quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:
You are thinking of the Air Force, not the Navy.

And you forgot the chocolate fountain, Xbox, and cappuccino machine. . .

and golf course, activities center, Class 6 Booze Store, Hobby Shop, Activities centers...

quote:

Originally posted by tacfoley:
I keep thinking, poor ship. Call me maudlin, but no ship deserves to burn to death.

Agreed - better to be sunk in battle that burn to the waterline at the pier.

With respect to weapons, that stuff is definitely not onboard during a MX period. Because while Joe Civilian thinks of it as just explosives, in reality a lot of our weapon systems are just that, systems / computers / guidance stuff that itself, needs to be maintained, updated, and serviced. Far easier / efficient to offload that to a specialized Naval Depot where weapons experts upkeep, fix, upgrade weapons than keep them in some dark hole on a ship for 2 years, when in fact they could be sent forward for use in conflict.

quote:

Originally posted by LBTRS:
Tri-wall boxes are large, heavy cardboard boxes that can be put on a pallet for transporting. You may have seen them in your local grocery store, the big cardboard box that is full of watermelons?

Gaylord Boxes
Large, bulk-size, corrugated cardboard boxes for use with/on pallets.

quote:

Originally posted by LBTRS:

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:

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Originally posted by sleepla8er:

The fire broke out in an area where cardboard and drywall supplies were stored and firefighters initially fought it with water until they had to withdraw.

Drywall and cardboard on a VTOL carrier?

Ok. . .

I think someone misunderstood what was said...I believe they said "Tri-wall" not drywall. Tri-wall boxes are what we commonly use in the Navy for packing up equipment to be transported.

Tri-wall boxes are large, heavy cardboard boxes that can be put on a pallet for transporting. You may have seen them in your local grocery store, the big cardboard box that is full of watermelons?

This plus, many people do not realize how much wood is used in the well-deck. Couple this with 1/6 the crew onboard and no firemain pressure...

I remember being in dry dock on the Tarawa. No firemain pressure and minimal [experienced] crew onboard are a CO's nightmare.

IMHO, the best time and place for a fire like that is at sea with a full compliment of crew. Nobody rushing up from the pier who doesn't know the ship telling those who do what to do.

Not smoking as bad as it was this morning, a number of areas are still smoldering, could only imagine what the insides are like and how much heat is still retained. Looks like the fire went upward, through the island, dropped the forward mast, burnt as much as it could and ran out of burnable areas to go.

I'm curious if the ship has electric power provided to it, and if any pumps are running, or have been running, to pump out the water that is currently being pumped in to fight the fire? Surely it was running on electric power provided from the pier while being here for the months and months past. I'm wondering if it still has power running into it? Who knows?

Given that the hull is probably intact and not leaking water in, is it a reasonable question to ask if the ship might be taking in so much water from the fire fighting that it could sink lower into the water or possibly capsize?

I'm thinking there are plans working to get pumps up and running asap to get the water out.

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
I'm curious if the ship has electric power provided to it, and if any pumps are running, or have been running, to pump out the water that is currently being pumped in to fight the fire? Surely it was running on electric power provided from the pier while being here for the months and months past. I'm wondering if it still has power running into it? Who knows?

Given that the hull is probably intact and not leaking water in, is it a reasonable question to ask if the ship might be taking in so much water from the fire fighting that it could sink lower into the water or possibly capsize?

I'm thinking there are plans working to get pumps up and running asap to get the water out.

They most likely cut shorepower to the ship. Electricity and fire and water on a steel ship, don't mix. Generally these ships will have a bunch of watertight bulkheads (BUT the water tight doors need to be shut in order for most of the bulkheads to be water tight). Usually a ship like this can survive with a few bulkheads flooded. The pumps are not automatic on ships of this size, a human needs to open valves (picking which compartments to pump from) and turn the pumps on which are generally electric, but I'm sure the military would have a few fuel driven emergency pumps too, obviously dewatering isn't happening right now. It is possible it could take on enough water from the fire fighting to sink or capsize. Although judging by the pictures and waterline, the ship isn't close to that point at this time.

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
I'm curious if the ship has electric power provided to it, and if any pumps are running, or have been running, to pump out the water that is currently being pumped in to fight the fire? Surely it was running on electric power provided from the pier while being here for the months and months past. I'm wondering if it still has power running into it? Who knows?

Given that the hull is probably intact and not leaking water in, is it a reasonable question to ask if the ship might be taking in so much water from the fire fighting that it could sink lower into the water or possibly capsize?

I'm thinking there are plans working to get pumps up and running asap to get the water out.

No, it is in a cold iron state. All power was coming from the pier via the true definition of "monster cables."

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
... You mean naval vessels don't have interiors finished with professionally hung drywall, with some tasteful orange peel texture, and bullnose corners, all painted an inoffensively neutral shade of beige to make the space feel more open and attract homebuyers?

