USS Texas in Drydock - 2023 (Lets go inside!)

In February 2023, I was fortunate to be invited to visit the might USS Texas whilst she was in Drydock, here's a good look inside the ship!

Visit and learn more about her here:

[esper]

So glad she's finally in dock for a good bit of repair work, it would be a crime to lose such a historic ship. We're extremely fortunate to have people doing their best to keep her in one piece for years to come.

[keenanmcbreen]

Painting a fireplace onto a steel wall of a 30, 000 ton Super Dreadnaught is maybe the best expression of the human condition i have seen.

[hmsverdun]

Drachs obsession with knife edge switches and calling for people to pull levers-has given me the slighly worying image of Drach attempting to use kites electricity and a tall tower to attempt to bring warships to life.

[kmcc]

The last WW1 dreadnought left in the world. Definitely worth saving. Great to see the people of Texas taking care of a national heirloom of a bygone era.

[KPen]

It is so fascinating to me how rudimentary everything on Texas is. Compared to an Iowa, its all there: the barbette interior, ready-use shells in the turrets, flash doors, even the hoist for the 3 inch powder. I can see where things like the dredger hoist, shell decks, and the powder passing was evolved from, but its just much older and very first generation compared to an Iowa. Same with the Bureau Express boiler, its so rudimentary and first generation I love it! I plan on visiting Texas when she finds a new home. COME ON TEXAS!

[ProjectFairmont]

It’s like looking at a preserved ship wreck. Saved from the abyss, and intact. Fascinating.

[stargazer]

Thanks for the tour. Screw the rust as that can be addressed over time. It's a miracle that the old girl still even exists. It's also fortunate that she was never modernized like the Iowas and still retains that old school battleship ambiance.

[mikus]

The state of the art of DC electrical technology on the Texas is from 1912. The components look to be right out of a Frankenstein movie.

[henrymuenich]

I thank you volunteers they are supporting and doing a great job. When i was living in Houston i was eight years old my dad took me on the great USS TEXAS i had a ball, and she was a lot more healthier. I'm so ready to Aboard she again I'm turning 77 in June so i can't wait !❤

[jamesa]

Thanks for your excellent doc of BB Texas. As a child I walked and climbed down her gangways, almost falling down some of them. My father kept a hand on the back of my shirt luckily.. Guess it was 54. I was very disappointed when told I couldn't fire the big guns. Not even the 40 mm. Seems like Dad mentioned I was just the right size to fit into the 14in breach... He was there off North Africa and saw the Texas fire. His transport was placed in sight of her in the convoy from the states. Your presentations are always appreciated. Glad to see you bringing attention to ships like the Texas and other important remnants of naval history before its too late. Your efforts will always be appreciated.

[blakekirk]

My grandfather's brother, Joseph Anton Droll, enlisted in the Navy in 1918, at the same time as my grandfather. My grandfather spent WW1 as a deckhand on a transport, and got an expeditious discharge at the end of the war. His brother Joseph decided to stay in and on the 1920 US Census he appears as an Engineman 2nd Class aboard USS Texas. I really appreciate seeing the pictures of the lower half of one of the engines he worked on.

[Rusty_Shackleford]

I made a donation a while back and received a jam nut from one of the 5" guns. It is the centerpiece of my militaria collection.

I am glad there is a significant effort to preserve this ship.

[joshthomas-moore]

Those volunteers sound like they went through what the US Navy went through with Congress, with having to do and wanting to do a lot of work but none of the budget to do it, so well done to them for keeping the old girl alive this long.

[VicunaVicount]

This is an OSHA nightmare and I love it. Thank you for bringing this masterpiece to us, Drach.

[deaks]

I think the point made in the intro is definitely one worth making. Yes, Texas has got into a terrible condition but then (Taking an example as a Brit) so did HMS Victory, and while I think faceless bureaucratic apathy has certainly played a significant part, a lot of the issues Texas is having are, like Victory, down to the fact no-one has gone through these lessons of how to preserve a ship this big before. USS Olympia and Georgios Averof are probably the next oldest ships and they are a LOT smaller than Texas so simply won't have the same problems as Texas or on the same scale.
In fact, it's probably worth saying that the current volunteer crew are just like anyone else and had been so utterly appalled at how much Texas was suffering, and they've taken action to form the current administration and so they are literally on the same side as anyone else who wants Texas to live on for another hundred years.
I imagine the rest of the Battleship Museum fleet are all watching the lessons of Texas and furiously making notes, which is a nice continuity for Texas herself; she is still informing US Battleship development that leads to the Iowa's, just in museum form than combat form. I'm hopeful those ships, perhaps even something like Salem and Little Rock will be able to learn from Texas and suffer fewer problems of their own because of Texas.

[williamswenson]

I'm very pleased to hear that, vis-a-vis the USS Texas, "the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." An ironical phrase attributed to a man, who was himself, a Mississippi river pilot.

[LWGanucheau]

I camped out on the Texas as a cub scout years ago. They let us crank the wheels to aim the AA guns at the San Jacinto monument back in the day. Glad she’s getting repairs!

[adamdubin]

16:34 If I remember correctly from one of the videos over on the Battleship New Jersey channel, Ryan was talking about something very similar going on with New Jersey's armored trunk, I think it got to the point where one end was mostly blocked off by cabling making it very difficult to actually get out of the shaft on that end.

[Purpmaster]

Glad I went to see her in Huston before she was moved to dry dock. A very impressive ship, even with the extensive corrosion. Thanks for bringing more attention to her.

[michaelimbesi]

It’s really telling that under the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife, Battleship Texas had been in the water so long that her frames had rusted to nothing. Within 3 years of the Battleship Texas foundation taking over, she was in drydock getting massive structural repairs.