My first ship, in 1961 was the Battle Class Destroyer, HMAS "Anzac," she had Admiralty 3 Drum Boilers, I must admit that video brought back some very old memories.....some very pleasant.....I am 80 now......thanks for the memory
I grew up in the 70’s and was in the US Navy. Moored next to us was the Wisconsin and while in Portsmouth Naval ship yard there was a WW2 liberty ship used for birthing. Then next to our dry dock was another very old dry dock that had a WW2 submarine inside it on wood posts. It was an interesting time, some of our Senior chiefs were WW2 veterans and we still had the nuke destroyers and a boat load of Spruance class destroyers. My favorite of the time was the Adams class. Sadly they were all on their last cruises while I was in, I watched all of them decommissioned as new Burke class ships came onboard. Of all the ships of my time, my favorite was the Wisconsin, never served on her but shared a peer and was able to visit her multiple times with friends who were ships company. Wisconsin had a great skipper and crew, you could feel the pride and see the meticulous care they put into maintaining her.
I was a stoker on steam turbine-driven Navy ships in the 70's. This video brought back many things I'd forgotten like placing the turning gear locks into a special rack in the engine room so that the chief of the watch could see at a glance that the turning gear had been removed. The revolution counter and manual telegraph seem so antique now, considering how modern ships relay commands. During our training, we watched countless old (WW2) training films like this one, many from both the Royal Navy and the US Navy. They'll always bring back a memory. Thanks for posting this!
@@林王-t3z Actually, the deck men work several jobs. They are tradesmen (and women) in a specialty such as radar or gunnery plus they are responsible for all the topside work such as painting and cleaning the outside of the ship, tying up the vessel when it arrives, loading stores, and countless other tasks in addition to their trade responsibilities. The engineering department on ships is the specialty I wanted to work in because of the trade associated with it: engines, mechanical, electrical-are what interested me , not radar of gunnery, etc. Everyone on a warship works hard. They work short, alternating but continuous around-the-clock shifts for weeks and at a time, getting little sleep. Thanks for your interest.
Not sure how loud it was in there but after a tour of my city's old power plant after being in the turbine hall, it was super loud in there we had to wear ear plugs but what an amazing time to see all that stuff running on steam 🙂👍
I love stuff like this. It really shows you the engineering talent that went into the old technology. Now we design it all with CAD and a 3D computer model, but somewhere "back in the day" a bunch of guys drew out the plans for all that on paper and figured out all the math on a slide rule.
So now the Zumwalt gets towed to habour a few times for engine problems, and aircraft carrier elevators don't work. I've read of an English boat that can't go too far south, as the engines weren't designed to be cooled by warm water.
I still have mine in a leather belt holster, it came that way. It doesn’t have a single scratch on it, amazing considering all the ground it’s covered, not bad for a fifty year old slide rule. I keep it in my sock drawer. ChiefD
You over estimate cad softwares, no real engineers touches it after we calculate and set parameters, it is usually the least talented or new trainee who draft the designs.
I was a MM Machinist mate in the US Navy from 83 to 95. I was on 3 different ships that were Steam powered. 2 Sub Tenders and a destroyer from the 1960s. They used Steam Turbine engines and generators and Flash type Distilling plants. I ran the Equipment in the Engine rooms. The Firerooms were in a seperate space and were Run by BTs, Boiler techs.
Great film clip, it brings back memories from my employment as a assistant operator in a coal fired power station many years ago. Most of our shift charge engineers were ex navy, on a cold start they would pace around the control room like it was the bridge of a ship, eyes were watching everything.
The ship's horn ran off steam. After we started a boiler, we had to open the blowdown valves so it worked. I know it sounds trivial but a ship's horn could mean life or death.
Great wee film. In the early 90s I worked at a small chemical plant in Scotland that had one of those 3-drum Admiralty boilers used to produce steam for the plant, The nameplate on it said Yarrow 1941 and the boilerhouse fitter told it had come from a scrapped WW2 destroyer
That's super cool! It's nice to know that some things from days gone by are still being useful long after their best days. I wonder if you ever thought of battles that boiler might have steamed away in?
My first ship was an old WW2 Destroyer converted to a frigate,this was in 1971,HMS Ulster.I was a 16 year old stoker and my watch keeping duty was the boiler room,we actually had 2 boiler rooms,with Admiralty 3 drum boilers,very similat to these in the film,except bigger I think.We used to take 4 hours to be ready to sail from cold.If it was raining up on deck,it would be raining in the boilerroom as well,as the fans took a suction from the upper deck and it was force draft,so the boiler rooms were airlocked.When on the middle watch we would heat up and make soup on the steam drains from the recip pumps and also do our washing from the same and every thing would be dry before you went of watch.We would make soup for the whole watch including the engine room and gear room,jacked potatoes on the steam stop valves,great times.
Steam was, and is, a dangerous commodity. My cousin, David, was employed, in the Merchant Navy, Shell and Imperial Oil tankers to be specific during the 70’s and 80’s. He told me a story about one time when a pipe burst in the engine room. The pipe was under extreme pressure. An engineer happened to be in path of the the direct stream of superheated vapor. David said that the steam stripped off every piece of clothing and ripped off his skin from top to bottom, peeling it around his back. It is no surprise that the poor man died soon after the accident. David himself fell to cancer as quite a young man.He was my favorite male cousin, just as his sister, Rosemary, was my favorite female cousin. I miss them both. He left three boys, including a pair of twins, one of which still runs the family butcher shop with his mother in north Yorkshire. The boys’ grandfather, my Uncle Reg, survived El Alamein, Tobruk, Monte Casino and more in WW2.
In the DDGs we had a cabin that you had to reach in 3-4 seconds & climb a ladder to the weather deck. The super heated steam heads to the coldest point in the boiler room & that is usually people,it is so hot it burns straight to the bone.
On the 1200psi systems we would hunt for leaks with broom handles. You can’t see super heated steam but you sure can hear it. It would cut a wood handle into as it passed by the leak. As you can imagine the order to freeze in place was automatic when that squeal was heard. ChiefD
While asbestos was a threat, coal itself causes severe issues. Chinese life expectancy loses about 20 years due to the lack of a natural gas network. Chinese coal is not real pure, which makes it even more toxic.
My brother-in-law was a leading hand as a stoker....after listening to his stories I was in awe at how humans could withstand temperatures of 200-300 degrees F in the boiler room. I take my hat off to all the seamen who worked in this area. 😁🇦🇺👍🏻
The hard part was no doubt turning up with a clean hat each watch. No plastic bonnets in those days. I like how the officers on the bridge turn up with sheepskin coats and mittens, whereas the ordinary seamen have standard number 4's. Got to admire the officer class for planning ahead for cold weather.
Gold heavens no, no human could possibly survive at much above 120F. If those rooms ever got above 130F, the entire crew would cook like bread in an oven.
This works on so many levels. The hand drawn crown at the start (Geo VI. It's E II R's now). The RP accent and it pismronounces certain words ( many but one e.g is 'turbine'). The basic technical info to do the job. Of course the much noted TH-cam gag @ 14:35. It only bally works because of the accent. The way it said 'the you tube' is like the narrator's only too glad to see the back of it. Priceless! I like the Chief. In his first scene the look on his face as he turns from the skipper to camera is priceless. Chiefs are gods basically. They're rather important- note how he didn't have to salute the skipper. They can be very terse. Or highly evocative and florid and can castigate all and sundry in a variety of expletives for many minutes at a time without deviation hesitation or repetition. Actually he probably disapproved of the camera crew. Very conservative lot, your chiefs. They can be highly intelligent, their responsibilities onerous, but their world is limited. You don't want to get on their wrong side, or burst their bubble, so a bunch of BBC type faries with silly voices and bright lights intruding into his world is not going to make his day. And a ship is a vessel of limited size with a bunch of blokes couped up who have to get along with each other and function as a unit and function well. Chiefs can have very strange preconceived notions. Eclectic. But adapt they do.. I used ferries a lot, and I know of one Bosun who went on maternity leave, and one Chief who became a skipper and married a bloke who became his husband.
