USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63) WHYY 12 (PBS) Philadelphia Naval Shipyard (1988)

how difficult is it to bring an aircraft carrier into port find out next the USS Kitty Hawk pulls into the Philadelphia Navy Yard and be watching later tonight for Sherlock Holmes at 11:00 in 1961 the Kitty Hawk sailed downriver to become part of America's front line of defense now its 27 years later and she's coming back upriver only this time she needs 13 tugs 260 men and a mile and a half of lines who help her make the trip I remember my father telling me how lucky I was to be still working at the shipyard but I'll tell you something it was family your father worked there you were awful lot of stories came out about the quality of the ship and what it was going to be and here it is 27 years later in here tell you the truth I've been waiting for it to come in you know I'm getting close to the carving I swore by some of some of my work is still on that ship right here ago October when I see it again do a check like I said I work I did a lot of statements to earth in those days [Music] at the end there and the water smaller ships catch the waves this ship is like a Cadillac just blows right [Music] we totally gut the ship stripper down to bare metal take all major components out all format main engines she's virtually gutted she'll be in drydock for about a year and a half and then she'll come out and we'll put her into wet berth which will actually be floating in the water her systems will start coming back up to speed we'll be testing them be putting the rest of the ship back together and then she will leave in February 19 [Music] this carrier right here is going to bring a minimum of 750 million dollars into the Delaware Valley and a local economic group did a study about five years ago and their estimate was that for every dollar spent here at the Naval Shipyard it rolls over five times out there in the community and supports a minimum of one and a half jobs out in the private sector I flew f-4s and their 14s off the deck at Kitty Hawk for many years and commanded a fighter squadron from Kitty Hawk captain a fleet Ellison I'm the commanding officer of the Kitty Hawk the Navy policy is that the captains of aircraft carriers are naval aviators and I like to look back on it when I was a young aviator launching off of the catapult on a black rainy night when you couldn't see the bow and I knew I could look up at the bridge and that guy had done it a thousand times and I knew that for some reason he knew he was going to have a good weather when I came back to land and it must be okay the crew of a of an aircraft carrier is normally over 5,200 people that consists of over 2,000 that are directly connected with the Air Wing which is made up of nine squadrons the rest the other 3,000 are involved with running the ship those 3,000 are likely you could almost equate them to a small town and they're providing all the support services that a small town must have in addition to that they must be able to drive this ship at 30 knots and launch aircraft while they're doing it we're doing that with young people the average age out there on the flight deck is 20 years or younger which I am always impressed with our own crew is being demand from about 3,000 down to around 1,800 people those 1,800 will focus on the types of jobs that that a carrier has an overhaul electricians pipe fitters welders along with the service for the crew security and we're trying to hold together a core of experience so when the ship goes back out to sea again we'll have some people that we can build the type of organization that that has been so successful over the last 25 years catapults on this ship have the capability of sending at least 30 tons in aircraft off the end of the ship that approximately 150 miles an hour and that's just under 300 feet my name is Petty Officer Berger aviation BOCES mate second class I'm assigned to the bow catapults of the Kitty Hawk I've never been launched off of a catapult myself doctor a couple of the guys that have been that either have left the ship or some reason or another and while they say there's a tremendous amount of acceleration it's it's like nothing they've ever experienced before to be up next to a catapult while it's launching itself sort of a bouillabaisse of sound and vibration mostly especially when we get one more powerful Jets turning up the pull power and if it's equipped with an after burden going into an afterburners and experience it describe if you're closer to jet I'm commander John Simmons I'm the engineer officer more commonly called the chief engineer the u.s. is Kitty collar I've been in the Navy 17 years and I've never done anything but engineering I got my first assignment was that and I enjoyed it and I've stayed with it the hours are generally tend to be quite long because if the ship doesn't get away from the pier and then all of the rest of the things are very little use and our job quite frankly is to is to get the ship underway keep the lights on keep the screws running like the wind over the deck and put steam up there so the airplanes will do what they're supposed to do and that's the whole reason for an aircraft carrier is to move the airplanes before you need the airplanes to be able to launch the minoriko room everything on an aircraft carrier is big the crew is big the hole is big machinery plant is big Kitty Hawk is 1,100 feet long give or take a few feet to give you a perspective of how long 1,100 feet is if we were to take the kid Hawk and stand her on the fantail which is the back end of the ship the square ends as we call it next to the Empire State Building ignoring the radio tower on the top of the Empire State Building the bowel would be higher than the top of the Empire State Building we can push over 30 knots and the ship weighs about 85,000 tonnes full load the ship that is rightist point is 270 feet wide that's it the flight there 280,000 shaft worth power and to put that in context that's about 28,000 automobiles pulling we carry a little over 