Writing: The Night Before Lightoff

[ehbowen]

I served aboard a US Navy battleship in the 1980s, in the engineering plant. Operating a marine steam plant is fast becoming a lost art (virtually all ships at sea these days use either gas turbines or Diesels), so I thought I would compose this paean to bringing the heart of a ship to life. Enjoy. See also https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3339206/1/The-Night-Before-Lightoff.

The Night Before Lightoff
with annotations…and apologies to Clement Clarke Moore!1
By Eric H. Bowen, MM1 (former)
USS Missouri (BB-63) #3 Engine Room “A” shift MMOW, 1988-2

'Twas the night before lightoff, and all through the ship,
the sailors were grousing and shooting off lips.
“No heat! No hot water! Cold showers!” they cry,
but when they complain, all we do is sigh.

The shore steam is hooked up and flowing, you see,
but all of it's going to DFT 3.
A feed booster pump runs in recirculation,
so the feed from the tanks gets full deaereation.3

And my watch team is settled all snug in their racks,
(except for the poker game...open with jacks!)4
But down in the fireroom the midwatch still toils,
Before they are through, the water will boil.

By two the DA tank is full of hot feed,
the shore steam is shifted, it has a new need.
The emergency feed pump’s reciprocating starts,
filling the boiler and warming its heart.5

There’s just steam for one forced draft blower to spin,
(They purge by the chart...not just on a whim!)6
The electric fuel pump is now on the line,
The burner barrel’s ready7—and now it is time.

At zero three hundred, right on the dot,
the Zippo comes out, the torch is now hot.8
The porthole is opened, the torch goes inside,
and ignites the flame as the fuel’s opened wide.

Bit by bit now the gauge starts to rise,
a hundred an hour is the CHENG’s formal guide. 9
The morning watch paces the steam escalation,
and ensures all is well for plant activation.

Auxiliary steam is now brought on line,
Main feed pumps are started…so far things look fine. 10
The oil lab tests the fuel and feed water,
It must be just so…not ‘close to’ or ‘oughta.’11

The 1MC call awakes me from slumber,
‘Reveille, reveille,’ the Boatswain’s Mate thunders.
I dressed all in blue, from my head to my feet,
and my shirt was all stained with traces of grease.

First reveille, breakfast, and muster (bit late!)
I’m down on the deckplates at quarter of eight.
The watch is relieved, my team is in place,
As top watch I now am in charge of this space.12

The boilers are ready, the pressure’s six hundred,
The turbogen start must now be conducted.
Inspection’s completed, a message is spoken,
And the boiler room answers, “The turbo stop's open!”13

The aux circ pump's running, the recirc's in high, 14
the sparky is waiting, he gives us the sign.
Now gland seal! Air ejectors! 15 Now hand crank the pump!
When you see the beam rise, give the throttle a bump!16

Slowly at first, the shaft rotates and spins,
He speeds it up gently, until it's all in.
The tach reads twelve hundred; the throttle's open wide,
“On the governor, top watch!” the man calls with pride.17

From my post on the deckplates the vacuum I read,
Twenty-one...twenty-two...and now twenty-three.
At twenty-five inches I leaned back and crowed,
“Number five's ready for electrical load!”18

The CHENG gives an order, a breaker is closed,
in the fireroom gauges show positive flow.
The torch flames again as the superheater's lit,
It’s six hundred degrees in just a little bit.19

Number three plant is now steaming aux,20
and the other three plants are now starting to rock.
Steam blows from the drains as the cross-connects open,
with the loop to full pressure we really get going.21

The lower level watch has been marking time,
as we bring on the main it is his turn to shine.
First the steam lube oil pump, then the jacking gear motor,
then SICLOS the main…all is in order.22

Our upper level watch begins raising vacuum,
Sea suctions are opened…main circ pump’s in action.
Gland seal’s applied; air ejectors on suction,
The hotwell’s aligned, condensate pumps are going.23

