August 2001

U.S.S. Slater Newsletter

by Timothy C. Rizzuto, Ship's Superintendent

The big event of the month was a visit by the New York City fireboat JOHN J. HARVEY. Harvey is a museum ship tied up on the Chelsea Piers and operated as a private yacht. She was built in 1931 and surplused several years ago. She was purchased to be a stationary museum ship, much like us. Along came engineer Tim Ivory who looked at her five Fairbanks, and said, "I could get this baby running." And he did. The engineering plant is a Diesel electric, twin screw, and a wonderful example of 1930's technology. No bridge control. You still answer bells. All the motors and generators have open windings and brushes, and the switchboard is a live front panel with the big Frankenstein switches. I was ready to change from deck to engine and put in for a transfer. Besides, they allow beer aboard. They lay outboard of us two nights, put on a barbecue for our volunteers, and gave us our best Sunday of the summer. The visit was well covered by the media, so we had great attendance. A lot of our gang got to ride her to Troy.

They were an inspiration to us because they move! Apparently, we were an inspiration to them because of our topside paintwork and shipshape appearance above and below decks. I don't mean to be a critic, but they reminded us of the way we looked three years ago. They really need a good deck force. I wanted to take a needle scaler over there myself and go to work. It wouldn't take much. Their two engineers, Tim and Jessica, spent all Monday volunteering on SLATER. With our volunteers, Bob Lawrence and his son Dave, they pulled all the covers on the two mains in B-3 and did an assessment of their condition. It wasn't too encouraging. While neither engine is frozen, three liners on each engine showed serious corrosion, White crustys growing out of the airports. Tim felt that those six cylinders would have to be pulled before we could try rotating the engines with air. They got them all buttoned up again for us. It was good information as to what we face in the future.

Which bring up our greatest engineering need. We really need a really sharp, retired Diesel mechanic who can volunteer about three days a week, and coordinate the efforts of all the individuals who come down a couple days a month. That includes the reservists and the guys like Chuck Longhsore who comes in from Vermont, and the other out-of-staters who come in to work. What happens now is that if the best Diesel mechanic in the world came aboard today and none of our engineers were available to give him an assignment, I'd probably just try to get him to help paint the decks. Gus, Bill, Larry, Tom and the rest all work at jobs that pay real money, so as good as they are, the time they can spend aboard is limited. The crew of the Harvey brought us something else too that's very important; the knowledge and experience of going through a yard overhaul in New York. They recently went through a dry-docking and willingly shared their knowledge with us and are more than willing to help us when the time comes for us to undergo the process. Hopefully, that won't be too far down the road.

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