"We maintained full power for 17 hours" | Working in the Engine & Boiler rooms

The engine and boiler rooms of a warship were some of the most complex places to work on a ship, with tough conditions below the waterline. In this video, Conservation Manager Andy Curran takes us through the main machinery in these rooms on board HMS Belfast. They were capable of driving the ship up to about 32.5 knots full power. We also hear from some crew who describe what it was like below deck in action stations during the Battle of North Cape, when in pursuit of the Scharnhorst.
Plan your visit to HMS Belfast: iwm.org.uk/visits/hms-belfast
View and licence the archive film clips featured in this video: film.iwmcollections.org.uk/my...

[@CASHSEC]

Met a vet who served on HMS Belfast. 90 year old Ray Whitehead. He was having lunch at Hamish's cafe just outside Yeovil , Somerset, England. He was out on his own but his car would not start. We took him home to safety in Wincanton. He wanted to offer us money but we said Vets don't pay in our car. We made sure he was safe and that he had a designated carer who would get his car back. Live long and prosper Ray and we left.♥️♥️

[@johnl7710]

I have been round HMS Belfast at Tower Bridge in London. I found it absolutely fascinating. Even more so for me personally as my father served on the sister ship HMS Sheffield which was almost identical to Belfast being also a town class cruiser. My father on Sheffield was present at the battle of North Cape though Sheffield had to break off due to engine problems. The arctic convoys were brutal on the crews of these ships. I applied for and received his Arctic Star medal which was awarded posthumously to all sailors on the arctic convoys.

[@stephensmith4480]

My father was also a Merchant Seamen who took part in The Arctic Convoys going to Murmansk. Tell me John How did you go about obtaining your Dads Arctic Star as it`s something I have been Thinking About. I can`t imagine the conditions that those lads had to endure, the weather alone must have been awful.

[@stephenchappell7512]

Sheffield was almost preserved instead of Belfast (being less modified) however Belfast was chosen instead due to its better material condition

[@johnl7710]

@@stephensmith4480 Hi Stephen. A few year back there was a campaign for the Arctic convoy sailors to receive a medal. I had to apply to the MoD and fill in a form stating his details of service etc. It took a couple of years for the medal to arrive as I was told they did careful checks on all applicants. I do not know if the medal was available to merchant seamen as opposed to RN sailors. My dad had great respect for the merchant men as they had to put up with all the dangers and could not fight back themselves. They were brave men according to him. Jeremy Clarkson did a very good documentary about the Arctic convoys which if you have not seen it is well worth hunting out.

[@stephensmith4480]

@@johnl7710 Many thanks for the info John. Of course, it would be very difficult indeed to check on members of The Merchant Navy. I just assumed that they would have gotten it too. I am very proud of my Fathers service, like you say John, brave men, the conditions, especially in Winter must have been Appalling. I have seen the Documentary by Jeremy Clerkson, it was very good. Another one I can recommend by him is about his Father in law being the recipient of the Victoria Cross and the family had no idea. Cherish your Dads Medal John and always keep it within your Family. He earned it.

[@bahoonies]

@@stephensmith4480 I thought I'd put my halfpenny worth in and recommend a book to you. HMS Ulysses by Alistair MacLean is a wonderful read. It's a work of fiction but my goodness, it conveys an astonishing perception of just how appalling conditions were on the Artic run. Your chances of survival were no more than a couple of minutes if your ship sank in those waters. So my utmost respect to your father and all sailors whether merchant marine or navy who put their lives at risk on the Murmansk run during the war. How there were any survivors from Scharnhorst is beyond me.

[@SteveMikre44]

I throughly enjoyed this HMS Belfast technical engine breakdown and listening to her former crew's historical commentary...🇬🇧

[@captainobvious9233]

My Grandfather served on the U.S.S Canberra in WW2. He was stationed in the Engine room but was transferred topside to be a Signalman. Only five days after his transfer, the ship was struck by a Torpedo (Battle off Formosa) killing 20 in the Engine Room.

[@andreinarangel6227]

The USN does not recognize a 'Battle off Formosa". CANBERRA was escorting TF38 as the aviation units were conducting air raids against Japanese airfields in Formosa (where the CANBERRA was struck by an air-dropped torpedo).