Before the main engines are ready for steam,
the drains must be opened, the throttles to bleed.
We’ve now reached the climax of our little plot,
the fireroom opens the big main steam stop.24

We’ve verified pressure, the drains have blown clear,
we now disengage the main jacking gear.
Crack open the bypass, five turns of the wheel,
Ahead guarding valve…now that’s a big deal!25

The rotors can’t stall, or else they might bow,
we can’t put on way…that you must know!
So ahead, then astern, the throttles are cracked,
An eye on the shaft…first forward, then back.26

We’re ready to rumble…the first, not the last,
but soon reports come from the other three shafts.
The chief engineer phones the bridge for to tell,
“Engineering is ready to answer all bells!”27

It won’t be long now ‘til we hear the Bridge say,
“It’s time to shift colors…we’re now under way!”28
But be sure and know as we steam out of sight,
The World’s Greatest Navy is game for the fight!29

1 In addition to being a personal reminiscence, this poem is intended to document the vanishing art of operating a
large marine steam power plant. These annotations amplify on the text and give additional technical details.

2 While watch standers could be and were assigned to any watch in the rotation, the reference here is from the fact
that my watch team was chosen to stand “A” shift (0800-1200) during the Operational Propulsion Plant
Examination conducted aboard USS Missouri in 1988. This was the shift which drew the majority of the
examiners’ attention and ran the greatest number of emergency casualty drills. Number 3 engineroom served as
Main Engine Control on the Iowa-class ships, which meant that we were under even closer scrutiny throughout the
tests. We passed the examination with flying colors.

3 In order to preserve the boiler steel from oxygen pitting corrosion, the feed water is processed through a
“Deaereating Feed Tank”. This tank is designed to take advantage of the fact that water’s capacity to hold
dissolved oxygen is minimal at the saturation point, or the point where hot water begins to turn to steam. This
removes oxygen and also has the added benefit of preheating the feed water which increases overall fuel
efficiency. One of the feed booster pumps is run by an electric motor (the other two are steam-driven) and is
equipped with a recirculation line back to the DFT for just this kind of evolution.

In normal operation, the water is “scrubbed” using exhaust steam from auxiliary machinery. However, during
lightoff there is only shore steam, which is normally supplied at 150 psi through a small (less than 2 inch) hose.
Heating well over two thousand gallons of cold water to the boiling point takes a tremendous amount of steam.
And, as the shore steam is also the supply of heat for domestic hot water and space heating, sailors throughout the
ship just have to put up with some cold until the plant can be lit off safely and steam begins to be raised.

4 There was always a poker game going on in M-Division crew berthing. ALWAYS.

5 The Emergency Feed Pump, a steam operated reciprocating pump, was the “do-everything” pump for fresh water
down in the fireroom. It could take suction either from the DFT or else directly from the feed storage tanks and
send it to the boilers or wherever else it might be needed. While it couldn’t supply enough flow to satisfy the
boilers at operating power, it was perfect for startup or for safe shutdown after a casualty.

6 When lighting off a boiler, it is imperative to ensure that any unburned fuel has been “purged” from the firebox
prior to insertion of the lighted torch. Failure to do so can result in a boiler firebox explosion. Missouri’s boilers
had a formal chart, drawn up by the manufacturer (Babcock & Wilcox), of the time required to safely clear the
firebox for lightoff based upon the amount of “draft” (air pressure) in the firebox. This draft was supplied by the
three steam-driven Forced Draft Blowers mounted on the back of each boiler casing. Any two blowers could
supply enough draft to fire the boiler at full power; the third was an installed spare should one of the others go
down for any reason.