I realize you are joking in this case but the US Navy learned the hard way to minimize flammable materials of that sort onboard combat ships. At the Battle of Savo Island in 1942, four heavy cruisers (one Aussie) were lost in a night surface action the day after the landings on Guadacanal. A major contributing factor to the massive onboard fires was all the "unnecessary" flammable material in the living spaces. After the reports came out, one thing they did was to rip out all the nice wood furniture and paneling from the officers quarters.

Understand I'm not saying that sort of thing was in any way relevant to this fire on the USS Bonhomme, but sometimes obvious things don't seem so obvious at the time. It'll be interesting to see if any lessons are learned from this incident.

The BHR is tied up just south of the Coronado Bay Bridge so I had a good view of her on my drive home yesterday. It was sad seeing her smoking and her Mast fallen over.

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Originally posted by JoseyWales2:
[T]he US Navy learned the hard way to minimize flammable materials of that sort onboard combat ships.

Yes, that was the sort of thing I was thinking about with my question. If wooden furniture can burn, not to mention paint on steel, one would think those hard lessons would be remembered even today. I’m far from an authority on naval warfare, but based on what I do know, fire is the big ship killer, as even the British rediscovered as late as during the Falkland campaign.

As for things like wiring insulation burning, that was one of the contributors to the deaths of the astronauts in the Apollo 1 fire, and the insulation was, AFAIK, changed as a result. There are no pure oxygen environments on naval ships (that I know of), but are there no insulating materials that won’t burn under normal conditions? Perhaps it’s impossible to eliminate all potential fire fuels, but can’t they be minimized?

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

No, it is in a cold iron state. All power was coming from the pier via the true definition of "monster cables."

That's what I assumed. But then, why would she have "1 million gallons of fuel" on board, unless some media putz just Googled Janes Fighting Ships and cited her published capacity. . .

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

No, it is in a cold iron state. All power was coming from the pier via the true definition of "monster cables."

That's what I assumed. But then, why would she have "1 million gallons of fuel" on board, unless some media putz just Googled Janes Fighting Ships and cited her published capacity. . .

A full ballast of DFM is less explosive than an empty tank. Had the tanks been empty and with all that heat, a major explosion would've been very likely

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LS1 GTO,

Images are out....got an appointment to get to so can't format correctly, here's the links.

https://imgur.com/a/wFrQmRa

https://i.imgur.com/dNZdTLG.jpg

I was just looking at those on Facebook

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
... here's the links.

I saw those photos earlier

thats not gonna buff out

Flight deck still looks good, just put a sunroof on it, give it a good sweep and wash off and maybe some new paint and roll it.

It's like that scene in Animal House where Flounder is crying because his brother's Continental was trashed by the guys. "Report it stolen, [the US taxpayers] give you a brand new [LHD] (in five years)!

quote:

As for things like wiring insulation burning, that was one of the contributors to the deaths of the astronauts in the Apollo 1 fire, and the insulation was, AFAIK, changed as a result. There are no pure oxygen environments on naval ships (that I know of), but are there no insulating materials that won’t burn under normal conditions? Perhaps it’s impossible to eliminate all potential fire fuels, but can’t they be minimized?

Everything burns if gotten hot enough...yes warships are built with fires in mind, but you have to insulate some bulkheads, the Fiberglas doesn’t burn but the covering will, the paint, the carpeting, etc. a lot of interior compartments might be further subdivided with an aluminum honeycomb covered in Formica for weight, but the Formica burns. The plastic on the wiring insulation will burn, wire runs are packed with what is fondly called “monkey shit” it’s to prevent water from passing thru wire cabling runs, but it burns too. Once the temp gets to 1000 degrees And up, most everything burns..including fire hoses, wooden axe handles, all the shit used in everyday life aboard a ship like bedding, curtains, flooring, Paperwork, the plastic surrounding the computers....The rubber gaskets that are an inch thick in the watertight doors....everything.

So, everything?

Had a chance to drive by her earlier this morning (well, as close they would allow a retired squid to get that is) and oh my, that ship is in trouble.

For those of you in the know, looked like she's berthed at Pier 1 North and is listing about 5 degrees. She's gonna need a bit of surgery and some really good make-up to be looking good again.

On a side, shortly after the Bonnie Dick was commissioned, and before her first cruise; we had an all hands on the flightdeck of the Tarawa. We were berthed on the south side of pier 13, Bonnie was on the north. Our CO made a comment akin to "we are the best ship stationed here and can kick the ass of any ship here - including the Bonnie Dick and her CO. Yes, I am talking to you and can kick your CO's ass again if he'd like me to."

It was awesome at the time and in hindsight, my guess is the two COs are/were the best of friends.

Local news just reported ADM Sobeck announced the ship structurally sound and the damage is repairable. Didn't give a timeframe of when the ship might be seaworthy again though.