Inside the Propulsion Plant of the World's Fastest Battleship

In this episode we're going through a fire room and an engine room.
To become a member:
www.battleshipnewjersey.org/m...
To send Ryan a message on Facebook: / ryanszimanski
To support the battleship's efforts to drydock, go to:
63691.blackbaudhosting.com/63...
For the most recent updates to the drydock project, go to:
www.battleshipnewjersey.org/t...

[@disgruntledconservativevet1798]

Flash back! I was a Boiler Technician in the Navy (BT3). It was hot and dirty, and smelled like diesel. You were the first one on the ship, and the last one off the ship. 18 hour days was the norm while under way, and you prayed that there wasn’t GQ (General Quarters), man overboard drills, or anything else going on while your trying to get a few hours of sleep, if you even got any at all. 6 hours on watch, what we called 6&6 with a full work day in between watches was our underway schedule. A friend was an MM2 on this very ship. Being a hole Snipe was the hardest job on the ship. I retired as an MRC (Machinery Repairman Chief Petty Officer).

[@neilhoffman3051]

I had a good laugh when he talked about 4 hour shifts. If we were 4 and 8 we had a full workday as well. I was a hole snipe on the USS Midway for more than three year and we almost never went 4 and 8.

[@jimhmod]

@@neilhoffman3051 Yep, the 4:00am to 8:00am watch in the morning, then 8:00am to 4:00pm regular shift to perform maintenance, cleaning and such then the 4:00pm to 8:00pm watch. I remember not seeing daylight for several weeks just because I was too tired to go outside and went straight to my bunk at around 8:15pm to be awaken at 3:30 am. It does make for a hard man!! On a side note, while in the Long Beach shipyards, I painted all of the brasswork in the forward boiler room white because a thought we had much more important work to do than Never-Dull the brassworks. My four years was up shortly after the shipyards and I don't think anyone ever noticed the painted brass. BT-5 USS Towers DDG-9 1976-1980 Boiler inspector for 10 years after the Navy.

[@craigroberts757]

How about a video on the Evaporators. I was an evap specialist on board a Gearing class Destroyer and ran both in the engine rooms. As a Machinist Mate, I was qualified for all the engine room watches. I will be touring the Missouri in December. Your video gave me some good info. The Gearings had 4 600 lb Babcox-Wilcox boilers and two 30,000 Hp Westinghouse turbines. When we were completely lit off (all 4 boilers) we could do around 34 knots. Man was that hair-raising, to say the least. Those ships were a BT's dream. They only had the stream-powered Fuel pumps in the Boiler spaces. We had all the auxiliary equipment in the Engine Rooms DA, Feed, and booster pumps to maintain and operate on top of the lube-oil pumps for the Reduction gears. All that packed into small engineering spaces on a 390-foot vessel with a beam of 40 feet. We used to call it standing watch in 120, 120* heat at 120 dbl sound. It was deafening and our hearing suffered from it too. I've toured the Midway several times in San Diego. She's another 600 lb plant very similar.

[@stuarttaylor8738]

As a 21 year veteran...I actually volunteered for battleship duty! I served from 69 to 90 as a Machinery Repairman...one carrier and 4 tenders under my white hat! A while back there was an article on this channel about taking parts from decommissioned ships... I was stationed in Charlston...aboard the Sierra..which was a destroyer tender. I believe she was a little younger than the Museum ship Yorktown. We were in pre deployment mode... Suddenly..we needed to fix our burner barrels! There is a part made out of brass that wear out... I don't know how..or who thought of it...but the Yorktown had the same boilers! I was selected to go with a team to get the parts...and bring the aboard. We got them...and replicated the parts! Our foundry/pattern makers did an awesome job! When we got back...we returned the parts to Yorktown... MR 1 (SW) Stu Taylor

[@stephenbritton9297]

Marine engineers are the only people I know who will drink coffee in a 120 degree environment!

[@josephpadula2283]

We also put on a sweater if it gets down to 90 deg F!

[@henrycarlson7514]

@@josephpadula2283 Good humor , When I was aboard U.S.S. Hepburn we were on out way to Australia . Our Corpsman came down to the Fire room , The COLDEST place he could find was 155 Degrees . About 2 Weeks later we had to muster on the Helocopter deck . I went up and Imediatley went back and put on my peacoat ,gloves , Watch cap , I want back up . I was still cold . the humor . Us Bt's Were dressed for Cold the rest of the ship was dressed for hot , they were Sweating we were so COLD . It was 7 A.m. air temp was 84 we were at 24 kts . Thank You

[@oldtugs]

@@henrycarlson7514 The coolest area in a steamship engine room (except for modern ships with air conditioned control rooms) is the exhaust of the low pressure turbine. It is around 75 -80 degrees F.

[@henrycarlson7514]

@@oldtugs I was aboard U.S.S. Hepburn FF1055 Which had a seperate fire room and engine room , the area by the mn condenser was cold

[@scurvydigdog]

Or tea !

[@byronharano2391]

The coffee maker! Yes sir! In the video you can see a crew provided 48 quart coffee percolator in the background. Yes the MS or Cullanary Specialists power the Ship's crew. Coffee propels the ship! Lol....Press on our United States Navy 🇺🇸. Blessings Battleship New Jersey!

[@bret9741]

Having spent some time on the Wisconsin in 1988, 89… my heart just aches to see the emplty passageways, galleys, ……. I was on the Eisenhower usually on peer 1/2 2/3 with Wisconsin moored beside us. I became acquainted with a sailor on the Wisconsin and was invited onboard. The Eisenhower is a great ship, truly…. But I was blown away by how much the BB crews were deeply connected to their ship. It showed in ship cleanliness, high quality food and just an air of excitement and care for a ship with great history and beauty.

[@davelewis3255]

I recall being told that bunker C fuel oil also had the highest BTU content per pound and therefore gave the best economy of the fuel types available at the time. I served as a machinists mate on board the Newport News (Salem class 8" gun cruiser) and the video was a trip 50 years back in time. I spent many hours standing in front of the throttle wheels and learned how to simultaneously spin the ahead throttle closed and the astern wheel open. That might have cut 5 or 10 feet off our stopping distance. Ryan makes a good point about how hot the engineering spaces were. We worked in dungaree pants and t shirts with plenty of exposed skin to collect sometimes serious burns. Nobody knew how to spell PPE back in those days. We drank as much water as we could stand and took handfuls of salt pills. No wonder we all have high blood pressure now. 50 years later I can still remember the smell of the bunker oil, the heat and humidity, the noise (good for a VA tinnitus disability claim) and the pride we felt in doing an extremely difficult job extremely well. Snipes are a rare breed.

[@klsc8510]

That is part of the reason I joined the Air Force. Being a farm kid, I liked the vast open areas of an Air Force Base compared to the TIGHT quarters of a ship.

[@byronharano2391]

Wow! Thanks shipmate for your report. I enlisted as a BT - boiler tech. However, in boot camp I received orders as an ADAA or Aviation Machinist Airmen Apprentice - E2. I escaped the pressures of this engine room environment to one of the aircraft carrier flightdeck and land-based air operations as a low ranked Enlistedman. Thank you for your service Shipmate and Shellback.

[@byronharano2391]

​@@klsc8510Were you ever stationed at Hickam Air Force Base Hawai'i? I am from da Aina. Thank you for your time in service.