While using shore steam was the preferred method of lighting off, in a true emergency the plant could be lit off
with electric power only, using either shore power or just the internal power from the two diesel generators. One of
the fuel pumps and feed booster pumps in each fireroom was electric driven, as were the auxiliary condensate
pumps (for the generators); the emergency feed pump could run on compressed air from the ship’s compressors in
a pinch. To supply draft, the crew would go into the boiler “uptake” plenum and lay weighted canvas or plywood
covers over the holes in the armor deck which allowed exhaust ventilation from the fireroom to escape up to the
atmosphere. Then the fireroom exhaust fans (electric, again) would be run at high speed. Since the forced draft
blowers took suction from the fireroom exhaust ventilation plenum, this would push enough air into the boiler
casing to allow fires to be lit and steam to be raised. There would be no preheating or deaereation of the water, but
this was strictly an emergency procedure.

7 The M-type boilers installed in USS Missouri used “mechanical atomization” to convert the flow of fuel into a fine
spray into the firebox. However, mechanical atomization has a limited flow range, so the sprayer plates must be
physically changed out when going from a high power range to a low power range or vice versa. There were large
racks behind each burner front where spare burner barrels, with a variety of spray plates, were kept to facilitate
quick changes. Ideally all the sprayer plates in use would be the same size, but this was not always possible.
During “maneuvering” when the ship’s speed might change at any second, the Boiler Techs on burnerman duty
might seem to be performing a ballet...or undergoing a panic attack!

In more modern boilers which do not have the luxury of a large crew to run in “stickshift” mode and must be
automated, mechanical atomization does not provide enough of a power range. These boilers normally use steam
or air atomization, or else rotary cup burners which use electric power to distribute the fuel. This gives access to
the full boiler power range without the need of frequent manual changes to the burner nozzles.

8 Yes, in the renovated and recommissioned warship which was USS Missouri, the steam boilers which were the
heart of her power plant were ultimately lit off with a cigarette lighter...normally a Zippo!

9 While steam could be raised faster (and would, given orders to put to sea immediately), in order to reduce stress
and fatigue on the power plant the system was warmed up at a slower pace. On USS Missouri, the policy was to
pace the increase of steam pressure at 100 psig per hour, or six full hours from cold iron to normal working
pressure. “CHENG” is a Navy abbreviation for ‘Chief Engineer’, the officer (normally a Commander [O-5] on an
Iowa-class) in charge of the engineering plant, who was usually present in Main Control for plant startup from
cold iron.

10 The main feed pumps, as well as most of the auxiliary machinery on Iowa-class battleships, were driven by steam
turbines fed from 600 psi auxiliary (non-superheated) steam and exhausting to the auxiliary exhaust system at 15
psi. The aux exhaust steam was used to operate the deaereating feed tank under normal conditions; the plant design
was balanced for optimum efficiency at about 15 knots…standard cruising speed. At about this time, as well, the
steam-driven fuel oil pumps would have been started to take over the boiler load from the electric fuel pump,
which was normally used only for startup.

11 USS Missouri’s M-type steam boilers were operated with “Type B” water chemistry. While at this late date I
would not venture to share the exact parameters from memory without checking references, the water was tested
once per shift to ensure that it was within limits to ensure optimum boiler life. See this link for an example of the
tests run.

12 There is a chain of command in any marine engineering plant. While the Engineering Officer Of the Watch
(EOOW) had overall charge of plant operations throughout the ship and might engage, say, the throttleman nearby
in casual conversation, protocol required that any orders for the engineroom be relayed through the Machinist’s
Mate of the Watch (MMOW). Conversely, any reports which my watch team had for the EOOW would be relayed
to him through me, and acknowledged.

13 Up through this point the ship has been (presumably) on shore power. In starting the Ship’s Service Turbo
Generators (SSTGs), the ship is preparing to go fully on internal power. Missouri had eight SSTGs, each capable
of generating 1250 kilowatts of electricity, two SSTGs in each engine room. In engine room #3 the generators
were #5 and #6. The SSTGs had their own valves to supply superheated steam (the SSTGs and main engines were
the only equipment which used superheated steam) from the boilers, known as the ‘turbo stops’.

