Shipyard blog-2
These pages are designed to share the work in progress on the shipyard. They cover the work that needs doing to restore and convert our lightship. We decided to do some work ourselves, and leave the "heavy work" to the shipyard people who are much more capable than we are with steel work and such. On these pages you can follow our progress and frustrations... Do I hear volunteers?!?
This blog is split into several pages now, since it took too long for all those pictures to load at once! For the previous one click HERE. For the next page click HERE. Enjoy!
By the way: feel free to leave comments on our projectHERE!
22 Feb 2009: A lot of people asked us about the new lay-out of the lightship after all the construction work that has been ongoing inside the ship. So here it is: the internals of our ship! Not all will be open for the general public but at least you have an idea how it all fits together. Of course there is more: the light-tower, the wheel-house, and even another deck level way down below but that one is just housing water tanks, pumps and other utilities and storage.
20 Feb 2009: Remember me writing about the sleeves of the bathroom windows likely to stick out until we go into dry-dock? Creative minds can do magical things! So the guys created a small pontoon so they could cut and weld from the outside whilst afloat on the canal. So the portholes are almost finished now. They are rather big though! People joked about it being additional escape holes. I guess some could get through.. I said some...
19 Feb 2009: We are entering a new phase in the project: the outfitting of the treatment rooms in the bow section of the ship! Agnes glued rubber material against the 180 lugs that were welded a couple of weeks ago. The rubber will prevent sound to travel from the steelwork onto the wooden framework and ultimately onto the walls of the rooms. It is essential of course to keep the treatment rooms as quiet as possible. So lots of clamps to stick the rubber to the lugs, and then the wooden framework could be fixed by Lee. It was great to see the shape of the rooms developing before our eyes with every bit of framework going up!
15 Feb 2009: We already added lots of extra portholes a while ago in the engine room and treatment areas. There were two more left to do: rather big ones in the new bathroom at the aft section of the ship. And so a new hole appeared on the starboard side. Since this part of the hull is under all sorts of angles, it took some measuring to figure out how to cut the hole in such a way the porthole sleeve would fit perfectly. So Steve and Tony had to do some head-scratching.. but at the end of it, the hole was there, Tony was the first one to see "first light" and the sleeve was fitted. It is likely that cutting the sleeve from the outside can only be done once we are in dry-dock due to access issues. So it looks like these odd looking sleeves are there to stay for a while!
10 Feb 2009: I am sure you have heard we had some serious snow in the UK last week! I suppose because of the relatively warm Bristol Channel and the river Severn, Sharpness escaped most of it. But enough to show you these pictures. Enjoy!
3 Feb 2009: Well, it was a strange morning indeed. We pumped a total of 24 tons of concrete in the ship!! The lightship was always high up in the water due to several heavy items being removed over time. In particular the bow section was way too light. This section used to hold tons of anchor chains. Not just from the main anchor, but from the two spare ones as well. So there was the concrete truck, the pipes were lined-up, and pumping started in the most forward compartment of the ship:
As a result we needed to counteract the weight with some concrete in the aft section as well to bring the overall waterline of the ship down. We had to keep an eye on the water-mark lines both at the bow and aft waterline; see last picture. Final ballasting (as they call this process) will be done when all work is done and all furniture is on board. By the way, we placed crystals in the concrete in both sections as protection and good luck for the ship.
1 Feb 2009: Being this long on the shipyard makes you part of the family: we know all the guys inside-out by now. And it's like a real family: sometime it's mega fun, sometimes it's not so nice. Today was one of those days.. we had the bad news that Brian Pitts has passed over after a fight against cancer. Brian was a great man, and a master on the lathe. Rest in peace dear Brian! When the project is finished, and we have arrived in Gloucester and switch on the light in the tower for the first time, we will be thinking about you. You were part of the team that made it all happen!
30 Jan 2009: Another Steve on board this week! We call him "Canadian Steve" since he is waiting for visas to start a new life in Canada soon. We would like to keep him here though since he is the best welder we have ever seen. He can do magic with welding rods and gives me tips for my own welding. Below some pictures of him, and his welding! Note the middle picture: the 180 lugs for the walls of the new treatment rooms have been installed by Steve, Nathan and Dave. It looks rather strange, doesn't it?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
29-1 Our lightship has reached the big 50!
