OT: One of those keeps me up at night questions: Dry Dock

GOOD question...same goes for during construction up...how dey do dat?..

The short answer is they don't. I worked in the Long Beach shipyard for eight years. The something they rest the ship on is large concrete & wood blocks arranged in the shape of the bottom of the ship, but not solidly. There are spaces between the blocks two to three blocks wide (maybe more, I don't remember that well). ISTR that each drydock cycle, the ship would have a different pattern for these blocks so they eventually cover the missed areas.

Pure fantasy, but wouldn't it be a hoot to refloat the ship inside the dock after it has been refilled with paint instead of water. Just have to figure out a way to "dry" the needed layers onto the hull while it's afloat in paint. Electromagnetism maybe. Otherwise when you drain the dock and bring the ship to rest you're back to square one with the bottom of the hull masked from the paint by the dock supports.

Dry, refloat hull in water, lather, cream rinse, remove.

WmB

Gee, your ship is so silky smooth...what's your secret?..

"Rufus" skrev i en meddelelse news:HbMHh.4145$PF.101@attbi_s21...

Dishwashing liquid.

You're soaking in it.

Why don't they turn it upside-down to paint it?

(kim)

(kim) wrote; " Why don't they turn it upside-down to paint it? "

Now there's a thought. This Big Huge Mechanical Arm grabbing it and then turning it upside down and then there's another Big Huge Arm with this Giant Paint Brush dipping into a Humongous Gallon Can of Red Paint ........ LOL

Seriously why couldn't they just secure everything inside and at the very least lay it over on one side and then just "paint" the side that's sitting up. Then after it's dry just turn it over to do the other side

It sorta makes it's own sense when you think about it. Well it does , sorta kinda.

... Carl ..........

,,

Isn't that how they tarred the old sailing ships?

And just who are "they"?

I don't wanna have to push 70,000 tons. :(

Craig

Floating it in paint is sounding better all the time ;-) Of course, with the cream rinse.

WmB

You could get really cool psychedelic camo by floating the paint on the water first. Then just pull the ship up out of it and let dry. :)

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

...done with Harriers, but not with carriers.

Hmm... Things are fairly well secured inside; ships do quite a bit of tipping by themselves. No, no, this is something that's Simply Not Done.

Might be a bit hard on the crew if they're still trying to sleep on board, which, as I remember, they are.

Hammocks?

(kim)

I've been under a BP Tanker (think it was the British Hawthorn?) when it was in drydock on the Tyne in South Shields. It sat on short pillars of bricks, and was propped at the sides with "telegraph poles" (not sure what they were but they looked like them) while they were painting the bottom.

I have to say being under a ship is an unnatural place to be. (Unless you're a fish).

Hmm... When did they introduce racks instead of hammocks? I know before WW II, cause I just heard a Bob Hope program from some Navy facility where he used the line, "Rack: that's a bookshelf with a pillow." Our racks had a bar at the head for hanging up your towel, and one at the foot for hanging the laundry bag, neither of which would be strong enough for a hammock, but that's what we pay Hull Techs for; they can retrofit something better.

The shower heads were on the end of flexible hoses, too, so guys could still shower. The only problem left is that cooking couldn't take place, but I'm sure they wouldn't mind going to the nearest fast food place, that is to say, bar...

Distribution is everything...

...I'm still trying to figure out how a catapult holdback holds back.