does two things; first it shows that the navy is a good steward of taxpayers’ investment, and second it gives them piece of mind that if their navy sorties forward to defend the nation, odds are they are trained, manned, and equipped to do so,” Salamander wrote.

“Likewise, no coastal nation will be impressed with an ally or a competitor who huffs and puffs about the power of its navy, and then it shows up off the coast looking like a discarded ’58 Buick with a tree growing out of the wheel well.”

Source; DefenseNews

-------------------------------------------------

One of the comments following the article, reads:-
William Freitas
Yep, whenever the Kennedy was in port in '69, ships company would rig the lines in the eyelets, get in their harnesses, have their safety/utility boat down below, then work a scheduled area to stay ahead of the rust.
Like · Reply · 6 · 10w

____________________________________________________________________________________

Alas that course of action will not be possible on the following Types/Classes - the eyelets are no more, see:-


Without..................

Arleigh Burke's after DDG 95

Zumwalt's
DDG-1001 USS Michael Monsoor-014 seaforces.org.jpg


Ford Class CVN's
USS_Gerald_R._Ford_(CVN-78)_underway_on_8_April_2017 (2).JPG
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Last edited by Little h on Tue Sep 10, 2019 9:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Little h
User avatar
ivorthediver
Posts: 3659
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 8:42 pm
Location: Cambridge Shore Battery

Re: Hull Eyelets

Unread post by ivorthediver »

Well perhaps the modern sailor feels such menial tasks are below their station and would prefer to listen to his iTunes on his iPhone rather than chip paint and repaint his ship , let alone be put on charge for disobeying an order to maintain ship ;)

Undermanning would be offered as an excuse , what about disciplinary duties , the No 1 could direct their tasks to take pride in the appearance eh Harry
"What Ever Floats your Boat"
User avatar
Little h
Posts: 1727
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:53 pm

Re: Hull Eyelets

Unread post by Little h »

ivorthediver wrote: Tue Sep 10, 2019 8:34 pm Well perhaps the modern sailor feels such menial tasks are below their station and would prefer to listen to his iTunes on his iPhone rather than chip paint and repaint his ship , let alone be put on charge for disobeying an order to maintain ship ;)

Undermanning would be offered as an excuse , what about disciplinary duties , the No 1 could direct their tasks to take pride in the appearance eh Harry
I would have to know what watch system is in force before expecting lean manned crews to turn-to for paint ship.

Some ships company have been seen painting the ship's side (Duncan D37) when alongside, see here
Little h
User avatar
Little h
Posts: 1727
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:53 pm

Re: Hull Eyelets

Unread post by Little h »

ivorthediver wrote: Tue Sep 10, 2019 8:34 pm Well perhaps the modern sailor feels such menial tasks are below their station and would prefer to listen to his iTunes on his iPhone rather than chip paint and repaint his ship , let alone be put on charge for disobeying an order to maintain ship ;)

Undermanning would be offered as an excuse , what about disciplinary duties , the No 1 could direct their tasks to take pride in the appearance eh Harry
Seems that the chore of paint-ship was considered a skill waste by more than just the erks (sailors) ... it was also considered so bu some of those in the highest echelons of the US Navy. Not forgetting the comments made by some US Navy Officers on the subject back then (2001),


Hated Navy Task Is Being Shipped Out
By TONY PERRY
Feb. 5, 2001 12 AM

TIMES STAFF WRITER


SAN DIEGO —

Jason Swaney, 19, enlisted in the Navy eight months ago from Tomahawk, Wis., eager to see the world, learn a trade and defend his country.

Instead he’s been spending his days chipping off old paint and applying new paint to the amphibious transport ship Ogden.

Swaney is too polite to complain, but he does allow that he would not be a bit unhappy if he no longer had to chip and paint. “I could handle that,” he said quietly, paintbrush in hand.

Hang on, Seaman Swaney. Help is on the way.


Chipping and painting has been the bane of sailors since ships became metal. Now the Navy is trying to let civilians do the drudgery and free sailors to be sailors.

Here at the West Coast home of the U.S. Navy, officials predict that a painting-reduced Navy will be a happier Navy, possibly boosting reenlistment rates.

One admiral rates chipping and painting as the most hated job aboard ship, followed by cleaning heads (toilets) and working in the mess deck (kitchen).

“I don’t think anybody’s self-esteem was ever enhanced by chipping and painting,” said Vice Adm. Pete Nanos, commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command. “It’s an absolute burden.”