14 In order to start turbine-driven equipment such as an SSTG, you first need to ensure that you have somewhere for
the steam to go. For these generators two auxiliary condensers were installed in each engine room, one per
generator. The exhaust steam from the generators emptied into these condensers, where cold seawater pumped
through tubes by the auxiliary circ pumps would condense the steam back into water (condensate). In order to
ensure a continuous flow a portion of this condensate was recirculated into the condenser (recirc). When starting
the unit, the “high” recirc valve is opened; this dumps the recirculated condensate at the top of the condenser and
lets it flow down over the tubes to ensure that it is cooled which helps the condensate pump maintain suction.
Once the generator is on line and under electrical load there is enough condensate that this additional cooling is
unnecessary; at that time the “high” recirc valve is closed and the “low” recirc valve opened. The recirculated
condensate then mixes with the condensate coming into the hotwell at the bottom, providing a slight boost in
overall plant efficiency as it is not cooled and then reheated so much.

15 For maximum efficiency the condensers, both auxiliary and main, need to be under vacuum…as high a vacuum as
can be achieved. Since “nature abhors a vacuum,” air is always trying to leak in and must be excluded as much as
possible and removed when it does get in. “Gland seal” is very low pressure steam admitted to the labyrinth
packing glands where the turbine shafts emerge from the turbine casing; it blocks air from being drawn into the
turbine casing. “Air ejectors” are steam-operated jet pumps which operate continuously to draw any air out of the
condenser and remove it from the system.

16 An SSTG is an expensive and delicate piece of major equipment. It is designed to require lubricating oil under
pressure at all of the bearings at all times while in operation. For startup, oil had to be fed from a hand-cranked
pump. Normally, the messenger of the watch or the upper levelman would turn the crank of this pump until the
beam of the throttle valve could be seen to rise off of its stop. With the beam down the throttle valve could not be
opened…the wheel could be turned, but nothing would happen. But, with oil pressure to hold up the beam, the
throttle valve could be opened and allow steam to spin the turbine.

Once the turbine was spinning an attached lube oil pump would supply all of the oil required to safely operate the
turbine…until it was time to shut the generator down. With the throttle valve tripped, the generator would slow
until the point when the low lube oil pressure alarm sounded. At that point, someone had to resume hand cranking
the lube oil pump until the turbine shaft came to a complete stop. This took several minutes. Although normal
practice was to have another watch stander assist the generator watch with this task, an experienced generator
watch could do it by himself if necessary. I have, several times.

17 Missouri’s SSTGs were 6-pole alternators. In order to maintain 60 cycles (Hertz), they had to spin at 1200 rpm
exactly. A digital tachometer was installed during the 1985 renovations; it was more accurate than the original
1943 frequency meters installed in the switchboards. An adjustable mechanical governor maintained the generator
speed in normal operation (‘on the governor’). When generators were being operated in parallel (frequently, for
redundancy) the load had to be balanced between them periodically. To shift load from #5 generator to #8
generator, the governor for #8 generator would be bumped “up”, slightly, while the governor for #5 generator was
bumped “down”. The electrician’s mates at both switchboards would communicate to ensure both generators were
equally loaded. To balance current flow, the voltage regulator setting for one generator would be increased while
the other was decreased.

18 While the generators could be started and warmed up with very little vacuum, in order to generate power the
vacuum had to rise to 25 inches of mercury. Otherwise the generator exhaust trunk would overheat, which would
be hard on the condenser. It also might result in a trip of the generator on back pressure. At 25” of vacuum
(measured as inches of mercury below sea level atmospheric pressure) the vacuum was sufficient to allow the
generator to operate under load at full power, although higher vacuum was always better (28-29” was normally
achievable).

19 “Superheated” steam is steam which has been heated above saturation temperature. In the boiler proper (steam
drum), the steam is in contact with liquid water at saturation temperature. Additional heat causes the pressure to
rise, possibly to the point where the safety valves will lift. But when the steam is removed from the steam drum
(by way of the steam separators and demisters, to remove as much moisture as possible) and then routed back into
a separate heat exchanger in the boiler, it gains additional heat and energy which boosts the amount of power
which can be extracted in the main turbines and generators. Missouri’s ‘M-type’ (so named because the
arrangement of tube banks around the two furnaces very roughly resembled the letter ‘M’) boilers had what is
known as a “separately fired” or controllable temperature superheater. Besides the main (saturated) furnace with
five burners there was a separate furnace with four burners which raised the temperature of the steam. Since these
burner controls were separate, the steam temperature could be precisely controlled by the burnermen on watch.