Great informative video for the ignorant! My GF was a Ldr Stoker before during and after WW1 in the coal era so I suppose the principles are much the same except for the graft of shovelling the tons of fuel, but what an eye opener for the processes involved. I salute all you engine room sailors as it can't have been easy. Thanks for the video.
The amazing thing is that nuclear-powered vessels work exactly the same way. The only difference is how the heat is produced. Other than that, works exactly the same way.
That's probably why I was drafted straight from a wartime destroyer, admiralty 3 drums and turbines, to the latest SSN. (Caprice to Sovereign). Same engines, different kettle.
Not always. While most ships use pressurized water reactors, a few classes of subs use liquid metal cooled reactors, which have an intermediate step. The reactors heat liquid sodium, which passes through a heat exchanger to boil the water.
This brings back memories of the early 70's. We had 4 admiralty 3 drum boilers on Blake in two boiler rooms; very similar machinery layout to Belfast. It surprises me just how much I remember
I spent an entire afternoon snuffling about Belfast in 1984, while the wife looked through Harrod's. I remember the herringbone gears and the reverse turbines particularly. It was a great day.
It was really an honor experience to be in steam battleship just to cut the the waves on pure steam and serve your country Respect and credit for ww2 navies warriors
an interesting tidbit, maybe...a modern nuclear powered surface ship or submarine was started up in much the same way in regard to the steam...the nuke plant supplying the heat instead of an oil (or coal) flame. An exception being the superheat bit. There are still lube oil systems, and feed water and condensate systems and water chemistry still checked in much the same way. Very interesting film for me.
Actually no. The water in the reactor is kept under very high presure and doesn't boil. It's a secondary circuit of water that is transform into steam. No one want to work on a radioactive turbine. Also, all the propulsion is electric.
@@TheLaurentDupuis He never said anything at all about the primary or secondary coolent loops, and I'm not aware of any nuclear vessels currently using electric propulsion. I believe they all use steam turbines.
@@TonboIV & Laurent Dupuis I served as a 'stoker', the lads you saw in the film, on 2 Admiralty 3 Drum boiler ships, one a wartime destroyer (HMS Caprice) like the one featured. This was the early 70s. The routine shown is spot on if simplified. From Caprice, after retraining, I was drafted to the latest building nuclear Fleet (hunter/killer) boat. The turbines were the same engine as shown (as they are in power stations, my civvy job). The only change is the 'kettle' so to speak. Nuclear boats are therefore steam driven. They do revert to diesel-electric drive if they lose the reactor, but this is a 'get you home' measure and very limited in range and speed (2or3 knots maybe). BUT, I do know the French, Chinese, and Americans have introduced turbo-electric drive submarines as a means of dispensing with the complex, and expensive direct drive reduction gearing. I hope this clears up the confusion.
@@TheLaurentDupuis the chief must still keep track on water chemistry and condenser performance. Hard to keep a vakuum in the condenser ? That indicates either leaking cooling water tube so you get salty sea water in the secondary water circuit. Salinity in the water ? Truble in the condenser
@@TheLaurentDupuis I'm sure they work on the turbines and all associated equipment, radioactive or not, likely in drydock and radiation suits for heavy jobs like being refurbished or refueled.
RAN. '70s. Gingerbeer, on main Throttle , #2 engine Room, ( DDG) Fwd and Rev main engines, warming through....whilst singled up ready to leave. Got himself distracted, whilst bringing up some revs AHEAD, not sure how many he got to, but the ropes were singing, before someone noticed, either the Engineer himself, or????. I was in the Greenies workshop. Noticed/felt the revs coming on. Thought bugger, we've slipped and sailed, and hadn't even piped ''Specials". My specials was Main Board, all sorts of language, and gaiety going on, by the time I had bolted down there.
My Father fired boilers on USS Mertz DD691USN.Dad passed from lung cancer in Oct 1996 the effects of asbestos they claim families could get settlments... Our Mother got nada..It devastated us seeing Dad suffering the effects of lung cancer.Then my mother denied a solitary quarter from greedy lawyers or whoever got all of that money.Dad worked at the business he created just 5 months before his death,he was one of the hardest working men I ever saw&over 2 thousand people attended his funeral RIP Dad. I miss you.
I was in the Navy in the early 60 . Then worked in boiler rooms for a few years, was luckie no health problems. The lawyers used to ask me to join a law suit against the asbestos companies, I always felt the lawers only wanted money, they did not care about our health.
The small steamer I was on, Admiralty 1 drum boilers, general electric steam turbine, was built post war and to fire up , all you did was , let the air in, light a torch, out the torch in the boiler and turn the fuel on , a few hours later, steam away at your hearts content 🙂
@@budsmoker60 Vote for higher taxes if you want more ships, ships cost money. Vote Tory if you want lower taxes so fewer ships. Not complicated. I've yet to find anyone who really wants more ships, but maybe you'll vote for higher taxes when you next get the chance.
A larger version of the boilers used on Wickes and Clemson class destroyers of the United States. Of course, they used Yarrow or Thornycroft boilers (among others) which I believe were of British design. Very informative!
I distinctly remember watching this film in 1969 as a first year apprentice in Devonport Dockyard! It didn't mean much then and it means even less now !! Great days, great mates!
start em up chief. don’t know how many times Ive heard that. studied for this, but never implemented outside of small boilers. good way to display the principles.
I was a baby stoker on the Albion. Replacing/removing funnel covers on a carrier is an experience I wouldn't care to repeat! Cleaning the uptakes, naked with a hand brush and a paper bag wasn't particularly pleasant either.
@@bigredc222 Not completely naked. We wore plimsolls on our feet and a mutton cloth around our faces. The carbon got into and ruined everything, it was easier to dump it than clean it. So the losses were minimized. You also got to know your mates quite intimately in the showers later, there are some bits you just can't reach! This was before the 'Elf and Safety days. Removing/replacing the funnel covers was fun. One leg in the funnel, one leg out, dragging the heavy canvas across the mouth of the stack, no lines, helmets etc. The juniors (i.e. me!) got the starboard side of the stack, some 80ft above the dock. Whoever was in charge got the port side. That was probably only about 20ft above the goofing deck. Scary. It was a different era. Thankfully, I only got to remove one once, and then replace it. The kind of job that was spread amongst the Junior Rates. Submarines were quite a relief, no smokestack. Don't even get me started on the one '36 hour boiler clean at sea' I got copped for!
@jack tarr Oh God! You've stirred some memories. I've still got the tread pattern imprinted on my knees from nearly 50 years ago. I still make kye pusser's way, with grated dark chocolate, not the powdered rubbish they issued later on. I don't miss polishing brightwork in the forenoon half asleep from the middle. I went from Albion A3D to Caprice A3D to the latest SSN. Different technology, same routines. Tradition dies hard.
They changed little up to the 1980s with the exception of placement of super-heaters and using exclusively oil burners. 700 and 1400 pound steam plants with double redundancy at the very least. Cooling water for machinery was often adjusted by hand, nothing much automatic. Multiple operating boilers and rooms which one could service and power the other equipment in emergencies. Kitchen steam, engine steam (turbines), steam for generators, water purification,heating for compartments were all tapped off although some vessels did employ smaller boilers called 'donkey' boilers. No steam was wasted. Boiler tenders and boiler techs had the worst possible jobs. Hot, dirty, dangerous and thankless. All deserve kudos and a medal. Nuke vessels not included in the description although beyond the reactors they all operated very much the same.
yeah, I think hell has coal-powered steam boilers, lol. By that omission, Guess I had it easy on an oil power boiler ship (USS Camden AOE2), lol. The heat must be something you can tolerate, and I simply can not imagine breaking my back shoveling coal in the older boiler rooms. Not everyone is tempered to the cold of arctic weather, nor are many to desert heat and engine rooms, and that isn't a bad thing either. It's just not for everyone. I served my time in 'hell' operating SSTGs, I wouldn't want to have been anywhere else during that time. I can also sympathize with not everyone wanting to be in such a place. EM3 Allen, retired.