[@klsc8510]

@@byronharano2391 I was never that lucky! In the Air Force I was at Lackland AFB, TX, Keesler AFB, MS, Griffiss AFB, NY, Grissom AFB, IN, Preum AS, West Germany, Ellsworth AFB, SD. I had TDYs to Barksdale AFB, LA, Sembach AB West Germany, and Saudi Arabia. In the MI Army National Guard, Kalamazoo, MI, Adderbury, IN, FT Riley, KS, Kuwait, Iraq. You are most welcome. It was an honor to serve back then.

[@byronharano2391]

@@klsc8510 When were you in Kuwait and at what base? Depending upon the year and base we might have crossed paths in 🇰🇼 Kuwait. I was there from 1993 to 2004. Again from 2009 thru 2015. Too bad you never did get assigned to Hawai'i.

[@dirttdude]

Somebody has been doing an amazing job chiping, sand blasting, degreasing, cleaning, vacuuming masking and painting and polishing. They should be very proud, I take my hat off to these mystery people and thank them for giving that boat so much obvious love and care.

[@user-eo3pd9fq3n]

Brings back a lot of memories of my BT days on Mahan and Bchanan

[@ZGryphon]

The paper mill where my father worked as an engineer when I was a kid also burned Bunker C in B&W boilers, which probably explains why most of the guys who worked in the mill's steam plant back then were Navy vets. Also, fun fact: it's called bunker oil because in the earliest oil-fired ships, which were converted from coal-burners, it was stored in what had been the coal bunkers.

[@davidjackson8969]

Interesting about the name of Bunker oil. I'd always wondered.

[@rolandtamaccio3285]

,,, I always wondered also, but thought is was very low quality / refinement .

[@ZGryphon]

@@rolandtamaccio3285 Oh, it is definitely that--it's practically tar. The "coal bunkers" thing is just where the name comes from.

[@billhunsinger862]

Oil fired electric generating plants on land also referred the oil as Buncker C. It had to be steam heated in the tanks to pump it into the "power house".

[@lloydevans2900]

Paper mills often run what they call "recovery boilers" to generate the power needed to run the mill itself, though they can sell surplus power to the grid if they want to. The primary fuel for these boilers is what is known in the paper industry as "black liquor". This is a byproduct of the wood digestion and pulping process - the cellulose fibres from the wood are what become the paper, but wood contains more than that: The lignin and other resinous parts of the wood are digested by the alkaline cooking process and are separated out into soapy, oily concoction - this is the "black liquor", though the colour can vary from yellow, through red, brown or black depending on the type of wood processed. Before the 1930s, most paper mills just dumped the black liquor into wastewater, which was not a great practice because it is caustic and toxic. Recovery boilers were developed to actually use it as fuel, which turned it from a waste product into a valuable energy source. There are two reason why a mill would co-fire the black liquor with Bunker C oil: Primarily because some types of wood don't generate as much black liquor as others, so there isn't always enough to generate all the energy requirements for the mill, meaning they need to burn additional fuel for that. But also, in some places the government will provide subsidies for factories or power plants which supplement their energy requirements with biofuels - and since black liquor is classed as a biofuel, paper mills can claim this type of subsidy if they burn a combination of a fossil fuel (which Bunker C oil obviously is) and a biofuel in their boilers.

[@zackakai5173]

1:02 - As someone with both an interest in 20th century naval history and experience acting/performing, it's been really cool watching Ryan get noticeably more comfortable speaking on camera over the past few years.

[@patrickrudiger6049]

remember in the beginning when we knew he'd far

[@J.Knox46]

I was just thinking that.. I would always laugh alittle when the video would start with a uncomfortable moment of silence and Ryan's "deer in the headlight" stare... Sure has come a long way sir. Keep up the great content!!

[@pruittiii]

As someone late to Battleship New Jersey, kudos to how Ryan and Libby have advanced in the videos and virtual visits to the ship. I am anxiously following the drydocking plan... and saving my nickels, dimes, and pennies for a tour with Ryan. This history major has loved battleships since childhood when his parents carried him to the Battleships North Carolina and Alabama.

[@phillip3330]

It's been really cool watching Ryan get noticeably more comfortable speaking on camera over the past few years. No need to qualify your experience level or knowledge of the subject when stating an opinion in a youtube comment. Especially when that experience and knowledge has little relevance to the opinion. This just screams "pleeease acknowledge me"... Noone on the internet give a crap.

[@robertross7666]

It's been really cool watching Ryan get noticeably more comfortable speaking on camera over the past few years. No need to qualify your experience level or knowledge of the subject when stating an opinion in a youtube comment. Especially when that experience and knowledge has little relevance to the opinion.

[@jamesbrownson6102]

Excellent tour. One point you missed was that the reverse was often used when the ship was stopped to create a lee. When backing out from a pier, we used the outboard shaft back slow to move some water between the ship and the pier. Also, when working with small boats in open ocean, we would back the shaft on the side of the boat to create some calm water so it would be easier for the gig to approach the ship.

[@cruisinguy6024]

I’m not understanding the second part of your comment about working with small boats. Are you saying that when underway you’d reverse an outboard shaft to create calm water? I’m by no means a sailor but it seems like that would create more turbulent water.

[@jamesbrownson6102]

On USS IOWA, we had a procedure to receive a small boat in open ocean (such as at Diego Garcia). First, take a heading to put the wind on the starboard beam -- this creates a lee on the port side. Steam at 2-3 kts to get enough water flow on the rudder to hold a steady heading. Back the port shaft dead slow (with the other three shafts at slow ahead). This creates flat calm water on the port side and allows us to receive a boat when there might be a swell in the sea. These were important boats because they often contained mail from home. @@cruisinguy6024

[@SeanBZA]

@@cruisinguy6024 You are pumping water to the side of the ship, to counteract the forward motion, so the boat comes into what is essentially calm water. The ship would always have some slow forward motion, so that the rudders have control authority, and the ship will not be rocking off beam, so pumping water forward to make a still pool near the midpoint will make transferring and mooring easier, as you are no longer needing heavy lines and bollards to apply pull to the smaller vessel.

[@tomnewham1269]

@@cruisinguy6024At sea small ships would pull in alongside an Iowa class battleship to either offload supplies to the battleship or to top up their own fuel supplies. Iowa’s carried a lot of fuel so were often used to supply fuel to other ships. This is all done in open waters and the ships don’t stop while doing this. Hence the comment about turning the propeller backwards on that side of the ship to reduce wake alongside the battleship so as to make it easier for the small ship to stay on course.

[@cruisinguy6024]

@@tomnewham1269 I appreciate your response. I've seen lots of videos of UNREP from supply ships in open seas and it always seems as if the ships are moving at a good clip. When a shaft is put in reverse to create a smooth patch for a smaller vessel to come alongside what's the forward speed of the ship typically when this happens?

[@truthsayers8725]

my dad was a BT3 (51-55 total service years) and ran #1 fire room on a DE and an APD. they didnt have a coffee pot in the space because there was nowhere to go to the head. they had no Broadway. he would have to go up on the weather deck (01 level?) from berthing or mess deck and then back down into the fire room. the 16' ladder for entry and exit would be so hot they wore gloves when using it. he sailed from Norfolk/Little Creek to Cuba and P.R. mostly with one Med Cruise in 54. they didnt have control for adding feed water. he had a water tender on a half-level at the top of the boiler (one per fire room) who watched the water levels and added new water as needed. he just turned 93, 10 October, and im so proud of what he did. Thank you Ryan for the new upgraded video of his work space and job.

