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Most oiler sailors would love to
see their oiler memorialized as a museum. It has been tried with little
success, it just costs too much. There are two sections of our oiler
that are really different from other auxiliary ships.
1.
The huge tanks and refueling rigs.
2. The Kawishiwi has an added feature, a rear fueling rig. The central command area also has a couple interesting items. |
Here is a satellite view of our AO-143's as moored in Suisun Bay.
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On the old Sand Point Navy
Station on Lake Washington there is a proposal to create a Navy
Support
Museum. It can be about every kind of support required to
keep the war ships
located in working condition, where they are needed. There is not many
sites in the United States that memorialize military items other than
actual fighting tools. If this museum can display and educate the
public about how ships transfer supplies while they are in motion, it
could then be called a National Museum.
A
model of the oiler AO-146 would be displayed among the actual devices
of the ship cut away and displayed.
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|
 Click image for more detail Creating a REEF with
Kawishiwi would be great.
The
devices that need to be memorialized for oilers are every item depicted
in the diagram below. Setting this up in a museum would help describe
to the public and maritime students, how the process is accomplished.
The 143 class oilers have nearly all the 1960 type equipment that could
be removed and place in a save storage as a museum is being developed.
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| The list of items above
would include: (1) Large Steam Winch, (1) Small Steam Winch, a Ram
Tensioned, The Large Outrigger, (1) set of (2) Control Valves,
(4) Hose Saddles, plus (1) Probe, and (1) Receiver, detailed right
below tanks. Another important section of an oiler are its large fuel tanks, detailed at right. The components to be memorialized here are, 1: The Valve Control, 2: The Long Reach Rods, 3: The Valve and Screen Covered Intake at the bottom ot each tank which the fuel is pumped through, 4: The Tank Access where crew menders enter the empty tanks to clean them. These tanks have little or no oxygen in them so each member who descends into the deep dark tank must wear oxygen equipment, and 5: A section of the grated deck would be good to salvage because these 143 oilers were the first class to have the working deck completely covered with grating instead of narrow walk ways. Each UNREP rig has a control station such as that shown in the photo below. One of the stations need to be recovered with the control levers and valves. |
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................................................................................................................................................................................. Perhaps the most simple section to cut is the after framing that originally supported 3 in gun implements. What we are after here is the starboard rig that was used to refuel ships following Kawishiwi. This way more ships could be accommodated at one time. See photo left.  When the 143's were constructed, they were heavily armed. Two 5 inch guns and six duel 3 inch guns were included on the 655 ft. long - 55 ft. wide 1954 vintage, super oiler. The 5 inch guns were removed about 1960. The 3 inch guns remained through the Vietnam War, not used except for practice and removed. If it is still onboard, the ships course plotting tracer would be a very interesting device to include in a museum. Oilers and all other ships have one. See Photo Left. Ship CLOCKS WOULD BE A PRIZE. One other structure would be most interesting to be placed in a location a meaningful establishment representing the origin of the ships name, like the rivers Hassayampa, Kawishiwi or Ponchatoula. |
| The
Ships to Reefs web site had this statement in it's August 2009 Newsletter.
USS
Kawishiwi had a reunion near Boston, which was
booked when we found out about it, but we will assist
them in organizing their 2010 reunion in San Diego. We are looking for
a volunteer
for this. If you want to be part of this, let us know. We need to keep
locating reunions
and make a showing at each of them. Larry
Ankuda
View their FUNDING presentation. Contact Ship to Reefs CEO, Joel Geldin |
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Vern
asked why they chose AO-146 over AO-145 and AO-148 which are all moored
together. Answer: Basically, Kawishiwi
was picked as a candidate because you guys responded and seemed to
understand
the concept, many did not respond. The alternative is the breaking
yard,
as all the ships we have picked are marked "disposal" by MARAD. Also, to a large degree IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!!!! YOUR WEB SITE showing Kawishiwi's deck plans, cutaway drawings and all kinds of other great stuff convinced us that oilers would make GREAT reefs, the major problem being they are so bloody BIG. Artificial
reefs need to be "complex", with lots of nooks and crannies for the
critters to hide and breed in. Many of the "experts" did not
think an oiler (tanker) would be good as a reef,
the impression was
that it was just one big open space with a bridge and engine
stuck
on. But even this is good as it means a diver can come back
over
and over and still find something new to
see.
Dean A. Rewerts Vice-President Reef Development |
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