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Hi
Brent,
Congratulations on your purchase. It's great that
you are taking the vessel out of mothballs and will bring it back to life.
I had an opportunity to talk to George today about the upcoming convention and
so told him about your purchase and your email. George didn't have any
specific recollection about the #105 and said all the information he had was
sent to Dan H.
George
typically has interesting anecdotes however, and he had one with the LeSchack
unit. He said LeSchack was from Maryland and when the sub was being built,
LeSchack spent alot of time at the Kittredge shop. LeSchack hired a
retired naval inspector to oversee construction because he didn't know much
about sub construction and also didn't know much about Kittredge. When it
came time for installing the thru-hull wiring, the naval inspector said the
cables used by Kittredge were too expensive and he recommended some plastic
housed thru-hulls that he had found from a supplier on the west coast.
Ultimately, LeSchack took delivery of the sub without thru-hulls. George
said that about a month later he called LeSchack just to see how things were
progressing. LeSchack said everything was fine except they had a small
problem with the wooden thru-hulls leaking. George asked what he was
talking about, and LeSchack said that they ended up fitting the sub with
thru-hulls made of wood. George said he ended the conversation at that
point and never contacted LeSchack again.
So there's
some history for you regarding your sub. As you might guess, if the wooden
thru-hulls are still installed, George recommends you replace them.
:) I'm sure George wouldn't mind autographing your dome if you bring it to
the convention. He'll be there Friday, Aug 1.
Good luck
with the rebuild!
Jon
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