[@billpaine6241]

M-type boilers are also known as controlled superheat boilers, because the superheating process has separate burners and can thus be fine tuned independently of primary steam generation. On smaller ships, where space and weight are at a premium, you’ll find D-type boilers, aka uncontrolled superheat boilers, which didn’t have separate burners for the superheating process. The late 60’s/early 70’s design of the Knox-class DE/FF I served in had two 1200 psi D-type boilers driving a single engine/shaft. Automatic boiler controls vastly reduced the workload for the BTs-the older 600 psi M-types were all manually controlled, and took a lot of work to operate.

[@noclass2gun342]

Sub tenders have 600 pound D types... i was stationed on the cable 08-10

[@FightUni09]

Great info. I didn't notice the sootblowers. Do you remember if they were manually operated or some type of motor or air motor? Also, were the force draft fans stream driven at power? My first ship had sinuous sectional headers with straight tubes. No economizer but a Lungstrom air preheater. USNS Barrett Class.

[@billpaine6241]

@@FightUni09 I don't know how it worked on the Iowas, but on my frigate we used steam to blow tubes. The sootblower pipes were rotated manually using a chain drive, as I remember. Our forced draft blowers were also steam driven.

[@theemporersnewclothes]

As a veteran who fied boilers besides the coffee pot the fire fighting equipment was paramount 🔥🔥

[@Srinathji_Das]

Super thanks to all who make this beautiful museum and YT channel happen! 🙏❤️

[@dennisyardn1ten238]

I am very impressed by the cleanliness of the spaces shown. Some volunteer, I suspect, must be assigned to dust and sweep regularly along the tour route.

[@louispatino7964]

You know it a yeoman!

[@wallyschmidt4063]

Not being used as an active ship, so no oil, fuel, grease and other stuff for people to drag around on their boots. Today we have air cleaners/air filters/hepa filters to help clean the air.

[@sebastianthehotsaucedude5473]

I always wondered why they didn't use direct engine power as a kid, but now realizing you can get quadruple the power of oil by using steam is fascinating to me.

[@stephenbritton9297]

Marine diesel technology was not capable of producing this kind of power back then. Today, you can get low speed marine diesels up to 100,000hp or more. and since they are low speed, there is no red gear, they are direct drive, which saves weight (not that the engine is light, but you don't then have the EXTRA weight of the reduction gear) and cost (initial and maintenance). But you are correct, at the time, this complicated steam power system produced the most power for its weight and operating cost.

[@ZGryphon]

@@stephenbritton9297 Another significant advantage of modern marine diesels: they don't have steam's nasty habit of barbecuing the crew when the engine room takes even a relatively minor hit, a recurring theme (as Ryan alluded to here) that is easily the most harrowing part of any book about, say, the naval battles off Guadalcanal.

[@sunlifekm41]

Some other things to consider. If you have one power plant and it goes offline you are done. This setup provides redundancy and the small compartments to help with water control if they get hit.

[@davecaron1213]

@@ZGryphon One of my father’s cousins was in an engine room on the carrier Wasp when she took a Japanese armor piercing bomb through the flight deck, the hanger deck , where it exploded in his engine room. Only he and two other guys survived the blast, although it would lead to his early death years later. I won’t go into the details he told us about what it was like going back in there to clean out the damage and remove the casualties.

[@oligoprimer]

How much (if any) can you adjust the ship’s speed by tweaking the air and fuel flow before you have to swap out the burner nozzles? And when the navy switched from bunker C to diesel, did the burner nozzles change to account for the change in viscosity and BTUs?

[@WestcoastAudiGuy]

Our boy is getting good at explaining and talking confidently these days. Love to see it. Awesome tour.

[@kurtstovall1]

My Father was a 22 yr tin can sailor and after seeing this I wish i would have listened to his stories a little better.

[@mrkeiths48]

One of the best videos to date. I had some basic ideas on how the steam cycle worked, but now that is more clear. After serving as an EM on a sub in the engineering spaces, it's great to get a contrasting view of a mighty battleship. 35 knots! That's cooking! Throwing in those old clips of actual operations was icing on the cake. Thanks!

[@bruceenglar6874]

Ryan has become quite a skilled instructor. It helps that he seems to really, REALLY like his work.

[@roderickcampbell2105]

@@bruceenglar6874 Ryan has become one with the New Jersey.

[@kl0wnkiller912]

This is the way..@@roderickcampbell2105

[@lawrenceleverton7426]

You probably were an Electrical Operator or Throttleman in your day. Those Motor Generators or Turbine Generators probably jumped abit if you shut a breaker out of phase. At least you had ac in the Box. But had an EOOW watching your every move.

[@dennisfariello4852]

The ventilation blowers are NOT the Forced Draft Blowers. The forced draft blowers are what force air into and through the boilers - they provide the combustion air.

[@bigjonseattle]

I'm glad you explained that so I didn't have to. 😅 The forced draft blowers are a major piece of equipment, some of them rotating at 10,000+ rpm. And always a pain in the butt for the vibration analysis (predictive maintenance) guy to test.

[@ytlas3]

And their secondary purpose is to cool the boiler casings. The Jersey has horizontal style FDBs and they're located "behind" the boiler. Have to take the catwalk behind the steam drum to see them

[@melarndt6443]

​@@bigjonseattle0:16

[@Chopski64]

It's amazing they can put something so complicated together in the period of time they did. The engineering alone must of been a huge undertaking.

[@droppedpasta]

This was really fun to see. I was a nuc mechanic on the Nimitz, so it’s really neat to see how little steam propulsion has changed. The Main Feed Pumps especially are nearly identical lol

[@lawrenceleverton7426]

Nuclear Machinists Mate. Cool. So was I. God Bless our Troops.

[@matdyke5046]

I was RP01 on the Truman

[@dancooper1963]

i was on the Nimitz a long time ago also. Mostly one MMR

[@droppedpasta]

@@dancooper1963 Nice! I was back in 2 RAR, mostly Feed Control

[@dancooper1963]

i was late 80's time frame@@droppedpasta

[@ytlas3]

Non condensable gasses are purged through the main air ejector. The DA tank main duty is to store and heat feed water. Also you said the feed water got up to 800 degrees in the steam drum. The water is turned into saturated steam in the steam drum, approx 495 degrees. Then the saturated steam goes to the superheater where it comes out at 840-850. Principles of Naval Engineering (NAVSEA) Page 348 "In modern shipboard steam plants, air ejectors are used to remove air and other noncondensable gasses from the condenser" Been a long time since I was on the Jersey or Missouri, but you can usually find the main air ejector forward of the HP/LP Turbines.

[@PanzerWeeb3305]

Another (likely) engineer. Hello, friend. He also said the propellers are spinning at approximately 200 rpm. As a merchant sailor, I'm sure the props on New Jersey spin faster than a cargo ship's (around 70-80 rpm at full speed). I highly doubt, however, that they're spinning at 200 rpm. Its probably closer to 120-130 at full sea speed. Edit: It would appear that I was wrong. I did not realize that naval propellers are smaller diameters. This allows them to spin much faster. Thanks for correcting me.

[@ahseaton8353]

An Iowa is going 3 or 4 times faster than a Liberty or even a turbine powered Victory ship. Then again, a submarine sonarman could probably hear an Iowa at full steam half an ocean away.

[@whirledpeaz5758]

​@@PanzerWeeb3305I served on Ike(Nimitz class) max turns was 169 rpm.

[@josephpadula2283]

No he is correct this time ! Navy ships shafts turn faster than merchant ships due to smaller size of propellers so 200 is real From internet .Before her Vietnam deployment the New Jersey obtained 35.2 knots at 207 RPM during machinery trials. There is no mention of what was the SHP or the displacement on that day. In 1985 the Iowa slightly exceeded 32 knots at 205 RPM. There is no mention of what was the SHP or the displacement on that day.

