SS Badger- How It Works

A short clip on how the S.S. Badger Carferry operates.

[@phillipwalker8018]

Love the idea that something designed, built and engineered long ago is still available for people to experience and appreciate. I've had the pleasure of traveling on the S.S. Badger twice and look forward to doing so again.

[@leesuschrist]

I just got off the SS Badger after taking it from Manitowoc overnight. Such a cool experience! I love this old, yet reliable technology.

[@charleswendt4868]

This reminds me when I was a child and my father was in engineer on the Ann Arbor care ferries. My favorite place was the engine room watching and listening to the pistons rotating,

[@jimjonrs3932]

Pistons don't rotate.

[@charleswendt4868]

You are correct

[@goropeza101]

I love vintage technology! Can't believe that something that something like the badger still operates today! Goes to show that vintage technology is still cost effective to operate!

[@VenerableBede2510]

Only a matter of time before the enviro-nazis force it out of existence.

[@mtnman1984]

So long as it gets an EPA exemption. I hope it outlasts me.

[@sxymike12]

I think its since been updated

[@ShakespeareCafe]

You don't have the right-of-way when a 400ft steam ship is plowing towards you.

[@cowtippingrocks]

That's just common sense. Something not everyone has lol.

[@rezalbb]

When you're trolling for salmon in heavy fog it's hard to tell which direction the horn is coming from. Pretty spooky.

[@b.atwater3904]

I Rode across from Ludington to Manitowoc in 2002. Was going to the big airshow in Oshkosh. Don't wear anything white, everything you touch, or sit on will have black soot from the coal fired boilers. It comes our of the stack and although it's part of the experience, prepare yourself for some soot. It was fun!

[@servicarrider]

I love this vessel. What an incredible machine.

[@navelriver]

The ship is beautiful, the engines are beautiful!

[@glennoropeza3545]

I'm impressed that a recipricating steam engine can be so docile and easy to control.

[@michaelmyers1999]

RIP Captain Dean Hobbs

[@royharris7299]

After my father passed away in the early '60:s, my mother took us kids to Ludington {we lived in Detroit at the time} where we boarded the S.S. Milwaukee for Manitowoc.WI. I imagine both ships operated the same way.

[@42lookc]

What a cool ship! I hope the Spartan is preserved as well. Very impressive vessels.

[@kenander45]

I seem to recall riding Badger back in the 1960s. The smell of the coal was something unique.

[@SewolHoONCE]

I, also, recall riding this ship in 1977 after the railroad cars were loaded. This report reminds me of the South Korean vehicle ferry, Sewol Ho, that sank 2014.04.16.

[@yepiratesworkshop7997]

Same kind I coal I use when I'm blacksmithing. (Unless I get "lazy" that day and use the propane forge!) But the coal forge is superior -- heats faster and you have better control over how much of your iron gets heated.

[@yepiratesworkshop7997]

Amazing ship handling, these ferry guys. Everyone else needs a tug or three. These guys just "finesse" that thing where ever they want it to go.

[@williamfloyd4498]

Mo

[@henrytupper6959]

Four tugs per day would be expensive. No need with twin screw propellers.

[@yepiratesworkshop7997]

@@henrytupper6959 I'm pretty sure they have side thrusters, too.

[@henrytupper6959]

@@yepiratesworkshop7997 could be however I did work on a twin screw steamer passenger with no side thrusters and no trouble turning. Side thrusters would be better of course. Turning in Montreal the current did help but other locations did not have that advantage.

[@yepiratesworkshop7997]

@@henrytupper6959 The best one I ever saw was a small boat used for dredging. It had side paddlewheels that were operated hydraulically. The dredge "head" came off the front of it (to lower and raise) and that thing could turn in it's own width! Talk about something infinitely maneuverable! That was it. If I was going to build another boat, I'd do it in steel and use that side paddle-wheel set-up.

[@davidmonro3270]

A home for the oldies.

[@robertgallagher7734]

Anybody else think of the scene in the movie "Sand Pebbles" were Steve McQueen was explaining how steam works when they showed the connecting rods spinning?

[@SewolHoONCE]

Yes, indeed! I just finished reading the SAN PEBBLES book! The time stamp for the story is 1927.03.24 - The Nanjing Incident that changed the CCP and KMT from cooperators to combatants. I am involved in a program of concern, compassion, and kindness for a song & dance artist who is Taiwanese working in South Korea. She was the focal point of the Huang An Flag Waving incident in 2015. Now (2021.03.01), her troupe, TWICE, is planning an event in Taiwan. The conflict established in 1927 is very much a part of her life experience today!

[@stantaylor3350]

Man stem top whalve!! Good enough said Mc Queen!!

[@stevenseiler]

I wonder if we can pay a copy of that DVD

[@Howoldareweanywayyipes]

The wife and i took your boat to wisconsin and it was great... lol wisconsin did not have good pizzas but we loved the trip and recommend the trip to anyone with about a thousand dollars and some tome off work.

[@boataxe4605]

It is quite strange that Wisconsin doesn’t have good pizza considering the it’s the land of cheese.

[@edwardbenkert6394]

That's pretty awesome thank you

[@verdantacres4460]

Awesome thank you

[@ricksadler797]

Awesome video thank you

[@steamon2]

Now hearing how the ship makes the turn with one engine going forward and the other going backwards why didn’t Titanic do this manoeuvre instead of all engines in reverse they might not have missed the ice burg but had less amount of damage.

