its these engineering spaces that really reinforce the notion that a battleship isn't really a ship with big guns, but a giant armored machine to bring giant guns to the enemy
And the crewman who worked down in the bowels of the machine were referred to as moles, according to my dad. You rarely saw them as they toiled down in their world. Once in a while, a deck hatch or lid would open, and they would climb out for some sun, fresh air and a view, while taking a break. My dad was a GM, usually working out in the open, topside - which had its disadvantages when in foul weather.
They raised a similar question in old Top Gear. Can a car be art? If it's to be called art, then it has to serve no purpose other than to exist (as art) to be looked at (as art). They presented a gorgeous car... that was shit on the road, but it looked pretty. So the question (similar) is is NJ a ship? Can battleships be classified as ships or are they merely transport means for guns? Well, it "sank" an island once, and did other things of equal notion, its main purposes are to store and deploy ammo in an orderly fashion... the comfort level was shit (for the most part). It's certainly not like a modern aircraft carrier... with its shops, sports areas and entertainment on deployment... it might just be guns with flotation means. But... she is pretty to look at, so there's that. At least by my reckoning, a good ship needs to be pretty to look at too, and you can't deny that she has some really nice lines.
Yeah it's kind of crazy the more you delve into the details of all the engineering and living spaces, then you remember "oh yeah this is all just to move a couple guns around" 🤣
"So the water thinks this part of the ship is flooded... As much as water can think" Thank you Ryan! That remark put a smile on my face and made me giggle a bit, love that simplistic explanation!
@@OverpaidSlacker When the engine in my car complains because it's very cold on start, I stroke the dashboard and tell it, it's ok. This makes it run better. When I do the same thing to a network switch serving 30 people, it immediately dies. I don't know where battleships fall on that spectrum, but I would like to believe they are closer to my car than the switch.
@@benlawton5420 maybe what he meant is the welded "plug" is actually filled with a pressurised fresh water that pushes away salt-water from contacting the weld. The weld is of different metal than the pipe, so they have to make sure no electrolytes (eg: salt-water) touches these 2 metals simultaneously, otherwise it creates a galvanic reaction (ie: battery) that cause either metal to corrode.
You ought to be able to find a scrap metal dealer with a Positive Material Identification (PMI) "gun" who would be willing to volunteer to identify some of the odd / unknown parts of the ship in return for a little acknowledgement in one of these videos. These are relatively small, handheld X-ray fluorescence analyzers, set up to identify metal alloys.
PMI systems can't tell carbon content ect, so won't really inform you of physical properties (such as hardness, further potential for hardening or electro-negitivity), only what saleable components you could get by melting a part down. Also most newer devices are optical emission, not xray.
@@SheepInACart Carbon content really only comes into play for weldability. I don't know what types of PMI equipment you're using, because the inspectors at my employer use them to determine which grade of stainless or alloy is being received on site for pressure vessels and piping, and those devices still use X-rays.
The shipyard most likely would've used some standard grade of steel for any part not specifically designed to be made of something special, so if you can figure out the metal alloy profile you can probably just compare it to the standard alloys in use at the time and see what it's supposed to be. I doubt that something like this would be made of some oddball one-off alloy when all it has to do is hold water.
@@LenKusov TBH, the spec life for these ships iirc was 8 years so I'm guessing they weren't that bothered what they used as long as they thought it would last 12 years minimum, spec life + 50%.
Materials/metallurgical engineer here! The newest handheld LIBS units can essentially identify every element on the table (within reason). They are getting quite fancy!
Crazy to me that a battleship can have hundreds of openings in the hull, a large ship I was on for a while only had 3 openings specifically to reduce the openings in the hull and help prevent flooding!
I spent a lot of time under the New Jersey in drydock #1 back in 1987, and I only found four openings, one for each sea chest. Those were the only places I could stand up and stretch after walking hunched over between keel blocks
@@ytlas3 yeah i can agree. im a boat builder and one of the selling points of a sea chest is to limit the amount of holes through the hull. i can not see the new jersey having a hundred holes. four or five large sea chests sounds like more of a believable amount.
It's been a while since I was playing around with bronze and brass alloys, but I remember that both could be made magnetic through the addition of just trace amounts of iron _or nickel._ Magnetic brass/bronze alloys are typically still corrosion resistant and will usually simply develop a patina instead of ever rusting away.
Regarding the plugs, I know we have plugging margin built in for power plant heat exchangers. It's assumed in the beginning that some tubes will be plugged, so we overbuild them and then design with the plugged conditions. I assume they do the same on ships, but could also see a different approach because of space concerns. If we get towards end of life and start to run out of tubes, we'll sleeve tubes in order to nurse them along and that can work pretty well for certain failures. However, a sleeved tube isn't as effective as an original tube, so it's not a perfect answer.
@@zeroone8800 I assume these ships don't have the fancy, automatic condenser tube cleaning systems we equip on some plants, haha! (Smallest sailor!) I'd imagine that, depending on the fouling mechanism, plugging may actually help by increasing tube velocity.
I'd be willing to bet the top tubes were all plugged because they were leaking from being first to contact the condensate coming down from the turbine rather than from sea water corrosion. Condensate water is distilled water (with no metals dissolved in it) and the water wants things dissolved in it so it eats away at the first thing it sees.
@@Mark-zi4dd I imagine it's more the droplet impingement (why it's in the condenser, instead of another turbine stage) than chemistry. Chemistry shouldn't change much, top to bottom.
Can you do a series "a day in the life of ____" a cook, a deck hand, engineer, Capitan, whatever it is. Maybe show us how their day went from wakeup till the end of their shift! That seems interesting
Ryan you are showing the discharge side on the inlet side has scoop injection along with main circ pump. We used the circ pump in port and sea and anchor details and when we where under a certain speed.
Ryan I've enjoyed your series for over a year. Amazing ship we have nothing like it here in Canada. I'm so impressed with your knowledge. I hope one day I get to see the ship, the engineering is just mind boggling and I feel like the camera just doesn't capture the scale or how solid some things are. The New Jersey must be a world of her own. Thank you for being so awesome.
What's crazy to me is that nations like the USA or Great Britain built these humongous vessels, knowing full well that sending them into war meant they might be destroyed. But hey, no worries. We'll just build more. The amount of national treasure and resources on the line is mind boggling.
@@yes_head Indeed. Huge, complicated works of engineering wonders built by thousands of trained men that took many years. They sent them off with their numerous highly trained crews to do battle in places far away. Some of those extremely expensive war machines never came back. Some came back heavy damaged needing repairs by highly trained experts. What magnificent marvels they were/are. I don't see how anything could withstand the blasting of those huge guns, lethal torpedoes or bombs but they built them tough, just like the men that sailed and fought her. Amazing.
You should check out the HMCS Haida, who is still floating as a museum today! She's currently berthed in Hamilton, Ontario. She's only a destroyer, but she's got a rich history of her own.
I am constantly amazed by the level of technology in these warships. And of the ingenuity of the engineers and designers of the time. SO many complex systems, so well integrated into the ship...it truly is a living being in many ways. How incredible it must have been to have worked on these, to have built them...amazing.
I really appreciate how you had a sponsor from a scam company what you previously worked with, but since learning what they are pulled the ads (in the last bunch of videos). Also, quality of the content is great.
@@jasonvitale5911 Fake titles and fake knives. Well, they are real knives but advertised as expensive high quality ones when they are using the same steel as $20 knives. But the lord and lady titles really are fake.
The steam going into the condenser would not be 800°F. In expanding and doing work, heat is removed from the steam and converted to work. By the time the steam leaves the turbine, it is close to 120°F. Due to the low pressure, it is still steam at that low temperature. For maximum efficiency, the goal isn't to cool the steam at all. It is to just remove the latent heat and convert it to water. Cooling the water further just wastes heat. Also, cool water has higher solubility for oxygen which is bad for the boilers. If you note the gap with no tubes down the middle of the condenser, that is for steam from the turbine to get below the tube bundle. The falling water leaving the tubes will then travel through the steam and re-warm back to the steam temperature while condensing more steam. Doing that helps the efficiency and with the oxygen level in the feed water.
Thanks for the useful information. Water boils at 212 degrees F at atmospheric pressure, is the pressure of the spent steam actually lower than atmospheric?
