This week, OTM Inc started work on the Maris Pearl‘s bilge system. Not too much to report there.
Update on the Lightship #83
Northwest Seaport is getting ready to start the big deck replacement project on the Lightship #83, and they asked OTM Inc to research and compile a list of basic essential tools to stock the boat.
Last year’s Preliminary Engineering Assessment budgeted $3K for this step, which will buy a good selection of wrenches, screw-drivers, scrapers, and other essential hand tools to keep aboard for general work. Specialists and contractors working on the boat will bring their own tools along, but it’s important to have a full set to stay aboard.
Updates on the OTM Inc website
Check out the re-networked Old Tacoma Marine Inc website! We consolidated all of our social networking clients at the bottom of the main page, so now you can follow OTM all over the web.
Stay tuned for more exciting changes to the front page!
The Ready Sold!
The tug Ready is a 65 foot ST tug from 1945 powered by a 6HM2124 Atlas-Imperial diesel engine. It’s been sitting for a long time in Long Beach, California, unused (its former owner was aware of the liability involved in running it).
Last year, the boat was given to local wharfrat Steffen, who parted out or scrapped all the electronics and brass, then sold what was left on eBay. Proud new owners Carla’s and Tim are powering their way through the steep learning curve of old tugboat ownership as they prepare the boat for a trip up to San Francisco Bay.
Tim has read through the Atlas-Imperial manual on the OTM website (view it yourself here), and has been working with John, our trusted OTM representative, to make enough repairs to run the engine for a short time.
It is very exciting to add another engine to the list of the living. It sounds like I’ll be heading down there soon, so stay tuned!
Not a lot going on this week. I spent a lot of time in the shop, either doing work work or doing office work.
An update on the Duwamish
The Duwamish’s air compressor is in pieces in my shop:
I’ve been cleaning and honing the cylinders, but I still do not know the make or model. I’ve found a few numbers stamped into it, but that’s all.
Clamor about the John Cobb
Everyone is talking about the NOAA ship John Cobb – there’s a lot of interest in what will happen to the boat now that its engine is damaged (details last week). I won’t repeat all the rumors I hear here, but I don’t think that NOAA will just walk away from the boat even with a broken crankshaft.
It’s still slated for decommissioning this fall, and I’ve heard lots of speculation on what’s next for the boat. I hope that whatever happens, the engine will be repaired or replaced with a heavy-duty from the same era – maybe a direct-reversing Enterprise diesel.
Old Tacoma Marine Inc on eBay
In our latest effort to take over the internet one site at a time, OTM Inc is now open for business on eBay. We hope to sell some miscellany related to heavy-duty diesels and other old-time engines, starting with some neat things we’ve had around the shop forever but will never use in any of our projects.
First up: a vintage brass grease cup for engine bearings. We’ve got more information and pictures on the listing, so check it out – or buy it.
We hope to sell a new item each week, so keep checking in.
Slope of Grain versus Runout
While acting as a consultant to Northwest Seaport regarding the lumber purchase for the Lightship #83, we’ve been learning about the language used by shipwrights to define wood grades. Two terms we’ve encountered are “slope of grain” and “runout.” We’ve found that these are often mis-used even by the experts, so it’s been difficult defining them. While researching, we found that there are plenty of sources out there that tell you what causes slope of grain and runout, and how to cut boards to achieve a good slope of grain and runout, but not many firm definition of what they are in the first place. Different people and books also define the terms differently.
Despite all that, we’re now pretty sure that runout is the grain running off the top side of a board and slope of grain is the grain running off the sides. These definitions don’t leave us feeling very much more enlightened, though. If we’ve gotten them confused, or if you have a better definition, please leave a comment on this post – we want to get it right.
I think that maybe the reason it’s so confusing is that the only people who really care are the folks at the mill, who are known as “sawyers.” The slope of grain and runout have a lot to do with the strength retained in the board, so a sawyer will try to produce the best quality (strongest) wood by getting a good slope of grain and runout they can anyway. It’s rare that a wood buyer needs to include those figures in an order.
We did need to include them in the Lightship bid request, though. Our client is required to accept the lowest cost bid, so it had to specify exactly what quality wood they need for the job.
We received an email from California last week about the possibility of finding an old heavy-duty for an old boat. Cary from Vallejo California recently bought a 1928 fishboat, “in pretty good original shape.” As a diesel mechanic and boat guy, Cary’s fixing her up for cruising and family fishing and wants to replace her modern Detroit with a period engine, maybe an Atlas-Imperial diesel. We’ve posted his full story on the Discussion Board here.
