Yamato's main deck condition?

[synthesim]

Can anyone possibly clue me in as to what the main outside deck of Yamato was like?
What kind of a floor or paved surface was it likely to have been?
Could you give a mop bucket on wheels a push and have it roll smoothly for any distance.

[tommy303]

Are you talking about the weather deck or the actual main deck, which was several levels down in the hull? If the weather deck, much of it was planked over with japanese cypress with caulking between the planks. This would have given a fairly smooth, even surface, such as you find on traditional sailing vessels. Other areas such as forward where the anchor chains and ground tackle ran across the decks from the windless', and the aft area around the aircraft recovery crane, the steel deck plating was given an anti slip cross hatch pattern. I seem to recall that there were work areas around the aircraft catapults and the aircraft trackways that were asphalt laid upon the steel decking. Finally there were some areas along each side near the safety rails that had linoleum fastened with bronze clips, if memory serves me correctly. These were light coloured so as to give bridge officers a sense of the outline of the ship at night when navigating.

[synthesim]

I found some excellent photos of the Wisconsin's teak wood decking to compare;

In this one, it appears the ends of the planks are deliberately staggered, even to the point of having a 'shortie' put in to help prevent flush-ending two adjacent planks.


There is also a deliberate attempt to avoid pointed ends, with the planks given notched or stub-ended notches instead.


In this one, the framing in wood has a slope to it to lead water away from the fitting.
There appears to be air gaps between the sides of adjacent planks; wouldn't that tend to collect water and rot the wood?
Or if not, where or how does the water drain away so it doesn't just act as a natural 'sump' and retain standing water in the gaps between the planks?

[tommy303]

In cases such as you show, where the planks are not caulked, the planks are fastened to raised metal flanges welded or bolted to the steel deck underneath. The underside of the planks are not actually touching the surface of the steel deck. The metal deck has a slight incline towards the sides so that water does not get trapped, but drains off to the channels and scuppers along the side.