Interesting and complicated procedure that obviously takes training and competence to operate. Two questions for those that might know: 1. How is distilled water created for the boilers? 2. What supplies power to the ship when the boilers are not running?
Dale - See www.hmshood.com/ship/hoodspecs3.htm (this is for a battlecruiser rather than a destroyer, although the basics are the same). The water was distilled from sea water using a distillation plant on-board, usually located in the engine room. Auxilliary power would be provided by a diesel engine or a small reciprocating steam engine with its own boiler (rather than the turbine engines used for propulsion).
I was an Engine Room Artificer until I was 30. Chief of the Watch on steam steam ships all the time. Best job in the navy! Loved the job, but left to get married.
I work at a hospital that has Multi-fuel boiler the run on either natural gas or fuel oil amazing how some things havent changed in this amount of time
My father was a second class petty officer on a Coast Guard Cutter in Groton Connecticut he was the senior boiler technician on board at the time it was the night the Andrea Doria was hit by the Stockholm. His job was to get the ship underway as soon as possible. Using emergency light off procedures and some ingenuity the ship left port. My dad had another man with him in the Boiler Room he kept saying Willie you're going to kill us all dad replied shut up and do your job.
SAILED USNS ... one ship the USNS Dutton (ex- SS Tuskegee Victory, 1944) ... smoke you see is likely a donkey boiler used for domestic steam (heat, galley). [Disclaimer: been a long time, but I did return to a steam plant as an operator after 30 years. It was a very rewarding 4 years.] Superheated steam is hotter, but actually loses a few psi as it experiences "line loss" (friction), in the passing through the superheater. No corrosion is correct, but it's also a matter of EROSION from particles of water in the "wet steam" that would IMPINGE on the turbine blades. The turning gear is used to keep the rotor from bowing. The same is true of the 3 AHEAD/3 ASTERN done by the Chief.
Have you come across a Navy film called "A Class of His Own"? I believe that was the title. It included my late father CRS(S) Bill Cook on blackboard technique. The film was made in the early 60s (probably 1962), during the last weeks my father was in the Navy.
After watching this, it's small wonder that diesel power caught on. Very cool video but wow....what a complicated and cumbersome process to get propulsion.
Here’s a fun fact... One of the reasons nuclear propulsion didn’t work for commercial shipping is because the engineer officers on board (nuclear engineers) demanded more pay than the Captain. The thought of that always makes me smile.
@Charlie K Our yacht was tied up just in front of HMS Brave Borderer in Caen harbour in around 1964. 3 diesel turbines. They fired that thing up in about 10 or 15 minutes. There was an electric engine noise as the three exhaust covers on the stern were wound down. Then a few loud noises as 4 to 5 metre flames shot out the stern exhausts - think afterburners on a jet fighter. The exhausts were about 60cm diameter. It took a few minutes for things to stabilise and lines to be taken is. Then they departed slowly (wake restrictions).
Never called "cocoa". Called Kia ( pronounced K - eye ). We drank tea in the main and called it Char which is the Anglicised version of the Chinese name for Tea. I ran these boilers on every steam ship I was on through to the 80's.
@@hoilst Gotta be in it to speak it! Now it's hard coded into my brain although I doubt i could still draw the closed feed system of the old Ark ( Got my BWC in 30 days ) or write up the flash up routine to turn engines on Hermes ( for my Unit ticket ). I have to be content being a Naval pedant.
@@davidpratthk i loved kia , full bar dark chocolate , 2lb sugar and 2 tins carnation milk mixed in a fanny and boiled up under steam drain , made it 100 times or more , I can still taste it today 55years on . frank lewis
@@franklewis5579 I remember my old man telling me about this stuff. According to him, the cup used to get smaller as more kia was used due the build up inside.
@vibratingstring I am just not properly steeped in the tradition of making a proper tea, thanks for the pointer. I shall have to get the tea ball out, although there are those that like the tea lose in the cup.
10:27- LOL We used to do a similar thing with apprentices in the motor trade! We drilled into them the dangers of naked flames and Petrol fumes but failed to mention how much more difficult 'Diesel' fuel was to ignite! I can still see their faces, when a lit match - having lit a cigarette - was tossed (seemingly off-hand) into a pool of Diesel fuel! LOL
i was a gunners mate on a us repair ship while at sea a friend who worked in the boiler told me come down in the hole and see what goes on down there, i could only take 15 mins of being down there, it must have been 200 Fahrenheit n that boiler room every one was soaked in sweat even the clothes.
Whilst I can understand why,after having fought 2 wars there was a feeling of "never again" and a huge lurch to the left,the socialists and commies have truly f*cked my country. England and it's 2 thousand year history is nothing more than pizza and burger fuelled shit hole. Seeing these poor sods working their socks off for the future we have now makes me gag.
Too bad they didn't mention temps and pressures; here is a tidbit for those that are curious, the boilers on my first ship, the U.S.S. Fanning (FF-1076) ran at 1275 psi and the superheated steam was 975 degrees. When both of the boilers were fired up the ship could attain 27 knots and that was going down hill!
James Scholl More knowledgeable, in that they have the advantage of prior knowledge, but from first hand experience, the current bunch are not at all better, and are certainly not as enlightened. More decadent, maybe.
@@mk14m0 Well obviously I can't deny what you've personally experienced but any comparison as to whose is better is completely retarded. Each used the tools of there trade as best they could. They are for sure more enlightened because they are part of a diverse, inclusive workforce and have access to many more perspectives than before- mostly due to the internet. They are definitely smarter- as the Flynn effect and their more complicated curriculum shows. The fact that they don't have to work with their hands or can't do some of the stuff that old engineers could do, doesn't mean anything. Each uses their own tools of the trade. I'm not sure what else defines "better" but these categories sure point to new engineers being better. And why wouldn't that be the case? Humans improve over time.
An interesting film, but the animation of the steam turbine was hopelessly wrong and gave no idea how it actually works. I guess the animator didn't have a clue either.
It was quite poor, but they might have been able to do only so much in the relatively early days of animation. No moving 3D. His quick verbal description was no to bad but the moving visual left much to be desired.
@@johnstudd4245 - I've seen animations from that period which show a side view of the steam passing through multiple sets of fixed and rotating turbine blades. It's wasn't beyond what they could do. I'd suggest that the animator didn't have the faintest idea about what the turbine looked like inside.
Much more complex than I would have expected. To be frank just thought they lit it and basically that’s it. Today they use jet engine without the fans. I am sure that with electronic the start procedure is basically a push of a button.
Not all warships use gas turbine. Some are still steam driven with either a boiler or reactor providing the heat. The overall process to start is still very similar to this. :)
@@605nkr it probably is mostly computer-controlled push button nowadays with gas turbines/nuclear reactors but the manual control is still taught/done to not be too reliant on technology. What if the Chief Engineer gets killed and you need to start/maintain power/maneuvering? Push button tech is good but cant be too department on that.
@@chrismc410 most of it is still manual. Though there is more automation being introduced. Reactor control systems have to be remote of course and there are automatic interlocks, but much is still manually done. Trust me, I know. At least four my class id shop anyway.
The point is any really big machine cannot be heated quickly because it has to heat evenly or it goes kaput (because some parts expand before others). Trying to go full steam ahead with a cold turbine would destory the turbine.
