Battleship Sized Propeller Shafts 

I'm glad you demonstrated "riding the shaft" because knowing several sailors myself I would not have guessed that to be the action that phrase was referring to....

Every year Ryan is the curator he adds an inch to the dangly bit of his belt.

Our shaft (CV59 #3 MMR) had a roulette wheel (including 00) painted on the shaft that could be viewed by an angled mirror in the control booth. Much fun and angst was had pulling into ports each time the shaft came to a full stop.

I once went on a tour of a shop that had bought an ancient propeller shaft lathe from a shipyard in Scotland. The lathe bed was 125' between centers and the chuck was 6' in diameter. They bought it for the 6' chuck and never used more than the first 2 feet of the bed. Most of the time it was just used to spray weld and heat treat 5' diameter titanium alloy rocket motor o-rings (like the one that failed on the space shuttle). They still set up the entire 125' bed anyway, including the massive tailstock, but past the first 5 feet, it was only used as a storage rack for shipping pallets.

I always feel sad none of the engineering components won't ever come to life again .. the shaft and turrets are in their graves ... It truly is a memorial to classic components

All of this was designed not by electronic computers but by slide rulers and the human computer. Absolutely amazing and scary for that shake down cruise to see if everything would work as planned. It worked well and through many "wars".

The level of your ship knowledge is quite remarkable. Videos like this one show your intricate understanding of the historic ship you curate. Which brings me to my question: How did you gain this deep grasp of the complex workings of a huge warship? Won't you devote a few minutes of one of your programs to letting us viewers know more about you and how you got to where you are? I have not seen a man who is more at ease in his work than you. Clearly, you are perfectly at home deep within the guts of a battleship. .

This guy is great. Mounting that shaft, he is the “Carl Spackler” of battleship curators. This truly is interesting information with a little humor thrown in. Great stuff.

The sprng (or line) bearings are essential because, believe it or not, the shaft can whip at certain rpms -- you wouldn't think something that thick in steel could bend and flex, but it can. Without those bearings it would -- and the vibration would wreck stuff in short order.

I look forward to more sailor antics being recreated for educational reasons.

My cousin was a *very* low ranked engine room enlisted sailor on the Ticonderoga class CG USS Gettysburg and his dad got to go down to Mayport and ride on the ship from Mayport to some other place for a few days and one of the things my cousin did was he showed him all the engine rooms where he worked and at one point, when Gettysburg was only going like 8 knots or something my cousin jumped onto the shaft and was riding it for a bit. They weren't supposed to be doing that cause a bunch of sailors had gotten hurt. So later in the day, further out from port and going along at like 18 knots or something, my uncle and my cousin are up somewhere else in the ship and my cousin sees some LT who was like his supervisor or something and he introduced the LT to his dad, and the LT says, "So Spaulding, did you show your dad the engine room?" My cousin says that he did. The LT says, "So Spaulding, did you let him ride the shaft?" My cousin says, "Sir, you know we don't do that anymore." Apparently, the LT immediately says, "Bullshit!" and my cousin replied, "Not at these speeds sir!"

Very impressive presentation, Ryan. You know your stuff. Thanks!

Well done! I’d also be interested in seeing rudder housings. I imagine they, like the propeller shafts, are also subjected to tremendous stresses - tens of thousands of tons of vessel all exerting angular momentum on them with every turn.

Lignum Vitae is from the Caribbean and Central America. It was used because nothing else is better. I like to make pens from this beautiful wood.

Can we have a thumb for Ryan? I mean he is like a walking, talking encyclopedia. Kudos to him and a big TY!

A modern in service tie in: the Queen Elizabeth class carrier Prince of Wales is tied up going to dry dock for repairs because of an issue with her shaft which caused extensive damage to the ship. Her prop struck her rudder, indicating the shaft was walking far out of alignment.

the scale of these things are awesome. Here's a bearing, it has its own 5kw oil pump.

I would love to hear more detail on the reduction gearboxes. When I went on the tour I believe you stated that they are technically owned by either GE or Westinghouse depending on who built them. Also if I remember correctly all the gears are hand scraped and as someone that has done hand scraping on machinery I find that to be incredible the amount of effort that would take. I believe there is one gearbox that no matter what they did it always had vibration that caused it to have to be rebuilt regularly.

