A deep dive into the design and construction choices, difficulties, and improvements that were part of Battleship Texas' conversion from coal to oil fired boilers.
Former navy engineer here. Sleeping one deck above the constant quiet hum of running machinery is pure bliss, and a feeling I still greatly miss today. This video made me think of that feeling and it brought back some fond memories. What an absolute beauty Texas must've been in her heyday.
To think of all the other major changes they also did at the same time it's amazing. They basically gutted the ship and rebuilt it from the inside out.
This was a very difficult video to watch but, not your fault. Every 2.24 minutes or so, RU-vid inserted an ad that made it hard to keep up. I first toured the Texas at age 6 and fell in love with the ship. I'm now 72 and it's been a long and satisfying relationship. Thanks for all your videos.
A plumbers worst nightmare lol. Fascinating stuff though! Being a steel worker I couldn't imagine the complexity of building this ship. Engineering is simply mind boggling especially for a hundred years ago. I hope some day this ship is fully restored.
I am amazed at the clean condition of many of the tanks. It was awesome getting a peek inside the tanks and voids most people will never get to see! Your explanation on how and why the torpedo blisters were developed was outstanding, and your graphics were excellent! I've watched this video more than once with my finger on the pause button!
I had a passing understanding of the retrofit to oil but i hadn't really thought about the immensity and complexity of the project before. Great video. The drawings and illustrations were very helpful too.
It is a shame that all this marvelous engineering is put in use for war. But also, thank God it is that well done. Kept us in the fight during our darkest hour. Thank you Sir for putting together such a comprehensive presentation. Take care and God Bless from Florida. New subscriber here.
When a nation declares war on you, you are either at war, or you surrender. You don't have any other choices. If you have not maintained your military, surrender may be the only option. Unfortunately, the quest for peace is frequently interpreted as weakness by your enemy, and may result in a war where a stronger posture may well deter the enemy from testing you. This dichotomy has been seen many times in history. We have seen this several times recently with alternating strong and weak presidents, with resulting international events. 2008-2016 was a mess. 2017-2020 was a stable time, the guy was obnoxious, but other nations knew not to mess with him. We now have an extremely weak one, hang on!
Amazing the piping and layout. I sailed as a engineer in the merchant marine. I was always a little stressed taking on bunkers and we only had four fuel tanks on most of the steam tankers I served on!
Great video... That fuel system is significantly more complex then Id imagined. But having the designated 'battle tanks' is a quite clever way to manage the system... The amount of thought, engineering, and work that went into ships of that era is simply amazing...!!!
Like many others here, I had only the merest hint of an idea of what was involved in the retrofit from coal to oil- this extraordinary video does a phenomenal job of clearly explaining what went into that work, and what her maintenance crew needs to be aware of today, even as a museum ship. This is truly well done!
This was an amazing video. I never dreamed of the complexities of getting fuel to the boilers. The knowledge required to efficiently manage this system is incredible.
Thank you Tom . I dug up some Coal under the Lawn last Week . Ha ha Our house was Coal heated as Built . About ten Years ago my Father would have been Fascinated with all the details . He was a service mechanic for Heating oil Furnaces . He also at one time knew a lot about Boilers . He also worked for the Company before the Coal Yard burnt . I enjoyed the Video for Him .
that was a extremely well done video! I can hardly wait to visit Texas to look for the valves and sounding tubes. LOL One a snipe, always a snipe. Thank you
@@Scott11078 Both. I spent time in the hole making water, running and maintaining the Distillers, AC units, pumps, valves etc. My last station was in small boats.
Fantastic job on this conversation vid with ol' Texas. Complexe subject but a fantastic job of explaining it! Great never before seen pics of places that weren't accessible!
Thank you that is the most comprehensive explanation that I or most people have heard, of how the fuel system was changed. The pictures inside the fuel tanks, That was the 1st for me. It has given me a much greater understanding than what I had thought. Thank you.