4 million gallons of fuels enough electrical generating capacity to serve the city of say 25,000 people when we finish slept the basic technology of operating this propulsion plant will be the same as it was when we when we when the ship was built 26 years ago right across the river at New York's our building in Camden for those of us who operated Katie Hawke and then brought her here or slept it sometimes is difficult it's hard to take something that you put the time that we put into her and had her operating the way that she did during the deployment and then take it apart like this knowing how hard it's going to be to get it running again on the other hand I've been involved aircraft carriers for eight years I've seen the results of the first to schlep sarah kovin Forrestal and I know that we we got our money's worth we got what we wanted out of those show it's a worthwhile program and have to keep that money it's not fun taking things apart when talking to ship here and I've filled up your naval ship you are the first thing that comes into play as the ship normally is at pier 4 or at any pier along the waterfront this particular case at Kitty Hawk is at Pier for this setup for the Kitty Hawk is a quite quite a job for the Navy Yard in that we have approximately ninety nine side blocks and the set up is a six foot eight and a half a man can comfortably walk around underneath of the ship and do their work down there well right now we have set up the drydock we see the Kitty Hawk the ship now is at pier 4 and tomorrow we will let the drydock and cover these blocks take the case on out which you can see all with the south end of the drydock take that caisson out put it over by this Schuylkill River around the 7:30 8 o'clock we will prepare to break all the services down on the ship over it pier 4 on a carrier this type will have from 11 to 13 tugs we'll pull it over and this carrier is going to come in Stern North if we get it centered up bring the caisson in a cup of water into the caisson lure it into the cell then start pumping water out of the drydock as we pump it out of the dry dock the ship will slowly go down on the setup where we're keeping it on center continue on the pump down and the ship event is setting high and dry after that we get down and check out the setup to see what kind of a job we've done my name is Fred Butterfield I'm a lieutenant the United States Navy the docking officer here at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard when the ship was originally constructed surveyors and shipwrights took exact measurements at all the points where they knew the blocks would would be fit eventually and those are updated periodically as you need and they describe the contour of the of the ship as you can see from the curvature of the blocks they are meant to cradle the ship exactly where those individual points on the hull lie and each time the ship is docked and it's talked about once every four to five years a new docking position is specified meaning the blocks are shifted approximately two feet and what this allows for is a complete painting of the underwater hull every three docking cycles which is approximately every 12 to 15 years when I check it I have the tolerance of plus or minus one inch along the longitudinal plus or minus one half inch along the four ships and plus or minus one quarter inch up and down so it's a very tight tolerance well we shoot for zero I had full control of the ship and all the type of I'm captain Anderson the chief bow Philadelphia Naval Shipyard Nick we're originally scheduled for Saturday however we had winds 25 30 knots with which made it so you've been reborn and moves a ship at that time we have had ships where we took them out and then after we got out the wind increased then you don't have any choice and go but regardless there's nothing you can do about it you can't go back to the pier we have to come in on the last the flood tide because that's the weakest point otherwise we wouldn't be able to hold the ship broadside to the current if he was like putting a dam across the river you pilot by the seat of your pants you pick out different things and use them as guides the height of the ship in the positional one and you make sure the ships on the exact position you want before he started and died well one was the light over on the shore over there the buoys buoy 44 Schuylkill buoy use all those things in conjunction of each other [Music] [Music] the ship is now moving downriver we have many tugs along the portside because it is a flood time meaning the water is coming upriver or east of the Delaware River so we're pushing the ship down against that tide [Music] [Music] half an on the port bow [Applause] the stability of the ship in the balance of the ship is critical as we enter drydock we have computed the tides the draft and the trim and we hope that all those conditions will remain constant from the time that we've computed them until we settle onto the docks and start to pump down the drydock if we should shift trim then our distance and measurements start to reduce that margin of safety [Music] down over on the east wall [Music] [Music] captain Anderson is nominee were in the ship to put the stern of the Kitty Hawk into the slip there's a barge there on the port side of the ship that must be moved out of the way in order to allow for the ship to come to the drydock as soon as the stern of the ship crosses the drydock sill the commanding officer the ship relinquishes control to me until the ship is landed safely on the block's and all the water is pumped down [Music] [Music] [Music] okay [Music] [Music] this particular ship having such an overhang at any one time if the wind were to come out of the West which it does around this area we could hit the building over there because we have a flight deck that extends way over the sides of the of the appear here small boat that are operated by the rigors of taking out the sidelines to make sure that the ship is centered into the drydock the riggers are taking a 10-inch polypropylene towing house