[@PanzerWeeb3305]

@@whirledpeaz5758 Thanks for correcting me.

[@bobuncle8704]

Thanks for this tour Ryan. It’s mind boggling the work that went into building all this. Those reduction gears alone are just spectacular. A functional piece of metal machining art.

[@tonydoggett7627]

I once went on a engineering tour of the HMAS Brisbane, a Charles F Adams class destroyer during it’s last refit in 90’s. The gearbox was sealed and had to be serviced only in the USA, and returned to the USA at the end of the ships life. 2/3rds of the oil burners were never used. I guess the ultimate top speed was never needed.

[@natelax1367]

​@@tonydoggett7627I wish there were more videos of the torture testing the Navy ships go through before entering service. They really push them to their limits

[@tonydoggett7627]

@@natelax1367 at the time of the tour, I was told the top speed was classified. The HMAS Brisbane was the last steam turbine ship in service for Australia.

[@FOH3663]

​@@natelax1367 Commissioning

[@lawrenceleverton7426]

That's probably because the Gearbox or reduction gears was only leased to Australia. It was owned by the manufacturer. @@tonydoggett7627

[@SomeRandomHuman717]

This is a good idea for videos. Revisit the first batch that were done, cover the same topics, but with a more polished presentation and with the opportunity to clarify/correct any areas of error or confusion that people may have had with the first videos.

[@airplanes42]

Regarding the periscopes to monitor the stack exhausts, there was also a watch stander on the back of the superstructure that monitored the stacks and reported below. I'm amazed at how clean thise spaces are.

[@kevincrosby1760]

A dirty engineering space is an accident or a fire waiting to happen...both together on a bad day.

[@lawrenceleverton7426]

Sound Powered Phone Booths. Go in as a nub, come out as qualified. There are 13 steps in communicating with a sound powered phone. And saying hello isn't one of them.

[@kevincrosby1760]

@@lawrenceleverton7426 ...and 50+ ways that Deck Dept can mange to break a headset. Somehow, they can even manage to break a handset...

[@jeremygalaspy7795]

If it wasn’t for those early videos I would have likely never visited the ship! New Jersey had to be my first museum ship despite being closer to Yorktown, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

[@BattleshipSailorBB63]

Yes!!! Excellent video, thank you. I spent 2 1/2 years in Missouri Engineroom #4, and my eyes were darting back and forth, recognizing equipment from my days of old as you traveled through. 33 Knots was her "classified" top speed; what the Public was allowed to see. Yes, they go faster...how much faster is info I'm not privy to. It was kinda comical though, we'd be pulling back into port at Long Beach, and Civilian boats would come out to meet us and escort the ship in. Just regular people in their private boats, having a good time. We'd be loafing along at 8-10 Knots or so, slowing down for Port entry many miles ahead of time, and still the Civy boats would struggle to merely match our speed heh. Also, we always kept brooms handy, not just for cleaning purposes. If the steam pipes got a pinhole leak, you found the leak by waving the broom handle in front of you. The 600PSI steam has SO much energy, it would supposedly lop off the end of the broom handle like a laser. Happy I never got to test that theory out.

[@TheCrashley1772]

It would cut the broomstick and burn it at the same time... Better than waving your arm, which could be cut off and carterized instantly.

[@vonstolzhaus]

My Brother was a BT and DC on the USS GUAM and can confirm that is how they found high pressure steam leaks using broom sticks.. And yes the steam sliced through the broomsticks like a laser.

[@barracuda7018]

The most advanced heavy battleships ever produced..57.000 tons with 35 knots...Unbelieveable performance ....

[@wallyschmidt4063]

Calm seas, wind in the right direction right. Or were they cheating. Going over certain parameter's, increasing HP turbine pressure, increasing superheat temperature, going beyond max steam flow and pressure. All these things could increase the speed of a ship. There is a reason manufacturers put a limit on things, on naval ships these are the limits. It has to do with materials and when they fail. Your max factors take into account certain limitations that should make the ship run for a long time (Wear and Tear on machinery). This could be from 85 to 95 % of the real limitations. So the 5-15% that is knocked off, is there to make sure the ship will last a long time. The thing is at 33 knots, chances are that is only 90 % of what the real limit is. The limiting factor is the hull design (and speed vs power cubed). Going balls to the wall and blowing steam leaks in lines, lifting safeties, making metal glow red, is actually asking for shit to happen, and this ship was designed in the late 1930s. At this point in time America had over 30 years of experience with battleships. The most advanced heavy battleships ever produced-- maybe. The test, do what the allies did to the Bismark and Yamato and Yamato sister ship, if an Iowa floats away, you win. Although I think the Iowa original fire control computer was very good. And the best material that could be bought.

[@davidlambert3892]

It's amazing how much equipment is packed into every little space! And back then everything was manually designed because there were no computers.

[@FightUni09]

Bravo Zulu on the tour! I have given over 100 engine room tours aboard the nuclear Ship Savannah over a 7 year period and hoped to have done as well as you did here. I'm a marine engineer who went shoreside nuclear power plants. Steam is an art. Oh, I'm impressed on how clean your bilges are.

[@jamesbuttleman3130]

Your tour brought back warm memories for me. As a Navy vet spending my active duty onboard the U.S.S. Barry D D 933 in the forward fireroom. The ship had two firerooms and two enginerooms,the foreward fireroom served the forward engineroom and the port screw. B&W 1200 lb. 875 deg. superheated sream,two boilers in each fireroom. The main forced draft blowers were 1200lb. steam driven,controlled by a throttle wheel overhead. The N.S.F.O. used for fuel had to be heated and filtered prior to squirting it out the nozzle tips. I remember well being onboard the mighty Barry durring the Cubin Missile Crisis,we were there. Thanks for bringing back so great memories. R.I.P. Barry DD 933 Aka Silver Ace. J.B. BT2

[@ndoyle01]

I would love to see a video that would break down everything in a combat engagement. From orders to target acquisition, to plotting, setting course, speed and direction, all the way down to training the guns firing and verifying hits or bracketing.

[@ahole5388]

yeah great idea

[@JustinHEMI05]

I was a machinists mate on a 688i class submarine. When I toured Missouri's engineroom, I was surprised just how similar it was. After a few minutes of familiarization, I was confident I could start it up so long as someone fired the boilers.

[@JustinHEMI05]

@@davidogborn47 I specifically said 688i class submarine, which makes your comment ignorant.

[@stephenwalls9277]

Now now ladies 🤣🤣

[@dannywilliamson3340]

@@JustinHEMI05 He's probably a 747 captain too. After step-mom serves PopTarts, anyway.

[@FightUni09]

@@davidogborn47little known secret... Nuclear is a steamer.

[@largesleepermadness6648]

688 boats have the same basic engine room machinery, just different way of making steam (reactor/boiler). I served on FFs all the way to the Nimitz class carriers and machinery is basically the same on a nuke versus a conventional plant.

[@werewolfsaves2179]

I absolutely agree with Ryan. The coffee pot is the most important part of equipment.

[@haljames624]

Thank you for the moving video.

[@glennac]

Yes Ryan❣️ More like this. Would like more deep dives into: 1) Ship design and construction 2) How extensive and affective the armor is 3) The extent of the armored citadel in the ship 4) How turret design changed over the decades

[@charlesfile4059]

Read Janes. It has a lot of Military History.

[@gilbertnadeau7181]

Mr. Curator, the boiler feed water pumps get water from the condensate booster pumps, the condensate booster pumps get water from the DA Tank, the DA tank gets water from the main and SSTG condenser condensate pumps.