Exactly!! I was mostly interested in the more modern fast Battleships like the North Carolina class and up. However this video made me look at Texas and the older designs in a totally different light. The engineering and her evolution is very impressive!! This ship deserves to be saved. Plus in her time with her complexity I would imagine she had a DEDICATED crew to know her systems. Also what's impressive is the fact that her modernization was done in 16 months.
Our Oil King on the Kitty Hawk used to play this joke on some of newer watch standers that had to bring him fuel samples. One he had a lot of trust in his people to not screw the following up. New watch stander would get distracted so one of the sample containers would get replaced with a container filled with some very thinned out honey. The watch stander would enter Central Control and bring the samples to the Oil King. He would inspect one or two then reach for the "special" one always placed in the same spot. He'd pick it up, look at it and swish it around a little. Then he'd unscrew the lid and smell it and then to the utter shock and horror of the watch stander quickly guzzle it down. "Yup that's some good fuel!"
Great work, I really appreciate the work that went into documenting this! I love hearing about engineering behind the battleships, and some of the facts were mind blowing indeed. I found the mechanical linkages to valves amazing
Extremely well done presentation, but I have my sound cranked up all the way and can barely hear it. Love the details and diagrams though. Keep doing these!
My dad’s first assignment within the United States Navy was on the USS Texas from 1938-1939. He sailed on her during the summer of 1938 on an Annapolis midshipmen cruise to Europe. They docked in La Harve. In late 1939 he was assigned to destroyer/minesweeper USS Hamilton that completed North Atlantic convoys through 1941. Most of the convoys were to England, however after Germany attacked Russia, he was on two convoys from Iceland to Murmansk. In early 1943 he was assigned to a Fletcher Class Destroyer, USS CK Bronson. The ship had just been commissioned and my dad was promoted to Chief Petty Officer. Th CK Bronson traveled to Hawaii, through the Panama canal. She then took part in the Soloman Island campaign. In 1945, my dad was assigned to the USS MISSOURI. He and my uncles (also Navy veterans) described that ship as a SUPER BATTLEWAGON. He wound up meeting Harry Truman on the Missouri on a trip to Brazil in 1947.
Thank you Tom, A most interesting and comprehensive video, in fact it's the best explanation of one of these systems I have come across,well done. Regards.
I hadn't seen this channel before but RU-vid had figured out I'm a battleship nerd and also that I watch videos by another Tom Scott. I loved this detailed study. Off to find more of your videos!
Holy moley, suddenly a 747's fuel system seems downright simplistic! Remarkable all the different jobs all the different engineers had to do to keep this ship running. And then there was the cooks, bakers, post master, and on and on.
One of the things I have always appreciated about the ship's management over the years is their enthusiasm toward veterans and their families. Until the ship closed for repairs, it was fairly common for the kids of sailors who have since passed to come on board and be given tours down to where their dads were stations and berthed. Having helped with that on occasion, I can honestly say that it was the most rewarding thing I have done on board the ship!
Thanks so much for your informative videos! I was fortunate to have you as a docent when I toured the ship in 2009. At that time you pointed out openings on second deck against outboard bulkhead which you described as ammunition lifts for the 5 inch casemate guns. I enjoyed your explanation of the main guns magazine ammo hoist & loading system. Would appreciate a video explaining the magazine & ammo hoist system for secondary guns. Thank you for all you do!
It's nice to hear from a former guest! Making a video on the 5" hoists is a pretty good idea. The only downsides I can think of is that there isn't a lot to say on the subject and it would rely almost exclusively on still photos and drawings.
Great vid. With your video it makes it clear why these refits are so expensive and take so long and why nuclear power on the carriers is such a major advantage in large ships.
Great video. The voiceover is really quiet, so when the ads come on my ears are bleeding because they are much louder. Can you increase the gain on the voiceover?