[@AcmeRacing]

My grandpa was on duty in the engine room of the destroyer Pittsburgh when the bow sheared off in a storm. His rack was in the section that broke off.

[@simonsadler9360]

My Dad in the M.N survived Atlanic convoys , North Africa , Italy , Dunkirk & the Normandy landings , lovely dad dead now , but his 2nd wife's daughter sent to me in Spain all his memoirs fotos & medals .

[@blaircrocker9845]

I love listening to the old stories and how it was and we should never forget what those boys did.

[@DamonMcEwan]

My Dad was a stoker on Belfast when she was an accommodation/training ship back in the 60's. I toured her in the 90's having been one of the last steam courses to go through training in HMS Sultan.

[@chrisj2848]

Thank you IWM for these great video tours! I love the interview clips with the veterans. 👍 HMS Belfast is a treasure of a museum ship.

[@antonleimbach648]

I spent 6 years in the USN. By far the hottest place on the ship was where the gas turbines were. My dad served in the USN on the USS Texas and that ship was a coal burning boiler ship. He said it was so how down there people would have a ham sandwich turn rotten in just a few hours.

[@lobehold2263]

Who works on the boilers? Is it boiler techs like me that enlist? Or do they take someone green and give them training?

[@Joshie2256]

USS Texas (BB-35) was converted from coal to oil in 1926. When was your father's service?

[@Spudmuffinz]

Grandpa served on a destroyer in the 60s, I served on a conventional steam plant, both agree its the opposite of what was stated in the video regarding the force draft making it cold in winter and "pleasant" in summer. It's hot in the pit nomatter how you slice it. 120f was normal. Grandpa joked that in the bearing strait the snipes would crawl out of engineering in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt just to mess with the rest of the crew freezing in a unheated destroyer.

[@pturner3078]

Brings back memories, served on the Birmingham 1958-60 as a stoker ME, boiler / engine room. She was decommissioned 1960, so signed up for boats, ( submarines) a good life back then.

[@Fran_SG]

Amazing ship. The visit is highly recomended.

[@lilPOPjim]

Man I wish these were longer. So much interesting information, I wish it was stretched out more, and contained more information. 20 minutes of this would be perfect.

[@frutt5k]

Check out 'battleship new jersey' which has longer tours of the machinery rooms. Although it is not an english ship...

[@simonsadler9360]

My friend now dead Charlie Barbrook I Tollesbury was a carpenter on a battleship Prince if Wales , the noise & shock of those 18 inch guns was deafening, he skuttled about fixing small leaks with canvas & wood props .

[@glenchapman3899]

I have read the after action report of POW after her encounter with Bismarck. She was an absolute mess from the shock of her own guns. Water tight doors through the ship were jammed. Huge chunks of her decking were ripped up. And there was a shopping list of mechanical failures through most of the turrets.

[@MC-nb6jx]

And to think some very clever person (s) sat down and drew all that up with pencil & paper😳😳👏🏻👏🏻

[@josephpiskac2781]

I toured this ship in 1991. Great seeing it again!

[@11Kralle]

This is very much appreciated! Greetings from Germany

[@iainmalcolm9583]

Fascinating to see the inner working of a ship. Mostly you just hear about the various engagements that ships were involved in.

[@thechongwolla]

My Grandad served on a few ships during the Cold War as a chef. His tours were peacful except dropping off a load of marines for some Middle-East peacekeeping thing and search and rescue due to a sinking cruise liner. The galley crew ended up with a campaign medal due to having to cook for so many marines on top of their normal workload. Anyway the scrapbook that the ship's photographer made is amazing and is kept at my.Grandma's. It did mention 2 fatalities in the engine room due to a burst pipe of pressurised steam. Grim stuff!

[@Digmen1]

Very interesting. The men that designed and built those systems were amazing. (all without CAD etc) And much respect needs to be given to those men in the engine rooms, owkring under such conditions. My uncle was a stoker on HMS Hood during the chase of the Bismark. He was not one of the 3 lucky survivors.