As a retired engineer, who sailed on the diesel-electric Polaris class, Dutch pilot vessels, I loved this!👍

Gives the terms riding the shaft and stuffing box whole new meanings. Great binge worthy material 👍👍

As a Navy veteran we were told in boot camp that propellers are on aircraft. A ship has a screw.

The innuendo here is top-shelf.

Finally back to technical stuff about the NEW JERSEY.

Can we just agree that these ships are pieces of art?

Thank you for the safety tips regarding riding shafts. I've ridden many a shaft in my life and at times there have been injuries.

Another good pitch but not 100% accurate. Lignum Vitaeis only used for bearings outboard of the hull (strut bearing and shaft bearing outboard of the shaft seal). All spring bearings are babbitt lined and have lube rings that run through an oil sump. The spring bearings are not force lubricated. The "machine" that is identified as a lube filter is a centrifugal lube oil filter that is used to remove dirt and moisture from the reduction gear lube oil. As a retired MMC I've inspected, relined and serviced my share of shipboard bearings and not much has changed with shaft or thrust bearings in the last 100 years.

We always used to talk about riding the shaft, but I never saw anyone do it. I did find my mate Jacko led on the shaft asleep whilst we were alongside once. It was amazing as i had just found Dave Tippet asleep under the plates in the Aft Engine Room, and then went into the Aft AMR, and found Jacko on the Port shaft!

Most impressive display of horsepower I ever got to see during my time in the military was a flight of 4 C-130's hooking into an airfield at Fort Polk, Louisiana so we could board them and then jump out of them. 4, ea, Allison T56 turboprops per bird developing 4,590 SHP a piece= 18,360 farm animals per Herc. Times 4 equals 73,440 shaft horsepower in the air. The most impressive display of power I've ever seen was when my late grandfather took me and my older brother on a tour of the coal-fired power plant where he used to work. Showed us the boilers, the coal pile, the big Cat bulldozers that worked it, the control room, everything. The plant, near as I can figure, was rated for 625 MW or 838,139 horsepower.

On smaller vessels, it was a common practice to tighten up on the stuffing box fasteners when the vessel was in port, to minimize leakage, then loosen them when preparing to get under way. Was this also the practice on the IOWA’s?

These are very interesting and educational looks at the different parts of a warship. It is greatly appreciated.

On the subject of shaft twist under load, I ran some quick numbers. 54000 Horsepower at 202 RPM would result in a torque of 1,404,000 foot pounds. Assuming a 1 inch wall thickness for the shaft, I get a shear stress of 11,500 psi, which I think is reasonable. This results in a twist over 340 feet of length of 0.26 radians or about 15 degrees. Assuming a 2 inch wall thickness: Shear stress = 6,300 psi, twist = 0.145 radians or about 8 degrees. Interestingly, if one was willing to run a shear stress of 30,000 psi (which would be doable with the right steel but very sketchy and not last long). This would result in a twist of 0.686 radians or about 39 degrees, and a wall thickness of only 0.361 inches.

@ 6:00 you talk about the "shaft lube oil pump". That is a Sharples lube oil purifier to separate water and gunk out of the oil. Haven't seen an old fire & bilge pump like that for many years either! I'm surprised to see how close the machinery layout in the enginerooms are so similar to Sumner class DD enginerooms. Spring bearings are babbitt, it is the strut bearings that were lignum vitia (Latin translation = "wood of life"). It is slicker than snot when wet with sea water. The spring bearings are oiled with rings that rotate around the shaft as it turns. I can't see in the video, but there should be two flip up lids on top of the bearing, open it up, look in and you will see (usually) 2 brass rings in grooves. You had to check them underway to make sure they didn't hang up and stop oiling. I never saw one (the oilers) fail in 40 years.

50,000HP... that number rings a bell... that's how much HP is driving the turbopump of a Saturn V F1 engine. Loved this segment, really enjoy the nuts-and-bolts stuff (thinking of Tom Scott the older one!).