I couldn't imagine how long it would have taken to fully actuate those remote valves with that manual system. The Kitty Hawk was pre digital so much was still the same. I was a Hull Technician we were the Repair division of engineering. The watch done by the lower enlisted was Sounding and Security rover. Besides patrolling the assigned spaces you also had to manually sound each fuel void and some times the caps to those tubes were pretty hard to find. We had a really bad bravo fire in 1999 which was probably less than a minute from being VERY bad by the time it was extinguished. What caused it was when they pressurized the void to feed the boilers it blew the brass cap off that covered the tube. Worn teeth just kept getting worse until POP! This particular sounding tube was beneath one of the main catapult steam lines, it's so hot nearly 2 feet thick lagging around it won't stop it from burning you. Where we did manage to make visible advancements was in remote valve operation. Critical valves that needed responsive and fast operation had a motor attached to them. Hand crank ones were hydraulically assisted, and were still a pain to operate. We did use it to have fun with the new people. When we had to cycle them someone never seeing it done before would walk up to us and ask. "It's manual shaft crank." "Whaaat!?" "Oh yeah man cascading failure boilers offline it's this or we're dead in the water.... And man are we getting awfully tired... 😏"
Good stories! Texas had a situation similar to your catapult steam line. While there were no sounding tubes in it, you had to climb down through a large steam line passage that carried the main steam lines between the boiler rooms and engine rooms to get to a compartment beneath it that contained valves, operators and steaming out fittings for tanks that lay outboard of it. I am confused why a tank or void would ever be pressurized, except if checking for leaks. That seems to be inviting problems. I am sure there were good reasons, I just don't know what those may be. As seen in the video, Texas' feed valve remote operators are typically bulkhead mounted and allowed the use of hand cranks that you could get your back into. This also applies to recirculating valves that I didn't discuss. The tough ones to work would be the "High-Low" remote operators for valves that draw fuel either 18" off the bottom or directly off the bottom. Their remote operators were small slotted disks set in the deck that were operated using a tee wrench. I would guess that the operators had to be regularly cleaned since they could get packed with dirt and debris, and also regularly exercised on tanks that were not being used. The only good news is these valves were always fully immersed in fuel oil that naturally lubricated them.
I knew the conversion of Texas and New York from coal to oil fired powerplants was complex but couldn't imagine how complex. Basically the entire midships had to be redesigned and rebuilt ... and this doesn't include the installation of the fuel tank and piping systems. Ironically, it was the fact that sisters TX and NY still burned coal during WWI that enabled them to be deployed to join the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow almost immediately after the US entered the Great War. Most of the Royal Navy heavy units already burned oil and thus placed a huge strain on Britain's ability to keep them supplied, but coal was still plentiful and readily available. TX, NY and other older units like Arkansas were thus deployed long before newer, oil fired ships.
All of those reach rods, when new and operating correctly could be understood by the “oil king” but if the ship were damaged or even run aground seriously could render many of those tanks useless as the rods would no longer line up to be accessed. Even a bad valve in an inaccessible part of the ship presents huge problems. Engineering had their hands full. Ex chief eng. merchant marine here.
The complexity of the fuel system is bewildering, so the idea of using six primary battle tanks when the ship is in action seems like a great simplifying strategy. It would be good to know who devised such a system.
There was a high level of planning involved by the Navy's design bureau for the battle tank system since there was a separate set of feed lines and valves going to those tanks in addition to the standard feed lines. So, there were a lot of folks involved in the concept and execution.
I'm not too sure that I am going to do something on feed water. It is much simpler than fuel, didn't change much and had little impact upon the ship other than getting water back to the boilers and providing makeup water. However, I hope to do a detailed walk through of a boiler room in 2-3 months.
Great video, explanations of the complex systems. That photo of her after rework/upgrades is really nice. At the 14:15 mark, is that a valve actuator rod with a couple inches cut out? If, why might that have been done? It just caught my eye.
Good eye! Most valves that I've seen in remote locations have had their reach rods cut like that. I can only assume that it is a safety measure to be sure none are opened and cause a flooding problem. Many of the tanks they serve have flooded at one time or another. Any open valves could potentially spread the flooding to other locations.