@@erich9111 Sort of. a vacuum is always maintained in the condenser not just to suck the steam out of the turbine (pressure difference, a gas at high pressure will flow to an area of lower pressure), but it also ensures that the steam doesn't just boil the salt water in the tubes and further corrode them. This is achieved with the use of an Air Ejector in each engine room. I learned this from a MM on a sub although I am struggling to fully remember what he said, in essence, the vacuum helps draw out some of the oxygen and other gases, ensures the steam flows through the condenser, and something to do with the boiling point of the salt water in the tubes, I know lower pressure lower boiling point, but I will say there might be a piece I'm missing or just flat out not remembering
@@KPen3750 The vacuum in the condenser is mostly created by condensing the steam. And it is surprising how close to a "perfect" vacuum a good condenser can acheive. However, after the steam is condensed into water, there are always some "non-condensible" gases present and these have to be pumped out in order to maintain the vacuum otherwise the condenser becomes "air bound" and has trouble producing a vacuum. The vacuum present at the turbine outlet increases the power output of the turbine because it increases the pressure drop across the turbine. This is like increasing the inlet pressure of the turbine but without having to raise the boiler pressure. The condenser vacuum also increases the turbine efficiency. Another big advantage to having a condenser is that the condensed water can be returned to the boilers again as feed water. This saves having to carry or generate all the feed water required by the boilers.
Think of this, half full ,warm water in a plastic bottle with the cap on. Throw it in the refrigerator, watch what happens to the bottle. Same thing happens in a steam condenser. It creates a vacuum. The air ejectors are used to create initial vacuum and are mainly there to remove non condensable gases. The natural effect of condensation creates a vacuum.
@@erich9111 It is significantly below atmospheric. The pressure is around 1-2 PSI absolute, depending on the water temperature. The energy in the steam from atmospheric pressure to the condenser represents a sizable portion of the energy in the steam. This is due to the fact that the volume is so high as it expands down to such a low pressure.
Probably not since it was built during the height of WWII. Patriotism was at an all time high, along with the legal consequences and negative public perception that would come with trying to defraud the navy at the time.
@@SG-bp4lg That's also the time when fraud could be easiest. Government shoveling money into shipbuilding. Trying to slow things down for accountability could be attacked as slowing down the war effort. No one has time to take on bean counting. You get promoted by cranking out materiel, by greasing the wheels of war.
@@SG-bp4lg Loads of people tried to cash in on the war by developing substandard products for the military, some of them even had enough friends in high places to get a contract and have them issued to troops. Helps to read a book instead of just making secondhand assumptions.
Giving me flashbacks watching you crawl out of that condenser. I, being of relatively small stature ended up in all manner of places with small openings while I was in the Navy and none were quite as pleasant as that condenser. The nicest was the doing the annual corrosion inspection on the main induction sump (726 class SSBN) the worst was probably either SAN7 or SAN 9 on the same.... yuck
@@wheels-n-tires1846 no it is not, and 20 years ago I was definitely a little guy... 5'6" 130lbs, I was the smallest guy in my division... now however it would take all of them to het me through a man hole, is they used lots of grease and a chainfall or two... but hey I used to be travel size, now I'm value size 75% more product than the original 🙄
I want to thank you for showing us so many interesting spaces on the ship. A person can know what components are needed in a specific section, but actually SEEING where they are, and their actual size, is REALLY impressive! Keep up all of your fabulous work Ryan!
Note: The condensing turbine extracts the maximum heat from the steam as work applied to the turbine's shaft. In the process of condensing from vapor to liquid, the water has a much lower pressure than the steam - the molecules move much slower in the condensed phase, so they don't "push" so hard against the walls of the turbine housing. The condensate still needs to be cooled down in order to get it to the optimum / design condition of boiler feed water, and a heat exchanger is used for the purpose. It looks like the Iowa class battleships did not use condensing turbines, because that HX sure does look like a condenser as stated. Whether boiling or condensing, you want your vapor (steam) on the shell side, and your heat transfer fluid - flue gas for the boiler, cooling water for the condenser - on the tube side, because the steam has a much greater specific volume than the other fluid. That tube-sheet - where the tube ends communicate with the heads of the heat exchanger - is an interesting bit of engineering in and of itself.
Perhaps stated a little more clearly, the condenser creates a low pressure on the exhaust side of the turbine, which creates a larger "delta p", or pressure difference, across the turbine (from the pressure side to the exhaust side), and therefore extracts more power from the steam.
There is a big box under the low pressure turbine, it is under vacuum. He is standing in the saltwater side header ( the one you have to clean out after leaving Hong Kong) You cannot pump steam to a higher pressure than the steam operating pressure, it needs to be returned to condensate. (liquid is non compressible). Turbines run on superheated steam, it has no liquid in it at all. Liquid and turbine blades do not mix and will damage the turbine blades. Moisture carryover is immediate closure of the steam chest (throttle valve) and main engine stop valve emergency procedure in every case except battle stations or restricted maneuvering.
Hi Ryan, another fantastic and entertaining video. Your willingness and interest in getting into all these unusual spaces is as heartwarming as it is informative and amusing; we learn so much from your excursions. With you and the rest of your team, it's clear the magnificent BB New Jersey is in loving and skilled hands. It's a long way from here in Australia, but I hope to be able to visit some day.
Thank you for producing all of these. My first job out of college was to help design engine rooms for CG and DDG class ships in the early 80’s. It keeps me connected to that part of my career.
Get a small air compressor. Attach it to the hose you have on that plug. Fill the sea chest with air so that it bubbles out of the bottom of the hull. Then set it up to have a very small flow into the sea chest from now on(or a very accurate super low pressure regulator will work if set up right). The compressor will have to run occasionally. That way you have no salt water in the sea chest, and no salt water corrosion. A dry nitrogen or argon source would be better, but harder to acquire.
Nitrogen and regulators for it are common, just need to go to any welding supplies store, though you then need to run the air line down, as otherwise you will be humping heavy cylinders of gas down. Easier to just get a roll of nylon (not polyurethane, that ages badly) tubing for pneumatic use, probably 12mm, and snake it down from the deck in a room close to the chest, and where you can easily get a trolley to it from the gangplank, as you just wheel 4 bottles of dry nitrogen up to there, and connect the regulator and flow gauge. All standard welding supplies, and the cylinders will last around a week each at low flow, before you need to swap them. Becomes a monthly delivery then, and will keep the sea chests dry and purged. You can run a plug and pressurise the others as well, using separate flow gauges, and that way you will see any leaks as well, and be able to attend to them. Cylinders up on top deck also mean, if the nitrogen does run out, the water will not flow back up, just stop at water line.
@@KI4HOK Also, I would think there would be OSHA rules that would come into play if trying to use an inert gas in those confined spaces, so compressed air would be better if they wanted to push the water out. But the current solution using gravity doesn't require someone to check if a compressor working or a tank of air hasn't gone empty. I do wonder if pushing the water out once in a while and let new river water in would be better or worse for the speed of corrosion.
Cylinders of argon and N2 are easily sourced. but that means you have to regularly move and replace cylinders, while a compressor has to be checked occasionally to make sure it's still running. Air requires almost no work, and I'm sure hes busy enough. As far as OSHA goes, hes already standing in a confined space with no ventilation, atmosphere monitoring, or rescue gear. For some reason, I think OSHA isn't high on the list. A room air quality monitor would be the right thing to do. I'm sure the engine room has some sort of ventilation system built in so that fresh air is brought into the room.
In my much younger days, I would have had no issues climbing into that condenser. I climbed into many tanks in my career. But now, I look at that hatch, and get a real feeling of claustrophobia. Maybe it’s the knowledge that I am no longer as flexible as I once was, or that I have more common sense than I once had.
I was a volunteer during the early restoration of the NJ. We scavenged parts and systems from a lot of places up and down the East Coast. It's well worth a visit to see the ship and tour the spaces.
It's amazing to see "old" tech like this. I haven't been on an Iowa class ship, but I did tour the HMS Belfast. It's hard to imagine living on one of these ships. The firepower is amazing. I haven't seen 16" guns up close, but l toured the batteries on Corregidor, where the coastal guns were 12 inches, which seemed huge.
It's a goal/christmas/birthday wish of mine to visit the battleship and meet Ryan next year. This channel and by extension, BB62 have become a part of my daily routine that I look forward. Thank you to everyone who make these videos happen!
I love this stuff. I spent two decades in the engineering spaces of naval ships as a SWO, but somehow missed the opportunity to crawl into a main engine condenser. Thanks for doing this.
I think it's possible to say that if we suddenly get a "New" Curator of Battleship New Jersey, it's because someone said " Filming from that space will be spectacular. don't worry we'll get you out."
Man this brings back some memories!!!! Some not so good like cleaning those out but mostly good. Never met a better group of guy EVER!!!! Loved being a BT
The hose thing doesn't really relieve the pressure down low. The pressure in the tube gets less and less the closer you get to the water level on the outside, but the pressure increases as you go lower.