WOW! I had no clue some of the shafts were basically dang near as long at the ship. That is some engineering! Mind blown again that they used wood for a bearing.

Which brings up the next video: Gear reduction. I remember hearing the Navy leased the gear reduction units on Spruance class destroyers because they were so expensive. Zero to 60 in those big tin cans was impressive!

Could we have a video about what the noise was like in different parts of the ship when under way? Great content guys!

Had an oil pump go out on USS Sierra AD 18 back in the 70's. I had to stand watch in the shaft alley squirting oil into the cup 4 on 4 0ff until we got to port. We had the Lignum Vitae bearing blocks also.

I really love that even in the 1940s ships were designed with something like wood as a bearing material. Yes its a certain type of wood, but these days engineers would spend LOTS of money to come up with a manufactured material that may or may not work.

Was aboard USS Reuben James (FFG-57) when she got a heavy line tangled round her SINGLE shaft in Pusan harbor - bent the shaft JUST a tiny bit, but it sure gave vibrations - we limped to Japan for a week in dry-dock where they replaced the shaft.

I am in awe of the engineering that went into the design of this ship. And it was all done without computers.

"Riding the shaft"... Instantly I thought of that scene from Armageddon, where the space dimentia stricken fellow is "riding" the nuclear weapon. If you remember it, youll know the quote and why it came to mind LOL!!!

When I visited the Midway museum ship in San Diego - comparable size and also powered by steam turbines and reduction gearboxes, the docents said that if you painted a stripe along a propeller shaft at rest, under power it twists so much that if you could look all the way down one it would look like a candy cane. That's enormously huge torque. Your descriptions of stuffing boxes and bearings reminded me of recreational boats with inboard engines, except hundreds of times bigger!

ChiefS, excellent tour, you are down in my part of the boat, now, I can almost smell The bilge water!

I hope all these videos you created. Are all being archived in the library of congress for future generations.

A co-worker of mine was on the USS Nimitz during the 80"s. He told me they duct tapped a guy to the prop shaft. The shaft started rotating because the ship was getting away. The guys who did the duct tapping had looks on their faces like the kids from "A Christmas Story" when Flick got his tongue stuck to a frozen light pole. Then they all just took off leaving the guy tapped to the rotating prop shaft. Eventually the duct tape broke and the poor guy went flying.

**OMG THA K YOU FOR ANSWERING ABOUT THE BEARINGS!** when my brother and I visited recently we ask several people and nobody we talked to knew specifics. This was not only fascinating but exactly what I was wanting to know!

Readers here may not be aware, though I'm relatively sure Ryan is ... but Iowa class ships even at the end of their service lives were capable of speeds in excess of most of their GAS TURBINE powered escorts. When we were exercising with USS Iowa after her recommissioning, our Spruance class (gas turbine powered) destroyer was easily capable of out accelerating Iowa, but when she was given the opportunity to build up speed Iowa began pulling away from us even though we were maxed out. Ryan is correct when he said it took New Jersey and her sisters "quite a while" to get up to top speed. A modern tincan or cruiser can hit her top speed in less than three minutes, maybe two estimated. Our Spruance was twin screw with 40,000 hp on each screw from two 20k hp gas turbine engines for a total of 80,000 shaft hp vs an Iowa with 212k hp. Caron was 7,800 tons vs Iowa at about 50,000 tons or 58,000 tons full load. I still can't tell you how fast we were going because Spruance type hulls and powerplants are still in service in Ticonderoga class cruisers, it is classified. Iowa had us by about 2 knots more or less. Only nuclear powered carriers are faster to my knowledge.

RYAN thank you so much for your props tour. It is so interesting to see all the wear bearings that just make her work properly.