I think an Atlas-Imperial would be perfect, and recommend a 65 to 85 horsepower, three or four cylinder, maybe just like the Arro’s. Does anyone know of one out there that could re-power Cary’s boat? Comment here, or contact me.
A Spare Injector for the David B
Early this week, I threw together a spare injector for the David B. The boat doesn’t currently have any spare injectors, so we’d been planning to make several spares when we overhauled the three existing injectors this fall. Jeffrey just decided he wanted one onboard for the summer cruising season (good call).
I pulled out the spare injector parts for a Washington of that size, which were from an engine with the early pressure-balanced injectors, rather than the spring-balanced or Bosch injectors that later engines used (incidentally, the only remaining engine that I know of with pressure-balanced injectors is in the Kodiak Maritime Museum).
Anyway, I got out all the spare parts we had and put together the best injector I could without machine work. I can put two more together with some machining, but that will have to wait until fall. Here’s an in-progress shot of injector parts on my workbench:
After I got it together, I set up the injector to barely hold at 4,000 psi, then made two full compressing turns on the spring adjusting screw per the Washington Iron Works instruction manual. By now, I have set up all the injectors for three of the four boats that use the spring-balanced injectors (the Arthur Foss and Catalyst are the two others; I haven’t yet seen the San Juan) and can set spring tension in my sleep. I shipped the injector up to Juneau and went back to work on the fireboat’s air compressors (they’re coming along; more next week).
Update on the Lightship #83
We finished up a draft lumber bid request for Northwest Seaport and its lightship, and now we’re just waiting for comments.
It’s exciting to see how much thought and effort is going into laying the lightship’s deck right. I’m looking forward to walking around on it in a few years.
Enterprise in the Basement?
We recently got a call about someone pulling an Enterprise that used to power a gen set out of a building. We’re definitely wondering how they’re going to get it out – and what they’re going to do with it next.
We’ve heard that the Songhee (powered by an Atlas-Imperial) was sold to a new owner — but then the deal fell through. What happened? Comment here if you can add to the story.
Minor Catastrophe on the Union Jack
The charter boat Union Jack experienced a calamity this week: one of their pistons seized while the boat was underway, forcing them to a screeching halt. The cause is unknown, and they don’t have a lot of time to figure it out since every moment they spend at the dock is eating away at their charter time. They need to get it fixed ASAP, and many folks are recommending that they pull the liner to have it honed.
This is such a huge job that we at The Shop think that they should attempt to do some of that honing in place. Unlike most heavy-duties, Union engines have overhead cams, which make pulling the liners really, really messy (which is a messy job even without the overhead cam).
We hope that they manage to fix it soon, and that we hear about how they fixed it.
Major Catastrophe on the John Cobb
We heard this week that the NOAA research boat John N Cobb suffered a catastrophic engine failure.
According to the crew, they were cruising along doing their research when the boat suddenly started jumping up and down and making a lot of noise and losing RPM, the way it does when a gillnet or a line gets wrapped around the propeller. We’ve heard that the engineer then ran down to the engine room and realized that most of the noise was coming from the engine. He shut it down, the noises stopped, and they were towed into port.
Inspection later revealed this:
Non-engine folks, see that ragged gray crack on the lower left side? That is a clean break through the crankshaft under number one cylinder, and that is about the worst thing that could happen to an engine.
Without knowing more than what we’ve heard through the old engine grapevine, this is probably it for the John Cobb’s Fairbanks. If we were still in the middle of World War II, the folks over at NOAA could just call up the factory, order a new crank, get a guaranteed install, and call it as good as new. It’s about sixty years too late for that, though, and even if you could get a perfect new crank it’d be foolish to install it in the engine without knowing what caused the break in the first place.
Why did it happen? We at Old Tacoma Marine Inc can’t even begin to tell without seeing the engine for ourselves and doing a lot of detailed inspection. We do know that both NOAA and the Cobb’s contracted mechanics have taken good care of the boat throughout its lifetime, as shown by engine logs and service records.
Until we hear more from NOAA and other folks in the know, all we can do is speculate. We’ve set up a thread on our discussion board for you all to share your theories here.
The week began with a mad scramble to find performers for the OTM Inc co-sponsored event after the reschedule, but we pulled it off. The show on Saturday was incredible. The music, dancers and fire performer all did an amazing job:
Someone even made a video of performer Veronica Fire doing her routine, which she’s posted here.
We had about 400 people come to the party, some who even flew in just for the evening. Thanks to Old Tacoma Marine Inc, Adrian Lipp, Pierre Ferguson, Foundry for Sound Studios, the Big Building Llc, Drew Middlebrooks, Lia Stamatiou, and many more.