Yep, if you stand a vertical pipe between the bottom of a swimming pool and the surface, no water flows out. Gravity works on the fluid in the pipe equally as it does that outside.
Ok, glad to know I haven't lost my mind. I've been trying to wrap my head around his explanation, but it just doesn't jive with anything I've ever learned, and chemical engineering is *all* about the modeling of that sort of system.
@@matthewshapiro1676 Don't worry about it. Whoever suggested doing that and whoever agreed to it knows less about physics and marine engineering than the curator.
@@Propelled huh?! The problem is water infiltrating through small imperfections. The external pressure on any spot on the hull is determined by depth. The driving force -- how quickly water will pass through, if at all -- is determined by the pressure differential between the two sides of the hull.
Have you looked into renting or borrowing an XRF gun (XRay Fluorescence) to see which alloys you have? You can shoot the tank alloy with XRays to see what metallic elements you have but it won't give you carbon content. Then, you shoot the blanks as well as the welds to see what the compositions are to track down which areas have the most dissimilar metals side by side to focus on first when you eventually do go into dry dock.
So... why not a high density plastic plug? Next drydocking, manufacture a tightly fitting plug to go into the seachest(s), seal it in place with marine adhesive, maybe put some kind of expander mechanism inside the plug to force it against the sides, then remove and grind off all the dissimilar metal from the blank. If the long term preservation problem is dissimilar metal corrosion, stop using metals where they touch water. The solution only has to stand up to static water pressure, possibly towing speeds, not high speed sailing stresses, and it only needs to last maybe twice the expected time until the next drydocking. This might be a dumb idea, but there must be an engineering reason why it's a dumb idea.
I can think of a couple challenges/drawbacks but I think it's a good idea worth at least considering. I mean it's not like DSC isn't a drawback for the metal plug in and of itself. Worth noting in general that a lot of the mothballing procedures were probably more short or medium term in mind. Corrosion only needed to outlast the initial anodes in their minds because it would either be reactivated or written off by the time they expired probably. Not to slight Navy, they do what makes sense for them, but it seems like a not-insignificant portion of r difficulties the ship faces tie to mothballing decisions that are more or less "museum unfriendly"
When Ryan Said "Dead steam, it reminded me of the scene in "The Sand Pebbles" when Jake Holman is trying to explain the boiler room on the San Pablo to Po Han!
As a welding and vessel inspector with a highly defined "curious George" mentality I would love to tour the bilges of that ship. I was able to view the Victory ship Richmond five years ago and loved it.
Yes, that would be really helpful and seems like there should be a program that makes it easy and probably could have color to highlight too. He sort of did that with the torpedo blisters.
ChiefSamansky, been in all those places, and more, on CVA. Main engine lube oil sump is much worse. Thanks for taking all to places they’ve never been before! You are doing a fine job of it!
Since the condenser is magnetic it could be made of a copper nickle alloy, which some varieties contains small amounts of iron. CuNi has very good corrosion resistance against seawater, since it creates a passive film on top of when in contact with seawater and it also has pretty good heat transfer capabilities.
Have to get you some of that flex tape they advertise on TV to seal leaks. While in high school a few of us worked in a laundry. We spent a entire Saturday punching out tubes on an old boiler that was not cleaned in years. All we had was a cheap mask. I was so dirty that my mom made me take a shower in our yard. Then too a shower in the house and tub was black after that.
Sir, you triggered my claustrophobia! Thank you for showing me the interior of the sea chest so I didn't have to squeeze my fat old body through those tiny hatches into unventilated spaces and get covered in rust while risking cuts and bruises.
I work on board an aircraft carrier and I can definitely tell you that’s probably a main engine condenser just from the size of it And judging by the way the piping Goes straight down you’re standing on the discharge side The forward side of the condenser should have a scoop injection which is at roughly a 30° angle with a large hull valve followed by a check valve as well as the steam driven main Circulating water pump to supply water to the condenser at low speed
As stated in the video, this is the #3 turbine condenser, each of the 4 main engine rooms drives one of the propeller shafts (see previous video about the numbering of each, rooms being fore to aft, shafts being port to starboard, so they DON'T line up), and has its own condenser complete with water uptake. Ryan is standing on the inlet side, the height of the triple bottom meaning there is still reasonable vertical uptake below the blanking plate. AFIAK while there is a hull valve, they didn't have a check valve, one of the pumps (there is both an electric and a steam pump) where run until speed was reached, then power or steam supply shutdown when flow was sufficient without it.
@@SheepInACart You are forgetting a key point that caleb pointed out, if this was the Inlet side of the main Condenser, there should be the discharge port of the Main Circ Water Pump right next to the scoop injection inlet port. They are both extremely large openings and you would see them easily. I agree with caleb murray that this must be the outlet end bell of the condenser and the overboard discharge valve and sea chest. I worked in the engine room of a cruiser and we had almost identical layout to New Jersey's main engine room.
@@SheepInACart sorry to break it to you, he is indeed standing on the discharge side of that condenser. I know this because I have been these condensers personally.
I'm a former boat and ship builder and Certified Welding Inspector. I would be interested to see what those alloys are. Hopefully after I hit my 15 year mark I can sit to become a welding engineer and need to do some serious study into all of that. I have done a fair bit out of interest and find the way metal interact interesting. I would love to hear what you find out about the material. I'm out on an injury and if you ever had a question I could help with it helps to keep me sharp.
@@455buick6 Generally 300 series is weakly magnetic if not non-magnetic while 400 series is much more strongly magnetic. 300 series is called austenitic which refers to the crystal structure 400 series is martensitic or ferritic. This is general info I'm sure there are exceptions. Maybe some metallurgist can add to this
There are older stainless steels than that. Most people are used to the non magnetic stainless but there are a lot of others and they have different properties. All steels will loose magnetism at a given temperature. At that point they change to a structure called austenite. With the right heat treatment and mix of alloys you can bring that down to room temperature but at some point if you go cold enough it will begin to convert to something else. There are different mechanical reasons for the different grades and they resist different types of chemical attack. Salt can actually be a bad one especially if temperature and pressure are involved. Besides the chemistry of the steel the heat treatment and chrystaline structure all matter.
Wow, you and Drach have done more for my education on naval history than I could have imagined. Please, please, don't stop. It's fascinating. Last summer my wife and I went on a "tour" of museum ships. (OK, I did - she went along for the ride). I didn't hit all East Coast ships, but I did hit most of them. BB-62 was, by far, the best.
Wow, now that’s dedication!!! Spelunking on a battleship . Thanks for another informative and entertaining video about your beautiful ship!! Keep them coming.
its a terrifying idea that those holes, with a thin rusty metal plug, are an unknown distance away from a black abyss of water. even though youd probably fall out the bottom of the ship, my claustrophobia is acting up bad thinking about it.
In reality, the bigger risk is from a lack of oxygen due to it (potentially) being used up creating corrosion. There have been many confined space fatalities due to that in old ships / barges / tanks. Search for "Precious Time: The Cody McNolty Story | WorkSafeBC" for an example...
Remember that nickel is ferromagnetic. This condenser shell might be some nickel iron alloy selected to be compatible with steam at high temperature and tolerate sea water. Those tubes are pretty small diameter. I guess Uncle Sam had lots of labor to punch them clear as needed. Thanks for the interesting videos.
Ryan, there's a good chance that condenser header is made from Inconel, an iron, copper, nickel alloy that is almost impervious to salt water corrosion.
Imagine when he moves on from the ship or is replaced. He's only a few months away from being more associated with this battleship than any person in its history.
Not to nitpick, but the steam leaving the turbine is wet (about 10-12% liquid, by mass) steam at saturation conditions. Being that a condenser operates below atmospheric pressure, that means the temperature of the steam is actually under "boiling" temperature (in typical parlance). For the plants I design, that steam can be in the 90-120F range. I imagine these Navy ships are higher, as the condensers are super tiny compared to what I'm used to.
That looks like it could be a permit required confined space. And with those sacrificial anodes and visible rust, you might want to make sure you have a low-o2 alarm on you when going into something like this (or the anchor chain locker). That's the kind of space where all of the oxygen will get pulled out of the air by the rust and corrosion (leaving you with "air" which only has nitrogen and carbon dioxide). This can kill you pretty quick without you realizing it in the right conditions (like just randomly falling asleep). I noticed you seemed to be stumbling on your words a bit while in there which can be a sign of mild hypoxia. I did see what looked like a ventilation hose at the end of the video so I'm hoping there was a supply going to this area while you were working in it.