[@F-Man]

Ahh - videos like this really get my motor running.

[@zoopercoolguy]

Love these technical focused videos! Thanks!

[@devobronc]

Great to see you, Ryan. You have MANY supporters.

[@rodpettet2819]

A really good update Ryan. I'm also very impressed with the degree of refurbishment of these spaces. It looks as if the ship had only just been delivered! Well done all.

[@aaroncosier735]

Is it possible the US Navy has a "reserve readiness" concept in place? There are many roles an older ship might still serve, and probably a regiment's worth of former sailors who know her inside and out, every bolt. Having such a ship in good shape might mean it could be requisitioned and deployed for coast guard or merchant navy protection, or support roles, freeing modern ships and crews for critical roles? Let's hope we never need to know.

[@andersgrassman6583]

@@aaroncosier735 Doubt it works that way though. Assuming everything actually works, just training a crew to operate the ship isn't something you pull off in anything but a couple of years, is my guess. Put me in one of those engine rooms, and I think you would be lucky for me not to be exploding things!😅

[@aaroncosier735]

@@andersgrassman6583 Yeah, you're probably right. Just a fancy.

[@andersgrassman6583]

@@aaroncosier735 Though I know of at least one instance, where an insane caliber Swedish battleship canon was repurposed in a Swedish coastal defence fortress as late as the 1980’s. So things can sometimes be put into use decades after their inital intended servicelife. If I remember correctly, the caliber was somethimg like 400mm.😅 It ought to put a hole into just about any Russian ship? But of course it wasn’t any sort of primary armement. It felt more like an extra fun antique at disposal in the fortress arsenal. (Which was modern, considerable and very varied. Not to be messed with. And as so often in Sweden, situated deep into the Granite rockbed, so not easy to fight even if you know the exact location. Organizimg Swedish navy and coastal defense is a lot easier than what the USA needs. We only have one enemy - Russia. And we know the geography in detail. Have a nice weekend!

[@jameshealy4594]

@@andersgrassman6583 400mm is basically 15.75", that would be an extremely heavy gun to mount on land even in the largest of fortresses. Unless I'm missing something, surely it was primary armament for whatever it came out of!

[@aland7236]

28:16 It's about as clear as Bunker C! 👍 I remember asking my Grandpa when I was a kid what sort of fuel these ships used. What I couldn't understand was why he kept telling me where the fuel was kept and why he wouldn't answer my question about the type of fuel used.

[@SeanBZA]

Bunker C is basically road tar, just without the gravel.

[@oldtugs]

@@SeanBZA No, it is not.

[@SeanBZA]

@@oldtugs Here in hot climates it is pretty close, in that the refinery has a choice to make on doing ship fuel, or doing bitumen for roads.

[@zlm001]

This video provided supremely better context and layout than your older videos. This was still worth watching. You really get a sense (as much as you can on video) of his massive this was, especially when you multiply it by four. This really demonstrates clearly how this is set up in one continuous video. Thanks.

[@ericbowen650]

Hi, Ryan. Pretty good walk-through, but you've still got a few things to bone up on before you sit for your EOOW exam. For one thing, that blue line dropping down from under the DFT is actually water going OUT of the DFT to the feed booster pumps, which are designed to run cavitating to provide net positive suction head to the main feed pumps, which will NOT run cavitating. In merchant ships with plenty of space the DFT is elevated some forty to fifty feet above the feed pumps rendering the feed booster pumps unnecessary, but obviously that's impractical on a battleship. Water coming into the DFT is pumped by the main and auxiliary condensate pumps which take suction out of the condensers and send the condensate back into the system. Also, you got the throttles exactly backward in the engine room. The throttle wheels are, first and foremost, valves...righty tighty, lefty loosey. So you turn the ahead throttle wheel counterclockwise to open the nozzle valves and accelerate, and clockwise to shut the throttles and slow down. Also, the astern turbine is actually a separate turbine, but placed on the same shaft as the low pressure turbine blades. The steam doesn't "flow backward" through the turbine; rather, the astern throttle is opened to admit steam to the astern elements placed on the forward and aft end of the low pressure turbine rotor, and that develops the power to spin the shaft in reverse. The two large steam lines coming into the low pressure turbine from the overhead are the astern steam lines, while the large pipe coming from the high pressure turbine to the low pressure turbine is the crossover. And the steam going into the condenser is not at "zero psi" (or, at least, it better not be!); it's at well below atmospheric pressure. To squeeze every possible horsepower out of the steam flow, the steam keeps expanding all the way (and increasing in volume tremendously) all the way down to the condenser pressure of about 29" of mercury below atmospheric. Fun Fact: At full power the high pressure turbine expands steam from 600 psig down to about 55 psig, while the low pressure turbine continues the expansion from 55 psig down to 29" vacuum, or about negative 14 psig. But (at full power) the low pressure turbine develops more horsepower than the HP turbine, due to the tremendous expansion in volume as the steam drops below atmospheric pressure. Look up and study a "Mollier Diagram" for the straight skinny. Otherwise, pretty good job; you're getting there!

[@FightUni09]

I caught that too about the DFT. But the condensate usually passes through the steam jet air ejectors and first stage heaters before entering the DFT which is a direct contact heater with auxiliary exhaust heating. There would be a small vent on the DFT blowing steam and whatever non-condensibles it could drag out to the outside atmosphere. I gave him a pass on the engine controls because he never actually ran them. I'd bet that the astern turbines are velocity compounded impulse stages (maybe 2 stage?). Wondering if there is a lube oil gravity tank with a bullseye to the gears?

[@lawrenceleverton7426]

They probably used Curtis Staging as the Astern Turbine. Much more durable in case of water droplets in the steam. "Mollier Diagrams" brought back memories of things you knew and forgot from 30 years ago. All I remember was it was a hot hot hot place to work. And not many peeps strolled by to say hi.

[@ericbowen650]

@@FightUni09 Correct about condensate to the DFT; I was simplifying. On the Missouri, IIRC, the astern elements (pair) were single-stage velocity compounded Curtis stages with three rows of moving blades. And no gravity lube oil tank on an Iowa-class.

[@cameronsienkiewicz6364]

Just thought I’d throw a little confidence booster your way ry.. you are WAAAAAAAAY more confident and comfortable filming these days .. in the clip you played, you weren’t able to look at the camera, you were stumbling on your words a little bit.. you’ve come a long way brother, be proud of yourself 😄❤️

[@willpugh8865]

People are incredible , they figured all this out and built it from paper and slide rules. The amount of people industry and material involved in just making the individual systems pipes bulk heads armor etc etc etc is impossible to picture for me absolutely astounding

[@klsc8510]

The same type of computing built many things including the SR-71 and all of Apollo.

[@tomhenry897]

There are videos of large rooms full of desks and that’s all what the people do Guys did 30 years at that desk just doing calculations

[@eddieb1323]

This was a very enjoyable and informative tour. Would love to see a remake of "Climbing 7 Levels of the Battleship's Conning Tower" in particular the top level of the armored conning tower because of the poor audio quality of the original tour. Thank you and Libby for all the fantastic content you guys produce !!!

[@patrickcreighton5109]

Amazing! My big brother was an engineer on an LST and loved his job. In later life at one time or another he took care of the rest of us and visa versa. RIP Wayne. You did good.

[@spudhut2246]

amazing tour, I felt like I was qualifying for the watch station! Nice work, thank you

[@thetr00per30]

Pointing out the worn-down steel floor from the men's boots in the engine room was really something. It's amazing how the little things like that and the coffee machine really hits home and makes it real for us that were not there.