Men, Men, Men, it's a ship all filled with men, So batten down the Ladies room, there's no one here but men There's Men Above, There's Men below, There's Men down in the Galley, There's Butch, and Spike, and Buzz, and Biff, and one guy we call Sally, (and one guy we call Sally)
I was a Machinist Mate 2 and worked in Main Engine Control #1 main engine on an Adams class guided missile destroyer. My favorite job was as the throttleman on #1 main engine. Our ship's engine rooms and boiler rooms were offset so as to minimize the damage to the propulsion equipment. Each engine room and boiler room were all seperate spaces and could be isolated in case of damage to any space.. I see that this British destroyer was not designed like that of the American destroyers. If you took a hit in either the boiler room or the engine room the chances of complete loss of propulsion was a high probability. I'm sure the modern destroyers are of an offset design now and the newer gas turbine engines are much easier to operate.
MM1 David Carruthers, 1275 PSI Steam, USS WHIPPLE , USS STODDERT, USS HULL, Babcox Boilers, Westinghouse 36,000 HP Turbines, Twin Pinion , Double Reduction Transmission Gear...... God I miss it, shift colors, underway.....
40 knots and no smoke.....never did so much with so little....Sea Power for Peace! DDG 13, 71-75. We're rough....we're tough were hard to bluff, we'refuckers were fighters....were Tin Can Riders!!
I had orders to WV Pratt in 73. Thanks to Neptune, my previous vessel had given me lower than whale poop Evans and the XO wouldn't take me on. I got new orders to a sub tender, only went to sea every 6 months for r&r in FT. Lauderdale! Broke my heart!😂
At 2:18 the detail to uncover the funnels enter a door at deck level and climb a ladder running up the inside. Why were they built like this? It seems overly complicated and dangerous compared to a simple ladder running up the outside. I'm clearly missing something, but what?
Paul Abraham . What you see from the outside is termed the funnel casing and can contain several separate flue pipes. There is already smoke issuing from the funnel top before the covers come off. They are probably already running an auxiliary or “donkey” boiler whose flue pipe is already uncovered. A ladder outside the funnel would certainly be simpler, but there is no danger inside and the funnel casing does provide protection from bad weather.
The other reason for an internal ladder is foul weather. Often an enemy will attack during storms or high winds. An external ladder would force the ship to wait, while the internal ladder permits crew to uncover the stack, or do other work on the stack no matter the conditions.
9:28 why does the entire works the Y pipe is attached to move when the sailor tightens the cap? Is it loosely mounted or is it a mach up for demonstration purposes?
Many years ago. A letter carrier was far more secure than telegraph or radio broadcast in those days with the limited encryption available to them. Plus, the royal navy had a tough time giving up old habits....
TH-cam is a magical place. I discovered Mollie Tuttle and Tuba Skinny here. All sorts of other good stuff. I spent an evening watching bee keepers establish new hives. I keep going back to watch Andrew Camarata. I've spent hours watching sailing and boat building stuff. Every now and then I follow links and end up in some very weird places. That can be interesting too :-)
Yes it sure is . His another did you know that there are only two types of ship. submarines and target's. Diesel boat's of course the only submarine that actually had the ability to shut down completely.
My first ship, in 1961 was the Battle Class Destroyer, HMAS "Anzac," she had Admiralty 3 Drum Boilers, I must admit that video brought back some very old memories.....some very pleasant.....I am 80 now......thanks for the memory
Thank you for your service.
I grew up in the 70’s and was in the US Navy. Moored next to us was the Wisconsin and while in Portsmouth Naval ship yard there was a WW2 liberty ship used for birthing. Then next to our dry dock was another very old dry dock that had a WW2 submarine inside it on wood posts. It was an interesting time, some of our Senior chiefs were WW2 veterans and we still had the nuke destroyers and a boat load of Spruance class destroyers. My favorite of the time was the Adams class. Sadly they were all on their last cruises while I was in, I watched all of them decommissioned as new Burke class ships came onboard.
Of all the ships of my time, my favorite was the Wisconsin, never served on her but shared a peer and was able to visit her multiple times with friends who were ships company.
Wisconsin had a great skipper and crew, you could feel the pride and see the meticulous care they put into maintaining her.
Could you have imagined then you’d be watching a film about it on device that in 1961 wouldn’t have fit in your ship’s engine room?
@@kingoftape I don’t think so. I was very much in tune with computers etc. I did watch Star Trek etc. So it was within my belief of “one day”.
@@bret9741 It must be quite a thing to have seen how far things have progressed….technologically speaking
I was a stoker on steam turbine-driven Navy ships in the 70's. This video brought back many things I'd forgotten like placing the turning gear locks into a special rack in the engine room so that the chief of the watch could see at a glance that the turning gear had been removed. The revolution counter and manual telegraph seem so antique now, considering how modern ships relay commands. During our training, we watched countless old (WW2) training films like this one, many from both the Royal Navy and the US Navy. They'll always bring back a memory. Thanks for posting this!
the working environment for engine staff seems much harder than the deck，at that time ,why you choose the job as a stoker not a deck man.
@@林王-t3z Actually, the deck men work several jobs. They are tradesmen (and women) in a specialty such as radar or gunnery plus they are responsible for all the topside work such as painting and cleaning the outside of the ship, tying up the vessel when it arrives, loading stores, and countless other tasks in addition to their trade responsibilities. The engineering department on ships is the specialty I wanted to work in because of the trade associated with it: engines, mechanical, electrical-are what interested me , not radar of gunnery, etc. Everyone on a warship works hard. They work short, alternating but continuous around-the-clock shifts for weeks and at a time, getting little sleep. Thanks for your interest.
Not sure how loud it was in there but after a tour of my city's old power plant after being in the turbine hall, it was super loud in there we had to wear ear plugs but what an amazing time to see all that stuff running on steam 🙂👍
I love stuff like this. It really shows you the engineering talent that went into the old technology. Now we design it all with CAD and a 3D computer model, but somewhere "back in the day" a bunch of guys drew out the plans for all that on paper and figured out all the math on a slide rule.
It's the same talent, but executed in a vastly more efficient way.
So now the Zumwalt gets towed to habour a few times for engine problems, and aircraft carrier elevators don't work. I've read of an English boat that can't go too far south, as the engines weren't designed to be cooled by warm water.
The pipework layout was all done with small wooden models and mockups before being built.
I still have mine in a leather belt holster, it came that way. It doesn’t have a single scratch on it, amazing considering all the ground it’s covered, not bad for a fifty year old slide rule. I keep it in my sock drawer. ChiefD
You over estimate cad softwares, no real engineers touches it after we calculate and set parameters, it is usually the least talented or new trainee who draft the designs.
Old videos are like time machine,one can travel in past through these videos.
I was a MM Machinist mate in the US Navy from 83 to 95. I was on 3 different ships that were Steam powered. 2 Sub Tenders and a destroyer from the 1960s. They used Steam Turbine engines and generators and Flash type Distilling plants. I ran the Equipment in the Engine rooms. The Firerooms were in a seperate space and were Run by BTs, Boiler techs.
I was a 16 year old Junior (stoker) on a RN Daring Class Destroyer in 67, this brought back some memories of flashing up on a cold morning in harbour.
The BBC voice of the time is timeless
BBC had nothing to do with that "film".
@@deeremeyer1749 Who cares the fil is great
@@deeremeyer1749 Ah, but the accent - that is 'pure' BBC!...
Great film clip, it brings back memories from my employment as a assistant operator in a coal fired power station many years ago. Most of our shift charge engineers were ex navy, on a cold start they would pace around the control room like it was the bridge of a ship, eyes were watching everything.
I was one off the last steam stokers trained at HMS Sultan Portsmouth and served on the HMS Glamorgan D19 and the HMS Cribdus and HMS Jupiter.
The ship's horn ran off steam. After we started a boiler, we had to open the blowdown valves so it worked. I know it sounds trivial but a ship's horn could mean life or death.