Another interesting insight into the workings of a battleship. What a job this fella has. Hope he doesn’t get stuck in one those tight spaces he gets into. 👍
Oh boy ! Do you not know the steam cycle!!! The steam entering the steam side of the condenser is at about 28.5 inches of vacuum ( well below atmospheric pressure ) and the temperature of this Saturated steam is about 90 deg F. It stopped being superheated in the high pressure turbine!
Agreed. The main condenser is the source for the aux exhaust steam system which is used to heat a lot of things like the DFT, provide heat to the evaps, etc. The safeties on the main condenser are usually set to 12psi-15psi. If the steam levels get too low in the main condenser, augmenting steam is shot into the main condenser to bring it back up to working levels
Thanks Joe, I posted several replies about lack of effort to do minimum research on subject matter but they seem to have been deleted. This is one of the better museum ship sites but is still serves more to provide a podium for technical misinformation.
Sorry Sir, but no. The Auxilary exhaust comes from the exhaust of auxilary turbines such as the feed pump or on older ships forced draft fans and pumps. The auxilary exhaust system Dumps to the condenser when That pressure gets too high. A reducing station ( Leslie valve In the navy) provides make up steam to the Aux Exhaust system when the supply to it is not enough. So 600/35 psi or 1200/ 15 reduction. This Aux exhaust is Mainly used to heat the DFT that runs at 15 or 35 psi. The main condenser usually has a sentinel valve that provides a whistle to let you know if the condenser pressure is too high but Is not big enough to relieve pressure..
I was on the USS SHANGRI LA CV38 last cruise and helped with decommissioning. Our evaporators would crash all the time and pump sea water thru the potable water system. Salt water showers and salt water in the drinking fountains. They saved the best water for the catapults.
Regarding the magnet being attracted to the metal, nickel bronzes can be weakly magnetic. And are good for use in seawater applications. Expensive, but that might not matter when you're building a battleship.
When I worked at Hull-Oakes lumber mill, Dawson, OR. 30 years ago I was @30, 5'8" and 165. Guess who management asked and paid very well to squeeze into the "cooled down" boilers to descale the tubes? These boilers were from turn-of-the-century Baldwin locomotives @7 feet in diameter x 15 feet long, with a man-hole about 14 inches below the bottom tubes; just enough to shimmy to the end plate (backstroke style,) but not enough to lay sideways. The temperature inside was over 100f, the tubes were @150f and someone had to be outside to check on me regularly. After months of struggling with exhaustive hammer and chisel work and mineral deposit chunks falling on my face, I fabricated pneumatic chisel tools out of 18" wood chipper knives and sped up the work dramatically. To be in my prime again, I'd do it all over.
Our museum ship went into dry dock a couple years ago due to heavy pitting. The ice scraping accelerated the corrosion a microbe was causing. The microbe would take tiny amounts of copper out of the water and plate it onto the steel, which would then galvanicly react until enough rust was formed to passivize it. Well the ice would scrape all of that off every year at about waterline to 4’ below. So the worst pitting was in that 4’ belt. What’s truly amazing is how much the rivets reacted. From the waterline everything was pitted, below that 4’ belt of pitting, their were random rivets where the heads were nearly completely eaten away. The rivet being dissimilar enough to react. Being freshwater she didn’t have zincs, just a good coat of paint. Well 25 years at dock will eat through any coating.
the seals on the doors require maintenance, which isn't being performed. They could certainly slow flooding down quite a bit, but they probably leak now
Ryan mentioned in a video at some point that the exterior zincs are well overdue and probably completely gone by now, but they use an active protection system with grid power instead. I think theyre still intending on replacing them at drydock though.
On vessel this size apply lead blocks to outskin of hole hactch cover and further corrosion will stop the "unwanted" action. Similar work was done to the Intrepid when she was in ,MOTBY ( military ocean terminal Bayonne) during her refit prior to being moved to NYC museum across Hudson river in early 1980's
I think it's just an ongoing joke of how it's kind of the signature phrase/magic word of all these videos. We basically can't get through a video without corrosion coming up since it's basically completely inevitable on a ship this old.
its these engineering spaces that really reinforce the notion that a battleship isn't really a ship with big guns, but a giant armored machine to bring giant guns to the enemy
Yeah, the whole thing is basically a heavily armored oil fired power plant transporting huge guns around.
And the crewman who worked down in the bowels of the machine were referred to as moles, according to my dad. You rarely saw them as they toiled down in their world. Once in a while, a deck hatch or lid would open, and they would climb out for some sun, fresh air and a view, while taking a break. My dad was a GM, usually working out in the open, topside - which had its disadvantages when in foul weather.
They raised a similar question in old Top Gear. Can a car be art? If it's to be called art, then it has to serve no purpose other than to exist (as art) to be looked at (as art). They presented a gorgeous car... that was shit on the road, but it looked pretty.
So the question (similar) is is NJ a ship? Can battleships be classified as ships or are they merely transport means for guns? Well, it "sank" an island once, and did other things of equal notion, its main purposes are to store and deploy ammo in an orderly fashion... the comfort level was shit (for the most part). It's certainly not like a modern aircraft carrier... with its shops, sports areas and entertainment on deployment... it might just be guns with flotation means. But... she is pretty to look at, so there's that.
At least by my reckoning, a good ship needs to be pretty to look at too, and you can't deny that she has some really nice lines.
Yeah it's kind of crazy the more you delve into the details of all the engineering and living spaces, then you remember "oh yeah this is all just to move a couple guns around" 🤣
@@RW4X4X3006 Snipes is the word. Not sure where your dad got Mole, but we're called Snipes, there's a poem out there about us.
Can you imagine trying to play hide and seek on the ship with Ryan.
You know what the largest game of hide and seek was 1437 people. I bet they could best that on the battleship!
🤣🤣👌
That sounds like about a month of fun...better pack a lunch or twelve!!
Find the Curator sounds like it would take a very long time to play...
You lose !! :)
"So the water thinks this part of the ship is flooded... As much as water can think"
Thank you Ryan! That remark put a smile on my face and made me giggle a bit, love that simplistic explanation!
You must have missed the part at 8:44 then :D Another fun one
Don't anthropomorphize inanimate objects. They hate it when you do that.
@@OverpaidSlacker When the engine in my car complains because it's very cold on start, I stroke the dashboard and tell it, it's ok. This makes it run better. When I do the same thing to a network switch serving 30 people, it immediately dies. I don't know where battleships fall on that spectrum, but I would like to believe they are closer to my car than the switch.
It literally makes no sense as the water pressure on the weld would be exactly the same, they'd have the pressurise the room.
@@benlawton5420 maybe what he meant is the welded "plug" is actually filled with a pressurised fresh water that pushes away salt-water from contacting the weld. The weld is of different metal than the pipe, so they have to make sure no electrolytes (eg: salt-water) touches these 2 metals simultaneously, otherwise it creates a galvanic reaction (ie: battery) that cause either metal to corrode.
You can tell that he is the kind of guy that you would want to sit down and have a drink with and talk for hours about anything, just a good guy
He bitches and gripes a little, but he loves what he does. He may even be a volunteer. I'd love to do that.
Alkies are always looking for someone to drink with.
Spent many the night in CPO Mess speaking with Ryan about stuff like this. No booze, though.
@@geoh7777 you probably think everyone that drinks more than you is an alcoholic
No, in my experience if you are not talking about ships, he isn't that interesting. Worked with him from 2006 until 2015. He is a great guy.
You ought to be able to find a scrap metal dealer with a Positive Material Identification (PMI) "gun" who would be willing to volunteer to identify some of the odd / unknown parts of the ship in return for a little acknowledgement in one of these videos.
These are relatively small, handheld X-ray fluorescence analyzers, set up to identify metal alloys.
PMI systems can't tell carbon content ect, so won't really inform you of physical properties (such as hardness, further potential for hardening or electro-negitivity), only what saleable components you could get by melting a part down. Also most newer devices are optical emission, not xray.
@@SheepInACart Carbon content really only comes into play for weldability.
I don't know what types of PMI equipment you're using, because the inspectors at my employer use them to determine which grade of stainless or alloy is being received on site for pressure vessels and piping, and those devices still use X-rays.
The shipyard most likely would've used some standard grade of steel for any part not specifically designed to be made of something special, so if you can figure out the metal alloy profile you can probably just compare it to the standard alloys in use at the time and see what it's supposed to be. I doubt that something like this would be made of some oddball one-off alloy when all it has to do is hold water.
@@LenKusov TBH, the spec life for these ships iirc was 8 years so I'm guessing they weren't that bothered what they used as long as they thought it would last 12 years minimum, spec life + 50%.
Materials/metallurgical engineer here!