[@marumiyuhime]

coffee is standard issue in the navy it was built into the ship LOL

[@ronsamborski6230]

@@marumiyuhime When I was in the Navy, people who didn’t drink coffee were always suspected of something! ☕️🇺🇸⚓️

[@marumiyuhime]

@@ronsamborski6230 same for marines. I was a steward for a marine Lt colonel. i still remember how he liked his coffee. Black with 2 creams and 1 sugar on the side. its been 20 years.

[@lawrenceleverton7426]

That coffee machine didn't even have a pot of coffee ready. Where is the coffee pot? You had the machine but missing the pot.

[@lawrenceleverton7426]

Also be careful who gets you a cup. I once asked for a cup while in a lower level and it came to me. Straight through the voice tube. @@ronsamborski6230

[@josephpadula2283]

Usually the air vent fans are electric motors not steam turbine powered. The forced draft fans supply the boiler not the engine room vents and can be electric navy or merchant or Steam for Navy.

[@kevincrosby1760]

Or both steam and electric. Some ships have 1 electrical FDB on one boiler so that you can get that boiler up from Cold Iron, generating steam to be used in bringing up the rest of the plant.

[@josephpadula2283]

I Think the small electric forced draft fans were put in only on navy ships when the switch to light fuel happened . Merchant marine never switched . We joked giving a steam boiler designed for bunker light diesel fuel is like giving fine 12 year old scotch to wino! On light off the air fuel ratio even with smaller burner plates, hole size, was too high and the much more volatile gasses collected in the cool uptakes . The fans could not be slowed down enough of the dampers shut for the slow warm up needed. We had many boiler explosions . A boiler inspection device BID was used later to check for diesel pooling in the furnace floor also causing flare backs not normal with bunker. It was a periscope with a light shoved into the burner register to see the floor. The worst part was the Merchant steam ships Never cleaned the tubes even with bunker C frequently like the navy did neither did any shore plant! It was a Navy tradition left over from God knows when perhaps coal clinker days!!! We water washed the boiler fireside’s annually instead . I often think of the poor BT’s in hot just shut down boilers doing the unneeded work because the Engineering officers were only Navy boiler trained and did not see shire plants or read outside non Navy reports ! How many BT s did not reenlist due to the foolishness before they switched ? How much extra money did the Navy spend buying F-76 rather than bunker c/ NSFO!

[@ronaldross3978]

EM2 Ross, Electricians Mate Second Class Petty Officer, USS Ranger CV-61, Aircraft Carrier, Jan 1976 to March 1980, The Navy's First "Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist". I gave the Engineering portion of Surface Warfare Specialist to officers on Ranger. So, when the opened the classification for enlisted men, I was first in line. Young man, and I am nearly seventy, you did a very fine job with your walk thru explanation of the power plant in this ship. If you were not in the Engineering Dept of this ship, someone wrote you a great script. I found it enlightening to go thru this tour with you. I never had an opportunity to go on a battleship. As I expected the design and layout of the main machinery rooms were very similar to an Aircraft Carrier. The USS Ranger was Naval Distillate also. Carriers are all Nuclear Powered now. Four main engine rooms. We had eight ships service turbine generators, ours were 1500 KW. As you walked thru the spaces, I realized that yes, I could have served on this ship also, if I had had the chance. The USS Ranger CV-61 had 6500 men during deployment to the Indian Ocean, Subic Bay Philippians. We had 600 in Engineering Department. Out of that 600, we had 200 Electrician's on board. Out of the 200 Electricians were about 30 Intercommunication Electricians. They worked on telephones and intercom systems. We had 999 rotary dial telephones on the ship. The telephone system was a three-digit stepper exchange, that's all you could have. My first assignment on board was the lighting shop. This was a group of about twelve Electricians that did nothing but change out screw base light bulb fixtures to fluorescent tube light fixtures, thousands of them. That simple act dropped the entire electrical load onboard the ship by 50%. Then we added a lot of new stuff and brought it back up. I suppose that the same thing would be done now by changing the fluorescent tube light fixtures to LED, Light Emitting Diode lights. I recently got involved in a conversation about "Bug Juice" on board Navy ships. The person was commenting about our "Bug Juice Machines" serving something to drink on board Navy Ships. I waited until the person complete his explanation of what it was before I offered a rebuttal. In out "Mess" areas of the ship, cafeteria areas, they would make up large containers of Kool-Aid. All the fresh water on board ship what distilled from sea water. If you have ever drank distilled water, you would know that it is tasteless. It is not very pleasant to drink. Oh, it makes good coffee, but you must flavor it to get anyone to drink it. Ok, just one more. During my time onboard the ship the ships services folks had an opportunity to install a single video game, Pac-Man. It was installed with the games costing twenty-five cents. Since they were not allowed to make money on the proceeds from the game, they told us that all proceeds would go towards purchasing more machines. Within six months, they had filled the arcade room full of video games, about forty machines. About three months later, they had to make all the machines free. Thank You for allowing me to comment like so many others have done below. If you have a family member that is a Veteran, please take the time to hear some of his stories. Most Veterans have stories to tell and some day they will not be around to tell you. My father was a World War II Army Veteran. He serviced in Italy during the war as a foot soldier on the front lines. I respectfully listened to what he wanted to tell me. I knew that some of the things he did, he did not want to talk about.

[@davidnadeau6441]

I agree, great job!👍

[@henrycarlson7514]

So Wise , Thank You . Bt. 2 Carlson , I was there about the same time . Mostly 3mmr and Cat Steam.

[@danielarmistead4785]

Thanks for the good stuff. MM2 Armistead, 1986-1993

[@danfarrand9072]

Very interesting video. Makes me want to go visit the ship...even though I hate to travel. I could imagine spending several days crawling over the ship, now that would be a vacation.

[@nightfury1318]

Your videos have always been good and can only get better. I believe your videos will eventually bring New Jersey more attention then most do on the Internet. Keep em coming

[@phillandon4127]

MM 2nd class here, served onboard the JFK (CV67) and lots of the same technology here only slightly bigger. This video brought back a lot of memories, most of them exhausting. We used to call the engine room Mordor, the heat and the very air one breathed was poisonous from the fuel fumes and steam leaks. Hottest was always by the feed pumps once saw a thermometer read 138 F there in the Red Sea. Toughest guys on the ship, hands down.

[@EricStoddard989]

Just wanted to let you know the forced draft blower does not provide air to the engine room through the vent you talk about. That is accompany regular ventilation fans drawing air from outside the engine room. Forced draft blowers provide air to the boiler firebox for combustion (to keep the "haze" you mention. Without them there's simply not enough air flow at atmospheric pressure to sustain combustion ( black smoke instead of haze). Machinist Mate USN

[@GrantFisherTheClassicAmerican]

1. Ryan as a new viewer, I love going back and watching your older views both for the content, which is always great, and I enjoy seeing your growth as a speaker and presenter. 2. I like the editing in this video showing the camera change positions so we can see the route between areas. I would definitely appreciate more of that in the future where it's practical and makes sense.

[@daniel_poore]

When I found your channel a year or 2 ago i went back and watched your entire catalog. While ive been incredibly impressed with how you 2 have increased production quality they still are worth watching methinks.

[@billharm6006]

As an ex USN Machinests Mate who worked in engine rooms but never on a BB, I found the images very interesting. Thank you. There were a few misstatements. Probably too late to correct so I won't detail them. You might want to run future scripts past persons more familiar with the equipment. Other videos I'd like to see: Fire control, as in gun fire control, complete to linkage to the turrets. The mechanical computers are marvelous devices. Also, damage control (which is widely distributed but, I believe, centrally controlled). Things like counter-flooding control and magazine flooding should be included.