Great wee film. In the early 90s I worked at a small chemical plant in Scotland that had one of those 3-drum Admiralty boilers used to produce steam for the plant, The nameplate on it said Yarrow 1941 and the boilerhouse fitter told it had come from a scrapped WW2 destroyer
That’s a shame but also very fascinating. Any idea what ship it could have come out of?
Was there a turbine or a steam engine connected to it?
That's super cool! It's nice to know that some things from days gone by are still being useful long after their best days. I wonder if you ever thought of battles that boiler might have steamed away in?
My first ship was an old WW2 Destroyer converted to a frigate,this was in 1971,HMS Ulster.I was a 16 year old stoker and my watch keeping duty was the boiler room,we actually had 2 boiler rooms,with Admiralty 3 drum boilers,very similat to these in the film,except bigger I think.We used to take 4 hours to be ready to sail from cold.If it was raining up on deck,it would be raining in the boilerroom as well,as the fans took a suction from the upper deck and it was force draft,so the boiler rooms were airlocked.When on the middle watch we would heat up and make soup on the steam drains from the recip pumps and also do our washing from the same and every thing would be dry before you went of watch.We would make soup for the whole watch including the engine room and gear room,jacked potatoes on the steam stop valves,great times.
I work in a power station and most of these practices are still part of firing a cold boiler and turbine
Same as a nuclear reactor. Other than Uranium or Plutonium providing the heat via radiation, works exactly the same way
Triple expansion steam turbans were later used on ships such as the SS Oriana 🎉
Steam was, and is, a dangerous commodity. My cousin, David, was employed, in the Merchant Navy, Shell and Imperial Oil tankers to be specific during the 70’s and 80’s. He told me a story about one time when a pipe burst in the engine room. The pipe was under extreme pressure. An engineer happened to be in path of the the direct stream of superheated vapor. David said that the steam stripped off every piece of clothing and ripped off his skin from top to bottom, peeling it around his back. It is no surprise that the poor man died soon after the accident. David himself fell to cancer as quite a young man.He was my favorite male cousin, just as his sister, Rosemary, was my favorite female cousin. I miss them both. He left three boys, including a pair of twins, one of which still runs the family butcher shop with his mother in north Yorkshire. The boys’ grandfather, my Uncle Reg, survived El Alamein, Tobruk, Monte Casino and more in WW2.
@@bsimpson6204 Yes, blue asbestos to be exact. That stuff was deadly.
In the DDGs we had a cabin that you had to reach in 3-4 seconds & climb a ladder to the weather deck. The super heated steam heads to the coldest point in the boiler room & that is usually people,it is so hot it burns straight to the bone.
@@bsimpson6204 We had rolls of asbestos ,like carpet.
On the 1200psi systems we would hunt for leaks with broom handles. You can’t see super heated steam but you sure can hear it. It would cut a wood handle into as it passed by the leak. As you can imagine the order to freeze in place was automatic when that squeal was heard. ChiefD
While asbestos was a threat, coal itself causes severe issues. Chinese life expectancy loses about 20 years due to the lack of a natural gas network. Chinese coal is not real pure, which makes it even more toxic.
My brother-in-law was a leading hand as a stoker....after listening to his stories I was in awe at how humans could withstand temperatures of 200-300 degrees F in the boiler room. I take my hat off to all the seamen who worked in this area. 😁🇦🇺👍🏻
The hard part was no doubt turning up with a clean hat each watch. No plastic bonnets in those days. I like how the officers on the bridge turn up with sheepskin coats and mittens, whereas the ordinary seamen have standard number 4's. Got to admire the officer class for planning ahead for cold weather.
@@philgray1023 On an exposed bridge in the North Atlantic, it's pretty much always cold, especially if you're zipping along at 30+ knots.
@@drtidrow I'm grateful for my peacoat. If the navy, be it the Royal Navy or the U.S. Navy understood anything was how to keep warm to work.
Gold heavens no, no human could possibly survive at much above 120F. If those rooms ever got above 130F, the entire crew would cook like bread in an oven.
Thank you so much for posting these documentaries. They are fascinating to my generation, who learned about WWII from fathers and uncles.
This works on so many levels. The hand drawn crown at the start (Geo VI. It's E II R's now). The RP accent and it pismronounces certain words ( many but one e.g is 'turbine'). The basic technical info to do the job. Of course the much noted TH-cam gag @ 14:35. It only bally works because of the accent. The way it said 'the you tube' is like the narrator's only too glad to see the back of it. Priceless!
I like the Chief. In his first scene the look on his face as he turns from the skipper to camera is priceless. Chiefs are gods basically. They're rather important- note how he didn't have to salute the skipper. They can be very terse. Or highly evocative and florid and can castigate all and sundry in a variety of expletives for many minutes at a time without deviation hesitation or repetition.
Actually he probably disapproved of the camera crew. Very conservative lot, your chiefs. They can be highly intelligent, their responsibilities onerous, but their world is limited. You don't want to get on their wrong side, or burst their bubble, so a bunch of BBC type faries with silly voices and bright lights intruding into his world is not going to make his day. And a ship is a vessel of limited size with a bunch of blokes couped up who have to get along with each other and function as a unit and function well. Chiefs can have very strange preconceived notions. Eclectic.
But adapt they do.. I used ferries a lot, and I know of one Bosun who went on maternity leave, and one Chief who became a skipper and married a bloke who became his husband.
C R IIIs Navy now
Great informative video for the ignorant! My GF was a Ldr Stoker before during and after WW1 in the coal era so I suppose the principles are much the same except for the graft of shovelling the tons of fuel, but what an eye opener for the processes involved. I salute all you engine room sailors as it can't have been easy. Thanks for the video.
The amazing thing is that nuclear-powered vessels work exactly the same way. The only difference is how the heat is produced. Other than that, works exactly the same way.
That's probably why I was drafted straight from a wartime destroyer, admiralty 3 drums and turbines, to the latest SSN. (Caprice to Sovereign). Same engines, different kettle.
Not always. While most ships use pressurized water reactors, a few classes of subs use liquid metal cooled reactors, which have an intermediate step. The reactors heat liquid sodium, which passes through a heat exchanger to boil the water.
My Grandfather was a Chief Stoker on HMS MONTROSE (damaged at Dunkirk) during the war. Later he served on minesweepers until the war was over.
As a steam railway enthusiast I have never given a lot of thought to marine boilers, this was fascinating.
Try Drachifinel's development of the naval boiler. nearly an hour of steam geek-fun.
This brings back memories of the early 70's. We had 4 admiralty 3 drum boilers on Blake in two boiler rooms; very similar machinery layout to Belfast. It surprises me just how much I remember
The shakey blakey and tiger too. Former R M. Thumbs up oppo.
I spent an entire afternoon snuffling about Belfast in 1984, while the wife looked through Harrod's. I remember the herringbone gears and the reverse turbines particularly. It was a great day.
14:35 "...so we can get rid of our old friend, the TH-cam!"
LOL i was thinking the same thing
Been around longer than I thought.
youtube is an alloy.
the U-tube is necessary.
hahaha how many spotted that?
It was really an honor experience to be in steam battleship just to cut the the waves on pure steam and serve your country
Respect and credit for ww2 navies warriors
an interesting tidbit, maybe...a modern nuclear powered surface ship or submarine was started up in much the same way in regard to the steam...the nuke plant supplying the heat instead of an oil (or coal) flame. An exception being the superheat bit. There are still lube oil systems, and feed water and condensate systems and water chemistry still checked in much the same way. Very interesting film for me.
Actually no. The water in the reactor is kept under very high presure and doesn't boil. It's a secondary circuit of water that is transform into steam. No one want to work on a radioactive turbine. Also, all the propulsion is electric.
@@TheLaurentDupuis He never said anything at all about the primary or secondary coolent loops, and I'm not aware of any nuclear vessels currently using electric propulsion. I believe they all use steam turbines.
