Volume Six - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Select Aspects - The Royal Navy and Royal Naval Reserve Fleet at Penarth Dock

The true test of this treatment is that many pieces of equipment have been examined after several years under package and have been found to have suffered little or no deterioration, and, further, these pieces of equipment have been fully operational in a matter of hours. The more delicate fire control equipment is mustered by highly skilled ordnance and electrical ratings, special tests are applied at regular intervals and the whole system constantly tuned to fighting pitch.

Koon-Kote Packaging - The advent soon after World War II of the "cocooning" method to preserve upper-deck equipment has ensured that equipment thus treated may be left for a considerable number of years with no attention except for periodic inspection to ensure that the "cocoon" envelope is intact.

The process is a simple one. It is achieved by "tailoring" mosquito netting to the machinery packaged, and sealing it to a prepared surface on the deck around the equipment. Plastic composition is then sprayed on evenly, using a spray gun and pressure pot, until a thickness of about .004in. has been applied. During this part of the process a perspex window is fitted in the envelope, in order that readings from a hydrometer, which is hung inside the package later, may be observed.

All sources of ingress of air such as cable glands, voice-pipes and drains are also sealed. An opening is then made in the package, and a predetermined quantity of desiccant (a drying agent) inserted, a board is hung inside opposite the window, carrying the hydrometer and other recording indicators. The envelope is then sealed by a patch and oversprayed by plastic.

Coats of "Insulmastic" (a bitumen compound) are then applied, and finally a finishing coat of aluminium reflectant. Although the process is a simple one, considerable skill is required in applying the plastic, and it is quite an art to "tailor" the netting to the mounting (allowance has to be made for shrinkage, etc.). All this comes with practice, however, and after a few weeks the average rating becomes a skillful operator.