Eric and Gerry continued work on disassembling the Port and Starboard Worthington pump steam chests on Monday. The retaining nuts were removed from the valve damping pistons on both pumps using a digital torque wrench.

The port pump nut required 62.6 foot pounds of torque for removal, moderately tight, while on the starboard pump the equivalent fastener came off with only 6.5 foot pounds, not very tight! Why such a difference?

It could be the starboard pump needed service at the time of the sinking, or that the nut wasn’t tightened down the last time work was done on it, but it is also possible the loosening is due to corrosion processes.

The starboard damping piston was also freed up and is once again moving in its cylinder! With a little more work, we hope to have the steam chests from both pumps completely disassembled.