[@kevincrosby1760]

Agree with having scripts reviewed. As a former IC, I've caught a few cringe-worthy errors myself.

[@lawrenceleverton7426]

You misspelled Machinist's Mate. As an Retired MM myself I still salute ya.

[@lpd1snipe]

Good video and good explanation of the Steam Plant. I was a Navy Boiler Technician, a member of "The Black Gang" also known as "hole Snipes" and I ran D type Babcock & Wilcox boilers and Foster Wheeler boilers on various vessels. The fire room video brought back some memories. I do remember the heat down there could be like hell on Earth. Something good to look up is called the "Snipes Lament" it tells the story about the men who sail below the waterline.

[@ronsamborski6230]

Former Snipe myself. I was an HT3 on a tin can (DDG-46, USS Preble). Did you ever have anyone come down to the fireroom asking for a bucket of steam, or a BT punch? 😂

[@wastelander89]

The boilers kinda remind me of a huge radiator but for heating water up not cooling it down. Its so fascinating how they came up with those huge designs . I can only imagine how many sailers you need on each boiler . So much respect for the men who worked in 120 heat in the boiler rooms. I cant imagine

[@nigozeroichi2501]

I started watching when I had covid , and I have to say, Ryan it has been very informative and very enjoyable watching you grow as a presenter and on your own I might add, I hope you continue to enjoy making content,

[@ahseaton8353]

I think you may have covered it in an old video. You sklpped / didn't mention the thrust bearings that transfer the thrust from the propellers into the hull of the ship. They prevent that thrust from tearing the reduction gears and tubines off their mounts.

[@klsc8510]

Ryan did do a video on the trust bearings.

[@Ranzoe813]

Your audio and video quality is night and day watching the old vid..ty libby

[@thejerseyj5479]

Very impressive tour and the knowledge you posess of your ship is first rate. Amazing what fine condition she's in.

[@lawrenceleverton7426]

Only in the shots they showed. I've been on the USS Mass and its grimey throughout 90 percent of the ship. But in the 10 percent they show the public its pristine.

[@raymondseeger4832]

Love the details here! I would really enjoy hearing more about the fuel systems, both how fuel gets to the boilers (does it need to be pre-heated, since it’s more of a pudding, and if so, how does it get out of tank, are there tank heaters?), as well as how fuel is stored, and how it’s refilled.

[@kevincrosby1760]

Bunker C was the thick black oil that needed to be pre-heated to be able to get it to flow through the burners. I believe that there were tank heaters, as well as local heaters near the boilers. As Ryan said, the boilers were converted to Navy Distillate (DFM) fuel during the 80's upgrade. DFM is very close to what a residential oil furnace would burn. As with any liquid, fuel is stored in tanks. To take on fuel you either go pierside at a fuel pier, or receive fuel during an Underway Replenishment (UnRep) at Sea. Of the two, UnRep is actually quicker, as the replenishment ship is quite capable of transferring fuel at volumes and pressures that would make the civilian workers at the fuel pier crap themselves and run for the hills. Life kinda sucked for the replenishment ship, as they had no choice but to take on fuel at a fuel pier. When your tanks hold 5 million gallons of DFM and 2.5 million gallons of JP-5, you WILL be there for a while...like 24-36 hours.

[@SeanBZA]

@@kevincrosby1760 Yes, but the crew likely would get 24 hour liberty as well, which would be a welcome respite after months at sea.

[@richcruse2689]

@@kevincrosby1760 I actually worked as fuel king, ran cargo fuel control, on an oiler. We would regularly get topped off at sea from other oilers. We only went pier-side near home port. Aircraft carriers would regularly take 2 mil gallons each time they came alongside, we would unrep for hours alongside them.

[@richcruse2689]

Actually they have low pressure steam systems to heat the old bunker fuel, it’s called “steam tracing piping”. It was in each fuel tank and attached to all the fuel piping. You can still see it on the fuel lines.

[@kevincrosby1760]

@@SeanBZA that's a nice theory, but I never saw it happen in practice. We were on 4-section duty, which means that at any given time, 1/4 of the crew was on duty and could not leave the ship. This was normal in-port Cold Iron routine with everything shut down. You're not going to shut everything down and go Cold Iron for a 24-36 hour refueling. That means Engineering is running pretty much fully crewed. Besides, you're not going to be able to pull enough power from a Shore Power connection to run fuel transfer pumps to keep the ship in trim as you are taking on fuel. "Taking on fuel" brings us to the guys in POL, who are responsible for all things fuel-related. They are also running a full crew whenever fuel is being taken on. Since you now have Duty Section + 2 departments working, the galley isn't going to get away with 2 guys on duty, so they are stuck on board as well. In short it all snowballs, and most of the crew ends up stuck on board. It should also be mentioned that M-F 7-5 are working hours, and EVERYBODY is on board.

[@aserta]

Nothing to be ashamed with the old videos. Everyone has to grow into their shoes. I think they were plenty informative enough. Bout the only thing i can "gripe" (if for no other word fitting, really) is the sound quality, but you've sorted out neatly. I often go through the old videos if something peaks my interests in a newer video to supplement the information.

[@klsc8510]

Ryan, you are a graduate of the "School of Hard Knocks" in videography. Now to work on your Masters and Doctorate!

[@TomokosEnterprize]

Great post. I am an X navy engineer from ships post WWII. This is like a walk down memory lane. Sure enjoyed this post.

[@wornouttire]

My father was a "Fireman 1st Class" at the end of WWII. I recently visited the USS Yorktown at Charleston. I loved crawling around the engine space and describing stuff to my daughter and granddaughter based on my research into Iowa-class battleships. p.s. I ordered a piece of original teak to help support.

[@briancavanagh7048]

Great video, well done. As the curator of the ship you must have access to the original drawings used in building this vessel. An episode on the drawings themselves would be interesting showing the structural elements with bulkhead & water tight compartments, equipment location schedule, fire suppression, electrical, powerplants & associated power drive, piping, armament, crew quarters, fuel & water storage. This would show how densely packed this warship is and the amount of work to fit everything in. Reviewing the drawing with photos of the ship under construction would be an interesting subject for a future video.

[@josephpadula2283]

The power production of the turbines are more evenly split than what he says around 25:50 Ie the HP turbine and LP turbine make about the same power.

[@oldtugs]

So many errors. I wish those museum ship video makers would either put someone with subject matter knowledge in front of the camera or actually take the time to learn something about the equipment they pretend to explain. It looks like one curator watches a video produced by some other curator and repeats the same nonsense and errors. The best advice might be to either know what you are talking about or simply do not talk.

[@bobnelson6093]

Amazing technology. I was on a nuc sub where all these systems were extant. Save the reactor instead of boilers.

[@WebberAerialImaging]

Ryan, you really think the quality is getting better? That's so cute 😂 Seriously though, love the work you guys do showing us the beauty of the New Jersey.

[@jameslents8747]

As an old coal and oil-fired electric power plant worker who's seen all those components up close and personal, let me say that you did an excellent job explaining the steam cycle. Very informative and nostalgic, for me. Having worked on 1000 Mega Watt B & W boilers, its amazing that everything is the same, just shrunken down for ship application.

[@terrybaird9532]

Except the part where he said the boiler feed pumps draw feed water from the main condenser. That was a huge mistake. Feed pumps draw water from the DA tank.

[@robertibert9269]

Well done Ryan, excellent tour of the system.

