What Happens Next Door

Having just lived through a record breaking blizzard it seems like a good time to talk about what happens on the other side of the pier. Tankers filled with road salt come and go with great regularity all year long. No sooner have the tugs brought them in and they've tied up then the giant bucket is bringing the salt up out of the hold. Dump trucks line up and move the salt across the street into huge mountains. When there's a snow storm in the forecast the salt trucks will lineup, fill up and drive back to their respective counties. 

This is the berth right across from where we berth. That crane may not look very big in this picture but it's really huge. 

There are some people in this shot to give a bit of perspective. 

The tugs will bring the very full freighters into berth. 

The dump trucks line up waiting for the fun to begin. 

No time is wasted and as soon as the freighter is tied up the unloading begins.

Then the dance begins. Fill up, drive across the street, dump salt, back across the street and repeat and repeat and repeat. 

These mountains of salt are all over the place in Canton. 

You may wonder how they get that big. Lots and lots of work. 

It only stays piled up until a storm is coming. When the forecast goes out the salt trucks line up to be loaded up. 

You can see they come in all sizes and colors. This is just a small sample of the ships that come in filled with road salt. 

Project Liberty Ship, Inc is a 501(c)3 non-profit, all volunteer organization engaged in the preservation and operation of the historic ship JOHN W. BROWN as a living memorial museum. Gifts to Project Liberty Ship are tax deductible.

Work Weekend 2016

Every year in January there is a work weekend for the long Martin Luther King weekend. Crew members will come from far and wide; Ohio, Virginia and New York to name a few. It's a chance to spend some time on the ship with your fellow volunteer crewmates and to get a lot of work done. We have an exciting and busy year coming up in 2016 with trips to Norfolk and New York. There's lots of preparation to be done to make sure the ship is ready for the busy sailing season ahead.

There is always a long list of things to do. These are a few of the things that were checked off the list this weekend: two fire hydrant valves that had been leaking were overhauled, the engine relief valves were overhauled and checked for regular inspection, the deck on the generator level in the engine room was scrubbed, ground smooth and primed, two water tight doors were chalked tested, the steam trap in the Modine heater in the engine room was overhauled, the refurbishment of the Engine Room head was completed and the work on the shower started, and one of the life boats was moved to the shed to have some work done. As I said, these are just a few of the things that got done. 

There was a General Meeting on Saturday morning. It's always nice to have lots of crew members present that aren't normally there. Members came in from New York, Virginia and Ohio to work hard all weekend. 

One of the steam traps for the heat in the engine room needs replacing. The replacement is getting the once over before it goes in.

We were thrilled to host students, alumni and faculty from the New York Harbor School. They don't do glamorous jobs but it's great to have lots of energetic people on board. They are always willing to step up and tackle any task that asked of them. Here they are getting the generator level of the engine room clean so it can be prepped for painting. Yes, there is ALWAYS something that needs painting.  

Twenty four hours later the deck has been cleaned, old oil has been scrubbed off, it has been ground smooth, and painted with primer. A dirty job made faster and easier with lots of willing hands.

This is the steam engine for the circulating pump. It's having some regular maintenance and an oil change. 

The Pipe Room was bustling, well not bustling, it was pretty quiet actually. Everyone was concentrating on what they were doing. 

The team was working on the relief valves for the main engine. Springs hold the valve closed. If too much pressure builds the spring springs and the valves open. Pretty simple. These valves, like all working parts of the ship, undergo routine inspections to make sure everything is in good working order.

This is part of the valve that forms of the seal. 

It is coated with lapping compound, which is a fluid abrasive. It is very important that these surfaces are flush.

I had never heard of fluid abrasives, but then I know very little about the actual workings of the ship. I will have to ask what some of those 1001 uses are.

It is a multistep process to make sure everything is just so.

Things were happening outside on deck as well. One of the lifeboats was lowered and moved into the shed for some work.

Duff shared his experience and knowledge about with some of the Harbor School students in the machine shop. It's a nice opportunity to ask questions of people who know the ropes. 

The Harbor School students took part in some practical lessons as well. Learning how to coil and throw the heaving line is a skill that takes lots of practice.

It was fun to watch everyone practice, and fun to photograph too.