[@glenchapman3899]

What makes that 17 hours of hard steaming more impressive is how rough the seas were. I bet though after she got back to port there was some serious overhauling of the engines going on lol

[@cyrilridley493]

There can't be many of us "Old time steam Stokers" left who actually served and worked on Warships just like this. It may seem odd, but I really enjoyed the time I spent watchkeeping in the Boiler rooms. I do remember the noise of the forced draught fans and how cold it could be working on the boiler front and also the terror of the first few times I had to pass through the airlock doors when going on watch below. Would I change it? NO - not in a thousand years...Happy, happy days...!

[@cyrilridley493]

@@cap5856 You are more than welcome. The privilege was mine

[@jackt883]

Brilliant video. The engineering inside that thing is incredible. Especially the herringbone gearset that was taking 40,000 horsepower!

[@-DC-]

A Magnificent Ship 👍

[@24934637]

Beautiful engineering in those gearboxes and turbines. I honestly had no idea it was so advanced. I had a mental picture more like the boiler / engine room of the Titanic!

[@calvinnickel9995]

That must have been something else. Working in noise and heat and cold pushing dangerous machinery to its absolute limit, in the dark about the immediate situation topside.. in relentless pursuit of a battleship that outclassed Belfast in every single way and from which a single 11 inch shell would have killed everyone in the engine room instantly.

[@teaurn]

I really want to visit HMS Belfast, and one day I will!

[@rolanddunk5054]

Having visited HMS Belfast on the official tour many years ago ,I bought the Anatomy of the ship,(always something new to discover).I revisited her again some years later and it was the same tour.Having been a marine engineer(retired)I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated this video,it was very well presented,and hopefully I will be able to see in other videos parts of the ship that the public do not get to see.Thank you very much.Roly 🇬🇧.

[@_Raven_]

It baffles me that there are people intelligent enough to design something like this.

[@_Wombat]

It's more like lots of people with different understanding, who manage to mash all of their individual knowledge into a single working system. It still boggles the mind though, I agree.

[@norseman5041]

I served in the Royal Norwegian Navy for several years, submariner, when I left the Navy and took my first job on a commercial vessel, The ''Sea Goddess II'' a small ultra luxury cruise vessel. I signed on in London and had to walk over the deck on the Belfast to get to the small cruise ship. Been many years ago now, over 30, but if I remember right, the cruise ship was moored alongside the Belfast. Anyway, to get o the cruise ship I had to cross over the Belfast. I took this a symbolic omen for the next path of my life.

[@paulwatts2192]

Was a stoker in the 70s the noise in the boiler room , you had to to make hand signals to communicate. But when you are in your pit asleep and the ship goes silent this would wake you up.

[@GapeGang]

What a piece of machinery, must come visit it soon.

[@neilwilson5785]

Honestly this is so interesting. Those men were heroic engineers.

[@lawrieflowers8314]

The amount & complexity of all that mechanical apparatus is just amazing. And so tightly packaged down there in the machinery spaces. I’ve been in the engine room of HMS Belfast and it is really, really hard to move around in as there’s just so much in it. And down there below the waterline there’s the ever-present danger of death from shell, torpedo, superheated steam - too awful even to think about. Those who worked down there were true unsung heroes to endure all of that, along with the ever-present noise, vibration, fumes etc. Simply astonishing…

[@The_ZeroLine]

Another fantastic video. The words about the engine room officer not feeling like cheering at all when the enemy ship was sunk was touching.

[@JoshuaMc7]

As far as my understanding goes, my grandfather was on the Belfast in the engine rooms during the war (he finished his career commissioned and in the admiralty but I believe he may have been a CPO before this), an amazing insight.

[@michaelwest4325]

Had opportunity to visit HMS Belfast last year whilst in London, if one has opportunity to do so, one should, it is a worthy bit of history and something to see. Good to she she is kept alive for the future.

[@kwgm8578]

An excellent presentation about a beautifully kept museum ship. Thank you.

[@montyzumazoom1337]

Been on Belfast a few times, once with a group of Korean War veterans some of whom served on her during that conflict. To be with them and hear them talk as they visited their old stations on the ship was really interesting.