In order to light superheater fires without damaging the delicate heat exchanger tubes you had to ensure that there
was enough flow of steam through the heat exchanger to remove the heat; otherwise the tubes would burn up and
leak. The magic number was a 2” (water column) drop of pressure through the superheater. On smaller ships with
M-type boilers, such as WWII destroyers, the required positive flow of steam might not be achieved until the ship
was making five knots or better. However, USS Missouri with her large internal power requirements used enough
steam that superheater fires could be safely lit any time a turbogenerator (SSTG) was on line and electrically
loaded. The burnermen would raise the temperature of the steam from 480°F (saturation temperature at 600 psig)
to 600° when steaming auxiliary, 750° when maneuvering, or 850° when underway steaming at a steady speed.

Separately fired superheaters give consistent and dependable steam temperatures, but are difficult to automate.
Later naval designs with so-called ‘D’ type boilers had no temperature control; the final temperature was whatever
it was. In order to ensure positive flow ALL steam passed through the superheater; a ‘desuperheater’ which
exchanged heat back to the bottom water (mud) drum was installed to provide saturated steam for auxiliary
equipment. Occasionally the desuperheater was external, with a controller which sprayed feed water into the steam
to lower its temperature. Naval ships which use nuclear power are unable to use superheated steam as US reactors
are designed to produce saturated steam only; their plants must be configured for its use with consequent lower
efficiency. But with the virtually unlimited endurance which nuclear power provides, plant efficiency is of
secondary importance.

20 When ‘steaming aux’ only the turbogenerators and essential plant equipment are on line, consequently the
manpower requirement was significantly reduced. In normal underway operation the engine room watch team
consisted of a top watch (MMOW), generator watch, upper levelman, lower levelman, throttleman, and messenger.
For auxiliary steaming the throttleman was superfluous and the generator and upper level watch could be
combined; indeed, on a few occasions we combined the lower level watch as well so as to steam auxiliary with
only three watch standers in the engine room. This was the normal configuration when in a foreign port; it allowed
the engineers to keep three section duty with two sections free to go ashore on liberty and leaving the remaining
duty section a reasonable work load.

21 Naval ships have extensive cross-connects to allow continued operation under conditions of battle damage or
malfunctions. The auxiliary steam main was a loop which encircled the entire engineering plant, with one plant
‘hot’ all of the other plants could raise steam in short order (keeping in mind the 100 psi per hour thermal
limitation, of course). Main steam could also be cross-connected between adjacent plants; in the event of an
emergency order to put to sea while steaming auxiliary in-port those cross-connects could be opened and the duty
section would be able to raise vacuum in the mains and get the ship underway on two shafts very quickly.

22 Lubricating oil is a necessity when warming up and starting up the main turbines; unlike some ships Missouri’s
main engines had no attached lube oil pump and either the steam or electric lube oil pumps had to be running
whenever the shafts were turning. Normally the steam lube oil pump was operated with the electric pump as a
backup which would automatically start if lube oil pressure was lost for any reason. The “jacking gear” is a wormdrive
high-reduction motor-driven assembly which connects to the main engines through a jaw clutch; it allows the
main engines to be “jacked” (turned over very slowly) while warming up to prevent the rotors from becoming
bowed due to the hot steam above and cool vacuum below. It also permits the shaft to be locked if necessary for
any reason, even under way with the other three shafts turning. ‘SICLOS’ is a Navy acronym for “Shift, Inspect, &
Clean Lube Oil Strainers.” With oil circulating and the shaft being jacked it is an opportune time to open and
inspect the strainers (they are a duplex set; one can operate while the other is being cleaned) to ensure that no
foreign material is circulating in the oil before the main engines are fully brought on line.