The newest handheld LIBS units can essentially identify every element on the table (within reason). They are getting quite fancy!
I love that it ends in a blooper reel I hope that becomes a thing
Thanks, usually I stop watching when he does the state of New Jersey announcement
Doing a blooper reel at the end is a good way to get me to watch all the way to the end!
Crazy to me that a battleship can have hundreds of openings in the hull, a large ship I was on for a while only had 3 openings specifically to reduce the openings in the hull and help prevent flooding!
I spent a lot of time under the New Jersey in drydock #1 back in 1987, and I only found four openings, one for each sea chest. Those were the only places I could stand up and stretch after walking hunched over between keel blocks
Which ship was that?
@@studinthemaking BB62 >> New Jersey he said...
@@Formulabruce You are confused. Re read the statement.
@@ytlas3 yeah i can agree. im a boat builder and one of the selling points of a sea chest is to limit the amount of holes through the hull. i can not see the new jersey having a hundred holes. four or five large sea chests sounds like more of a believable amount.
Thanks for taking us to places not on the standard tour!
It's been a while since I was playing around with bronze and brass alloys, but I remember that both could be made magnetic through the addition of just trace amounts of iron _or nickel._ Magnetic brass/bronze alloys are typically still corrosion resistant and will usually simply develop a patina instead of ever rusting away.
brass does not rust, I think he is talking about bi-metallic corrosion. Im deaf and no closed captions on this one.
Regarding the plugs, I know we have plugging margin built in for power plant heat exchangers. It's assumed in the beginning that some tubes will be plugged, so we overbuild them and then design with the plugged conditions. I assume they do the same on ships, but could also see a different approach because of space concerns.
If we get towards end of life and start to run out of tubes, we'll sleeve tubes in order to nurse them along and that can work pretty well for certain failures. However, a sleeved tube isn't as effective as an original tube, so it's not a perfect answer.
The tubes are constantly fouling and need to be periodically cleaned to improve performance. With tubes plugged the time between cleanings decreases.
@@zeroone8800 I assume these ships don't have the fancy, automatic condenser tube cleaning systems we equip on some plants, haha! (Smallest sailor!)
I'd imagine that, depending on the fouling mechanism, plugging may actually help by increasing tube velocity.
I'd be willing to bet the top tubes were all plugged because they were leaking from being first to contact the condensate coming down from the turbine rather than from sea water corrosion. Condensate water is distilled water (with no metals dissolved in it) and the water wants things dissolved in it so it eats away at the first thing it sees.
@@Mark-zi4dd I imagine it's more the droplet impingement (why it's in the condenser, instead of another turbine stage) than chemistry. Chemistry shouldn't change much, top to bottom.
@@corystansbury The corrosion comes from the seawater side not the condensate side. The chemistry is bad and changeable.
Can you do a series "a day in the life of ____" a cook, a deck hand, engineer, Capitan, whatever it is. Maybe show us how their day went from wakeup till the end of their shift! That seems interesting
Also Day in the life of Museum Volunteer, Libby the camera operator and the Curator 😊
"This is how Battleship curators are born..." Love it Ryan. I flagged down the kids and showed them the curator coming out "fully formed." 🤣
Like Ace Ventura when he's trying to escape out of the decoy rhino 😂
I especially like how the curators come out fully clothed and equipped as well.
Not possible- Ryan was born by sea section.
Such a beautiful moment captured on video.
@@seatedliberty I'll bet that surprised his doctor... AND his Mother!! 😂🤣
boy i wish the condenser on my old tin can DD 849 was that big it was a tight fit for me back in 1966 when i was 135 lbs
Were you in Vietnam?
@@geofffikar3417 yes but not on land
Ryan you are showing the discharge side on the inlet side has scoop injection along with main circ pump. We used the circ pump in port and sea and anchor details and when we where under a certain speed.
Ryan I've enjoyed your series for over a year. Amazing ship we have nothing like it here in Canada. I'm so impressed with your knowledge. I hope one day I get to see the ship, the engineering is just mind boggling and I feel like the camera just doesn't capture the scale or how solid some things are. The New Jersey must be a world of her own. Thank you for being so awesome.
What's crazy to me is that nations like the USA or Great Britain built these humongous vessels, knowing full well that sending them into war meant they might be destroyed. But hey, no worries. We'll just build more. The amount of national treasure and resources on the line is mind boggling.
@@yes_head Indeed. Huge, complicated works of engineering wonders built by thousands of trained men that took many years. They sent them off with their numerous highly trained crews to do battle in places far away. Some of those extremely expensive war machines never came back. Some came back heavy damaged needing repairs by highly trained experts. What magnificent marvels they were/are. I don't see how anything could withstand the blasting of those huge guns, lethal torpedoes or bombs but they built them tough, just like the men that sailed and fought her. Amazing.
You should check out the HMCS Haida, who is still floating as a museum today! She's currently berthed in Hamilton, Ontario. She's only a destroyer, but she's got a rich history of her own.
I am constantly amazed by the level of technology in these warships. And of the ingenuity of the engineers and designers of the time. SO many complex systems, so well integrated into the ship...it truly is a living being in many ways. How incredible it must have been to have worked on these, to have built them...amazing.
I really appreciate how you had a sponsor from a scam company what you previously worked with, but since learning what they are pulled the ads (in the last bunch of videos). Also, quality of the content is great.
Which company was that?
@@jasonvitale5911 Fake titles and fake knives. Well, they are real knives but advertised as expensive high quality ones when they are using the same steel as $20 knives. But the lord and lady titles really are fake.
@@MartysRandomStuff Oh wow! I didn't know about that. I was wondering why the ad wouldn't show in the last few vids.
@@MartysRandomStuff ah I see
Awesome episode. Did not expect Ryan to be birthed from a condenser
That's where battleship museum curators come from
Not even fully birthed and you could see a hint of "I'm getting too old for this" on his face.
Yeah, I would have expected the 16" magazine.
The steam going into the condenser would not be 800°F. In expanding and doing work, heat is removed from the steam and converted to work. By the time the steam leaves the turbine, it is close to 120°F. Due to the low pressure, it is still steam at that low temperature.
For maximum efficiency, the goal isn't to cool the steam at all. It is to just remove the latent heat and convert it to water. Cooling the water further just wastes heat. Also, cool water has higher solubility for oxygen which is bad for the boilers. If you note the gap with no tubes down the middle of the condenser, that is for steam from the turbine to get below the tube bundle. The falling water leaving the tubes will then travel through the steam and re-warm back to the steam temperature while condensing more steam. Doing that helps the efficiency and with the oxygen level in the feed water.
Thanks for the useful information. Water boils at 212 degrees F at atmospheric pressure, is the pressure of the spent steam actually lower than atmospheric?
@@erich9111 Sort of. a vacuum is always maintained in the condenser not just to suck the steam out of the turbine (pressure difference, a gas at high pressure will flow to an area of lower pressure), but it also ensures that the steam doesn't just boil the salt water in the tubes and further corrode them. This is achieved with the use of an Air Ejector in each engine room. I learned this from a MM on a sub although I am struggling to fully remember what he said, in essence, the vacuum helps draw out some of the oxygen and other gases, ensures the steam flows through the condenser, and something to do with the boiling point of the salt water in the tubes, I know lower pressure lower boiling point, but I will say there might be a piece I'm missing or just flat out not remembering
@@KPen3750 The vacuum in the condenser is mostly created by condensing the steam. And it is surprising how close to a "perfect" vacuum a good condenser can acheive. However, after the steam is condensed into water, there are always some "non-condensible" gases present and these have to be pumped out in order to maintain the vacuum otherwise the condenser becomes "air bound" and has trouble producing a vacuum. The vacuum present at the turbine outlet increases the power output of the turbine because it increases the pressure drop across the turbine. This is like increasing the inlet pressure of the turbine but without having to raise the boiler pressure. The condenser vacuum also increases the turbine efficiency. Another big advantage to having a condenser is that the condensed water can be returned to the boilers again as feed water. This saves having to carry or generate all the feed water required by the boilers.
Think of this, half full ,warm water in a plastic bottle with the cap on. Throw it in the refrigerator, watch what happens to the bottle. Same thing happens in a steam condenser. It creates a vacuum. The air ejectors are used to create initial vacuum and are mainly there to remove non condensable gases. The natural effect of condensation creates a vacuum.
@@erich9111 It is significantly below atmospheric. The pressure is around 1-2 PSI absolute, depending on the water temperature.
The energy in the steam from atmospheric pressure to the condenser represents a sizable portion of the energy in the steam. This is due to the fact that the volume is so high as it expands down to such a low pressure.