[@TheAngryboa]

My grandad served on H.M.S Jamaica also involved in same battle and Alantic convoys

[@TBullCajunbreadmaker]

I am well versed on the engine room and the siperheated steam system. I served on one of the last ships to use the system for propulsion. They were by far the best steam systems to be used. The big difference was that we used 1200 psi steam that ran normally above 850 deg F. and one engine put out well above 35,000 h.p. The last indicator allowed on the throttle was 33 knots. That was a standard for the Navy. The ship could actually top over 45 knots when you got them both up to max power. The biggest drawback was that they used a lot of fuel oil. Now they are all gas turbines. They are not quite as fast but much more economical. Believe me we had our times running flat out for many hours to do all kinds of crazy stuff.

[@haroldmatroni7362]

I served aboard many US Navy guided missile destroyers in the enginerooms. I thoroughly enjoyed the video bringing back memories of steaming those engineering plants. Ours were run at 1200 psi and 875F superheat, quite a bit higher than the Belfast. I toured the ship in 1999 and spent most of my time aboard exploring the enginerooms, and must say that I found the vertical throttle wheels as odd.

[@kevincrosby1760]

The funny thing is that, while a bit different, just about everything was recognizable to a person familiar with more modern steam plants. Basic steam cycle and theory of operation was exactly the same. Other than our 600 PSI/850F plant, everything else was there...HP/LP turbines, reduction gears, etc. Biggest difference is that my ship was launched in 1968. I got a laugh about the salt in the boiler feed. As an IC, I had more "It's YOUR water, not MY Salinity Cells" conversations with the MMs than I really wish to remember.

[@getoffenit7827]

The only way us 'snipes' down in the Pit had any idea of what was going on topside during a battle was of course the ship would be at battle stations...but down below we cant see anything...So any Bell changes to increase speed/decrease speed Or full astern orders would only give us some guesses as to what was going on, Dodging torpedos,avoiding shell strikes or missle strikes...generally we had no idea of whats coming at us til we get hit..down below under combat conditions theres not much time to worry about whats going on topside Boiler men are frantically changing out burner barrels and atomizers,Shifting and transferring fuel oil,making sure boilers are full of feedwater and not drawing a suction on an empty feedwater tank. Mechanics are crawling all over the main engines checking oil temps and pressures monitoring for oil leaks or steam leaks..theres alot going on alot can go wrong if you take one eye or one ear off the equipment

[@BuzzSargent]

Nice to hear someone explain something so detailed that has the knowledge to make it understandable. Bravo!

[@Convoycrazy]

Brilliant video. I really enjoyed the oral history edited in while the curator moved about the ship… It was very informative and pleasing to watch, thank you.

[@aA-ye1cf]

As an ex artificer, I served on the last steam powered frigate, then changed to gas turbine ships. Very interesting program , thank you

[@daviddavies2072]

Thank you , Very interesting video, thank, hope this great ship will be around for many years

[@johngalt0096]

Live steam. Sleepy steam. - The Sand Pebbles

[@orsonkart4794]

My father was a chief stoker during and after the war, he served on HMS Belfast after the war .

[@rodgeyd6728]

Love this ship......only been on her three times 🤔, may need another visit next time I'm down London.

[@threepot]

Respect to all those men❤️👍

[@jaybrian9987]

I served with Andy, we were apprentices together in the Navy in 1975... we diverged as Andy went General Service (skimmers) and I went submarines 🙂 Me and some Ordnance Artificer shipmates were on Belfast for a few weeks, doing some work on the guns while waiting for a training course.... good couple of weeks

[@neilsmith5048]

My Grandfather was in the boiler room of a sister ship HMS Manchester, unfortunately, he was killed in action when the ship was struck by an Italian torpedo in 1942.

[@Doc_K-Space]

Such a wonderful mini-doc, packed with information! The mechanical precision needed to develop, operate and maintain such a ship will remain impressive for eons.

[@Vlad-1986]

I am so grateful for this documentary: Like many people who lived in London (not anymore, thank the Gods) I always wanted to visit, but the entrance fee was too expensive. Now I can have an idea of how the Belfast and other warships worked and learnt a lot. Hope one day I can treat myself to a proper visit to and the cabinet war rooms!

[@davef.2811]

Thank you, Mr. Curran and The IWM for your knowledge and this presentation.