23 Much as with the SSTGs, the main condenser must be prepared to accept steam before the engines can be warmed
up. First the sea suction valves are opened, three of them: The main circulating pump suction, the scoop injection
valve (which, as from its name, scoops up water when the ship is moving forward at ten knots or more, meaning
that the main circulating pump does not need to run unless maneuvering is anticipated), and the overboard
discharge valve to let the water out after it has absorbed latent heat from the exhaust steam and condensed it back
into water. These are very large valves, too large to operate manually, so a motorized operator was installed for
them. It did have a manual handwheel for emergencies, but your watch might be over before you succeeded in
closing the valves manually! The motor operator was used exclusively.

With the valves opened the steam-driven main circulating pump could be started in order to run cooling water
through the main condenser in order to condense the steam. Again, gland seal steam is applied to the two main
turbines...high pressure and low pressure...in order to seal the shaft and keep air from entering and steam
escaping. For the main condenser hotwell (the collection point for condensate at the bottom of the condenser),
again the appropriate recirculation line...high for startup and maneuvering; low for cruising at sea…was opened
and the condensate pumps (on the other side of the bulkhead in the lower level of the fireroom) were started by the
fireroom’s lower level watch. For the auxiliary condensers the condensate pumps and circulating pumps were
electric (as befits auxiliaries for an electric generator), but in the main steam cycle the pumps on an Iowa-class
ship were almost exclusively steam-driven. Only one feed booster pump, one little-used fuel oil pump, and,
following refit, one lube oil pump in each plant were electric. USS Missouri could make 32 knots without a single
volt of electricity anywhere in the ship! Of course, in such a scenario the engineering plant would become
intolerably if not lethally hot in very short order as all ventilation was electrically powered.

24 Any time that you open a valve to allow hot steam into a cold length of pipe, you are going to have condensation
and water hammer. In your home water hammer may be only a noisy nuisance, but with six hundred pounds of
pressure behind a slug of water fittings can break and elbows can rupture with potentially lethal results. For this
reason drain valves with steam traps as well as “bypass” valves which could allow a slow trickle of steam to warm
up the line were installed at all major steam system and cross-connect valves. It was very important to warm the
piping slowly and allow all of the water to drain before the large valves were opened. And no steam valve on the
ship was larger than the main steam stop, which allowed steam to flow from the boilers into the engine room.

25 The ahead guarding valve is another very large steam valve; it is installed immediately before the main engine
ahead throttle. The throttle is a very complex assembly; in fact, the ahead throttle is seven separate valves camoperated
from a common shaft to open in sequence. Four of these valves feed the nozzle blocks in the first stage of
the high pressure turbine, while the last three are “overload” valves which dump raw main steam into the turbine
shells of the first, fourth, and eighth stage respectively. The technical manual laconically notes that opening this
last valve fully will “develop power in excess of the rating of the equipment.” In other words, you may go very
very fast or you may find that a chain is only as good as its weakest link and break something.

It is quite possible that one of these cam-operated valves could stick open at a time when it needs to be shut now.
For this reason the ahead guarding valve (there is also an astern guarding valve and astern throttle, but they are
smaller and much simpler) is installed directly above the throttleman’s watch station. Should the ahead throttle
stick he can spin the wheel shut to isolate steam from the main engine until the problem can be corrected. Being a
large valve, the guarding valve needs a bypass as well. In this case, the bypass is internal. The first five turns of the
valve handwheel open the internal bypass; after which the main valve opens. Best practice is to open the wheel
five turns, test the ahead throttle to make sure that it opens and closes properly, and then open the guarding valve
all the way.

