I happened across some pics during an internet search the other day, and was piqued to see these shots of the U.S.S. Port Royal with blue anti-corrosion paint on her hull:
I would have posted the pics myself but my Flickr account is acting up.
Anyway, just thought it was interesting. Anyone know any background on when and why they started doing this?
Chris
WOW !!
The Port Royal is/was homeported in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and sits in port there a lot. I wonder if that is some kind of new environmentally friendly anti fouling paint.
Seek, and ye shall find
WASHINGTON (NNS) – Navy engineers announced Oct. 1 that a new underwater hull coating applied to USS Port Royal (CG 73) is being tested to validate the projected saving of more than $180,000 in fuel costs per year. Testing will assess fuel cost savings for the ship while underway.
The special coating is part of Naval Sea Systems Command’s (NAVSEA) Fleet Readiness Research & Development Program (FRR&DP) Underwater Hull Coatings initiative to apply new anti-fouling hull coatings on Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. Marine fouling causes hydrodynamic drag, significantly impairing fuel efficiency, and coatings to prevent or inhibit this growth are constantly evolving.
“Marine fouling is a chronic and costly problem for Navy ships,” said Petter Kristiansen, FRR&DP program manager. “In addition to the increased fuel consumption, cleaning and recoating ship hulls is expensive and time-consuming, and recoating can only be done while a ship is in dry dock. The hull coatings will help reduce marine bio-fouling, build-ups of tubeworms, mussels, barnacles and other shell organisms on the ship’s hull.”
Port Royal is the U.S. Navy’s first guided-missile cruiser, and second ship overall, to receive the new hull coatings, that was applied during a maintenance availability period at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in September. USS Cole (DDG 67) was the first ship to receive.
“The new process uses a fouling-release coating system. It is a silicone-based, non-toxic technology that provides a very smooth, slick, low friction surface,” Kristiansen explained. “Settling marine organisms like barnacles, tunicates and algae can’t attach themselves firmly to the slick surface. Those that do attach, do so weakly and are usually washed away when ships are underway, or are removed during regularly scheduled pierside hull inspections and cleanings.”
Once fully implemented on the 70-plus active ships across the two classes, the program could potentially deliver fuel consumption cost avoidances of more than $12.6 million per year, based on fuel oil prices of $100 per barrel.
The Port Royal left dry dock Sept. 24 and is scheduled to rejoin the fleet later this year. Kristiansen said FRR&DP will closely monitor the coating’s performance over the next 12 to 18 months.
NAVSEA is committed to fiscal responsibility and streamlining our maintenance and modernization processes to maintain current readiness at a lower cost
Anti fouling is normally applied to an underwater hull, as mentioned above, to prevent growth. Anti fouling comes in a number of colors, blue being the choice in this case. Anti corrosion is another matter, in which a rusted area is prepared (needle gunned, ground, generally abraded) back to bare metal and a product (i.e. ‘Blue Steel’, which has a bluish tint to it) is applied to prevent rust from forming in the area again. I know Blue Steel has been around for a while, and I’m sure anti fouling has been around even longer, though exact timelines I don’t know. It’s a fairly common practice in all marine vessels, as growth induces drag and reduces fuel efficiency, which increases operating costs. As stated above, anti fouling paint tries to prohibit growth. Anti corrosion paint tries to prevent rust from occurring, which in turn reduces the cost of having to renew steel plates in the deck or superstructure.
Speaking from general experience as a Marine Engineer.
Hmm, that is an interesting observation. Off the top of my head, “whiting” was around for a couple centuries, call it ±1600 to ±1800. Then copper plating, with Muntz metal lasted the 50-60 years until iron and steel plating overtook wooden hulls.
After that it’s back to adding things to paint, like lead sugars, copper salts, and copper-arsenic compounds.
I want to remember that there was a colorful, if limited pallet of anti-fouling paint available in the '60s; which increased with the number of per-catalyzed epoxy paints that became available.
I also want to remember reading in some dusty tome on ship building a recommendation for using white lead over metal ship’s hulls, as an aid to later painting the red anti-fouling paint.
H.I.Chappell was a fan of white lead as an anti-corrosive & sealant, recommending it for all wood-to-metal joints. But, I rather shudder to imagine what sort of MDS documentation and Workplace safety briefings building things to HIC’s standards would require today.
Hi :
I used to own a 40 foot steel houseboat (A RIVERQUEEN ) and I had it done in a real light turquoise ablative , anti rust paint .This paint not only helped prevent rust , the stuff when wiped gently was as slick as teflon . I don’t know what it was called , but the oil companies experimented with them too . Tanker-builder