[@jimhubbard2646]

Thom Hawley, one of the narrators is my first cousin.

[@NotAFirefighter1]

damn imma get myself some VHS

[@donaldwallace7934]

This is so cool!!

[@EuSeiT]

Thank you for sharing this excellent video. I am writing the sequel to my novel Finding Cristina (yes, no "h" in Cristina!) and needed a good idea how steam engines work.

[@henrytupper6959]

It was shown in a diagram but the chief engineer did not mention that these engines are Steeple compound engines. Each crank has two pistons. The top one is small in diameter, it takes steam at boiler pressure when on full speed. The lower piston is much larger in dia. And is on the same reciprocating piston rod, traveling same distance and speed. It is called the low pressure piston and it receives the exhaust steam from the HP PISTON. Each piston is double acting so they produce power going up and down. There gland seals at the bottom of the cylinders. I saw these engines however I worked on a Skinner Unaflow 4 cyl engine that was not steeple compound. It had high pressure pistons only, less efficient. It ran 118-120 rpm. At full speed. Can not remember if the Badger engines are 4 or 5 cyl each. Considering the horse power they mentioned I would say 5 cyl ea.

[@albertoswald8461]

@@henrytupper6959 , the steeple compound engines are 4 cylinders.

[@ironmantooltime]

Nice, no shots of the motor? 😎

[@Del-Canada]

This must have been produced in 1993. Badger was first put into service in 1953.

[@henrytupper6959]

Still running during the season.

[@albertoswald8461]

It was made probably around 1996 or so. Chuck Cart wasn't the Chief engineer until then. Bob Roach was Chief in 1995 but was sick and died in 1996 if I remember correctly.

[@matth5309]

You can also see the SS City of Midland through the pilot house windows as the ship is performing the turn for docking. It was towed away in 1997

[@agentfungus9742]

Fascinating!

[@rpm2night]

I keep forgetting to ask when I watch these videos on steam ships. Is the water supply for the boilers carried on the ship, or is water drawn from the body of water the ship is in? Excellent video. It was really cool how the telegraph machines are used, and how the crew interacts to keep the ship moving, or to slow and stop the ship.

[@henrytupper6959]

On ships I worked on we distilled our own boiler water, not sure if that is done on the Badger.

[@albertoswald8461]

The Badger has, or at least had a water softener for boiler feed water. Potable (drinking) water is supplied by hooking up a fire hose in Ludington to fill the tanks.

[@Shipwright1918]

So what do the three black levers that the two engineers are manipulating do? I confess I'm unfamiliar with how you run a Skinner Unaflow, I'm more used to the more conventional reciprocating steam engines. I'd imagine one of them must be the steam regulator (throttle valve), so are the other two used for setting the valve timing for the poppet valves? Is there a simpling valve? On an ordinary steamer with a compound marine engine, the main steam controls are the regulator, the reverser, and a simpling valve (used to admit high pressure steam to all the cylinders briefly to help them get started, usually when the engine is first being turned over and is still stiff and having to flush all the condensed water out of the cylinders through the drain valves).

[@clydefishface3869]

The three levers are throttle, lead and cutoff controls. The Skinner Unaflow has poppet valves operated by dual cam shafts with a follower between the shafts. Lead is the opening of the admission valve before dead center and cutoff is the closing of the admission valve after a certain amount of stroke after dead center. The faster the engine is turning the more lead is required and by working the cutoff shorter in stroke allows the steam to work expansively getting the maximum efficiency. The lead and cutoff levers change functions when the engine is reversed. These particular engines are "Compound Unaflows" erected in a steeple compound configuration with the high pressure cylinder on the top. Their efficiency actually surpassed steam turbines in sizes less than about 10,000 horsepower. The throttles are normally left in a wide open position (except when maneuvering) and speed is controlled with the lead and cutoff levers. These levers are linked to a sliding helical gear on each camshaft which actually changes the timing of the poppet valve operation in relation to the crankshaft The engines are directly coupled to the propeller shafts and direct reversing. By simply moving the lead and cutoff levers to the opposite side of center the engine is reversed, just that fast, my friend. The Skinner is the fasted direct reversing marine engine ever devised. Lots, lots more I could share about the Skinner Unaflow but maybe for a later time.

[@clydefishface3869]

Oh, one more thing for right now. Ahead of the three levers you can see a smaller lever that is connected to four-way hydraulic valve. This allows pressurized engine oil to be applied to cylinders actuating small auxiliary exhaust valves (also poppet valves) that act as cylinder drains when first starting the engine.

[@royharris7299]

Sorry that should have been the S.S. Milwaukee Clipper.

[@Elrincondelmiedooficial3709]

¿How many passengers can in carry? ¿What is your maximum speed?

[@mikecorleone6797]

I want a vhs copy of this program...

[@camoyt1587]

My dad work on the badger

[@chrisshannon8086]

My grandpa worked it back when they had state rooms we road it every year

[@SaintMarneusCalgar]

does anyone know why the ship is so high? are there that high waves that this was necessary ?

[@jackboes4744]

It had to carry rail cars in its original bay.

[@SaintMarneusCalgar]

ok ty

[@robertsilva1016]

Hard left hard left sir close all Water Tight Doors Sound Boat stations

[@oceanmariner]

Many WWII escort carriers and other warships had Skinner Uniflow engines. It could be that these engines were from a scrapped warship.

[@albertoswald8461]

They were built for her.

[@benjaminpek5168]

Tianic