[@columsum]

Excellent clear descriptions of the engine room equipment. Toured the ship in the summer this year. Made me glad I sailed on motor ships, more space in the engine rooms.

[@pvtmalo3217]

Really enjoyed this.

[@bertoverweel6588]

Was on board of HMS Belfast with my grandson in 2017 .

[@TheCgodb31508]

32 knots is ridiculous fast. And steam engine room was quieter but much hotter than diesel. Great job on the video!!!

[@bruceaustin2045]

We maintained a full power run on a 1275 psi destroyer ( USS Stoddert DDG 22) for 36 hours 1978 or 79 and were not allowed to leave the fire room, even had to crap in a bucket and live off midrats.. Finally had to shut her down due to forced draft blower oil leak over a spinning propeller shaft, oil and AFF everywhere!. A very long watch the recruiter never mentioned a word about days like these.

[@boqndimitrov8693]

good that the British kept at least this ship. it is inexplicable that the centuries-old "sea empire" cut all its battleships after the war, and the states, a country created 5 minutes ago,saved so many of them for future generations!

[@smytb]

I am a U.S. Merchant Marine now, and the old steam ships are still in use, even now! They are a very good propulsion system! It's too bad they won't develop a more efficient steam engine now, with modern technology, I know they could, IF they wanted to! But, it's all about the $$$$$$ now! I could not imagine what it would have been like to be a Merchant Marine back in WW2! Being in the war zones unarmed! A Lot of Merchant Mariners were killed, and they didn't even see it coming!!! R. I. P. Shipmates!!

[@370DatsunZed]

Magnificent descriptive narrative!!!! I have been down in the guts of Belfast (2015ish) I loved it! Amazing ship!

[@brettr]

Great video ,thanks! That's some quality equipment and workmanship to go full steam for 17 hours.

[@glenchapman3899]

And in extremely rough seas as well.

[@eamo106]

BOXVIII (Big Orange 18 , painted Orange) was the first Diesel Electric Oilfield Vessel with Azimuth thrusters. Born 1984, still working in 2022. She came into the Thames under Tower bridge for an exhibition show and tell, did a 360 under her own power and docked alongside HMS Belfast. The captain came along side, but a little too hard. A small orange streak on the Belfast. The senior (Bosun)? in charge of the Belfast Museum marched up to the bridge and apparently and loudly explained to the Norwegian Captain that this was the first ever damage by a ship to his war canoe ! After two world wars ! Our captain was humbled. True story.

[@andrewallen9993]

Love the tons of asbestos lagged pipes!

[@neilanyon4792]

Wonderful video. I have been fascinated by steam turbine propulsion ever since sailing to the Isle of Man on a turbine steamer as a child. I had a good idea of how things worked but this brought it to life. Thanks.

[@34ofaninchofbrain80]

Thanks that was very interesting.

[@mirrorblue100]

Great stuff - thanks.

[@majackson14]

Ex-RN ME myself, stoked a 3 drum ( Hermes) and Y100s ( Brighton & Derry) strange life 🤗

[@RTFLDGR]

The British engineers that designed these incredible ships and machines, did so with pencils and pub napkins. Cheers!

[@richardgaunt9417]

My Great Granpa was a Merchantman who escaped Norway after the invasion, I can’t imagine how hard and stressful it must have been to work there, worrying about U-Boats

[@nebelwerfer199]

Kind of sad this is the largest big gun ship left from the Royal Navy.

[@91Redmist]

Yes. It is indeed sad. Not even Warspite survived the scrapper, for heaven's sake. But come to America. We have preserved just about anything that you could want to climb aboard. Consider it our gift to all naval-loving posterity. God bless all who served in our respective navies to protect world freedom.

[@kristoffermangila]

From lowly fleet tugs all the way to battleships, and speaking of battleships, the US has nearly all types, from Warspite's contemporary USS Texas to the Iowas (too bad there were no preserved Standards).

[@simonsadler9360]

Sad yes , can you imagine the costs of building & arming an armour plated battle ship .

[@Digmen1]

Yes the people that decided that ships like Warspite should be scrapped should be shot! Surely the British Navy could have kept one or two battleships. There would be so many people willing to donate and maintain them now.