or a towing line and there it's run the entire length of the drydock and they're installing that on the stern of the Kittyhawk that line is known as the in hall and that is going to be used to haul the ship into the drydock north into the drydock [Music] we there should not let the ship stop because we did deliver each of these sidelines to keep the ship on center if the ship were to stop coming in it would then drift the one side we with stand a chance of hitting the side of the dock [Applause] while the ship is being hauled in you see the tugs that are are still standing by they a ship comes in the thugs have to move forward on the ship a lot of the ship to come in hydronic is not wide enough for the tugs and the Kittyhawk to be here at the same time there's only between 10 and 12 feet clearance between the side of the ship and the walls of the drydock we still have two or three tugs on the south end keeping the bow of the ship on center while the riggers keep the stern on center and the head line pulling the ship in the riggers the line handlers have had complete control of the ship and they are walking the ship down to its location proper location in the drydock we are still taking up on the head line to ease the ship into place being very careful of course to keep the speed at a minimum so it's not to exceed where our landing point will be toward the north end of the dock [Music] [Music] [Music] at this point the tugs and another pilot are thanking the captain from where it is moored on the key wall bringing it back into the slip as I see the case on coming around into this sill we will then have the riggers secure the caisson in the sill and at that time will pump the caisson with water sinking in the so area so we're now ready to pump the drydock out and everything this ship gets into the drydock we will come over here to these site ages and we will take the ship with the target on the other side that is drydock and that will be the overall stern which will Center the ship into the dry dock the ship rights are very carefully looking through their measuring devices to see if they stop seeing a movement on the bow of the stern once they no longer see any movement that means the ship is down we also have to check with the two men on board ship that has a wood er at set of water bottles on now on there to tell us how much list I have on this ship we have to ensure that the ship is as close to zero list as possible if not we take it put weights on board to make the list out of the ship or we pump water into the tanks and we're taking the water level down very slowly to make sure we keep our crucial alignment when the water level reaches three feet below the landing draft we commence the rig temporary services such as power steam and browse or gangways for personnel unload and egress quite a bit of the hull is exposed now as you can see of course there's evidence of extensive marine growth or fouling along the hull and that'll all be blasted off as the ship prepares to spend the next 18 months in this dock we're down to about a foot in the drydock right now waters receding down at about six inches in the drydock you'll be able to see fish that have been trapped in there by the closing of the caisson we have a team of laborers who go down there and catch the fish put them in plastic water filled buckets and take them up and dump them back in the river so as to preserve as many of them as we can we can see that water is using out of the blocks and I'll be the nice tight set fit on all the blocks the talking off and I have now determined the job is now completed and at this time we will suspend from the docking evolution I guess one of the rewarding things about this job is that I never get over the wonder of it all you take an 80 thousand ton ship and you bring it in and lay it down on the set it down very carefully on the blocks and it's sitting at at zero degrees list and virtually no no longitudinal or quartz movement it's it's very rewarding next it's the dark comedy of Richard Greenberg's life under water coming up in just a few moments [Music] this program consists almost entirely of film never before seen in public the unknown chaplet Friday night at 9:00 on TV 12 she was like a dream gliding down fairy castle luring the folks on a magic voyage steamboats are coming again to your post offices five commemorative stamps she was more splendid than anything that ever seen on land dream again collect us stamps [Music] Saturday night a tale of conflict and betrayal in deep space stay tuned for a holiday tribute to the Unknown Soldier next here on TV 12 [Music] ten mutual life insurance company is pleased to help bring you this program on TV 1210 mutual has been providing insurance and financial products for more than 140 years ten mutual committed to excellence committed to TV twelve myths rituals demons and heroes why we are who we are and what may become of us journey into the realm of enlightenment through the inside of two fascinating Minds seek out the answers to the eternal questions of man the power of myth with Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers a special programming event every night at 10:00 beginning Monday here on TV 12 on the next infinite voyage new discoveries reveal greater genetic similarities of life than ever imagined and a study of identical twins suggests that many facets of personality are shaped by our genes journey through the intricate maze of DNA in the geometry of life on the next infinite voyage Wednesday at 8:00 on TV 12 the purpose of our series is this week join a young Bob Vila as he hosts the very first episode of this old house this is this is a disaster here no good travel back in time to 79 for the first episode of the first series of this old house Saturday at 6 on TV 12 next on nova most of us

Channel: Tom H

Views: 193,727

Rating: 4.8044806 out of 5

Keywords: Navy yard, Philadelphia, USS Kitty Hawk, Warships, Shipyard, United States Navy

Id: fBPMzJ5zgmE

Length: 31min 22sec (1882 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 15 2018