Laundry Room on USS Hornet

[sudsmaster]

Of course.

I was just tired, ya know.

Steam pipes were all over that ship. It must have been toasty in the tropics.

 

[launderess]

You Want To Hear About Horrible

Speak with men who fired up boilers and shoveled coal into them on ships, military or otherwise. Hours on end heaving coal into a boiler in the bowels of ship would have been bad enough say crossing the Atlantic during winter, but oh how it must have been in the tropics!

 

[sudsmaster]

I think the Hornet's boilers were fired by oil, not coal.

But it still must have been quite warm in those engine rooms.

And probably all those pipes are chock full of asbestos based insulation.

 

[supersuds]

It was oil firing by this time, yes. Some may remember the credit Winston Churchill received, as First Lord of the Admiralty before WWI, for converting the Royal Navy from coal to oil.

There are some sad stories of men being scalded to death from live steam during enemy attacks, but at the time there was no real option for powering larger ships. The nuclear-powered vessels still use steam turbines today, but destroyers in the US Navy use gas turbines, made by GE I think. They're derived from the engines used on 747s.

 

[sudsmaster]

I would imagine the destroyers use gas turbines because they are quicker to fire up and get to full power than a steam based system - which must rely on getting a boiler/steam generator up to a full head of steam. And maybe the gas turbines are lighter.

 

[supersuds]

Yes to both. I think the British were the first to use gas turbines in warships, starting in the 1950s. At first they were an adjunct to a steam plant, but they allowed the vessel to get underway immediately in an emergency, and could provide a burst of speed.

Our current big destroyers/cruisers use 4 gas turbines, two to a shaft. For most use, only one turbine per shaft needs to be running. Gas turbines traditionally were not very economical at part load, so this helps to compensate. Some navies like to use one gas turbine and one diesel engine per shaft. The diesels provide a very long cruising range.

 

[sudsmaster]

I dimly recalled there was a laundry area deeper in the bowels of the vessel, but it was either off limits or all the equipment had been removed. The next time I visit I'll see if I can find it again and get some answers.