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USS Texas BB-35

D

Dean

Well-known Member
The USS Texas is on my list of things to see if and when it is once again open to the public.

Though not really a true Super Dreadnought due to her 2 X triple expansion steam engines, she remains the only surviving Dreadnought battleship and the only US battleship ship to fight in all three WWII theatres, Africa, Europe, and the Pacific.

The triple expansion engines are, perhaps, the most interesting attraction to me but I do not know if tours include the engine rooms.

Anyone know?

Dean
BB 35
 
If I remember correctly. They have or had a tour of the off limits parts of the ship.But you had to be in good shape to take it. Because it involves alot of climbing.
 
Too bad that more ships of that era did not survive the decades into today. Some such as the USS Pennsylvania were in pretty bad shape at the end of the Second World War. The public at large was weary at the end of the war and the last thing they wanted to do was spend money to repair those ships. Others such as the USS New York BB-34 were not all that bad off but nobody spoke up on her behalf to save it. The Texas is in a fight for her life as she needs a lot of repairs to insure survival into the future. All the work the Navy put into those ships in terms of cleaning and painting turned out to be more than busy work for idle sailors as we can see now.
 
The engine room was off limits when we toured a couple years ago. They were hoping to do a lot of renovation as it was in declining condition, do not know how that went.
 
I live near Muskegon, Michigan. We have the Silversides submarine. It was made famous in the movie Destination Tokyo, the true story of one of it's WWII missions.

Dave
 
Only one of the engine rooms has ever been open for tours. The other has never been cleared of asbestos.

That can be a good thing, as it it probably still closer to original.

The engine is a fascinating piece of equipment! I can usually figure out most things mechanical, but the valving system is a mind boggling thing!

I sure hope to get back inside again, if it ever opens again. Between the rust and money problems, it may be forever closed. If they can?t raise the money to get it out of the water, it?s going to be beyond saving.

Sad...
 
The last time I was on the Texas was on the ?hard hat tour?, a guided tour into the inner depths of the ship.

They took us to the boiler room, explained the boilers were not original to the ship. During one of the major refittings it underwent, the original, outdated boilers were removed and new ones were salvaged from another new ship that had just been built.

The ?new ship? that never saw service, was doomed because of some treaty with Russia to equalize arms power.

The new ship, that was complete and ready to...

Was used for target practice.
 
Billy, the tour was not that bad, only one place we had to climb through a small opening.

We were even blessed to have a former crew member that served on the ship!

He was in his 90s, and made it just fine.
 
The submarine "Sea Wolf" is in Sea Wolf Park At Galveston. Sure seems small on the inside.

When I lived in the area, great Flounder fishing in the fall.
 
Last time I was on her mighty decks was around 1955. I remember the turrets had twin 14s, not triple 16s like the Missouri class and the "round" that penetrated her hull and didn't explode. Had it sitting upright, on display.....I guess it had been defused. Hughe! Don't which campaign she was in when receiving the "gratuity".

Then there is the 550' (vaguely remember...may be only 500') Battle of San Jacinto Texas memorial-monument. You can walk the steps to the top and the view is breathtaking, with the moat and Battle ship clearly visible from one of the viewing sides. Inside the ground floor museum are artifacts and hand crafted displays depicting every day life of the era.

Fond memories as a teen on a date, having a picnic on a blanket, under the oaks on the grounds.........mmmmmmmm!

Corpus (Christi) and the Carrier are only a couple hundred miles (or so) down the coast.
 
the Texas is on my list when it is available.
Spent a night on the USS Cobia a submarine in Manitowoc with the boy scouts, Wife and I spent a night on the Lexington. course she spent a lot of nights on her back in 89-90...
Visited the Midway which was awesome, but I was on her sister ship the Coral Sea and I wore my hat so I got to see some off limits stuff. Was disappointed int eh Iowa since her engineering spaces and main turrets cost extra to see and they weren't available during the week...
You can get in the engineering spaces on most of the other ones, not so much on the sub though...
 
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