Quote:
Originally Posted by DWBOX2000
I walked around the Yorktown yesterday. First, let me say I was blown away by the size of it. It was like a large floating convention center.
The big question I had was being in the engine room. approximately how many people were needed to run something like that. I could not believe the number of switches and valves, there must have been thousands. Regarding man power, how did they know what switch did what?
Last thing, I didn’t realize how much the carrier dwarfed the battleship there (USS Laffey).
Great day, I learned quite a bit.
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I served onboard the USS Dewey DDG-45 in the main engine room. I googled the USS Yorktown to see its main propulsion system for reference. It had eight boilers, four steam turbines, and four propellers. The ship I served had half of that – four boilers, two steam turbines, and two propellers – the Dewey was a 1,200 psi steam plant (I am guessing the Yorktown was as well). The Dewey had two main engine rooms and well as two fire rooms. Our normal manning for each main engine room which covered two main generators, one steam turbine, and one main reduction gear for the propeller was
only five people – a messenger, lower-level man, upper-level man, throttleman, and machinist mate of the watch. The upper-level man also was in charge of the evaporator for making potable water from sea water (boiling this salty water at a balmy 75 F temperature to make fresh water for, most importantly, the boiler feedwater sysyem and secondarily for cooking and drinking, and lastly for showering - sometimes, we went days without being able to shower!). The manning levels for the four main propulsion spaces while at sea was approximately 21 sailors including those boiler technicians that served in those ever-hot fire rooms.
Yes, lots of valves we have to know about – several were critical and, yes, there were a few that no one had any idea on what was their service.
Just like 'bob deluke' stated, the engine rooms got hot... especially while were in the Persian Gulf yet the fire rooms were even hotter - those poor guys were falling out on the deck plates.
Interestingly, I attended a reunion for the USS Dewey DDG-45 last year. I left just a few months prior to its decommissioning in 1990. For the first day and a half of the reunion, I was the youngest representative there (I was 59 at the time). There were former sailors there that served onboard as early as 1960 (the ship was commissioned in 1959). This was a great opportunity to find out details about some of the stories I heard while assigned to that ship... mostly about the boiler room explosion that happened in Toulon, France in 1969. Navy ships are dangerous places!!!