@@TonboIV & Laurent Dupuis I served as a 'stoker', the lads you saw in the film, on 2 Admiralty 3 Drum boiler ships, one a wartime destroyer (HMS Caprice) like the one featured. This was the early 70s. The routine shown is spot on if simplified. From Caprice, after retraining, I was drafted to the latest building nuclear Fleet (hunter/killer) boat. The turbines were the same engine as shown (as they are in power stations, my civvy job). The only change is the 'kettle' so to speak.
Nuclear boats are therefore steam driven. They do revert to diesel-electric drive if they lose the reactor, but this is a 'get you home' measure and very limited in range and speed (2or3 knots maybe). BUT, I do know the French, Chinese, and Americans have introduced turbo-electric drive submarines as a means of dispensing with the complex, and expensive direct drive reduction gearing. I hope this clears up the confusion.
@@TheLaurentDupuis the chief must still keep track on water chemistry and condenser performance. Hard to keep a vakuum in the condenser ? That indicates either leaking cooling water tube so you get salty sea water in the secondary water circuit. Salinity in the water ? Truble in the condenser
@@TheLaurentDupuis I'm sure they work on the turbines and all associated equipment, radioactive or not, likely in drydock and radiation suits for heavy jobs like being refurbished or refueled.
RAN. '70s. Gingerbeer, on main Throttle , #2 engine Room, ( DDG) Fwd and Rev main engines, warming through....whilst singled up ready to leave.
Got himself distracted, whilst bringing up some revs AHEAD, not sure how many he got to, but the ropes were singing, before someone noticed, either the Engineer himself, or????. I was in the Greenies workshop. Noticed/felt the revs coming on. Thought bugger, we've slipped and sailed, and hadn't even piped ''Specials". My specials was Main Board, all sorts of language, and gaiety going on, by the time I had bolted down there.
My Father fired boilers on USS Mertz DD691USN.Dad passed from lung cancer in Oct 1996 the effects of asbestos they claim families could get settlments... Our Mother got nada..It devastated us seeing Dad suffering the effects of lung cancer.Then my mother denied a solitary quarter from greedy lawyers or whoever got all of that money.Dad worked at the business he created just 5 months before his death,he was one of the hardest working men I ever saw&over 2 thousand people attended his funeral RIP Dad. I miss you.
Lawyers are often scummy
I was in the Navy in the early 60 . Then worked in boiler rooms for a few years, was luckie no health problems. The lawyers used to ask me to join a law suit against the asbestos companies, I always felt the lawers only wanted money, they did not care about our health.
Excellent video. Now in the Navy most ships don’t use boilers. They have engines like a jet engine. No warm up needed!!
Didn't know about slacking the uptake wires, neat.
A great time for the Royal Navy, we had more than one ship!
But one modern ship can do what ten wartime ships could do
I've always had trouble starting up my ww2 era destroyer. Thanks to this video, I've breathed new life into her!!!
The small steamer I was on, Admiralty 1 drum boilers, general electric steam turbine, was built post war and to fire up , all you did was , let the air in, light a torch, out the torch in the boiler and turn the fuel on , a few hours later, steam away at your hearts content 🙂
HMS Jovial sister ships HMS Jolly Good, HMS Good Show, HMS Three Cheers, HMS What's All This Now.
Le Peejon
The planned HMS Slap&Tickle was cancelled due to budget constraints.
Now it's HMS, oh, hang on a minute, we don't have any.
@@budsmoker60 Vote for higher taxes if you want more ships, ships cost money. Vote Tory if you want lower taxes so fewer ships. Not complicated. I've yet to find anyone who really wants more ships, but maybe you'll vote for higher taxes when you next get the chance.
@@ohgosh5892 Thanks for the pearls of wisdom.
the experimental HMS Oy! was cancelled after a break down in discipline
A larger version of the boilers used on Wickes and Clemson class destroyers of the United States. Of course, they used Yarrow or Thornycroft boilers (among others) which I believe were of British design. Very informative!
I distinctly remember watching this film in 1969 as a first year apprentice in Devonport Dockyard! It didn't mean much then and it means even less now !! Great days, great mates!
start em up chief. don’t know how many times Ive heard that. studied for this, but never implemented outside of small boilers. good way to display the principles.
This is what I come to youtube for. Thanks for putting this up David.
Terrific!!!!! This is something that I have always wanted to see how they did, thank you for posting this great bit of history!!!!!
We were still doing this on HMS Bulwark as late as 1981(ish). Taking the funnel covers of a steam carrier was an experience not forgotten easily.
I was a baby stoker on the Albion. Replacing/removing funnel covers on a carrier is an experience I wouldn't care to repeat! Cleaning the uptakes, naked with a hand brush and a paper bag wasn't particularly pleasant either.
@@michaelmulvaney1605 Why were you naked?
@@michaelmulvaney1605
Why were you naked inside the funnel?!?
@@bigredc222 Not completely naked. We wore plimsolls on our feet and a mutton cloth around our faces. The carbon got into and ruined everything, it was easier to dump it than clean it. So the losses were minimized. You also got to know your mates quite intimately in the showers later, there are some bits you just can't reach!
This was before the 'Elf and Safety days. Removing/replacing the funnel covers was fun. One leg in the funnel, one leg out, dragging the heavy canvas across the mouth of the stack, no lines, helmets etc. The juniors (i.e. me!) got the starboard side of the stack, some 80ft above the dock. Whoever was in charge got the port side. That was probably only about 20ft above the goofing deck. Scary. It was a different era. Thankfully, I only got to remove one once, and then replace it. The kind of job that was spread amongst the Junior Rates. Submarines were quite a relief, no smokestack.
Don't even get me started on the one '36 hour boiler clean at sea' I got copped for!
@@gregorymalchuk272 Hi, to save typing, please read my reply to C Smith.
i was a mm throttle man, aboard USS Chicago, this was cool to watch
I did exactly this on HMS Carron, D30 as a JM(E) 1961.
@jack tarr Oh God! You've stirred some memories. I've still got the tread pattern imprinted on my knees from nearly 50 years ago. I still make kye pusser's way, with grated dark chocolate, not the powdered rubbish they issued later on. I don't miss polishing brightwork in the forenoon half asleep from the middle. I went from Albion A3D to Caprice A3D to the latest SSN. Different technology, same routines. Tradition dies hard.
They changed little up to the 1980s with the exception of placement of super-heaters and using exclusively oil burners. 700 and 1400 pound steam plants with double redundancy at the very least. Cooling water for machinery was often adjusted by hand, nothing much automatic. Multiple operating boilers and rooms which one could service and power the other equipment in emergencies. Kitchen steam, engine steam (turbines), steam for generators, water purification,heating for compartments were all tapped off although some vessels did employ smaller boilers called 'donkey' boilers. No steam was wasted. Boiler tenders and boiler techs had the worst possible jobs. Hot, dirty, dangerous and thankless. All deserve kudos and a medal. Nuke vessels not included in the description although beyond the reactors they all operated very much the same.
I have worked aboard ships, seeing most forms of propulsion. The engine room of a steam ship is as close to hell as I ever hope to come.
yeah, I think hell has coal-powered steam boilers, lol. By that omission, Guess I had it easy on an oil power boiler ship (USS Camden AOE2), lol. The heat must be something you can tolerate, and I simply can not imagine breaking my back shoveling coal in the older boiler rooms.
Not everyone is tempered to the cold of arctic weather, nor are many to desert heat and engine rooms, and that isn't a bad thing either. It's just not for everyone.
I served my time in 'hell' operating SSTGs, I wouldn't want to have been anywhere else during that time. I can also sympathize with not everyone wanting to be in such a place.
EM3 Allen, retired.
I suspect a lot of the black gang are trying to become accustomed to what they expect in the next life. LOL
@@tomjeffersonwasright2288 'Hell' of a shock for all the others then, eh? ;-)
I was a royal navy stoker from the late 70's , first ship HMS Hermes...admiralty 3 drums...lots of memories...😊
I think I might need to see this a few more times before I'm ready to raise steam.