We have to mention the crew members in the galley. They make sure everybody on board is fed three times a day. No small task! On Saturday the smells of roasting lamb and pork loin had everybody anticipating supper time. 

There are always some crew members on board on regular Wednesday and Saturday workdays. The work weekends are bit more special because we have more crew members and tackle some bigger jobs. There is always something to do. If you don’t know how to do it, there someone to show you how to it. It's also good to spend some time with good friends after a hard days work. If you think you might be interested in coming down to Canton to be a part of this wonderful living history Museum just send us an email at john.w.brown@usa.net.

Project Liberty Ship, Inc is a 501(c)3 non-profit, all volunteer organization engaged in the preservation and operation of the historic ship JOHN W. BROWN as a living memorial museum. Gifts to Project Liberty Ship are tax deductible.

Compressor Secrets Revealed!

We're going to start this weeks' blog off with a bad, bad pun.  "Why did the compressor go to the doctors?"  It had a soft knee.   "What?  Has the bad joke threshold been crossed?"  "Anyone got any input or output on this?"   OK, ok, enough of the pad puns that only those that understand compressors will get anyway....   So for the last few weeks (ok, maybe about 2 months {remember we only have 2 days a week to get work done}) work has been done by crew members on the big compressor.  Let's start with some background information, first.  

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Joe is putting the side panel back on the compressor.

Liberty ships were steam powered, and that means everything onboard was powered by steam, not just the main engine. During WW II steam was kept up continuously as the ships were never shut down,  and if they were,  an outside source of steam was required to start up the ship. Since we now operate as a museum ship and only raise steam a few times a year, operating winches, pumps, chipping hammers and other equipment presents a problem. Enter the BIG air compressor.

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Over 20 years ago a diesel powered air compressor was permanently installed on top of # 5 hatch to supply compressed air to ships pumps, cargo winches and any machinery that originally operated on steam. This allows us to operate the machinery necessary to light-off the boilers in order to get underway, or to just run selected pieces of machinery like the cargo winches to load stores, etc.

The BIG air compressor (as it's known) was designed by Ingersoll-Rand Corp.as a jobsite construction compressor and was mounted inside an enclosure on a trailer ( the tail lights are still on it ! ) suitable to be towed to a construction site. This of course was modified and it now supplies compressed air to the old deck steam line and on down to the engine room.

For 20+ yrs and 6,700 hours of operation it performed it's task without skipping a beat with only routine maintenance like oil changes. As with an old car, it eventually began to complain;  anti-freeze leaks, loss of power, and rusting of the enclosure and fuel tank began to cry out for some major work. The highly skilled volunteer engine dept. attacked these issues head on, starting with a remanufactured engine head for the Cummins diesel obtained from a tractor-trailer truck parts supply Co. in Baltimore. Work continued with compressor end work, sheetmetal repair/replacement on the enclosure and repiping of the fuel supply. The 150 psi (pounds per square inch) air pressure hose connecting the compressor to the ship is next to be replaced, and hopefully we will get many more years of service out of this machine, which is essential to our vision as a steaming, operational, part of history.

Here are some pictures taken about a week ago to give you a better view of some of the things that were done.   The top was pretty rusted out (20 years will do that to the best of us!) so you can see the replacement in one of the shots.   By giving you this info, you can see some more in depth views of the types of things that are occurring on the BROWN on any given work day (Wednesdays and Saturdays).  Some projects are big, and some are small. This one happened to take a few weeks to complete.  Also note, we DO have an electric air compressor which is known as the 'little' or 'small air compressor' which is not powerful enough to run the machinery needed to light-off the boilers and get underway, so it  doesn't get the respect that the BIG air compressor gets.  

A huge shout-out to Joe for showing what was done and then writing it up so this blog writer would not sound uneducated. Can't have THAT happen.  And thanks to those of you who follow our antics and adventures on the JOHN W BROWN and read our blog each week.  See you next week! 

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Project Liberty Ship, Inc is a 501(c)3 non-profit, all volunteer organization engaged in the preservation and operation of the historic ship JOHN W. BROWN as a living memorial museum. Gifts to Project Liberty Ship are tax deductible.