She was launched in 1959 as Yard No. 937 "SPURN No 14" at the Cook, Welton &Gemmell shipyard in Beverley near Hull. Note that the launch was for the hull only: it took several more months of construction on the quay-side to complete the ship. The picture shows an inscription found on the back of a wooden panel, reading "April 1959". She was registered later on that year on May the 15'th as LV14. May she be around with us all for another 50 years to come!
27 Jan 2009: New activity in the treatment room area: the final hand-rails are being completed by our dynamic duo Nathan (who proved to be an excellent welder!) and Dave who's ever lasting optimism keeps us all going. And Steve Brain and Lee, the carpenter sub-contractor, were discussing the 180 (!!) brackets that are required to erect the partition walls and ceilings of the rooms. In two weeks time the first framework should go up.
26 Jan 2009: Finally... after a LOT of pumping, measuring and pumping again, we have worked out how much weight needs to go in which part of the ship to have her back level and to the desired level / draft. It is no surprise that a lot of it needs to go to the bow section: this part of the ship housed the "cable lockers" where three lengths of heavy anchor chains were stowed. So in total we had to add 7 tons to the bow, and 11 tons to the engine room area! It was rather odd.. with the new angle of the ship we ran into all sorts of strange things: the gangway (at the stern) became that steep that we had to add wood on the quay wall to lift it and make it safe again. And walking on the deck is a new experience: the angles are very different! Here's a picture of the ship sitting just right. But the water will be pumped out again soon and replaced with concrete!
14 Jan 2009: The start of the new year was slowly.. due to all the celebrations and a two weeks trip back to The Netherlands to visit some good old friends and family. But after all that partying, back to reality! We needed a balancing act... the ship came out of the water significantly over time with tons on metal being removed. As a result, she became a bit unstable even in the calm waters of the Sharpness harbour. With the engine room bilge almost cleaned, we decided to trim-down the ship with concrete. But to do that we need to bring her bow down first to level out: so we started pumping water in the bow section. Once the ship is level, we can start pumping water in the engine room bilge to establish how much concrete we need to bring her down to the right level.. But let me tell you: it doesn't feel right to pump your ship full with water! (It will be pumped out again later of course) Here are some pictures from the pumping / balancing act:
9 Dec 2008: With the cleaning work in the engine-room ongoing and the end of the year approaching, it's time to reflect.. (just an excuse to take it easy really..) So Agnes as usual overlooking the shipyard to make sure everybody is working, me practicing my cool Captain look, and watching the spectacular sun-sets this time of the year.
4 Dec 2008: A smelly job this time.. The old engine room contained some oil in the bilge system. This is typical for most ships engine rooms: they tend to use this bilge for dumping old engine and gearbox oil that then can be pumped out when they are back in port. But the smell of that is not very pleasant. So we decided to lift all plates in the engine room and to clean it out. What a job.. thick oil drenched slurry all over. But glad we decided to do it now: in the not too distant future, when the heating will go in, a floor heating system will cover up those plates preventing access. It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.. Martin and Ken in this case!
30 Nov 2008: The Christmas-lights are on! It took a while to get them installed, but we have coloured lights from mast to mast, a "Merry Christmas" sign near the foghorn, a huge candle against the tower's superstructure, blue twinkling lights in the light-tower and of course the main light itself is on! We are drawing a crowd at 4pm when the lights come on!!
26 Nov 2008: Like it or not, but we are getting close to Christmas! And so we decided to light-up our ship and the shipyard a bit. For the past day or so we were preparing for this light-show. Soon to be revealed.. Note we also hung some serious Christmas balls in the light tower!
20 Nov 2008: We had to get the light to turn.. so Agnes turned the light manually to see the effect and I shot a short video for you all to enjoy. The first bit shows the stationary light, and then it turns! Watch the beams on the silo. Remember: this is only a 60-Watt bulb! Enjoy the video by clicking HERE.
19 Nov 2008: AN HISTORICAL DAY!!! Today the light in the tower was switched on once again, although not with the original 1500-Watts bulb. To see how powerful the bulb needs to be to ensure a nice effect without being too bright (the ship will be in an area with domestic and office buildings) we installed a 60-Watt one. It took some time to construct the temporary light assembly: the filament of the lamp needs to be exactly aligned to the center of the lens system. Once we switched it on, we saw the awesome power of the Fresnel lens.. three bright beams pierced through the late evening sky. We haven't got it lens rotating yet, but we now have a good idea what to expect with just a 60-Watts bulb! Enjoy these magical pictures..
