They are taking the ship apart !

I went to visit the ship in dry dock the other day and it looks like they are taking it apart !  I have no idea why they would want to do this to such a fine old ship.

A plate was removed from the lower area near the propeller shaft and rudder.

It looks like they are trying to take the propeller off and they have cut big holes in the side of the ship at the bottom near the rudder.

The propeller has been partially pulled out to allow the tail shaft to be inspected.

Fortunately I was able to find a morsel of food on the dock near the ship so I was not going to be hungry while watching the workers. The workmen get their food from a small truck that shows up and feeds them about lunch time.  What a good deal for them, but it doesn’t do much for me.  The workmen are not very thoughtful when it comes to feeding the avian squadron.

Bob has found a morsel of food at the dry dock.

They also took the anchors off and they are sitting on the deck with all the chain and it looks like they are getting rusty.  I have never seen the chains that are attached to the anchors.  I wonder where they hide them ?  I think that they are going to have to put the plates back on or the ship will sink with the big holes in the side. I don’t know much about ships but it seems to me that they shouldn’t have big holes in the side.

Plates removed from the side of the ship near the rudder.

The anchors and chain on the deck.

Editor’s Note:  While the ship is in dry dock lots of work is being done to inspect the propeller shaft and the parts of the ship that is normally under water.  Some of the plates on the bottom of the ship near the rudder and propellor have been removed to be replaced.  The ship is 68 years old, it was commissioned in 1943, and things wear out as would be expected.   Bob noted that the lunch truck shows up every day to feed the workers.  They do not go out of their way to feed the birds.  The anchor chains are stowed in the appropriately named ‘chain locker’ at the bow of the ship.  It is likely that they have not been brought out since the trip to England and France in 1994 when the ship went to Normandy for the 50th anniversary of D Day. For more information about the ship and additional pictures please visit the web site at SS Jeremiah O’Brien. 

A new paint job for the ship

After the little robots scraped all the paint off the ship they are replacing it with new paint.

Robotic paint scraper attached to the side of the ship. Bare metal on the right and old paint on the left.

First they put big towers up next to the ship and then men in things that look like space suits got up on the towers and sprayed paint on the ship.  Right now it looks like a checkerboard with two colors of paint.

Primer paint on the ship. An extra coat was applied to the seams between the plates and over the rivets. Note the anchors have been removed to allow the paint to be applied.

I wonder if they are going to leave it like this or if they are going to put on different colors ? The men on the towers are very brave to be that far off the ground, but they are also dangerous because they have long sticks that shoots the paint onto the sides of the ship. I think that if they got a chance they would probably try to squirt me with the paint.

They are also doing some work on the top of the ship and they have a little machine that lifts the men up and lets them paint and fix things on the deck and the upper parts of the ship.

They have also covered portions of the ship with plastic to prevent the new paint from getting on the cannons and other parts of the upper deck.

The deck guns have been covered to protect them from stray paint during the repair work.

Man lift in use to allow painting and repairs on the upper portions of the bridge.

Editor’s Note:  The robotic scrapers made quick work of the old paint and the new coats are being applied. A plan is being considered to re-float the ship and move it a few feet forward or backward to allow the bottom of the hull to be painted in the area where the support blocks currently are positioned.  The BAE shipyard workers are painting the hull and the volunteers are painting the upper portions of the ship using a lift and ladders.  Portions of the upper deck are covered with plastic sheeting to protect them from the spray paint. For more pictures and information about the  ship please visit our web site at SS Jeremiah O’Brien. 

Cruisin’ around the Bay

I have been commuting back and forth from the ship in dry dock to my nest at Pier 45 on Fisherman’s Wharf. This time of the year there are  many gulls around because the California Gull frequently migrates to San Francisco Bay during the winter.

An immature gull, left, is brown, whereas the adult develops the classic white plummage

From April until August many of my relatives fly east to the nesting site at Mono Lake.  They return to San Francisco Bay to spend the winter because the weather is very cold at the lake.  Mono lake is the second largest gull rookery in the United States.  The largest is the Great Salt Lake far across the mountains and the big desert.  Some day I hope to visit the big salt lake and see if I can find any of my relatives.  It is a long flight and I’m not sure how I will find food along the way.  The great thing about Mono Lake is that it is filled with brine shrimp and everyone loves to eat brine shrimp.

