Chapter XIV: Appendix: No. 5

CARE AND PRESERVATION OF SUBMARINE MINE MATÉRIEL.

Frequent inspections of all articles of submarine mine equipment should be made, not only to check up the property, but also to determine the condition of all matériel, and especially to see if it has been affected by dampness. These inspections should be thorough and detailed, as only in this manner can there be impressed on those directly charged with the care of the property the importance of ventilation, dryness, and the proper use of preservatives.

The generating set, storage battery, motor-generators, casemate transformers, power panel, and operating boards will be installed in the mining casemate, and such tools, appliances, and materials as may be used when this apparatus is in commission will also be kept there.

The explosive will be kept in the magazines and tested and cared for in the manner prescribed in Appendix No. 1.

The multiple and single conductor cable will be kept in the cable tanks as described in Appendix No. 4.

All other articles of equipment will ordinarily be kept in the storehouse, and a noncommissioned officer will be placed directly in charge. It shall be his duty to keep the matériel in the best possible condition, using such details from the submarine mine detachment from time to time as may be necessary to assist him in this work. He shall check up all articles taken from the storehouse during practice and report at the end of the day’s work any shortage in tools or appliances that he may discover.

Paints and oils should be kept separate from other stores, and the floor where kept should be covered with 2 or 3 inches of sand, to be renewed occasionally. Sawdust should never be used for this purpose. Cotton waste which has become unfit for use should be promptly burned. Fuses must not be stored with other explosives.

Gasoline in considerable quantities should be stored in tanks underground and never inside of buildings. Small quantities should be kept outside of buildings in some safe place.

When oil engines or generators are out of commission, their bright parts should be covered with light slushing oil. Brass screw threads and parts of tools that are liable to rust should be covered also. In all cases the light slushing oil should be applied in a thin coat, since this is all that is necessary to give good protection. Before applying the light slushing oil to any surface it should be thoroughly cleaned, so as to be free from rust, water, kerosene and lubricating oil, as their presence will cause rusting underneath the slushing oil. The protected surfaces should be occasionally inspected and the coating of slushing oil renewed as often as required.

Screw threads of mine cases, steel screw threads of compound plugs, bolts, nuts and washers, and surfaces of flat joints should be kept coated with the light slushing oil or a mixture of machine oil and graphite.

No oils or grease should ever be placed on points where metallic contact of electrical instruments is necessary, nor on india rubber, ebonite, or slate.

Mine cases should rest on racks or skids, and where space permits should not be in contact with each other. In handling mine cases care must be taken not to damage the bails and bolts. They should be arranged so that the holes in the mine cases can be seen easily; these holes should be fitted with a wooden plug which has been thoroughly greased all over its surface. New mine cases, if galvanized, usually will not need painting until they have been in the water. When taken from the water they should be thoroughly dried, and if they should show signs of rust they should be gone over thoroughly with steel wire brushes until the rust is removed. Parts which can not be reached with the brush should be cleaned with three-cornered steel scrapers. A heavy coat of red lead should then be applied. Seven gallons of this paint can be made by mixing 100 pounds of red lead ground in oil with 5 gallons of raw linseed oil. This mixture should be applied within two or three weeks after mixing. One gallon of paint should give 10 mine cases one coat. After this coat has been allowed to dry there should be applied a coat of white lead toned down to a neutral gray. Seven gallons of this paint can be made by mixing 100 pounds white lead, 2½ gallons raw linseed oil, 2½ gallons turpentine, 1 gallon liquid drier, and adding about 1 pound of lampblack to tone down the mixture.

Mines treated in this way, if kept in a dry storehouse, and not put in the water, should not require repainting for several years. Frequent inspection should be made, however, for in handling the cases and changing their positions on the racks, it will often happen that an abrasion will be made in the surface of the paint, which if neglected may serve as the starting point of a progressive corrosion, which may extend rapidly under the surface of the paint. Should loose paint or rust be seen the case should be repainted. A small wooden mallet may be used to tap the case at all points to loosen scales of rust or paint; then the surface should be thoroughly wire brushed or scraped and the cases repainted as stated above. The inside of mine cases must be inspected to see that the interior surfaces are kept free from rust.

Ground mines and ground mine buoys should be treated in the manner just described for buoyant mine cases.

If the oil engine has not been painted, it should be given a priming coat of red lead mixed in oil. This should be rubbed down with pumice stone and two coats of steel-colored paint applied. The second coat should be rubbed down and two coats of varnish then applied. After this the engine should not need repainting for a couple of years. When, however, repainting is necessary, the engine should be rubbed down until all the varnish is removed and a coat of steel-colored paint applied. This coat should be rubbed until no brush marks remain, and one or two coats of varnish should then be applied. The steel-colored paint should be applied flat; that is, the color which is ground in Japan should be mixed with turpentine. One gallon of this paint is more than sufficient to give an engine two coats.

The motor-generators and the casemate transformers usually will not need the priming coat of red lead, as they come from the factory painted. When it is necessary to paint them, one coat of the steel-colored paint and one of varnish will usually be found sufficient.

Anchors, distribution boxes, junction boxes, mooring sockets, shackles, sister hooks, and the ironwork of operating boards and power panels should be painted with asphaltum varnish.

Paint brushes when new, and before use, should be wrapped or bridled with strong twine and soaked in water to swell. After use they should be cleaned with turpentine and put away in water to keep them from drying and becoming unpliable.

Large ropes should be stored on skids, allowing a free circulation of air. Small ropes should be hung on wooden pins. Ropes should be uncoiled semiannually in dry seasons and stretched out for several days to dry. Wire rope must be stored in a dry place where it will not rust. Marline-covered wire rope should be stored where there is a fair circulation of air. The date of receipt should be stenciled on each reel. If not used at the end of five years it should be run through a bath of pure distilled tar oil. This may be done by setting up an empty reel 20 feet in front of the full reel and placing a tub of the tar oil midway between them. As the rope comes off the full reel it is passed through the oil and the surplus oil slicked off with a piece of burlap, thus returning the oil to the bath. The freshly oiled reel will continue to drip for several days, and sand should be put on the floor under the reel to take up the excess oil. After use in water the marline-covered rope should be thoroughly dried out and then reoiled as above described.