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USS The Sullivans Partial Sinking
- Thread starter ProfMagoo(ret)
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Very sad. My hometown and was Just there last summer. When I was a cub scout I spent the night on the USS Little rock which is a Cleveland class cruiser that sits next to the Sullivan.
Unfortunately, many people don't understand the amount of maintenance that's required for a museum ship. And even so, they won't last forever.
The ship is almost 80 years old. That's a LOT of years for a waterborn vessel. Wooden naval vessels in the Age of Sail had a lifespan of about 15 years. A 20-25 year old ship was OLD indeed. The advent of copper sheathing of wooden hulls in the mid-to-late 1760s increased the lifespan of wooden ships considerably. Even so, drydocking periods were crucial to ship health and longevity.
Modern ships require and understanding of the various types of corrosion that take place, especially in a salt-water environment, and meticulous attention to both preservation AND preventative maintenance. Even submarines with their 2 inch thick steel hulls wouldn't last 33 years (42 for the Ohio class) without this.
Many museum ships actually rest in the muddy silt of their berth places, which makes access to the exterior hull impossible. However, this doesn't mean preservation methods can't mitigate a huge fraction of underwater corrosion. For example, zinc bars are utilized in saltwater environments to prevent/minimize galvanic corrosion, a process in which sacrificial anodes (the zinc bars themselves) undergo the galvanic corrosion in place of the hull steel itself. These have to be periodically replaced, and their mounting areas properly maintained.
Slack off on this maintenance and it won't take long before a steel ship is in a world of hurt.
I'd be interested in the results of the investigation over this.
Here's a link to a pdf on historical vessel preservation:
The ship is almost 80 years old. That's a LOT of years for a waterborn vessel. Wooden naval vessels in the Age of Sail had a lifespan of about 15 years. A 20-25 year old ship was OLD indeed. The advent of copper sheathing of wooden hulls in the mid-to-late 1760s increased the lifespan of wooden ships considerably. Even so, drydocking periods were crucial to ship health and longevity.
Modern ships require and understanding of the various types of corrosion that take place, especially in a salt-water environment, and meticulous attention to both preservation AND preventative maintenance. Even submarines with their 2 inch thick steel hulls wouldn't last 33 years (42 for the Ohio class) without this.
Many museum ships actually rest in the muddy silt of their berth places, which makes access to the exterior hull impossible. However, this doesn't mean preservation methods can't mitigate a huge fraction of underwater corrosion. For example, zinc bars are utilized in saltwater environments to prevent/minimize galvanic corrosion, a process in which sacrificial anodes (the zinc bars themselves) undergo the galvanic corrosion in place of the hull steel itself. These have to be periodically replaced, and their mounting areas properly maintained.
Slack off on this maintenance and it won't take long before a steel ship is in a world of hurt.
I'd be interested in the results of the investigation over this.
Here's a link to a pdf on historical vessel preservation:
