Hamner (DD 718) - Naval Cruise Book

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tips and varying the fuel oil pressure to tightly control the volume of steam generated and, by watching the color of exhaust gases through the periscope above the economizers, controlling the intake air pressure to insure efficient combustion and clear stacks. In port there is normally one boiler due for interior cleaning of firesides, water- sides, or both to keep half our crew busy on an around the clock schedule. For the other half there are always cuts to be taken on leaking steam or water valves, gaskets to be renewed, insulation patched up, scrub brushes for taking off the fuel oil spillage from the boiler fronts and slippery deck plates, and plenty of paint brushes for applying blue tinted white paint over our yellow stained bulkheads. We're used to being HOT and HUMID, and the day has not passed yet that our hands, arms and faces are not stained with the oil and soot of our boilers. Our dungarees, when pur- chased, were regulation, but, with the passage of time and close association with the fuel oil and combusion soot, our dungarees shirts are general- ly discarded in favor of worn discolored T shirts, the pants become black, the shoes oil soaked, and the hats turned down, frayed, stained and greyed. We make some of the thickest, blackets coffee ever brewed and for certain untold reasons, left- overs such as pies, roast beef, bread, etc., seem- ingly misplaced from the galley, normally make their last appearance in our firerooms. Having all of the ship's water tanks padding the sides of our firerooms and conveniently spaced with depth testing spigots provides assurance that we boiler- men will never be thirsty during water hours! AFTER FiREnooM-from Row: HELMS w. H., ESPINOZA, MOLES, GREENE, CAMPBELL .l. M. Back Row: COURTNEY, LYONS, RANDT, JENKINS, H. S., MACREADY, ALLEN, J. R., KANAE, GUPTILL, JOSEPHSON. Missing: NU'lTALL, PIKE, PHILLIPS. .. ,. ..

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if 42,7 FORWARD FIREROOM-Front Row: THEBO, SESSIONS, MENDIOLA, DVORAK, RUDD. Back Row: BELL, M. B., CLOWER, MAXEY, E. F., SZAFRANIEC, BOHN, STEWART, J. C., FRANKLIN, FUQUA, ALLEN, 1. H. Missing: HENDRICKSON. BOILERMEN Have you ever felt the suffocating heat in the HAMNER'S central passageway, spent hours wiping a thin coat of carbon off all topside areas, noticed foot prints of oil across the Boatswain's freshly swabbed decks or been a victim to the grimy sprinkle of black soot falling lazily from the after stack while standing on the quarterdeck in dress whites awaiting -a liberty boat? lf your answer is anything short of a vivid AFFlRlVlATlVE, you aren't a veteran of the HAMNER. With a devious smile and a mischievous gleam in our eyes, we BT's host the uncontested honor of providing HAMNERites with these readily available, highly unpopular services in conjunction with our duties of steaming any to all of the HANlNER's four powerful 850 F, 600 psi M type boilers which with their associated pumps and piping fill the two spaces known as the forward and after firerooms. Every watt of power used aboard the HAMNER, excepting that generated by the seldom used diesels, originates in the combustion of pressure sprayed fuel oil with supercharged air inside our insulation brick lined fireboxes to produce high temperature steam by heating the longitudinal rows of water filled generating tubes to well over 10000 Fahrenheit. Using little of this steam ourselves, we send it through large well insulated steam lines to the Machinist's Mates in the enginerooms for their use and further distribution. We've produced the steam to complete our job, what they do with it now is their business. Regardless of the ship's general watch rotation, underway we BT's are always on one in three, For eight hours daily we live by our boilers regulating the water level in the water drum, cutting in or out additional burners, changing sprayer 4' I' if

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MACHlNIST'S We Machinist's Mates are the men who channel the surging, poten- tially explosive steam through nozzles against speedily revolving blades of the steam turbines, draw this soon expended steam swifty out of the turbines by condensing it violently in a 1200F, 29 mercury vacuum, then scrub the new feed water free of any entraped air and recharge it to 850 psi prior to sending it back to the boilers for re-use. lt is the rapid turbine rotation which harnesses the restless steam energy to propel the HAMNER through the seas, provide electricity for all it's internal power requirements and sustain pressures for lube oil to thirsty bearings, reduction gears, etc. and for fuel and feed water to generate more steam. Living eight to twelve hours daily in the hot, moisture laden atmosphere of our enginerooms, maintained as such by imperfect turbine, pump and piping insulation and the vapors from many steam MM T3 28:2-F0 1QJx:i C744 iifw I 49,-X Cf FORWARD ENGINERDOM-Front Row: SPIVEY, FRINK, HENSON, H. E., HOLUB. Back Row: FOX, CAMPBELL, L. G., BOENZLI, RANDALL, DAVIS, R. P. Missing: WEBB, 1. W., FARMER. MATES leaks, renders us habitual consumers of large amounts of water and salt tablets, and our drowsy appearance on watch stems from hours of warding off tempting sleep while blankly staring toward the seldom varying pressure and temperature gauges spotting the throttle boards and the evaporator shell fronts. The motions of spinning the main throttle wheels in answer to bells of a new speed or the hourly routine of recording readings from the many gauges about the enginerooms do little to puncture this shield of slugginess, but let there be a marked change to the main steam, feed water, auxiliary exhaust or condenser vacuum pressures, a sudden drop in the de-aerating tank level, over- heating in one of the main spring or turbine bearings or an accelerating whine from inside a turbine. Wowl, then things really hop! For if the cause of the casualty is not found and corrected in a matter of seconds, ie: ,fa-1.5 E ...'!,!i . frm -