At one time the gulls that went to Mono Lake were threatened by the wily coyotes because the water level in the lake was too low and the nasty beasts were able to get across a land bridge to the island in the middle of the lake.  They attacked the nesting gulls and made a mess of everything.  All of my relatives were either born at Mono Lake or in a new rookery near South San Francisco Bay.  They even had their own organization called “Concerned Coyotes for Lower Lake Levels” and they lobbied for increased water withdrawls by the City of Los Angeles.

Anyway, enough about my relatives.  One of my favorite spots to stop during my commute to the dry dock is next to the little red boat that never seems to leave the dock.  The only time I see it out on the Bay is when we are cruising around and it comes over and tries to squirt us with a stream of water.  Maybe they think we aren’t wet enough?

One other thing has come up which is distressing to me. Some goofball play writer named Anton Chekhov has written a play called “The Seagull”.  He wrote it a long time ago and from what I can see from glancing at the book left open on the hatch cover it has nothing to do with birds.  One of the actresses says . . . ” I am a seagull”, but she never explains what she means.  This is troubling for two obvious reasons:  the actress is certainly NOT a seagull, and there is no such thing as a ‘seagull’.  If she had said “I am a Herring Gull” I could understand it, even though she obviously is not a Herring Gull.  The whole thing is too confusing to me.

Editor’s Note:  Mono Lake, in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, is a historic gull rookery only second in size to the Great Salt Lake.t  Many other birds, like the tern,  also nest at the lake, but the California Gull is the most prevalent. 

The San Francisco Fire Department has a fireboat station just west of the Bay Bridge.  These boats frequently cruise around the Bay during Fleet Week and salute the ships coming into the Bay.  You can see the fireboat next to the SS Jeremiah O’Brien in the picture at the top of the page. 

Hard work at the dry dock

The workers at the dry dock start when it is still dark in the morning.  There is all kinds of yucky stuff growing on the bottom of the ship that will have to be scraped off so the painting can be done. The ship is sitting on a bunch of giant concrete and wooden blocks and I wonder how they are going to be able to paint under the blocks?

Ship sitting on the blocks with Bob making an inspection tour from the floor of the dry dock.

Maybe somehow they lift the ship up and squirt paint under the place where the block sits?  No, that doesn’t make any sense.

Placement of the support blocks on the floor of the dry dock.

I have been back to the place where they have the tables and chairs on the boat ramp.  I found a convenient piling to sit on and keep my eyes on the people eating lunch.  Fortunately the other members of the avian squadron have not heard about this place so I pretty much have the scraps all to myself.

Bob hangs out on a piling at The Ramp Restaurant

It looks promising around lunch time, but there is no one there early in the morning.  I have been going back to Pier 45 at Fisherman’s Wharf every night because this place is dead after about 3 in the afternoon.  No food so no reason to hang around !  The workers stop for lunch about noon time, but I think I have a better chance at getting fed at the boat ramp place.

Editor’s Note:  The ship is brought into the flooded dry dock and carefully maneuvered into position over the pre-positioned blocks.  The water is then pumped out of the wing walls and bottom of the dry dock and the ship is elevated high and dry. The painting will be done after the hull is cleaned and the aquatic growth removed. The painting scheme will be red on the bottom and gray above the water.  A black portion will also be included below the red bottom line.  For more pictures and information please visit the web site at SS Jeremiah O’Brien. 

Dry dock work begins !

I was relieved to see that the ship finally made it into dry dock at Pier 70 on Tuesday morning.  The first attempt on Monday was a windy day and they couldn’t make it safely.  I was not a happy Gull because I flew all the way down there early in the morning and got nothing to eat out of the adventure.  On Wednesday I went down there again to see how they were doing and was amazed at how much had been done in one day and how many men in yellow suits were scrambling around.  Despite investigating all locations I could not find any food.  I did however find a dock nearby with a promising looking food source.  It appears to be a boat ramp with tables and chairs and people eating.  This could be a goldmine of leftovers if I work it right.  Food is apparently being served on the deck!

The deck at The Ramp Restaurant

I went back to the ship after snatching a few snacks and was surprised to see the paint on the ship being scraped by this funny little machine that was attached like a marine limpet to the side.  This machine seems to be fastened to the ship and moves up and down.  As it moves the paint on the side of the ship disappears!  Underneath the old paint the hull is bright shiny metal and you can see the rivets and everything.  The machine appears to move as if by magic and has a mind of its own.