Would love to know if the Navy ordered a manganese-bronze tank but got a ferrous metal tank, and the manufacturer pocketed the difference.
Might just be a poor alloy, Manganese bronze does contain some Iron. Somebody at the foundry may have added too much
Probably not since it was built during the height of WWII. Patriotism was at an all time high, along with the legal consequences and negative public perception that would come with trying to defraud the navy at the time.
@@SG-bp4lg That's also the time when fraud could be easiest. Government shoveling money into shipbuilding. Trying to slow things down for accountability could be attacked as slowing down the war effort. No one has time to take on bean counting. You get promoted by cranking out materiel, by greasing the wheels of war.
@@SG-bp4lg Loads of people tried to cash in on the war by developing substandard products for the military, some of them even had enough friends in high places to get a contract and have them issued to troops. Helps to read a book instead of just making secondhand assumptions.
Good idea to read a 📖. You know about what they say about assuming.
Giving me flashbacks watching you crawl out of that condenser. I, being of relatively small stature ended up in all manner of places with small openings while I was in the Navy and none were quite as pleasant as that condenser. The nicest was the doing the annual corrosion inspection on the main induction sump (726 class SSBN) the worst was probably either SAN7 or SAN 9 on the same.... yuck
I had the same fate when I was "borrowed" for some mainspace tiger teams!!! Being the lil guy is definitely NOT a blessing!!!😂🤣
@@wheels-n-tires1846 no it is not, and 20 years ago I was definitely a little guy... 5'6" 130lbs, I was the smallest guy in my division... now however it would take all of them to het me through a man hole, is they used lots of grease and a chainfall or two... but hey I used to be travel size, now I'm value size 75% more product than the original 🙄
@@jaysonlima7196 same..i was 5-11 and 145 haha. I ALWAYS got LilDude details!!! But id get passed over for them now!! 5-10 and 185!!🤣
@@wheels-n-tires1846 doing better than me I'm 230 lbs but still 5'6
I think it was San9. Been in both, I did gas free engineer @subbase Pearl at the end of my career. Loved doing the impulse tank on fast attacks also.
I love the curator units of measurement!!
"Sacrificial Anodes" would be a good name for a band.
As would “Galvanic Corrosion “.
@@nmccw3245 Alternately, that might be Sacrificial Anodes' first album.
I play music with a group of guys I met while we were getting our material science degrees... you'll get credit on our first album
I want to thank you for showing us so many interesting spaces on the ship. A person can know what components are needed in a specific section, but actually SEEING where they are, and their actual size, is REALLY impressive! Keep up all of your fabulous work Ryan!
need to give a tour of bull gears coming off the turbine to the shafts.
That area has very nice acoustic ambiance. Please in the future record all voiceovers in this aeea.
Your welcome.
One of my few primal fears is squeezing into a small space like that. Luckily, I never was ordered to do so aboard ship. My respect, Ryan!
I would like to see some well lit "pits of death".
Ryan. I very much appreciate you getting into the guts of the ship to show us parts we would never guess of its existence.
Ryan, You have the guts to climb through the smallest of holes, well done Ryan,
As well as Libby, his camera operator!
Note: The condensing turbine extracts the maximum heat from the steam as work applied to the turbine's shaft. In the process of condensing from vapor to liquid, the water has a much lower pressure than the steam - the molecules move much slower in the condensed phase, so they don't "push" so hard against the walls of the turbine housing.
The condensate still needs to be cooled down in order to get it to the optimum / design condition of boiler feed water, and a heat exchanger is used for the purpose.
It looks like the Iowa class battleships did not use condensing turbines, because that HX sure does look like a condenser as stated. Whether boiling or condensing, you want your vapor (steam) on the shell side, and your heat transfer fluid - flue gas for the boiler, cooling water for the condenser - on the tube side, because the steam has a much greater specific volume than the other fluid.
That tube-sheet - where the tube ends communicate with the heads of the heat exchanger - is an interesting bit of engineering in and of itself.
Perhaps stated a little more clearly, the condenser creates a low pressure on the exhaust side of the turbine, which creates a larger "delta p", or pressure difference, across the turbine (from the pressure side to the exhaust side), and therefore extracts more power from the steam.
ran the Evaps on USS Tripoli
Just a minor correction, you mention flue gas on the tubes. Sorry to disappoint, this ship and most navy boilers are Water Tube boilers.
There is a big box under the low pressure turbine, it is under vacuum. He is standing in the saltwater side header ( the one you have to clean out after leaving Hong Kong) You cannot pump steam to a higher pressure than the steam operating pressure, it needs to be returned to condensate. (liquid is non compressible). Turbines run on superheated steam, it has no liquid in it at all. Liquid and turbine blades do not mix and will damage the turbine blades. Moisture carryover is immediate closure of the steam chest (throttle valve) and main engine stop valve emergency procedure in every case except battle stations or restricted maneuvering.
@@davepotanko5514 I worked with a Navy guy years ago. I'll never forget his Navy training for a main steam line leak drill. "Lay down you're dead".
Hi Ryan, another fantastic and entertaining video.
Your willingness and interest in getting into all these unusual spaces is as heartwarming as it is informative and amusing; we learn so much from your excursions.
With you and the rest of your team, it's clear the magnificent BB New Jersey is in loving and skilled hands.
It's a long way from here in Australia, but I hope to be able to visit some day.
I love these obscure places you bring us. I could never be in the spaces you venture, my claustrophobia would freak me out.
Well, that certainly is a disconcerting title
Thank you for producing all of these. My first job out of college was to help design engine rooms for CG and DDG class ships in the early 80’s. It keeps me connected to that part of my career.
Get a small air compressor. Attach it to the hose you have on that plug. Fill the sea chest with air so that it bubbles out of the bottom of the hull. Then set it up to have a very small flow into the sea chest from now on(or a very accurate super low pressure regulator will work if set up right). The compressor will have to run occasionally. That way you have no salt water in the sea chest, and no salt water corrosion. A dry nitrogen or argon source would be better, but harder to acquire.
Nitrogen and regulators for it are common, just need to go to any welding supplies store, though you then need to run the air line down, as otherwise you will be humping heavy cylinders of gas down. Easier to just get a roll of nylon (not polyurethane, that ages badly) tubing for pneumatic use, probably 12mm, and snake it down from the deck in a room close to the chest, and where you can easily get a trolley to it from the gangplank, as you just wheel 4 bottles of dry nitrogen up to there, and connect the regulator and flow gauge. All standard welding supplies, and the cylinders will last around a week each at low flow, before you need to swap them. Becomes a monthly delivery then, and will keep the sea chests dry and purged. You can run a plug and pressurise the others as well, using separate flow gauges, and that way you will see any leaks as well, and be able to attend to them. Cylinders up on top deck also mean, if the nitrogen does run out, the water will not flow back up, just stop at water line.
Also both gases are heavier than air and could cause a problem if they leaked creating a non breathable atmosphere in that room.
@@KI4HOK Also, I would think there would be OSHA rules that would come into play if trying to use an inert gas in those confined spaces, so compressed air would be better if they wanted to push the water out. But the current solution using gravity doesn't require someone to check if a compressor working or a tank of air hasn't gone empty. I do wonder if pushing the water out once in a while and let new river water in would be better or worse for the speed of corrosion.
Cylinders of argon and N2 are easily sourced. but that means you have to regularly move and replace cylinders, while a compressor has to be checked occasionally to make sure it's still running. Air requires almost no work, and I'm sure hes busy enough. As far as OSHA goes, hes already standing in a confined space with no ventilation, atmosphere monitoring, or rescue gear. For some reason, I think OSHA isn't high on the list. A room air quality monitor would be the right thing to do. I'm sure the engine room has some sort of ventilation system built in so that fresh air is brought into the room.
Oxygen, salt water and steel are not a good mix
Having it bubble from the sea chest, would corrode the area it touches
You know it's gonna be a fun one when it starts off with Ryan jammed into somethin'
In my much younger days, I would have had no issues climbing into that condenser. I climbed into many tanks in my career. But now, I look at that hatch, and get a real feeling of claustrophobia. Maybe it’s the knowledge that I am no longer as flexible as I once was, or that I have more common sense than I once had.
I was a port engineer for many years on the west coast. I thoroughly enjoyed your video!
I was a volunteer during the early restoration of the NJ. We scavenged parts and systems from a lot of places up and down the East Coast. It's well worth a visit to see the ship and tour the spaces.
All Your bids have been great, but stuff like this is particualarly exciting! Deeper dives into more technical detail are awesome!