[@Jacob-W-5570]

As a merchant navy engineer I love this video! possiblity for future videos, Distilation plant (for boiler feedwater and drinking water?) or the emergency diesels.

[@Cits]

A deep dive into the fuel system would be a neat follow up to this video.

[@scale_model_apprentice]

I have a question: when did the design process for the Iowa class begin? As in, when did some of the notable features on the Iowa class (propulsion, fire control, 5" 38 etc) start to appear in the navy?

[@Ghauster]

They say the mid 30s they started talking about a fast battleship to counter the faster ships of the Japanese Navy. Also a fast ship would have a better chance to make contact with an enemy. When the treaty limits were raised in response to Japan's capital ship programs in 1938 they got serious on design and started building in 1939. The 5"/38 first went into service in 1934.

[@beaugator]

I thought the turbines would be bigger! Amazing power from that setup. Modern jet engines are just recently making 50K lbs of thrust and are similar in size it would appear!

[@jakem7838]

The LM9000 gas turbine makes 98000+ hp. Pretty impressive.

[@jamesdamron2065]

Amazing how a men came up with all this equipment,,,& to all the men who ran such equipment!!

[@Charley1973]

Really good presentation. I was an MM2-SS in the 1960's.

[@timschoenberger242]

Excellent video. How about shafts from the reduction gear to the props, and the rudders. Is there an interrelationship between the two when manuvering.

[@briancavanagh7048]

It was hard to get an idea of the scale of the reduction gear. Were those gears some 30ish inches in diameter?

[@adamdubin1276]

The water droplets can also cause major issues in the boiler itself such as eroding and corroding the tubes leading to leaks and because the water droplets are incompressible if there is a significant build up they can cause ruptures or explosions... unlikely to happen in a more modern design such as the M-types that New Jersey was fitted with (especially if well maintained) but was a major concern in the early days of steam power.

[@terrybaird9532]

The tubes carry water to and from the water drum to the steam drum. I think you may be talking about water quality in the boiler. High TDS, water hardness can leave silica on the inter tube walls and can leave to tube failure. Water tube boilers are not prone to explosions as were fire tube boilers of old.

[@FightUni09]

Do you remember your 3 endpoints of boiler operation in order of severity? Brings back memories for me!

[@terrybaird9532]

@@FightUni09 Circulation, combustion, carryover

[@tjk88788]

Awesome tour!!! 600 lb. steam power that ship. We had 600 lbs steam on our Destroyer. USS Vesole DD 878. Thank you.

[@luacreskid]

I was an EOW on CVA-42. We had 12 B&W boilers (600psi/850SH) very similar to NJ. I have to hand it to you as you explained the plant and steam cycle so most could understand it. Midway Class CVs were built very closely to BB plants with the exception of being highly compartmentalized boilers (12 vs 8) with the same shaft HP and top speed. Good memories.

[@Odin029]

"Non Russian ships"... I had to laugh at that. I was convinced that there was a little hole in the ozone layer that used to follow the Kuznetsov around... that and a sea going tug, just in case.

[@klsc8510]

The Russian Navy doesn't have all the ain't smoking rules our Navy has. I wonder how much of that smoke is from tobacco?

[@klsc8510]

A good friend of mine from the Air Force when I was stationed in Germany shared this with me. John was a dual American-British citizen. After serving a hitch in the Royal Navy, John came to America. After touring America, he decided to enlist in the Air Force. Very early in Basic Training, he was in a briefing where they were asked if they had prior military service? John held his hand up. When asked what branch he served in, in his heavy "Lands End" accent he said, "Royal Navy". The Sergeant said, "Excuse me?" So John repeated, "Royal Navy." The next thing John knew, a shoulder was under each armpit and he was taken very quickly out of the room backwards. After some discussion, they finally got through his accent and understood he was saying Royal navy not Russian Navy! After checking Air Force regulations, John learned he still had to do Basic Training as the Royal Navy service didn't count to waive Basic. I hope you enjoyed that story!

[@whirledpeaz5758]

Dis Monkey Mate loves the engine room episodes. I assume there are cross connects for all the engine and fire rooms.

[@bigjay875]

Ryan don't be so hard on yourself experience is the road to perfection i think you are doing a great job keep up the good work. This is as close as I will ever get to visiting due to work place accident that took my foot and destroyed my leg so steps are a deal breaker so thanks for the videos👍

[@jerrycann6374]

It amazes me that this ship was designed and built with no computer. The skill of the tradesmen who built that ship doesn't exist in the world today.

[@johnharlow486]

Don’t be silly, tools and techniques have improved. If we had to continue with inefficient drafting techniques we would not have improved so far that battleships are completely obsolete. But yes extremely impressive for the time.

[@jerrycann6374]

@@johnharlow486 I think you missed my point.

[@stargazer7644]

Every single thing in the world was originally built with no computers. And those things were all mechanical too - no electronics either.

[@GordonFalt]

I believe it was 3D printed.

[@GaryED44]

Excellent video I always wondered what the operating cycle is. That "E" on the boiler is an ratting of Excellence correct?

[@johngrim4818]

Yes. Engineering Efficiency Award

[@jmazoso]

Another great video. Dont sell yourself short on the old videos, its all part of your journey too.

[@kevinpreneta9042]

Brian you’re the best man! I’ve been following for years.

[@Knight6831]

Why do people forget or overlook the fact that the New Jersey 's propulsion systems are worn out but also at the end of its working life and as the Royal Navy would endure with the battlecruiser Hood, pushing the ship's machinery beyond their designed service life leads to an uphill struggle to keep the propulsion systems going against the ever increasing number of issues

[@ravenbarsrepairs5594]

These ships are useful enough in any situation and replacing the propulsion system, and or rebuilding to factory specs would be much cheaper than building new battleships. In the current navy, they build task specific ships. Battleships can fill both ship to ship roles,. as well, as they did later in their carriers, a ship to shore, land bombardment role. Missles just don't convey the threat of as 16" gun pointed at your face.

[@daleeasternbrat816]

I work on machinery, Diesel Generators. Older machinery works well when maintained or stored properly. Expense and crew size are problems. Just making them work? We know how to do that.

[@Rambogner]

A great example of this is the Russian carrier Kuznetsov. Can’t take shore power so had to run its engines all the time for power. Absolutely knackered and has to take an ocean going tug with it if it ever leaves port.

[@michaelimbesi2314]

The real reason for the deaerating feed tank is to scavenge any oxygen from the water. At the temperatures in a boiler, any dissolved oxygen in the water will begin to corrode the inside of the boiler fairly quickly, so it’s important to make sure it’s removed. It also helps the condenser maintain a better vacuum.

[@terrybaird9532]

How does the DA tank help the main condenser maintain vacuum?

[@TimeOut210]

Fascinating stuff...Dang, those old analogue systems were IMPRESSIVE.

[@davyjones5890]

Back in the seventies, I was an engineer on the container steamship Sealand Market, an SL-7. Each boiler put out 60,000 hp of steam at 875 degrees F, at 950 psi. It had twin screws, and the propeller shafts were about 32 inch diameter. It also went 33 knots. At the time, they were the fastest commercial ships in the world. The company sold them to the US Navy, because when the price of oil went up, they became very costly to run.

[@brucelytle1144]

I always wanted to sail one of those. Saw one of em in Dahmam during Desert Storm. Only Sealand ship I sailed was the Long Beach (POS class!😅).

[@chrishill1286]

Oh my goodness I was aboard Mighty Moe right after it opened at Pearl. The fire control room was fascinating enough for a deep dive.!