|
General Store Keepers Office
Restoration Project
I want to thank Mr. Barry
Ward the ship’s manager and Mr. Travis LaGrone executive director of
the Battleship Texas Foundation and Mr. Don Fischer First Texas
Volunteer Chief for their guidance and support on GSK project.
Corporate sponsors for this
compartment was Triple-S
Steel Supply which donated
the
steel for the restoration of the compartment desks.
Without it the GSK project
would not have taken place.
All
photos on this page are "thumbnails" just click on them to see
a larger image. Photos were taken by: Dennis Mitchell |
| The latest restoration project has just
been completed aboard the Battleship Texas. Located on the second deck
of the ship port side from frame 99 to 101. The General Store Keepers
Office (GSK).
With the backing and support from the Ship’s Staff and the
Battleship Texas Foundation the First Texas Volunteers (FTV) began
restoring this room in January 2002. The purpose of this project was to
do a complete restoration of this room and then have it open to the
public for viewing.
The FTV restoration crew consists of people from all walks of life.
We have an Accountant, a Secretary, a Computer Programmer, just to name
a few who have little experience in operating tools and equipment but
they all have one thing in common. A desire to do and learn what is
needed so that this proud ship will be maintained and preserved for the
future.
.
|
|
I could fill a book on what it took to
restore this compartment but I wanted to share with you part of this
story. It takes a special sort of person to Volunteer to do projects
like these that take a great deal of effort and hard work. But as you
can see the end result speaks for itself.
We could not determine when this compartment had last been worked on
and as you will see from the photos it has been a long time since anyone
put a coat of paint on these walls or polished the brass in this office.
The FTV estimated it would take about four months to complete however
as you get started on any restoration you come across surprises and GSK
had its share of them. Including removal and repair of part of the
Armored deck (80 lbs. sq. ft.).
We were given two B/W photos that showed us some of the items that
were in this room which we have framed and placed in the room for
everyone to see. |
|
The following
are the members of the First Texas Volunteers that worked on the GSK
project:
Chuck Moore,
Dennis Mitchell, Nicole Mitchell, Steve Bostick, Andrew Bostick, Wesley
Grace, Lisa Kolb, David Glass, David Beselt, Roy Coleman, Brian Planz,
Mike Fisk, Stanley Saunders, Mark Tibbitts, John Johnson, Bryan King,
Tom Scott, Robert Trull, and Blaine Corman
Between January and the end of June 2002 the FTV put a total of
679.75 volunteer hours into restoring this room to what you see today.
The following
members of the ship’s crew worked on the GSK project:
Mr. Barry
Ward, John Ferguson, Gaspar Camarillo, Fernando Fernandez, Lonnie Fry,
Norman Snipe, Walter Johnson, George Templin.
Job well
done. |
All
photos on this page are "thumbnails" just click on them to see
a larger image. Photos were taken by: Dennis Mitchell
click
here for 56k image
This is the desk area on the forward bulkhead as it
looked prior to the restoration.
click
here for 56k image
And this is how it looks today.
In order for us to correctly restore this room we
needed to completely remove all of the older paint. These next photos
shows different areas of the room during that process. This is the area
above the doorway to the room.
This photo is the aft (rear) bulkhead (wall) after the
desks had been removed and the paint stripped from the bulkhead.
This is a close up of one of the six desk lamps that
were completely restored by Charles Moore. These desk lamps are once
again working and add a great deal to the overall look to the room.
Note the photo on the desk was one of two photos that
were in the archive of this room. These helped us know what was in the
room during WWII.
--------
The desks in the GSK office were in poor shape. We had
to remove them from the mounts and turn them over to work on. Below is a
photo showing the rusted bottom of the desk and the metal repair.
Mr. John Ferguson is holding the rusted metal that was
removed.
Triple-S
Steel Supply
donated the metal to restore these desks.
Many
thanks for their help! |
|
All
photos on this page are "thumbnails" just click on them to see
a larger image. Photos were taken by: Dennis Mitchell
click
here for 56k image
Here is the desk area located on the aft (rear) bulkhead (wall) prior
to us beginning the restoration project.
click
here for 56k image
This is the same area just a different view after restoration is
completed.
After the desks had been removed from the bulkheads and turned over
we found that several of them had corrosion damage like this to the
lower section.
Triple-S Steel here in Houston donated the needed metal for us to
repair the desks. Many thanks.
http://www.sss-steel.com
This
is the outboard bulkhead (wall). Because of a leak from the Port Hole
the insulation below was damaged and the deck below. Note the photos to
the right.
This
is the top of the forward desk. Note the pencil sharpener and the black
electrical outlet and the newly restored desk lamp.
After
the painting was completed volunteer Mike Fisk went back and with great
effort on detail replaced the marking in the room that were there
originally. Note the frame markings.
"FR100" |
|
All
photos on this page are "thumbnails" just click on them to see
a larger image. Photos were taken by: Dennis Mitchell
Along the outboard bulkhead was a section of flooring
that was in poor condition as you can see from the photo above. It took
Steve Bostick 6 hours of needle gunning and hammer and chisel to remove
all of the material that had built up over the years. Below is what it
looked like next.
After the material was removed we had a great deal of
metal work to do which the ship's staff did over the following two
weeks. Andrew Bostick had the same pleasure of doing the four foot
section in the back corner which took him about the same amount of time
to chisel out and clean up.
After everyone's hard work this is the end results of
their effort. A job well done by all involved.
The room after restoration, your looking at the
outboard bulkhead (wall) from the doorway to the room.
Close-up photo of the aft desk cabinet.
CLICK
Here
For a Media
Player Slide Show
Photos taken
by D. Mitchell before, during and after the restoration. |