An Update on the Maris Pearl
This week’s Maris Pearl project was overhauling the hydraulic lifters. Some still made noise even after being replaced, so I tightened them a little more. They sound good now, but I want to know if there are other valve train parts that could be contributing to the noise. I’ll take a look on the trip north, which is coming up very soon.
An Update on the Lightship #83
Remember the Preliminary Engineering Assessment that OTM Inc prepared for rehabilitating the Lightship #83? Well, the project is still moving forward through layers of bureaucracy. This week, we negotiated the lumber bid request for Northwest Seaport.
I also assisted them with a grant they’re writing for the next phase of rehabilitation. Following the systems work and the deck replacement, I recommend a lot more hull work – needle-gunning and patching, regular haul-outs, welding on new doublers, and maybe even some new riveting. I also believe that it’s very important to make the ship more usable by restoring some of the living spaces, like Officers’ Country, the Crew Mess, and the Galley. This would create and encourage more people-energy to go into the boat following the first major phase. In addition to more educational programs and just getting the public onto a great old ship, it might also be a good opportunity to invite some live-aboards on as well.
This might sound funny to us critical types and haters of voodoo magic, but I think when more people spend time on the boat and use the boat for a meeting place, party, and just a place to hang out, the boat benefits greatly from the powerful people-energy spiritual force that binds us together in harmony with the universe.
On Squatting versus Living Aboard
Some of you who remember my previous rants about squatters may be surprised that I want the Seaport to get the Lightship ready for using the boat and maybe even inviting live-aboards on. I want to clarify that there is a big difference between using the boat and squatting. This is an ongoing issue with the Arthur Foss, as many folks have squatted on the boat over the years.
To me, squatting is living somewhere (a boat, a house, a building; it doesn’t matter) in a very timid and naive way. Being timid and naïve on a boat (or in a house) means staying in your room, not spending much time aboard, getting your meals elsewhere, and being “low impact” (there’s no such thing as low impact, but that’s a separate rant). It means not using or understanding essential systems, not changing light-bulbs except for the one in your reading lamp, and not learning about your environment. This kind of living promotes neglect and laziness and does nothing to help the boat (or house, or building). If it sinks (or burns down), the squatter grabs his or her sleeping bag and finds a new place to squat.
In contrast, living aboard means treating the boat (or house) as a place that you contribute to and improve through your presence. If people make an effort to live aboard and use a boat, it’s cared for far better than shoreside owners are usually able to. Live-aboards become leaders and followers, who change the light bulbs, wash the sheets, replenish the TP and paper towels, and keep it running shipshape. They invite their friends aboard to see the cool place they’re staying and encourage interest in the boat. They also run the systems, learn the equipment, and keep it used rather than just tied up at the dock. If people live aboard rather than squat, the boat looks and feels great – lived in. It’s sort of like the “house versus home” idea.
I know that I’ve developed a reputation at South Lake Union for being mean to squatters, but what I’m really doing is trying to make people take responsibility for the boat in exchange for living aboard. I get really, really mad when people call me up and complain about how the head is broken or the plumbing is leaking. That’s the mark of a squatter, who doesn’t care that they’re living on an awesome old tug. A proper live-aboard would say “oh, the head’s backed up – how can I fix it?” If a live-aboard ever calls me to ask me how to fix something that’s broken, I’ll tell them exactly how to fix it, step by step, because they’re trying to improve the boat through their presence aboard.
A Rising Tide for the Fireboat Duwamish
Later in the week, we made plans to repair the air compressor for the fireboat Duwamish after I get back from the Alaska trip. The Northwest Seaport got a grant on behalf of the fireboat guys to fix the air compressors, which still work but aren’t efficient enough to fill the high-pressure tanks. This is an unheard-of act of stewardship in the maritime heritage world, which often sees limited resources to fight over rather than opportunities to share. The Seaport should be commended for understanding how connected all the old boats at South Lake Union are. I often say that a boat is only as clean as its bilge, kind of like how a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Whichever saying you use, the heritage groups in South Lake Union are only as good as the ugliest boat or the emptiest program.
Until recently, I’ve liked the ugliness in South Lake Union, which is about an acre of open land just south of the Naval Reserve Armory on Lake Union (about a mile north of downtown, for you out-of-towners). It has workshops and piles of wood scraps and old anchors and dumpsters and boats on blocks and looks pretty junky – though not nearly as junky as an actual working shipyard:
It’s got a nice salty feel to it, with boats being scraped and re-caulked in the middle of a gravel parking lot, and I’ve always used the space like a clubhouse to exclude outsiders.