13 Nov 2008: It's been a while for another update. It's because nothing spectacular has happened lately. Work is in progress on the new stairs and landing area for the training room. We had to experient a bit with different approaches to allow natural light from the skylight to filter through. We "landed" on the use of industrial Grating since it adds to the ships look and allows plenty of light to get through. It all need painting ones it it finished of course. Other progress is made on the railing system for the stairs and landing area. I started on the electrical side of the project with the installation of the switch boards. The ship will have several of those at different locations to allow for the most flexible electrical distribution. The boards are the easy bits.. running the cables is going to take a lot of time planning and installing!
19 Oct 2008: DOORS DOORS DOORS! Great progress is made with.. you guessed it: doors! The double door for the shop is in place and an ugly metal inside door to the old engine room has been replaced by a nice wooden one. Still a couple to go though, but it starts to look really nice. In the mean time Agnes has progressed significantly painting the decks in primer! With the cold months ahead, it is important to have that extra protection for the steel plates. Even though it's primer it looks like new!
10 Oct 2008: Originally we were planning to make the steps of the two new staircases (to the treatment areas and training room) from wood but decided to make them from steel instead. This gives much more grip and adds to the "ships feeling". Here they are installed and painted in primer by Agnes. With the back-door installed, work started on the double door that will give access to the shop. A lot more steel cutting involved of course. Andi in action with his torch again!
7 Oct 2008: The old back-door of the living quarters had to come out to make way for the new, wider one. Without this alteration we wouldn't be able to get our furniture in! The new door (solid teak reclaimed from the RMS Windsor Castle) was made to fit by Rob the carpenter after Andi cut the steel to size. Here is the old doorway, Rob cutting, and the new door installed.
28 Sep 2008: This week was a sad week. Our daughter Denise has joined the Winchester University to study Creative Writing and Film/Cinema Technologies. She spent the past 8 months with us working on the lightship. Her master-piece is the First Mate's cabin (her cabin) that she completely sanded down and re-varnished. It looks the biz! She certainly provided moral support to us with her humour. We will miss her for sure, but are grateful for the time she was around. Here is a picture from her preparing one of the doors for the first layer of oil and varnish. Thanks Dee!!
26 Sep 2008: The Final Frontier!! There was one more place to explore on the lightship: the void in the bow section.. And there was only one way to get in.. through a small black cover.. We were never able to open it, but earlier this week Dave finally succeeded! So there it was: the moment of decent. Brave Steve entered the small stairs down below.. It proved to be a big area, ideal for paint storage and such!
25 Sep 2008: The new stairs for the training room went in this week. These very heavy stairs were the result of many discussions about different shapes and sizes. We looked at spiral stair-cases, ones with a platform and a 90 degree turn, etc... The final solution was as simple as it could get: straight down but with a nice ship-looking design. All constructed by Steve Brain and Nathan in the workshop some time ago, and it fitted like a glove. Here they are, rightly proud of their job! Wooden steps and hand-rails will be added soon of course.
18 Sep 2008: Andi has has started the final welds on the potholes from the outside of the ship. Sitting on the quay side and with nice weather it almost looks to good to be true. Having said that.. 11 more to go.. and it is a slow process.. but he makes a first-class job of it.
Andy (another one..) completed the installation of the bolted-on portholes in the shop area. Although the bolts will be replaced with proper brass ones, it is good to have them in, just in case the weather turns bad. And Agnes is re-painting the deck with primer, ready for the autumn coming up! Talking of which.. has anybody seen the summer this year?!?
12 Sep 2008: Andi has made great progress with the portholes this week! All the ones in the treatment areas and the training room have been welded from the inside. Next week he will do a 2'nd weld from the outside. He is a very good and precise welder and in-between his welding, he gives me tips on my welding projects. Plus he is a very nice guy! Here he is with one of the nice brass portholes he welded in one of the treatment rooms.
8 Sep 2008: All holes in the engine room and treatment areas are completed now. We had to put a fire-blanket on the starboard side of our ship to protect the ship next to us from the flying sparks and molten metal. Some more grinding to do before the portholes can be welded on. I also purchased an inverter welding machine and here is a picture of me polishing-up my skills... way to go though!
The previous blog page (click HERE) covers the time from November 2007 until September 2008. Enjoy!