@@tomscotttheolderone364 That makes sense. I thought that appeared to be intentional, as opposed to failed in some strange way. Thank you for the reply.
@@tomscotttheolderone364 so, is it fair to say that much of the water intrusion and flooding over the past several years is due to the decay of this oil storage and supply system in combination with outer hull decay? If so, I bet it makes it tough to determine which tanks to pump out and access some of them with hoses.
Fascinating video. Was there a reason that they didnt replace the triple expansion engines with turbines at this time since the hull was cracked wide open to replace the boilers? I know the IJN did this to several of their older BB's during upgrades and I think the Italians too.
Plans exist that show proposals for either direct drive turbines or turbo electric propulsion. While I do not know this for a fact, my opinion is that the recips performed tolerably well and it wasn't worth the cost and yard time to replace them. Plus, improving propulsion wouldn't overcome the disadvantages of her incremental armor scheme and other design issues that kept her from being a first line battleship. Whatever the reason was for not changing engines, it wasn't a bad one. The existing engines proved to be pretty reliable with the only consistent problem being some nasty vibrations in certain cruising conditions.
Seeing how bad the blister walls look wouldn't it be better to remove the blister walls on both sides of the hull then sand blast, repair & paint the hull for a longer life span ? 🤔 Great video !
They are removing the blisters at this moment, except they will be rebuilt. It is important that they remain to not only provide buoyancy, but also provide the proper appearance for the ship. The blisters have been a source of flooding problems for many years, even going back to when the ship was in service. She is now in dry dock and the blisters are being completely removed below the waterline. They will be rebuilt, but will stop short of their original depth and they will be squared off at the bottom instead of being tapered and faired into the hull. This modification will make it far easier to access their bottoms for service and repair, while being completely hidden when the ship is back in the water.
You failed to mention another equally important tank system is the freshwater production, storage, and distribution system without neither the ship nor the crew would be able to continue the battle long. The boilers can not operate correctly or at all without freshwater, and in an emergency, they can operate on saltwater but only for a very limited time then must be reconditioned. The same goes for the crew but they can never drink salt water.
I failed to mention fresh water because the subject of the video was the fuel system and its contribution to torpedo protection, in which fresh water played no role.
@@davidschwartz5127 Only if you don't take it personally that water didn't get a mention. :) That had to be a hell of a job on a carrier! The water system was pretty simple on Texas. As you can imagine, potable water had its own tank and piping that took water directly from the evaporators. I personally wouldn't want to drink, shower or cook with water meant for the boilers considering its alkalinity. To feed the boilers, pumps on the feed lines starting at the engine room hot wells sent feed water back to the boiler rooms at 400psi. Those lines can be seen, but not easily identified in the steam passages that I posted in a video. One reason is that they are insulated just like the steam lines. The boilers didn't have economizers on them, so the water was heated in the engine rooms before going back to the boilers. There were also reserve feed water tanks located directly underneath the boiler rooms that provided makeup water. The feed water pumps in the engine rooms could draw off of those as needed. In the event of damage to feed lines or equipment, auxiliary water pumps and valve manifolds that sit between the pairs of boilers in each room could draw directly off the reserve tanks that sit beneath them. Things got dicey if they were needed since the boilers would be running on an open system and they would quit steaming when the water ran out. If they started out with full tanks, they could last for 2 hours with all 6 boilers producing full steam. It would last much longer if they could cut back to 2 boilers producing partial steam that would allow 10 knots of speed. You may have seen the video I posted on the main evaporator system. I'd love to also do a quick video on the Griscom-Russell, two effect, soloshell emergency evaporator that could produce 12,000 gal./day. Unfortunately, I took photos, but didn't shoot a video in its compartment. I would be surprised if you didn't have one or more of the soloshells on board when you served. They were very compact, widely used and were the primary means of producing fresh water on smaller ships like destroyers.