A few years ago, though, I helped start up new educational programs on the Arthur Foss. With the boat not cruising, it’d lost a lot of volunteers and wasn’t being used or maintained nearly enough. We needed the programming to bring the boat back to life, but we also needed new people to keep taking the programs and we’d established our little clubhouse. I started to want grassy hills, sculptures, lampposts, benches, and a path right to a pier with lots of clean, painted, and accessible old boats to attract more people to the programs.
It turns out that the Seattle Parks Department, which now manages the site, shares the same vision. They just completed phase one of developing South Lake Union into a space open to all visitors – not just the boat people:
I’m really excited by their plans, even if they’re cleaning out our clubhouse. There are some growing pains and some people will be displaced, but it will be good in the long run. With the park more attractive to visitors, we’ll get more people participating in the programs and just coming aboard, which will lead to more enthusiasm and more volunteers. This will in turn lead to better-looking boats, which will lead to more funds available, and the cycle will keep going to the benefit of everyone. It may even lead to some of the big old boats cruising again (I know the Virginia V cruises, but it’s really a much newer boat), which will hugely increase the enthusiasm and the volunteers.
Ugliness (which, of course, is in the eyes of the offended) is often measured in unfair ways, but what is fair? I think that ugliness is just fine until it works against your goals. If our goal at South Lake Union is to attract tourists, suitors, funders, and activity then it’s better to be clean, well-maintained, and with the look of winners. If our goal is to tighten the group of members and exclude unannounced visitors, then a messy space with a vacant look will do just fine.
Club houses are great – dusty, no signs, locked doors, a funny door bell and a front door with a peep hole, a secret members-only entrance – but I am very excited to see that all of the organizations at South Lake Union have an increasingly Macy’s storefront look to them that welcomes everyone in.
OTM Inc met with the Northwest Seaport Vice President again this week to discuss the review draft of the Preliminary Engineering Assessment we’ve prepared. The PEA is to be used as a guide on how best to spend about half a million dollars to rehabilitate the Lightship #83 as a museum vessel. Many parts of the ship are in poor condition, so this report is an important tool to guide the rehabilitation process for the next two years—and probably for decades. We identified replacing the deck as the most important part of the project, but OTM Inc recommends accomplishing quite a bit of preparation before the actual deck replacement. After enhancing the basic safety of the vessel, we strongly believe in the importance of restoring the ship’s onboard systems: electrical, plumbing for heads and sinks, and a master fire- and flood-alarm.
This is important for three reasons. First, if these systems are functional, they will be used during the deck replacement and other rehabilitation projects. Replacing the deck and then repairing the systems would make the deck work much more time-consuming and expensive. Second, a usable system is much more likely to be maintained—and maintenance can be more important than repairs in the lifespan of a ship.
Third, and most importantly, repairing the systems starts to breath life back into the ship. Right now, the Lightship is empty and dusty and rather grim; the Coast Guard stripped it down before decommissioning it and it’s lay dockside since. While there have been many plans to use it as a museum, this is the organization’s first success at attracting the significant funding needed to make the plans a reality. Turning the vessel into an engaging display for visitors requires much more than the funds, though; it takes excitement and enthusiasm that are very hard to create when the vessel feels dead:
This all sounds really sentimental (which is why I write it out here rather than in OTM Inc’s official reports), but I think it’s both possible and important. Spending the first part of the project to clean the boat, put fresh paint on the inside, and restore the systems—the first steps towards bringing it back to life—will generate the momentum needed to grab public attention, volunteers, and the additional financial support to carry the organization through the really hard job of replacing the deck.
We created the PEA recommendations to build on each other to bring the ship back to life. For example, cleaning the ship will allow the electrician to bring the lights and outlets back online, which will allow the plumbers and painters to see while painting and fixing the heads and sinks, which will give the shipwrights the necessary facilities and systems near right there, which will allow them to replace the deck efficiently.
This, of course, is hard to explain to a non-profit organization that needs to stretch every dollar as far as it can. Why spend money painting when the deck is leaking? Why not replace the deck and then, if there’s funding left over paint the deck, and if not find volunteers who can do it? While these are valid concerns, we really believe in the importance of building that momentum and excitement to bring the ship back to life. This translates best through in-person meetings, so I’m sure that the VP and I will continue to meet to discuss the plans.
A Washington Estep in Hawaii
OTM Inc has been carrying on an interesting email exchange with the Waimea Sugar Mill Camp Museum on the island of Kauai, Hawaii this week. The museum has a Washington Iron Works engine in their collection of artifacts related to the sugar mill industry. It doesn’t sound like they plan to restore or repair it at this time, but it’s amazing that another group out there knows what a Washington Diesel is (there are only fifteen to twenty left in the world, you know). Maybe OTM Inc should take a “business trip” there during this chilly Seattle winter.