26 With the jacking gear disengaged and steam to the main engines they cannot be allowed to remain still. The hot
steam above and the cool vacuum below will cause the rotor to bow. Not a great deal, but enough to cause
dangerous vibration at the very high speeds at which the main turbines spin. The solution is to allow the
throttleman to crack the ahead throttle a bit, spin the shaft a half revolution or so (of the propeller...the gearing
means that the turbine rotors will make several revolutions), and then immediately close the ahead throttle, open
the astern, and run the shaft in reverse. Then repeat every thirty seconds or so. As long as the spins are brief, and
especially with the other three shafts doing the same thing at random, no motion will be imparted to the ship until
the bridge orders an ahead or astern bell. Putting ‘way’ on the ship when the Captain isn’t calling for it is a big nono!

27 “Ready to answer all bells” is the traditional Navy notification that the engineering plant is fully ready to put to
sea. Aboard USS Missouri two Engine Order Telegraphs were installed on the bridge; one transmitted commands
for the port shafts and the other for the starboard shafts (Running one set of shafts forward and the other aft at the
same time allows the conning officer to put a ‘twist’ on the ship which can be extremely useful when maneuvering
in tight quarters, especially if tugs are not available). On Missouri the EOTs were set up to allow the bridge to ring
up “STOP”, “1/3” (5 knots), “2/3” (10 knots), “STANDARD” (15 knots), “FULL” (20 knots), and “FLANK”
(maximum speed). Astern was similar, although no “Flank” was available astern (the astern turbines are much
smaller and less efficient than the ahead turbines). Twisting these EOTs to “ring up” a speed change caused a bell
to ring in the engine room; the throttleman had a red “answer” pointer which would be turned to match the white
“order” pointer so that the bridge knew we had received the order and were complying with it. As there were only
two EOTs engine room #3 handled the answer pointer for the starboard shafts while engine room #4 had the
answer pointer for the port shafts; the other two enginerooms had only EOT repeaters. Repeaters were also
installed in the fire rooms at the boiler fronts; the boiler technicians need to know about and respond to a speed
change right now! Another repeater for the port shafts was installed at the throttle board in engineroom #3; as it
was used as Main Engine Control it allowed the EOOW to stay aware of the orders for both sides of the ship.

To be complete, when giving notification of “Ready to answer all bells” the Chief Engineer would also add, “A
Flank bell is XX knots” depending upon the configuration of the plant. With four boilers driving four shafts,
Missouri could make 27 knots. Doubling the boiler power...and the fuel consumption!...by lighting off all eight
boilers gave us only an additional five knots...the power requirement is proportional to the CUBE of the speed!
Needless to say eight boiler ops were very rare, which kept our BTs (Boiler Technicians) happy...eight boiler ops
for any kind of an extended period essentially ensured that all of them would be “six and six” (six hours on watch,
six hours off...but you also had day work to accomplish during the six hours off!) until it was complete. Other
plant configurations...say, if a shaft had to be locked underway (as happened on the 1986
Circumnavigation)...could result in other answers to the question of what a Flank bell is.

For “fine tuning” speed, another telegraph was installed; this one allowed the bridge to ring down the exact engine
RPM which they wanted the engineering plant to maintain.

28 “Underway—Shift Colors” is the traditional call over the ship’s 1MC (public address system) when the last
mooring line has been cast off. “Shift Colors” refers to the fact that US Navy ships fly the national ensign (flag)
from the fantail and the Union Jack (fifty stars on a blue field...upper left corner of the US flag) from the bow
when anchored or moored, but fly the ensign from the peak or truck of the mast while under way. So, when the
ship’s status changes from “moored” to “underway”, colors are shifted...the jack at the bow and the ensign at the
stern are hauled down at the same time the ensign on the mast is hauled up to its peak...smartly.

29 If you have not figured it out by now, I consider it a rare privilege to have had the opportunity to serve aboard the
most powerful surface warship ever built during the years in which the Cold War was finally won. It was a time
and a convergence of events which may never occur again, and I will be grateful for the experience as long as I
live. Fair winds and following seas to you all, but especially to my shipmates then and now.

--------Eric H. Bowen, August 2019