Robotic paint scraper clinging to the side of the ship. The paint removal apparatus moves about 5-10 feet per minute depending upon the texture of the hull and the thickness of the paint.

Editor’s Note:  The SS Jeremiah O’Brien is currently at the BAE Systems shipyard at Pier 70 for painting and repairs.  The trip to the dry dock was successful on Tuesday, January 24th and the repair and rehabilitation work began almost immediately.  The most visible work is being done on the removal of the old paint from the hull using a robotic machine which is magnetically held on the side of the ship. The movement is controlled by an operator who stands below the device and can control both the direction of travel as well as the speed.  The paint is removed by a high pressure water spray and the old paint and the water are recovered by a suction to prevent the material from being discharged into San Francisco Bay. The areas which cannot be cleaned by the robot will have to be manually scraped.   To see more pictures of the progress in dry dock please visit us at the SS Jeremiah O’Brien website.  At this location you can learn much more about the ship and also join us on our Facebook page.  The progress will be updated frequently and new pictures will be posted as well.

Paint removed from the starboard bow of the ship. Note the seams of the plates on the ship as well as the rivet patterns.

The trip down to dry dock

On January 23rd, Monday morning at 6 o’clock there was a lot of activity on the ship and lines of people going on board while it was still dark!  Very unusual.  In my bleary-eyed state I couldn’t figure it out until I remembered the fact that the ship is going into dry dock and today was the day for the trip.  It was raining and the wind was howling, but despite the bad weather I got out of my warm dry nest and prepared to fly down to Pier 70. It was a tough flight because of the wind, but I did get there before the ship arrived.

This is Bob just having arrived at Pier 70 in the cold windy rain. He is not a happy gull.

When I got down there the visibility was so bad that I could scarcely see across the ship yard.  After a little while the ship came into view and it was accompanied by three tiny tug boats.  I had never seen three tug boats pushing and pulling the ship.  The wind was pushing it around and they looked as though they were having a lot of trouble getting it to go in the right direction.

The SS Jeremiah O'Brien and three tugboats trying to position the ship for entry into the dry dock.

The people at the shipyard had made changes to the dry dock and it was sinking!  Why do they want to sink the dry dock just before they put the ship in? Lots of men in yellow jackets were running around and talking on telephones.  I found a dry place up on top of one of the buildings to watch the circus. There were repeated attempts to get close to the sunken dry dock by pushing the ship with the tiny tug boats. I thought about trying to fly out to the ship to see if there might be some food on deck but the wind was too strong and the rain was ferocious.

A view of the flooded dry dock from the top of a nearby building.

They went back and forth several times and once got very close to the dry dock before backing up. In the end they pulled the ship out away from the ship yard and held it out in open water for a while until one of the tiny tug boats left and headed back up toward the Bay Bridge.  Soon they moved the ship further out into the Bay and turned it around to go back to Pier 45.

All of this and I got NOTHING TO EAT!

Editor’s Note:  The SS Jeremiah O’Brien was schedule to travel down to Pier 70 to go into the floating dry dock at the BAE Systems shipyard.  The floating dry dock had been prepared the week before and blocks were placed to allow the ship to be secured for the necessary painting and repairs. After a couple hours of maneuvering the decision was made to hold off on entering the dry dock until the wind died down.  It soon became obvious that we had no idea how long it would be before the conditions improved so the ship returned to Pier 45 and the safety of Fisherman’s Wharf.  As one of the SS jeremiah O’Brien’s volunteer crew remarked . . .”Ship happens”.  The ship was safely returned to the dry dock on Tuesday and it now is positioned to be painted and repaired. More information will be provided in the coming weeks as progress is made on the project.  Please visit us at our web site and on this BLOG for progress reports.  

Cruisin’ Down to Dry Dock

I heard today that the ship is going to go into dry dock on Monday, January 23rd and that they will be escorted down to Pier 70 by some of our tiny tugboat friends.  I wonder if they will have a lunch on board and if I can snatch some snacks during the trip.  I did not hear an estimate for how long they will be in the dry dock, but I assume it is only for a few weeks.  I have flown around the Pier 70 area in the past and it is near the baseball park. The baseball park is wonderful because for several months a year they have big crowds and when they leave there are tons of left over hot dog buns & chips and other yummy treats.  Unfortunately the rest of the avian squadron also knows about the baseball park and it is often quite crowded as we are scuffling for the leftover food.  We sometimes have to circle the park for a long time while the games go on.  You would think that the tourists and other patrons would be more considerate and get out of the way so we can eat the snacks.

