YAGR’S took on a special project for the Battleship Massachusetts. This project was replace a rusted section of 1/4" plate duct work that hangs on the side and underneath the battleship’s #1 turret. The duct work was completely rusted out; and, to be honest, was an eyesore that the visitors could not miss as they approached the turret.

Roland Cote, John Hemminger and Harry Miller worked on this job for a few weeks preceding our work weekend. John, Henry MacKay, Don Batty, Jack Floyd and Harry worked on the project during our work weekend. All told we spent a total of 187 man hours to complete the ripping out and replacing of 50 square feet of duct work.

The work included cutting out a section of duct, replacing the same with new plate by fitting, forming and welding it on the turret. Most oft his work was done with a 17" working height between the deck and underside of the duct which made it even more difficult.

Roland Cote, John Hemminger and Harry Miller have spent some more time on the restoration of the duct work on turret # 1. The work we have done to date has been replacing the deteriorated sections of the duct. Now we had to correct the cause of the damage, water getting into the duct.

While we knew where the water was coming in, we could not get to it from the outside because the turrets optical range finder was over the area in question. So, the only option we had was to cut out a section of the duct so that we could gain access to the area that was allowing the water to get in. Once we had done that and looked over the rusted out area, we found that we would have to replace a section 4' by 1’ 2". After cutting out the rusted out section of plate and welding in a new piece of steel plate, we also decided to do a little preventive maintenance work by installing a drain line at the top of the duct and running it through the duct so it would drain out through the bottom of the duct. This should help to prevent water from being trapped at the point where the turret and duct work meet.

Holes can be seen on the bottom radius of the vent

Bottom of the vent

Harry lying on deck cutting out deteriorated steel

Harry cutting deteriorated steel

Roland under vent after grinding cut edges smooth
in preparation for welding

Roland and John grinding a steel support

Jack and Harry tack welding sections together that
will form the bottom and side radius of the vent

Henry and Jack cleaning slag from flame cut edges of the steel