CHAPTER 13 - 2 Nov
2013
34 years in the Army did teach me a few lessons, which I
would be quite happy to pass on to the younger generation – not with any
confidence that they would take heed. The one that applies to this saga of the
Cormorant’s restoration/preservation is to let your boss know what you are
doing and what you are going to do and never let him have to chase you to find that
out. Unfortunately Simon is still experiencing the very opposite – workmen who
do not turn up, do not give warning of their absence and do not respond to
telephone calls, answer machine messages, texts or e-mails. “All they have to
do is tell me, so I know what is going on”, says Simon quite reasonably, but
they don’t. One has even (apparently)
left the planet, leaving all his tools on board. Simon is tempted to throw them
into the Medway!
So things are going very slowly at the moment and
although the new kitchen is lit, plumbed and looking a lot better, the port
side picture window is not yet fitted.
That small Aga is not part of the kitchen equipment and
Simon is trying to work out how to remove it from the ship and what to do with
it when it is ashore.
This kitchen and the living room are insulated with rigid
foam panels behind plasterboard, but the shapes of the ‘walls’ below deck do
not lend themselves to this method .
There is also a need to prevent
condensation forming. Simon’s plan is to spray foam insulation down there, then
cover with boarding which follows the contours. But, the ship is over 400ft
from shore, near the end of a long, narrow catwalk. The only firms he has found
so far have their equipment mounted in vehicles, with a maximum hose length of
150ft. A problem yet to be solved!
While Simon is sorting this out and finding more,
reliable, tradesmen, and I am waiting for the arrival of those 1943 plans from
the National Archives, I can get back to the mystery of the main mast and its
access point or points. The mast has several badly defined panels, so where exactly is
the door and how tall is it ….? This This This or this?
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