Bob C. Gull stops for a breather during his trip down to Pier 70 at a popular spot near the Ferry Building.

When I got to Pier 70 the dry dock was empty and the workers were positioning  blocks in the bottom for the ship.  From what I heard from the crew they expect that the shipyard crew will be doing the work on the hull and the crew members will be doing work on the deck and interior of the ship.

Empty floating dry dock with blocks to support the ship during the painting and repairs.

Editor’s Notes:  The SS Jeremiah O’Brien is going into dry dock at Pier 70 and will be there for about a month while maintenance is done on the ship.  The ship will be painted and some hull plates may be repaired. Tours of the ship will not be available until they return to Pier 45 at Fisherman’s Wharf in early March. This is a ‘floating’ dry dock, unlike the ‘graving’ dock at Mare Island, which is fixed in the ground.  The floating dry dock is prepared as shown before the ship arrives.  Then the dry dock is sunk into the water by flooding the bottom and wing walls pictured here.  The ship is then positioned in the dry dock and the water is pumped out and the dry dock re-floated to bring the ship up out of the water.  For more information about the Liberty ship SS Jeremiah O’Brien please visit us at our web site. If we can get Bob to continue to visit Pier 70 we will provide more information as the work progresses on the ship. 

View of the floating dry dock from ground level at Pier 70.

 

The Herring are here! The Herring are here!

While I was flying down to look at the dry dock preparations at Pier 70 I noticed that there was a lot of activity in the Bay right near the Ferry Building.  Upon closer inspection I discovered that the little boats and swarms of gulls and bobbing seals were all there because the Herring were in the midst of their annual run for spawning into San Francisco Bay. The gulls were trying to snatch the Herring out of the nets of the trawlers and the seals were trying to avoid the boats and nets and catch the Herring in the water.  It was quite a sight . . . chaos was the order of the day.

Cupid's Bow and the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero next to San Francisco Bay

I stopped at Cupid’s Bow to look at the scene and was amazed at the number of boats and gulls.  I like to perch on the tip of the Bow or on top of the arrow to be able to rest and look down on the Bay. How come none of my so called ‘friends’ and relatives didn’t bother to say anything to me about this spawning run? I like fresh Herring as much as any other Gull.  The crew members on the boat were working very hard to haul in the nets and the birds were swirling around looking for fish that escape the boat.

Herring boat and the avian squadron during the Herring run.

In any case this is a good thing for the avian squadron and it provides some variety in our diet to supplement the bread and junk we scavenge at Fisherman’s Wharf.  Unfortunately the Herring run is usually short and may occur at night when we are not out cruising around.  If it is over now for this year and I miss it that is OK too because they will be back next year.

Editor’s Note:  The Pacific Herring ( Clupea pallasii) are a keystone species that spawns in San Francisco Bay each year in January or February. Each female may provide as many as 20,000 eggs which float free in the water in area where eel grass and other sources of support exist.  Herring are harvested by specially designed boats and net trawlers.  The harvested fish may be used as salmon bait, fish oil, fish meal or extraction of the roe for resale.  There is also a Herring run in Richardson Bay and a rejuvenated run in Half Moon Bay.  In San Francisco Bay it does not extend south beyond Candlestick Point probably because of the lack of appropriate habitat.  

For more information on the wildlife in San Francisco Bay and the annual events like the Pacific Herring run visit our web site that tells more about the SS Jeremiah O’Brien. 

Bob C. Gull-iver’s Travels: Mare Island

Last year the ship took a cruise to Mare Island at Vallejo to have some work done.  Mare Island used to be an open and very active Navy Base and now the sailors are gone, but there is still a lot of action.  While they were tied up to the dock at the old Navy Base the cranes took a lot of pallets out of the hold and the most interesting thing is that now the ship sits much higher out of the water.

Bob C. Gull-iver’s Travels: Alcatraz Island

While I was roaming around the ship the other day I saw a book sitting open on one of the hatch covers.  The title was Gulliver’s Travels and I was astounded to think that someone had written a book about my personal adventures flying around San Francisco Bay. I was able to read a couple pages and the author got it all wrong.  He is talking about little people called Lilliputians and Biefuscudians and has nothing in there that I could see about my personal travels around the area.