[@wurlyone4685]

@@Digmen1 UK was absolutely broke after the war, no funding from anywhere to save ships like that unfortunately. Even today the money isn't there - you say there would be loads of people willing to donate and volunteer, but just look at Bronington. That ship needed far, far less funding than anything even like Belfast, has royal pedigree but can't raise anywhere near enough.

[@bikenavbm1229]

thank you

[@frasermitchell9183]

My paternal grandfather served on the battleship Dreadnought in the First World War. Built in 1906, it was the battleship that made all other battleships obsolete overnight. It was the first large warship to use steam turbines, coalfired, of course. Yet such was the speed of development she was obsolete herself when WW1 started and could not keep up with the newer battleships of the Grand Fleet. I think my grandfather thought his posting wasn't a very good one, but the ship never went to the Battle of Jutland, so I suppose he was lucky. A friend who joined at the same time was posted to the battlecruiser Queen Mary which blew up at Jutland with the loss of virtually all its crew, there being only 18 survivors.

[@dalelyons4366]

My dad was on the HMS Belfast.. had a great day out with my daughter, she claimed all over it ..

[@timpaszkiewicz7169]

I was a stationary engineer in the states. I worked in a power plant. I just love the history of oil.and coal fired boilers. We had 3 Baldwin senuise head boilers. Built in 1904. I would still.put them.ip against any modern made boiler.

[@BMan100]

whoa, didn't know they were freezing, I thought it would have been brutal below but heat wise . interesting to know.

[@The_ZeroLine]

Surprising to hear a boiler room would be freezing anywhere. You always imagine them as being super hot, but they were just probably ridiculously more efficient then. I’m probably thinking of ancient coal fed engines like the Titantic.

[@barrytipton1179]

I was on R09 Ark royal wish I had visited the boiler and engine room built just after ww2

[@Yaivenov]

The positive air pressure in main machinery is interesting. The ship I served on (and is still commisioned) has the opposite, negative pressure in main machinery, as a damage control design choice; if there was a fire the gasses would not get pushed into surrounding spaces.

[@MrOhdead]

Wow is the boiler room open now?, done Belfast a few times over the last 40 years, last time lower deck was shut due to asbestos iirc.

[@wurlyone4685]

Boiler rooms were open when I visited in June, although the Engine room was shut that day for some reason, so I guess it varies by day.

[@johnmulligan7609]

I worked on HMS Belfast in the late 80s or early 90s making the food for conferences which they held on board.had to carry big pans up and down the stairs,which are little more than ladders. But my father who is long gone as a young man built the boilers for a couple of ships possibly Exeter and Coventry, I could be wrong about the names.

[@cliffnelson1174]

I have always been fascinated by the ww2 technology that was implemented in the day and how Absolutely amazing it still is to this day.

[@abzzeus]

There was and still is asbestos on board and a lot of that will be in the engine room as insulation

[@philhawley1219]

My first thought too.

[@GapeGang]

All public areas on HMS Belfast identified as containing asbestos have been sealed or encapsulated and are inspected regularly by the ship’s maintenance team.

[@abzzeus]

@@GapeGang Yes TODAY but the guys serving on & fighting the ship wouldn't have that luxury. When those steam pipes burst aerosolized asbestos would be in the engine room.

[@kleinjahr]

@@abzzeus They'd have some rather more immediate and pressing concerns in that case.

[@abzzeus]

@@kleinjahr yes but people forget that engineers on board would suffer years later, it wasn't some immediate injury.

[@tonyInPA]

Hope to be aboard HMS BELFAST when in London in about 2 weeks, just before my mistress USS NEW JERSEY goes to drydock 21 March…assuming all goes to plan!