Interesting and complicated procedure that obviously takes training and competence to operate. Two questions for those that might know: 1. How is distilled water created for the boilers? 2. What supplies power to the ship when the boilers are not running?
Dale - See www.hmshood.com/ship/hoodspecs3.htm (this is for a battlecruiser rather than a destroyer, although the basics are the same). The water was distilled from sea water using a distillation plant on-board, usually located in the engine room. Auxilliary power would be provided by a diesel engine or a small reciprocating steam engine with its own boiler (rather than the turbine engines used for propulsion).
I see they had rapid promotion in those days, the subbie with the letter at the start was promoted from RNVR to RN before he got down the ladder 😄
I was an Engine Room Artificer until I was 30. Chief of the Watch on steam steam ships all the time. Best job in the navy!
Loved the job, but left to get married.
I work at a hospital that has Multi-fuel boiler the run on either natural gas or fuel oil amazing how some things havent changed in this amount of time
If you can make fire, you can make power.
My father was a second class petty officer on a Coast Guard Cutter in Groton Connecticut he was the senior boiler technician on board at the time it was the night the Andrea Doria was hit by the Stockholm. His job was to get the ship underway as soon as possible. Using emergency light off procedures and some ingenuity the ship left port. My dad had another man with him in the Boiler Room he kept saying Willie you're going to kill us all dad replied shut up and do your job.
mattmopar440 even Newcomen would understand how this boiler operates.
very nice intro-music for a naval vid-and the beautiful upper-class Intonations of the speaker are rather romantic too.
SAILED USNS ... one ship the USNS Dutton (ex- SS Tuskegee Victory, 1944) ... smoke you see is likely a donkey boiler used for domestic steam (heat, galley).
[Disclaimer: been a long time, but I did return to a steam plant as an operator after 30 years. It was a very rewarding 4 years.]
Superheated steam is hotter, but actually loses a few psi as it experiences "line loss" (friction), in the passing through the superheater.
No corrosion is correct, but it's also a matter of EROSION from particles of water in the "wet steam" that would IMPINGE on the turbine blades.
The turning gear is used to keep the rotor from bowing. The same is true of the 3 AHEAD/3 ASTERN done by the Chief.
MSCPAC late 70s thru 80s myself. Unrep oilers and ATF out of Subic mostly.
Thanks for the insights
Have you come across a Navy film called "A Class of His Own"? I believe that was the title. It included my late father CRS(S) Bill Cook on blackboard technique. The film was made in the early 60s (probably 1962), during the last weeks my father was in the Navy.
5 hours to raise steam from cold iron? That's quick!
Boiler water drums are also called mud drums.
After watching this, it's small wonder that diesel power caught on. Very cool video but wow....what a complicated and cumbersome process to get propulsion.
Here’s a fun fact...
One of the reasons nuclear propulsion didn’t work for commercial shipping is because the engineer officers on board (nuclear engineers) demanded more pay than the Captain. The thought of that always makes me smile.
@Charlie K Our yacht was tied up just in front of HMS Brave Borderer in Caen harbour in around 1964. 3 diesel turbines. They fired that thing up in about 10 or 15 minutes. There was an electric engine noise as the three exhaust covers on the stern were wound down. Then a few loud noises as 4 to 5 metre flames shot out the stern exhausts - think afterburners on a jet fighter. The exhausts were about 60cm diameter. It took a few minutes for things to stabilise and lines to be taken is. Then they departed slowly (wake restrictions).
The most important source of steam was missed out, the hundreds of gallons of cocoa required for the crew.
Never called "cocoa". Called Kia ( pronounced K - eye ). We drank tea in the main and called it Char which is the Anglicised version of the Chinese name for Tea. I ran these boilers on every steam ship I was on through to the 80's.
@@davidpratthk Ah, Jackspeak.
@@hoilst Gotta be in it to speak it! Now it's hard coded into my brain although I doubt i could still draw the closed feed system of the old Ark ( Got my BWC in 30 days ) or write up the flash up routine to turn engines on Hermes ( for my Unit ticket ). I have to be content being a Naval pedant.
@@davidpratthk i loved kia , full bar dark chocolate , 2lb sugar and 2 tins carnation milk mixed in a fanny and boiled up under steam drain , made it 100 times or more , I can still taste it today 55years on . frank lewis
@@franklewis5579 I remember my old man telling me about this stuff. According to him, the cup used to get smaller as more kia was used due the build up inside.
I call malarkey! When the captain opens that dispatch at the beginning it’s clearly rumpled, but the zoom in shows nary a crease
The one thing that they did not cover, something that is needful is the proper brewing of tea, a proper ship can not sail without tea.
@vibratingstring
I am just not properly steeped in the tradition of making a proper tea, thanks for the pointer. I shall have to get the tea ball out, although there are those that like the tea lose in the cup.
Orange Red Bull works well for a modern day alternative. Not traditional in any way but it works.
Oh the stories I could tell, stationary yet the little man I worked under thought he was a ships captain.
10:27- LOL We used to do a similar thing with apprentices in the motor trade! We drilled into them the dangers of naked flames and Petrol fumes but failed to mention how much more difficult 'Diesel' fuel was to ignite! I can still see their faces, when a lit match - having lit a cigarette - was tossed (seemingly off-hand) into a pool of Diesel fuel! LOL
i was a gunners mate on a us repair ship while at sea a friend who worked in the boiler told me come down in the hole and see what goes on down there, i could only take 15 mins of being down there, it must have been 200 Fahrenheit n that boiler room every one was soaked in sweat even the clothes.
Didn't realize it was quite this complex for the initial checks. Very cool. Thank you for uploading this.
Now you know why diesels took over in ships. More responsive, less labour intensive, more fuel efficient and takes up less space.
people have no idea how many others worked so hard for their freedom. now people say they deserve things for doing nothing.
So many people disregard the fact that civilisation was fought for and is not to be taken for granted. I cannot agree with you more.
Whilst I can understand why,after having fought 2 wars there was a feeling of "never again" and a huge lurch to the left,the socialists and commies have truly f*cked my country. England and it's 2 thousand year history is nothing more than pizza and burger fuelled shit hole. Seeing these poor sods working their socks off for the future we have now makes me gag.
Snowflakes ahoy!
@@seavee2000 What exactly have you done for your country except have a big moan ?
Define freedom.
Too bad they didn't mention temps and pressures; here is a tidbit for those that are curious, the boilers on my first ship, the U.S.S. Fanning (FF-1076) ran at 1275 psi and the superheated steam was 975 degrees. When both of the boilers were fired up the ship could attain 27 knots and that was going down hill!
My last ship had one main boiler and one auxiliary boiler. 60 bar superheat @510 deg C. Drum pressure of 64bar. A ULCC
I was on the USS Blakeley FF-1072, I remember this steam plant well. I was BTOW and Oil King.
Seems a little high. I remember about 750 degrees.
@@Mom_sBasement maybe you are remembering the de-superheat temp. I remember it like it was yesterday.
2:01 What does the circle around the period mean at the end of the first sentence?
This is fascinating. I learned a lot from this video.
Finally, I can get my destroyer going. I've been trying for years.
From an age when men knew what they were doing, and not afraid to get their hands dirty.
Now we're in an age with much better, much more knowledgeable, and much more enlightened engineers.
James Scholl
More knowledgeable, in that they have the advantage of prior knowledge, but from first hand experience, the current bunch are not at all better, and are certainly not as enlightened. More decadent, maybe.
@@mk14m0 Well obviously I can't deny what you've personally experienced but any comparison as to whose is better is completely retarded. Each used the tools of there trade as best they could. They are for sure more enlightened because they are part of a diverse, inclusive workforce and have access to many more perspectives than before- mostly due to the internet. They are definitely smarter- as the Flynn effect and their more complicated curriculum shows. The fact that they don't have to work with their hands or can't do some of the stuff that old engineers could do, doesn't mean anything. Each uses their own tools of the trade. I'm not sure what else defines "better" but these categories sure point to new engineers being better. And why wouldn't that be the case? Humans improve over time.