Another great video from the battleship. Keep it up

The engineering in that ship is absolutely amazed

A couple of corrections, having working in EMO1, I can completely say these things with confidence. 1. Spring bearings are made of Brass and Babbitt, not wood. They have 2 slinger rings to lubricate them from the oil sump on each bearing. There is no pressurized oil system on spring bearings. 2. The Lube Oil Purifier is NOT piped to the spring bearings. You manually drain and fill the bearing sump when the oil is dirty or needs changed. 3. Part of the reason engines don’t match the engine room is space. EMO1 and EMO2 are at the widest point in the ship, that way there is enough room for the machinery attached to the shaft to fit around the shafts. As you go further aft in the ship, the reduction gears/engines move thirds the center more, shafts 2&3, so the engine rooms can be narrower.

I think this is one of your best reports Brian . I learned answers to many things I wondered about

In these days if constant vitriol, these videos are such an awesome break. So interesting and, in a very good way, neutral! Thanks for creating them!

I can just imagine the chief blowing his gasket when he stumbles upon a sailor riding the shaft. I'd be screaming for hours.

thanks. One of your better segments. Really enjoyed.

32" and 200rpm max. Stuff I hope sticks in my brain. Thanks, Ryan!

Some maths: My calculations say about 430 tons for that 340-ft shaft alone. That's a lot of steel. The 8" hole in the center saves about 29 tons, for I'd guess very little strength loss. My car is 436hp, so more than 2 orders of magnitude less than even 1 of those shafts at 50k hp.

Very interesting! Thank you for your work!

Amazing mega shafts 👀👍

especially enjoyed the banter in this one! keep it up :)

The inner 8" bore is not for weight savings. As the 32" diameter shaft is spun by the reduction gear the resistance from the propeller will add resistance which will cause the shaft to start twisting.; to two to three times (or more, depending on the shaft length) when full speed is achieved. This causes a large amount of stress to be concentrated in the center of the shaft. Think of it this way. The outer circumference of the shaft is 32" X Pi = about 100 inches around. As the center of the shaft is approached the stress due to the torque will increase. The very high stress concentrates at the center of the shaft. The center bore removes this high stress location and allows greater torque to be applied without reaching the point of failure.

I used to go inshore sea-fishing on a 1953 ex-admiralty cutter that had Ironwood for the stern-gland/bearing. No oil, just sea-water: When it was moored, the wood got wet and swelled, preventing leakage. Once power was applied to the prop, the friction heated the wood and drove off the excess water, giving a clearing between shaft and bearing enough for the water to maintain lubrication and sealing. Cheap but effective!

Great video. Nice explantion and walkthrough of a signficant subsystem of the ship. Thanks!

Back in the early 1970's took an engine room tour of now would be considered a small cruise ship ( less then 1,500 passengers ). Think it only had two propellers. They had at least one what they called Denny stabilizers on each side of the ship guess at least a few feet below the water line. They looked like airplane wings when extended into the water. Their only purpose was to keep the ship guess stable. Officer giving the tour told us when the sea gets too ruff they must retrace them back into engine room because they could break. See on TV shows that all the new cruise ships have the fancy electrically driven rotating propellers that a rudder is not needed. Between them & bow thrusters these Monster ships will dock themselves when tug boats go on strike.

Attempting to ride the prop shaft seen this done on a DDG a bit after 2001. Zip tying new guys to the deck grating in the main spaces around that time. Engineers are quite the rowdy bunch 😂

I was stationed at Little Creek. They had a field of plastic wrapped screws. I saw one spare for Iowa class. This was 17 years ago.

that's a nice shaft you got there, Ryan😉

Thank you for your videos!

Ryan, I've got a hairbrush I don't need anymore. You're welcome to it.

Never thought I'd watch a grown man ride a 32 inch shaft, especially because I'm watching this on RU-vid.

Ryan, you will be in your 90's when you are done with all that can be done with with the New Jersey. I'll be watching all with a thumbs up! Drive on ! IE you next door neighbor 28th Id

Got to see the ones on our aircraft carrier. The Dwight D Eisenhower. They are several times bigger than those.

Nice to see that the navy does silly hazing things too where you gotta hold on to something for dear life

Great to see this. I was an Engineer in the Royal Navy specialising in Propulsion, and then conducted reliability Tranmission system studies for the new Ships during design and build. Very interesting to see its all still the same in many ways. Spring Bearings = Plummer Bearings/Blocks in the RN.