It's amazing to see "old" tech like this. I haven't been on an Iowa class ship, but I did tour the HMS Belfast. It's hard to imagine living on one of these ships. The firepower is amazing. I haven't seen 16" guns up close, but l toured the batteries on Corregidor, where the coastal guns were 12 inches, which seemed huge.
It's a goal/christmas/birthday wish of mine to visit the battleship and meet Ryan next year. This channel and by extension, BB62 have become a part of my daily routine that I look forward. Thank you to everyone who make these videos happen!
Same
I love this stuff.
I spent two decades in the engineering spaces of naval ships as a SWO, but somehow missed the opportunity to crawl into a main engine condenser. Thanks for doing this.
The things Ryan will do to give us quality content
I think it's possible to say that if we suddenly get a "New" Curator of Battleship New Jersey, it's because someone said
" Filming from that space will be spectacular. don't worry we'll get you out."
Knowing him as I do, it doesn't take a lot of convincing.
Man this brings back some memories!!!! Some not so good like cleaning those out but mostly good. Never met a better group of guy EVER!!!! Loved being a BT
The hose thing doesn't really relieve the pressure down low. The pressure in the tube gets less and less the closer you get to the water level on the outside, but the pressure increases as you go lower.
Yep, if you stand a vertical pipe between the bottom of a swimming pool and the surface, no water flows out. Gravity works on the fluid in the pipe equally as it does that outside.
Ok, glad to know I haven't lost my mind. I've been trying to wrap my head around his explanation, but it just doesn't jive with anything I've ever learned, and chemical engineering is *all* about the modeling of that sort of system.
@@matthewshapiro1676 Don't worry about it. Whoever suggested doing that and whoever agreed to it knows less about physics and marine engineering than the curator.
It’s a two part gate valve with space between the halves.
@@Propelled huh?! The problem is water infiltrating through small imperfections. The external pressure on any spot on the hull is determined by depth. The driving force -- how quickly water will pass through, if at all -- is determined by the pressure differential between the two sides of the hull.
Love these videos and cant wait to take a tour with the family one day.
Have you looked into renting or borrowing an XRF gun (XRay Fluorescence) to see which alloys you have? You can shoot the tank alloy with XRays to see what metallic elements you have but it won't give you carbon content. Then, you shoot the blanks as well as the welds to see what the compositions are to track down which areas have the most dissimilar metals side by side to focus on first when you eventually do go into dry dock.
When I started watching your videos I wondered how someone so young could have gotten a curator job. Now it all makes sense.
So... why not a high density plastic plug? Next drydocking, manufacture a tightly fitting plug to go into the seachest(s), seal it in place with marine adhesive, maybe put some kind of expander mechanism inside the plug to force it against the sides, then remove and grind off all the dissimilar metal from the blank. If the long term preservation problem is dissimilar metal corrosion, stop using metals where they touch water. The solution only has to stand up to static water pressure, possibly towing speeds, not high speed sailing stresses, and it only needs to last maybe twice the expected time until the next drydocking. This might be a dumb idea, but there must be an engineering reason why it's a dumb idea.
I can think of a couple challenges/drawbacks but I think it's a good idea worth at least considering. I mean it's not like DSC isn't a drawback for the metal plug in and of itself.
Worth noting in general that a lot of the mothballing procedures were probably more short or medium term in mind. Corrosion only needed to outlast the initial anodes in their minds because it would either be reactivated or written off by the time they expired probably.
Not to slight Navy, they do what makes sense for them, but it seems like a not-insignificant portion of r difficulties the ship faces tie to mothballing decisions that are more or less "museum unfriendly"
Watching Ryan crawl through random places in the battleship is why I tune in. Great stuff guys. 👍
When Ryan Said "Dead steam, it reminded me of the scene in "The Sand Pebbles" when Jake Holman is trying to explain the boiler room on the San Pablo to Po Han!
As a welding and vessel inspector with a highly defined "curious George" mentality I would love to tour the bilges of that ship. I was able to view the Victory ship Richmond five years ago and loved it.
I always enjoy your "excursions" throughout the ship. It would be nice to show a schematic diagram to see where you're at.
Yes, that would be really helpful and seems like there should be a program that makes it easy and probably could have color to highlight too. He sort of did that with the torpedo blisters.
He is in one of the four main condensers.
ChiefSamansky, been in all those places, and more, on CVA. Main engine lube oil sump is much worse. Thanks for taking all to places they’ve never been before! You are doing a fine job of it!
Since the condenser is magnetic it could be made of a copper nickle alloy, which some varieties contains small amounts of iron. CuNi has very good corrosion resistance against seawater, since it creates a passive film on top of when in contact with seawater and it also has pretty good heat transfer capabilities.
Too soft. It would never work.
made of monel and is proteckes by zink plates.plugs are to keep salt out of feed water.
Have to get you some of that flex tape they advertise on TV to seal leaks. While in high school a few of us worked in a laundry. We spent a entire Saturday punching out tubes on an old boiler that was not cleaned in years. All we had was a cheap mask. I was so dirty that my mom made me take a shower in our yard. Then too a shower in the house and tub was black after that.
Sir, you triggered my claustrophobia! Thank you for showing me the interior of the sea chest so I didn't have to squeeze my fat old body through those tiny hatches into unventilated spaces and get covered in rust while risking cuts and bruises.
I'd like to see the emergency pumps on the battle ship. Great channel Ryan. Thank you for all this.
I work on board an aircraft carrier and I can definitely tell you that’s probably a main engine condenser just from the size of it And judging by the way the piping Goes straight down you’re standing on the discharge side The forward side of the condenser should have a scoop injection which is at roughly a 30° angle with a large hull valve followed by a check valve as well as the steam driven main Circulating water pump to supply water to the condenser at low speed
As stated in the video, this is the #3 turbine condenser, each of the 4 main engine rooms drives one of the propeller shafts (see previous video about the numbering of each, rooms being fore to aft, shafts being port to starboard, so they DON'T line up), and has its own condenser complete with water uptake. Ryan is standing on the inlet side, the height of the triple bottom meaning there is still reasonable vertical uptake below the blanking plate. AFIAK while there is a hull valve, they didn't have a check valve, one of the pumps (there is both an electric and a steam pump) where run until speed was reached, then power or steam supply shutdown when flow was sufficient without it.
@@SheepInACart You are forgetting a key point that caleb pointed out, if this was the Inlet side of the main Condenser, there should be the discharge port of the Main Circ Water Pump right next to the scoop injection inlet port. They are both extremely large openings and you would see them easily. I agree with caleb murray that this must be the outlet end bell of the condenser and the overboard discharge valve and sea chest. I worked in the engine room of a cruiser and we had almost identical layout to New Jersey's main engine room.
@@SheepInACart sorry to break it to you, he is indeed standing on the discharge side of that condenser. I know this because I have been these condensers personally.
Or it could be a pee trap
We R so Lucky Ryan came to UTube. Always the best things to learn and see.
I'm a former boat and ship builder and Certified Welding Inspector. I would be interested to see what those alloys are. Hopefully after I hit my 15 year mark I can sit to become a welding engineer and need to do some serious study into all of that. I have done a fair bit out of interest and find the way metal interact interesting. I would love to hear what you find out about the material.
I'm out on an injury and if you ever had a question I could help with it helps to keep me sharp.
I wonder if it could be a early stainless variant? I know a few are "magnetic" (can't think of correct term lol)
@@daveking4229 Some some varieties of Monel are magnetic, and are old enough.
@@daveking4229 Actually all stainless is magnetic, some a lot less than others but it's all magnetic!
@@455buick6 Generally 300 series is weakly magnetic if not non-magnetic while 400 series is much more strongly magnetic. 300 series is called austenitic which refers to the crystal structure 400 series is martensitic or ferritic. This is general info I'm sure there are exceptions. Maybe some metallurgist can add to this
There are older stainless steels than that. Most people are used to the non magnetic stainless but there are a lot of others and they have different properties. All steels will loose magnetism at a given temperature. At that point they change to a structure called austenite. With the right heat treatment and mix of alloys you can bring that down to room temperature but at some point if you go cold enough it will begin to convert to something else. There are different mechanical reasons for the different grades and they resist different types of chemical attack. Salt can actually be a bad one especially if temperature and pressure are involved. Besides the chemistry of the steel the heat treatment and chrystaline structure all matter.
Ryan explains everything so it’s easy to understand
I'd love to see more of the deepest, absolute lowest void spaces explored.
The creepiest places were the voids and tanks between the engineering spaces and the armor belt.
Only Ryan can make a leak fascinating.
Wow, you and Drach have done more for my education on naval history than I could have imagined. Please, please, don't stop. It's fascinating.