[@soultraveller5027]

men who served in theses Warships in WW 1/2 era who's job initialed working in the engine / boiler rooms were the least likely to escape. Stuck several decks down deep into the ship when action stations was called and battle imminent the captain would order all watertight doors closed effectively sealing you in a iron coffin very much like a Subermaine under attack them below were doomed being hit by a torpedo for instance usually knocked out the lighting so you were in pitch black the ship taking on water flooding compartments in theses cases the men trapped drowned sacrificed to save the ship and rest the ship's crew a shell hitting the boiler room would result in a massive explosion causing superheated steam piping to rupture resulting killing everybody in the boiler room and engine room they were many instances of smaller warships like destroyers Corvettes and cruisers going down all hands in combat that's over 500 men lost in one vessel

[@rtqii]

Pressurized engine rooms are a nightmare. The US had destroyers with pressurized engine rooms back in WWI. The compressors would pressurize the engine room to provide positive air pressure for the boilers and force flue gas up the stack. I have heard, but cannot confirm that a sudden loss in pressure resulted in flue gas and flames exiting the firebox and into the engine room.

[@Mike44460]

I would be very interesting to see the machine tools that cut those main drive gears and the craftsman that ran them, no CNC back in the days they were made.

[@bush_wookie_9606]

I'm 6ft 2 and managed to get into 1 of the gun magazines, let's just say I wouldn't be surviving if the ship got hit.

[@scottjackson1420]

Can you help me with your job title abbreviations? In the boiler room, "there was "a P.O. in charge," and "one or two leading M.E.M.'s." What exactly does all this mean?

[@thechongwolla]

P.O is Petty Officer. Like a Non-comissioned Officer in the Army. M.E.M is Marine Engineering Mechanic.

[@scottjackson1420]

@@thechongwolla Thank you for the information!

[@fredholmes6284]

My dad was on a convoy carrier which belfast was on one of the convoys he did (Russian convoy)

[@sunsetusa6926]

I had a professor in college that served as a stoker during vietnam and he said they waived a broomstick in their path so that it was severed over their body and they weren't allowed to whistle just like the stoker interviewed here.

[@vernsmart5447]

Very interasting.

[@Ethan.401]

3:41 does anyone know the music used here?

[@trevorzzealley2670]

Correct me if I`m wrong , but would all that white cladding wrapped around the steam pipes ,etc contain asbestos ?

[@Ukraineaissance2014]

Not just contain asbestos, but is basically asbestos, stabilised though I believe.

[@petarvanj4343]

I was Captain in 1958-1960 and 1971-72

[@CaptainRonAhoy]

The telegraph or gauge at 4:16, what is that? Doesn't look like engine commands.....please explain. Thanks for the great video.

[@kevincrosby1760]

EOT. Engine Order Telegraph. Used to convey generic "Group Speeds" from the Bridge to Engineering. Useful for "gross" adjustments like how hard you are firing the boilers. Specific speeds would have been ordered by specifying a Shaft RPM".

[@CaptainRonAhoy]

@@kevincrosby1760 Thank you Kevin!.....

[@kevincrosby1760]

@@CaptainRonAhoy All ships are different. Some lose steerage below a certain speed and wallow all over the place. Others can easily steam away into the distance at a speed others can't come close to. Some ships can change speed faster than others. In a convoy, the various speed groups are determined beforehand and distributed to all ships. This allows the group commander to order a speed of "Ahead Full" and be certain that it is within the capabilities of every vessel in the group. The ship I was on did NOTHING fast due to size. Increasing speed resulted in acceleration which was barely noticeable. I've seen Frigates squat at the stern, pull the bow up, and leave sporting a rooster tail behind them. Part of the built in parameters of a Speed Group" is also how fast you make the change to the ordered speed.

[@CaptainRonAhoy]

@@kevincrosby1760 Thanks Kevin, interesting. I can see how that would help in coordinating activities with different performance levels. So, were you in the British navy? Seems like your average sailor working in these engine rooms would end up deaf if not for protection.

[@kevincrosby1760]

@@CaptainRonAhoy US Navy, and you are correct. I'm just barely scraping the line between "low normal" and "legally hearing impaired". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Kansas_City_(AOR-3)

[@rhyswebb3581]

I was a crew member in 1969/70

[@user-mo5hz9kp6y]

Out of curiosity. If the safety systems were bypassed what would have been the absolute speed.

[@12345NoNamesLeft]

If you are going to use short forms like PO and MEM, explain what they are.

[@ImperialWarMuseums]

Good point! We've added this to the subtitles.

[@scottjackson1420]

@@ImperialWarMuseums I just asked this question when I saw this video! lol