Tugs forelock
Still lots of young lad and lasses doing hard, dangerous jobs on board ship.
An interesting film, but the animation of the steam turbine was hopelessly wrong and gave no idea how it actually works. I guess the animator didn't have a clue either.
It was quite poor, but they might have been able to do only so much in the relatively early days of animation. No moving 3D. His quick verbal description was no to bad but the moving visual left much to be desired.
@@johnstudd4245 - I've seen animations from that period which show a side view of the steam passing through multiple sets of fixed and rotating turbine blades. It's wasn't beyond what they could do. I'd suggest that the animator didn't have the faintest idea about what the turbine looked like inside.
Wow, they had “U-Tube” back in 1942!!!!
Amazing simple but awesome. Had to be hell on earth for them down there
Much more complex than I would have expected. To be frank just thought they lit it and basically that’s it. Today they use jet engine without the fans. I am sure that with electronic the start procedure is basically a push of a button.
Not all warships use gas turbine. Some are still steam driven with either a boiler or reactor providing the heat. The overall process to start is still very similar to this. :)
@@605nkr it probably is mostly computer-controlled push button nowadays with gas turbines/nuclear reactors but the manual control is still taught/done to not be too reliant on technology. What if the Chief Engineer gets killed and you need to start/maintain power/maneuvering? Push button tech is good but cant be too department on that.
@@chrismc410 most of it is still manual. Though there is more automation being introduced. Reactor control systems have to be remote of course and there are automatic interlocks, but much is still manually done. Trust me, I know. At least four my class id shop anyway.
The point is any really big machine cannot be heated quickly because it has to heat evenly or it goes kaput (because some parts expand before others). Trying to go full steam ahead with a cold turbine would destory the turbine.
Keep studying these films, stick close to your desk, and never got to sea; and you all may be rulers of the Queen's Navee!
Men, Men, Men, it's a ship all filled with men,
So batten down the Ladies room, there's no one here but men
There's Men Above,
There's Men below,
There's Men down in the Galley, There's Butch,
and Spike,
and Buzz,
and Biff,
and one guy we call Sally, (and one guy we call Sally)
And it worked quite well!!!
I was a Machinist Mate 2 and worked in Main Engine Control #1 main engine on an Adams class guided missile destroyer. My favorite job was as the throttleman on #1 main engine. Our ship's engine rooms and boiler rooms were offset so as to minimize the damage to the propulsion equipment. Each engine room and boiler room were all seperate spaces and could be isolated in case of damage to any space.. I see that this British destroyer was not designed like that of the American destroyers. If you took a hit in either the boiler room or the engine room the chances of complete loss of propulsion was a high probability. I'm sure the modern destroyers are of an offset design now and the newer gas turbine engines are much easier to operate.
1942 the year my dad went into the Royal Navy.....
MM1 David Carruthers, 1275 PSI Steam, USS WHIPPLE , USS STODDERT, USS HULL, Babcox Boilers, Westinghouse 36,000 HP Turbines, Twin Pinion , Double Reduction Transmission Gear...... God I miss it, shift colors, underway.....
19:42- "I say Chief, won't it be glorious when all these film Johnnies have buzzed orf and we can go back to doing it all as we really do!" ;-)
Assume a confined space entry permit was signed at 2:30... 😆
That's what I was thinking too! LOTO might not apply but some sort of flag or something!
DEAD STEAM? No, no. Sleeping steam. OK
I love these films!!!
Notice the use of Fahrenheit instead of Celsius
mark ashford degrees Rankin! Which is the Imperial equivalent to the Kelvin.
If this is a J Class destroyer, this ship likely still exists as a wreck. All we see here is likely at the bottom of the ocean.
Yes, I saw that too.
Very sobering.
The thing that scared me most was the day they got it wrong on start up & the front plate started to bounce back & forth about 8 inches.
4:12. “Will deal with them later”. A sentence my father told to my mother when dealing with my brother and I.
40 knots and no smoke.....never did so much with so little....Sea Power for Peace! DDG 13, 71-75. We're rough....we're tough were hard to bluff, we'refuckers were fighters....were Tin Can Riders!!
custom 1 - DDG 18, 70-72. "Dare to Excel" ('An awesome engine of destruction.') We were just "haze- grey and underway" !
I had orders to WV Pratt in 73. Thanks to Neptune, my previous vessel had given me lower than whale poop Evans and the XO wouldn't take me on. I got new orders to a sub tender, only went to sea every 6 months for r&r in FT. Lauderdale!
Broke my heart!😂
Not that different from firing a Babcock and Wilcox M-Type 600 P.S.I. Superheated boiler on a U.S. Navy Gearing Class tincan.
I'll have to show my dad this and ask how it was similar. He was on the Goodrich, DD-831, a Gearing class, and worked in the engine room.
@@gresvig2507 DD-890 U.S.S. Meredith. After fireroom.
Not a bit different...
MM3 on DD-821 USS JOHNSTON, MC & AFT ER.
What a bunch of hot air!
Just playing! I had no idea how difficult and time consuming gathering stream was. Great video!
Don't get all steamed up about it ...
"Left hand down a bit....... steady as she goes. And tell Able Seaman Screamer the Captain said it's his turn in the barrel tonight".
Amazing stuff. Thanks for posting.
At 2:18 the detail to uncover the funnels enter a door at deck level and climb a ladder running up the inside. Why were they built like this? It seems overly complicated and dangerous compared to a simple ladder running up the outside. I'm clearly missing something, but what?
Paul Abraham . What you see from the outside is termed the funnel casing and can contain several separate flue pipes. There is already smoke issuing from the funnel top before the covers come off. They are probably already running an auxiliary or “donkey” boiler whose flue pipe is already uncovered. A ladder outside the funnel would certainly be simpler, but there is no danger inside and the funnel casing does provide protection from bad weather.
The other reason for an internal ladder is foul weather. Often an enemy will attack during storms or high winds. An external ladder would force the ship to wait, while the internal ladder permits crew to uncover the stack, or do other work on the stack no matter the conditions.
they cast the captain just for the beard
11:04 "If you were inside the boiler, here's what the _business_ end would look like."
Make sure to use a warming motor on the turbine so she warms evenly...
9:28 why does the entire works the Y pipe is attached to move when the sailor tightens the cap? Is it loosely mounted or is it a mach up for demonstration purposes?
Good eye. Probably loosened up
@Alexander Challis thanks!
When they want the ship to get ready to sail, they send a letter?!?!?!?!?
Many years ago. A letter carrier was far more secure than telegraph or radio broadcast in those days with the limited encryption available to them. Plus, the royal navy had a tough time giving up old habits....
If you are alongside it's a guaranteed way of getting orders distributed.
'Turbins' The accent that ate itself.
I wanted to see where the live stem stop wow was located.
I see you are a Steve McQueen fan.
I see why Britania rules the waves! Narration seems dated, but it's well worth watching.
11:34 The Original "U-Tube"
Amazing what you can learn on TH-cam
About the U-tube of the steam and boiler days.
@@wolfkremen - hahaha, good one.
TH-cam is a magical place. I discovered Mollie Tuttle and Tuba Skinny here. All sorts of other good stuff. I spent an evening watching bee keepers establish new hives. I keep going back to watch Andrew Camarata. I've spent hours watching sailing and boat building stuff. Every now and then I follow links and end up in some very weird places. That can be interesting too :-)
Yes it sure is . His another did you know that there are only two types of ship. submarines and target's. Diesel boat's of course the only submarine that actually had the ability to shut down completely.
09:01 No need for Name Calling, he’s probably a really nice guy.
lol very good!
Hahaha
HMS Jovial was third ship of the Jocularity class.