Last summer my wife and I went on a "tour" of museum ships. (OK, I did - she went along for the ride). I didn't hit all East Coast ships, but I did hit most of them. BB-62 was, by far, the best.
I got the feeling that Established Titles is done!
Wow, now that’s dedication!!! Spelunking on a battleship . Thanks for another informative and entertaining video about your beautiful ship!! Keep them coming.
its a terrifying idea that those holes, with a thin rusty metal plug, are an unknown distance away from a black abyss of water. even though youd probably fall out the bottom of the ship, my claustrophobia is acting up bad thinking about it.
Then imagine the rotten dead sea life smell (rotten eggs due to H2S) when opening it up.
In reality, the bigger risk is from a lack of oxygen due to it (potentially) being used up creating corrosion. There have been many confined space fatalities due to that in old ships / barges / tanks. Search for "Precious Time: The Cody McNolty Story | WorkSafeBC" for an example...
Remember that nickel is ferromagnetic. This condenser shell might be some nickel iron alloy selected to be compatible with steam at high temperature and tolerate sea water. Those tubes are pretty small diameter. I guess Uncle Sam had lots of labor to punch them clear as needed.
Thanks for the interesting videos.
Ryan, there's a good chance that condenser header is made from Inconel, an iron, copper, nickel alloy that is almost impervious to salt water corrosion.
I have been involved with this materiel CuNifer as it It was the material used for ships seawater services we welded it with TIG
Great Job Ryan ! Your dedication is very impressive sir !!!
Who else what totally taken off guard by the size of the condenser?!
I didn't expect to see him in that huge room after squeezing
through that pipe, wow!
Nice to see that you removed the scam sponsor! I saw that a lot of YT channels had the same issue. Great videos as always 🙂
Imagine when he moves on from the ship or is replaced. He's only a few months away from being more associated with this battleship than any person in its history.
I don’t think he will honestly, he seems happy taking care of NJ
A dimension I had not thought about. Very interesting insights.
Not to nitpick, but the steam leaving the turbine is wet (about 10-12% liquid, by mass) steam at saturation conditions. Being that a condenser operates below atmospheric pressure, that means the temperature of the steam is actually under "boiling" temperature (in typical parlance). For the plants I design, that steam can be in the 90-120F range. I imagine these Navy ships are higher, as the condensers are super tiny compared to what I'm used to.
140-160 degrees for this condensate I believe. Been a lot of years!
What a great start and finish to an interesting video. I also learned some interesting things about the natural history of battleship curators!
As expected one of the dissimilar metal corrosion issues that are always talked about.
Great video as always. Fun to see people panicking though :)
Nice sponsor.
So that is how a curator is born aha. Another great video as always! Amazing to see how that works and the size of the ship's systems
That looks like it could be a permit required confined space. And with those sacrificial anodes and visible rust, you might want to make sure you have a low-o2 alarm on you when going into something like this (or the anchor chain locker). That's the kind of space where all of the oxygen will get pulled out of the air by the rust and corrosion (leaving you with "air" which only has nitrogen and carbon dioxide). This can kill you pretty quick without you realizing it in the right conditions (like just randomly falling asleep). I noticed you seemed to be stumbling on your words a bit while in there which can be a sign of mild hypoxia. I did see what looked like a ventilation hose at the end of the video so I'm hoping there was a supply going to this area while you were working in it.
good advice.
A very good episode. I had no idea about the size of these sea chests or the heat exchanger. WOW!
Anyone else panic, thinking NJ was headed for the bottom??? Or at least Ryan was starting a bucket brigade???😂
No - takes ALOT of water to sink a big ship :)
this is fascinating, but what boggles my mind is the design, engineering and building processes for this behemoth!
One curator thick, hahaha!
Another interesting insight into the workings of a battleship. What a job this fella has. Hope he doesn’t get stuck in one those tight spaces he gets into. 👍
Oh boy ! Do you not know the steam cycle!!!
The steam entering the steam side of the condenser is at about 28.5 inches of vacuum ( well below atmospheric pressure ) and the temperature of this Saturated steam is about 90 deg F.
It stopped being superheated in the high pressure turbine!
Agreed. The main condenser is the source for the aux exhaust steam system which is used to heat a lot of things like the DFT, provide heat to the evaps, etc. The safeties on the main condenser are usually set to 12psi-15psi. If the steam levels get too low in the main condenser, augmenting steam is shot into the main condenser to bring it back up to working levels
Thanks Joe, I posted several replies about lack of effort to do minimum research on subject matter but they seem to have been deleted. This is one of the better museum ship sites but is still serves more to provide a podium for technical misinformation.
@@ytlas3 WTF!? Just when you think the "explanations" couldn't get any worse!
Sorry Sir, but no. The Auxilary exhaust comes from the exhaust of auxilary turbines such as the feed pump or on older ships forced draft fans and pumps.
The auxilary exhaust system Dumps to the condenser when That pressure gets too high.
A reducing station ( Leslie valve
In the navy) provides make up steam to the Aux Exhaust system when the supply to it is not enough. So 600/35 psi or 1200/ 15 reduction.
This Aux exhaust is Mainly used to heat the DFT that runs at 15 or 35 psi.
The main condenser usually has a sentinel valve that provides a whistle to let you know if the condenser pressure is too high but
Is not big enough to relieve pressure..
I was on the USS SHANGRI LA CV38 last cruise and helped with decommissioning. Our evaporators would crash all the time and pump sea water thru the potable water system. Salt water showers and salt water in the drinking fountains. They saved the best water for the catapults.
This is the second video I've seen with the "word from our sponsors" cue and no sponsorship message. Is that deliberate?
The sponsors were not above board and were done away with
Regarding the magnet being attracted to the metal, nickel bronzes can be weakly magnetic. And are good for use in seawater applications. Expensive, but that might not matter when you're building a battleship.
Has the dreaded day arrived? 😨
When I worked at Hull-Oakes lumber mill, Dawson, OR. 30 years ago I was @30, 5'8" and 165. Guess who management asked and paid very well to squeeze into the "cooled down" boilers to descale the tubes? These boilers were from turn-of-the-century Baldwin locomotives @7 feet in diameter x 15 feet long, with a man-hole about 14 inches below the bottom tubes; just enough to shimmy to the end plate (backstroke style,) but not enough to lay sideways. The temperature inside was over 100f, the tubes were @150f and someone had to be outside to check on me regularly. After months of struggling with exhaustive hammer and chisel work and mineral deposit chunks falling on my face, I fabricated pneumatic chisel tools out of 18" wood chipper knives and sped up the work dramatically. To be in my prime again, I'd do it all over.
I see I'm not the only one, wondering, so I'll ask too (bang the pots and pans), what's the deal with the rainbow "corrosion" animation?
Just something we thought was funny. It's a thing we're going to do now.
You knew about regular corrosion.
Now prepare for...
*gay* *corrosion*
they are attempting to birth a new meme.
Our museum ship went into dry dock a couple years ago due to heavy pitting. The ice scraping accelerated the corrosion a microbe was causing. The microbe would take tiny amounts of copper out of the water and plate it onto the steel, which would then galvanicly react until enough rust was formed to passivize it. Well the ice would scrape all of that off every year at about waterline to 4’ below. So the worst pitting was in that 4’ belt. What’s truly amazing is how much the rivets reacted. From the waterline everything was pitted, below that 4’ belt of pitting, their were random rivets where the heads were nearly completely eaten away. The rivet being dissimilar enough to react. Being freshwater she didn’t have zincs, just a good coat of paint. Well 25 years at dock will eat through any coating.
Do New Jersey's watertight doors still work?
I think there's a video about that subject.
the seals on the doors require maintenance, which isn't being performed. They could certainly slow flooding down quite a bit, but they probably leak now
". . . curators spring out of their ships fully formed." THAT made me smile.
Just out of curiosity how often does the battleship replace its zincs? And how many are there on the ship?
Ryan mentioned in a video at some point that the exterior zincs are well overdue and probably completely gone by now, but they use an active protection system with grid power instead. I think theyre still intending on replacing them at drydock though.
The anodes in the condenser can only work if it’s full of water.
On vessel this size apply lead blocks to outskin of hole hactch cover and further corrosion will stop the "unwanted" action.
Similar work was done to the Intrepid when she was in ,MOTBY ( military ocean terminal Bayonne) during her refit prior to being moved to NYC museum across Hudson river in early 1980's
What's up with the rainbow animation and "corrosion" label? Seems like this has been in the last couple videos.
I think it's just an ongoing joke of how it's kind of the signature phrase/magic word of all these videos. We basically can't get through a video without corrosion coming up since it's basically completely inevitable on a ship this old.
they are attempting to birth a new meme.