I'm standing out here in front of Battleship Texas just outside of Houston.
She's a beautiful ship that's seen two world wars and enemy action in both.
She's still floating behind us, but she needs our help.
I'm Trevzor. We're Talkin' Ship.
I'm here with Julius Taylor.
We're going to be talking about the restoration project here on Battleship Texas.
But first, let's see what's going on in-game this weekend.
Pan-Asian Destroyer marathon is continuing on
to help you get prepared for the release of the Pan-Asian Destroyers.
Thanksgiving weekend is coming up
and there's going to be a lot of sales on a lot of different premium ships,
as well as a mission to get you one day of premium time.
And lastly, this is a Project Valor month
with 100% of the proceeds from the Project Valor bundles going to Battleship Texas.
Julius, there's a lot going on here with Battleship Texas
and we said earlier that she needs a lot of help.
What is going on with Texas and why does she need our help?
Well, first of all, this ship was launched in 1912, well over 100 years ago.
So, she's been in salt water for over 100 years. She's been dry docked a few times.
Most recently in the 80s.
But her hull is super thin and her framing is corroded severely.
So, we've been tasked with going through the ship and doubling up her keel, longitudinals, and framing
from the centerline keel out to the fifth longitudinal, which you can see right here.
And we have a way to do that.
So, when we're done, she'll have all new keel,
all new longitudinals, an all new frame, and a new honeycomb of good brand new steel.
So, when she does come out of the water, she won't collapse on herself.
That's the purpose of our project.
Fantastic. And how far along do you guys think you are right now?
Well, we've done this in two phases.
The first phase was finished up in 2014
and we did the engine rooms, which we were just in.
Just like you see it here, all under the engines is brand new framing.
And we did a space back aft, which you'll see later.
Phase two, I think we have about another year to go.
But, we're ahead of the engine rooms now.
From here, up to the bulkhead you see there. And even beyond that
to catch it. So we'll have, when all is said and done,
the back third of the ship will be reframed.
OK. So what work goes into reframing the ship?
What are the steps that it takes to put a new
frame and hull onto this very, very old battleship?
That's a great question. There's a lot of work that goes into it.
Cuz what you're looking at right here, most of what we've been working in
this is former fuel tanks that contain Number 6 oil or Bunker C.
That's what the boilers burn to make the fuel.
So, step one is we have to clean those fuel tanks out
and make it such that we can enter them and cut with a torch without blowing it up, of course.
- So, step one is tank planning. - That sounds super important.
Step two is lead-based paint remediation.
All this paint you see around here is lead-based paint.
So anywhere we cut, we have to have a company come in and remediate 4 inches either side of that cut line,
so that when my workers cut with the torches, they don't breathe lead fumes in.
So that's step two.
Step three is we very carefully, we have a certain sequence so that we don't overstress the ship.
We'll come in and cut one strip of tank tops out.
That's what this opening is. This used to be, y'know just like that, a continuous piece of plate.
OK.
And then down below, that is the actual bottom of the ship you're looking at right there,
- Wow - which can be very thin.
You could drop a wrench through it.
So, the first thing we do is we very carefully remove these tank tops.
We have ways to do that without dropping anything. With engineer pad eyes.
We'll hook it up to this system on the monorails to get all that out of here.
Next thing we do is we put a protective layer of this stuff called concrete cloth in the bottom.
Which is about a half inch thick roll of material that's impregnated with concrete.
We lay that out and wet it and it cures out. So now we have a little bit of protection
in case a guy drops a chipping hammer or something like that on the bottom.
- Sure - Because it will knock a hole in it.
Then after that, we have a certain sequence. We'll notch a frame.
Slide in a new piece of steel.
Weld the new piece in.
Bolt it and weld it and then put a frame in where that notch was.
So, we just piecemeal, go through it like that,
and when we're all set and done, we have all new frames,
- all new longitudinals, and a new keel. - Wow.
So you're telling me that, when you start this project,
the ship is in such bad condition right now, it's so delicate
that if I was to take just a simple crescent wrench and drop it accidentally,
- you could put a hole in the ship and sink the whole thing. - Absolutely.
I don't know that you'd sink it
because we've done steps along the way to make it much more water tight,
but there are certain spots. These, these are in OK condition,
but back aft, there are places where you could take a screwdriver,
no doubt, and shove it through the hull.
- Wow. - No doubt.
That's very, very thin.
And when you're all set and done, this is going to be
a lot safer, a lot better, a lot stronger, so that
so that when she does get dry docked, she's not gonna fall apart.
- She's just going to be able to be a whole ship again. - That's right.
The real two purposes.
Number one is to make her structurally stronger, so when she is berthed, she won't collapse.
And number two, we're putting new tank tops on.
Most of these tank tops are old and rusted out.
So now, if you have a leak in this tank, it should be contained to this tank only instead of filling the space up.
And you were telling us right before we started filming that we have some silver parts down here.
That those are parts that are done or are ready to be called complete.
And then you have just a little bit more steps. Is that correct?
That's correct. All the silver colored material is new steel that's been installed.
Welded in.
We test all the welds. Every weld is also checked with dye penetrant to make sure there's no cracks in it.
All the welds are done by qualified welders as well.
And then we coat it with two coats of paint.
This is a special paint that's good for salt water hulls. Intershield 300v.
And then, the last thing we'll do, once all this is complete,
is we'll weld new tank tops on top of it and seal that in.
But what you're seeing, all the silver stuff is new.
And if you look on the back side of it, you'll still see the old frames that are still there.
- And there are the old rusty looking hundred year old frames. - Sure.
So the beauty of this is we're not removing anything from the ship, we're just adding to it.
OK. So, to give our viewers a sense of time and scale,
just this room we're standing in, how long would it take to fully rebuild the whole thing?
We started in this room about five weeks ago and he is...
he's about 75% complete in this room right now.
I think we'll spend eight weeks in this room.
- OK. So it's about an eight week process per room. - For this room.
How many rooms do you think you're going to have to go?
Well, we've got a lot of rooms. We've got uh...
Six back here and then four ahead of the bulkhead up there.
The ones up there have a lot of machinery in it. So they're gonna go much slower.
Cuz you have to work around piping, machinery. It's just slower, more tedious work.
- Sure. - So we'll slow down up there.
I bet. So if we were pie-in-the-sky, best conditions possible,
we would have all of this done approximately when?
We're gonna be done July 18th, 2018.
- So you're very confident of that. - I keep an eye on that.
Great. I love it. That sounds fantastic.
Well, Julius, thank you so much for all this information.
And thank you guys for watching.
This has been Talkin' Ship. We've been here with Julius Taylor.
Thank you again so much for all the information. And we'll see you guys next week.