And--as any sailor can tell you--the Navy does a lot of chipping and painting. Saltwater takes a brutal toll on a ship, eating away paint, immediately rusting any surface left unprotected.

The average ship requires enough chipping and painting annually to keep 16 sailors busy full time--a lavish use of manpower that a former secretary of the Navy says is intolerable in a time of tight budgets and decreasing crew sizes.

The Navy has hired a Chula Vista-based firm called Corrosion Engineering Services to paint ships in San Diego and Norfolk, Va. This year, the firm also will send painting crews to bases in Hawaii, Japan, Washington, Florida and Texas. Last year the budget was $16 million; this year, $37 million.

Many young sailors, who enlisted in hopes of getting technical training in electronics, computers or modern weapons systems, are shocked at how much of their time is spent painting.

“Chipping and painting is one of those things the recruiter doesn’t tell you about,” said Seaman Randy Ingle of Walkerton, Ind., now assigned to the guided-missile cruiser Antietam.

As a Navy town, San Diego is a repository of memories about chipping and painting. Every former sailor has a story.

Michael Stepner, dean of the New School of Architecture, said that avoiding painting duty was a major goal of sailors when he served on a troop transport during the Vietnam War.

“Guys would do anything, stay busy on other things, keep out of sight, anything,” Stepner said. “Eventually you got caught, though.”

Chipping and painting was so onerous that the Marines used it as punishment for enlisted men who could not behave on their way to war. “The sergeant would come with 15 Marines and say: ‘Here are your chippers and painters for today,’ ” Stepner said.

Edwin Bell, a security guard at a downtown office building, was on a destroyer where the captain, after the ship had been at sea for weeks, denied liberty for the lower ranks until painting work was finished. “It was bad,” he said.

Bill Sinatra, head engineer for a cable television station, said that in the late 1950s he painted himself into a corner below decks on an oiler and then passed out from the fumes from the lead-based paint. “They had to carry me up three decks,” he said.

John Morgan, now employed by the San Diego office of the state Public Utilities Commission, remembers chipping and painting on one of the Navy’s last diesel-powered submarines.

“I hated it, of course,” he said.

So dreaded is the chore that anyone who expresses a liking for it is considered slightly daft.

“If anyone said they liked painting duty, I figured they needed to be sent to sick call,” said Gregg Hartung, a retired Navy captain now working for the San Diego County water board.

With the use of stronger paints and better cleaning equipment, Corrosion Engineering Services promises that its paint jobs will last longer. Historically, the Navy has used low-cost paint, which had the unfortunate effect of requiring numerous paint jobs on the same surfaces in short periods of time.

“It’s a constant, continual process,” said Allen Herman, a senior chief petty officer aboard the Ogden. “You paint your house and it lasts maybe five years. I’m lucky if I get five months from a paint job.”

The shift to civilian contractors was championed by Richard Danzig, who served as secretary of the Navy during the final 14 months of the Clinton administration.

No business, he often said, would do what the Navy does: Take entry-level employees, spend time and money to train them in technical skills, instill them with the lofty values of the organization, and then make them do a job that is tedious, repetitive and unrelated to their career goals.

No one expects that civilians, working dockside, will be able to do all of the painting for the Navy’s 300-plus ships. There always will be a need to perform rust removal and repair when a ship is at sea.

Last week, Corrosion Engineering Services workers were painting interior sections of the Ogden while sailors, including Swaney, were painting the hull.

Decreasing the amount of chipping and painting done by sailors is meant to boost morale and allow sailors to spend more time training, in the case of the Ogden, for the task of delivering Marines to combat.

“Nobody comes into the Navy to chip and paint,” said Cmdr. Ted Guillory, the Ogden’s commanding officer. “We’re war fighters, not chippers and painters.”


Source; Los Angeles Times
Little h
User avatar
oldsalt
Posts: 243
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 3:08 pm
Location: Plymouth

Re: Hull Eyelets

Unread post by oldsalt »

Until you have cleaned & chipped away old red lead paint from bilges, then repaint, you havn't lived.
User avatar
ivorthediver
Posts: 3659
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 8:42 pm
Location: Cambridge Shore Battery

Re: Hull Eyelets

Unread post by ivorthediver »

Thanks Harry and Keith , I can totally sympathise with them doing that rondos task repeatedly :(
"What Ever Floats your Boat"
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic

Return to “Ships/Boats Equipment”