Love info like this, thanks. On a cruise ship a few years ago I asked to visit the 'engine room' they charge $100!

God I love this channel.

8:06 "... and see if you can hang on for a full revolution without being thrown off, obviously there is a heck of a lot to hit if you get thrown off the shaft..." 😂

Great video

Excellent. Thank you.

I see you have come to grips with your Shaft, my Dearest Ryan. I think you should like to do some Caber Tossing, in your newly favoured Country, Scotland.. Yours Aye.

The little ship I was on produced 70,000 shaft horsepower and had two shafts. I believe the screws were 12 feet in diameter. Our max listed turns was 305 to make 35 knots. It's a shame they don't let you use the jacking gear to turn those shafts over from time to time.

Alternative title for this video: Educated Polish Man Describes Spinning On The Large Shaft While At Sea.

An enginering marvel on its own, the entire ship. Wish I could do a grand tour inside and out...

What a marvel of engineering!

I live near whats left of the mothball fleet in northern California. We had the Iowa up here for a while about a decade ago. I would of loved a chance to go aboard. The bay area turned her down as a museum ship, It was upsetting. We have room for her in Alameda next to the Hornet. I really appreciate these videos, i have to go down to SoCal to see the Iowa.

A company that I used to work for sold couplings just like the one at 9:37, but "slightly" smaller (like 6" to 8" OD)

I like the hands-on demonstration. 😂

All of these items (well, most of them) are things I see in my job as a yacht mechanic. Although tallow rope stuffing boxes are getting pretty rare these day. They really DO wear on the shafts.

I never knew there was so much to know about shafts.

The story of the shaft having two turns in it at the gear box before the propeller turns is not an exaggeration. If I did the math right, 53,000 hp @ 202 RPM is over 1.3 millon lb-ft of torque. As big as they are in diameter, the steel shafts are extremely long in comparison and act like a gigantic torsion springs.

Was cool to see when we were aboard. Places you find yourself in when you're exploring on the morning after an overnight and someone the night before on the all access tour doesn't put the off limits sign back up in the open hatch making it impossible to see until you're heading back out and find it swinging behind the knee knocker...

While your performance is lacking, you can blow your competition out of the water!!

I am pretty sure the machine shop my friend worked at for years bought the lathe that made the drivehafts. Lots of stories about the machines the old man bought, and the parts he made for the Gov. because he had the machines years later.

First an engine/ gear reduction story. USS Coral Sea, deployment to Yankee Station, 69-70. One of the main engine turbines shucked out a couple of blades (stater or turbine blades, I don't know) & they had to shut down that engine & lock the shaft so that the engine wouldn't totally destroy itself. We were flying combat ops at the time so the skipper decides to continue wit flight ops while dragging a stationary screw. Ship couldn't make more than about 24 kts and couldn't properly launch aircraft at that speed, needed about 30 to 32 kts. Had some scary incidents with A-7 Corsairs carrying bombs. At speed while dragging that dead screw the ship would shake violently. After a couple of days they got the coupling unbolted and we could make about 30 kts on 3 engines. I have a lot of the deck logs from that cruise and it is funny reading some of them during that time period. An aircraft carrier can only be captained by Naval aviators, you have to wear the wings to drive one of those things. Many of the comments when an officer stands the bridge watch mentioned something like this when first recording the log on his watch: Propeller engine (number such & such) still windmilling. It's under water so how can it windmill. I was in aviation and I even know that it is called a screw not a propeller. Thanks for the videos, they kept us real busy on the flight deck so I didn't have a lot of leisure time to visit below decks.

Your technical content is fascinating. Thank You!

Great video as usual. However, you had a perfect opportunity with this one to slip a "giggity" in whenever you said shaft. lol

Interesting , Thank You

Nice De Laval oil/water separator you got there

When I was on the Midway and the Coral Sea, We called them shaft bearings. They had the lube oil contained within the bearing case, but there was no pump like on the New Jersey. Perhaps a pump was contained within the bearing case, I don't know, I've never seen inside of one.

Wow, the thrust bearing on a battleship looks very close to the one on a submarine. Well at least a 688 anyway.