Sailors light the boiler in the Aft Engine Room on USS Bataan (LHD-5). September 13th, 2016. (BTW, it gets very hot down in the engineering spaces on a ship).
Ah memories. I was a Burnerman on the Anchorage, out of Long Beach in the mid 80's. Same safety gear, (leather jacket, gloves & face sheild) but I don't remember shaking the torch like that. But I do remember changing out burners & cleaning burner tips. Didn't know they still have boiler powered ships. Also, I heard they dont even have a BT rate anymore.
Toured the sister ship Kearsarge during Fleet Week in NY, ‘92 or 93. She was brand new at the time. Think the Wasp class LHD’s are the last active conventional steam vessels in the fleet. The Makin was built with GT propulsion.
Saw a chief light fires off of the glowing back wall once. The front of the boiler jumped out about 2 inches and scared the shit out of everyone! But it worked! I hear the captain didn't like it but tolerated it because it got the ship moving quicker which is good if you're under attack and you lose fire in the main boilers.
We had hot brick light off which caused a firebox explosion which demolished everything up to and including the steam drum. I hear it made a nice smoke ring out the stack as well.
Lit fires off a hot wall in an emergency once scared the hell out of me as a topwatch. Was “indirectly ordered” by the EEOW who was our division officer. Very minimal damage to brick work, but flexed the hell out of the air casing.
We never shook it, but I did spin it just for show. Still got my old zippo too. Lit fires many times. Off the back wall a time or two while in restricted maneuvering too. 80-84 and 87-91
@@newbyek small world. I was 18. We also took the same ship off the coast of Pakistan after September 11th when we deployed to Afghanistan. I was on the Bataan and the Shreveport.
Such chaotic personality types... I don't understand the purpose of the added commotion compare to watching, say, the S.S. Shieldhall being lit by volunteers.
I guess different times. On my ship (1971-1972) we neither had or used safety gear, not even gloves when lighting off a boiler, and usually just two of us (BTFN) to do it.
I think “the pit” was hottest when we were in Cartagena Colombia. At the time, we are working 12 on 12 off because we were doing fire sides and tubes In the Ford fire room. While my friend and I were out on the “” Beach” we came back to find out that the guys in the after fire room and drop the load. My friend and I went down in our civies to pull out the guys who are overcome by the heat while they were trying to relight the boiler. We didn’t have any short steam and my partner and I as well as two others real at the boilers and everybody was safe and steam and power were re-connected. Cartagena was about 110° and naturally down in the fire room it was much hotter than that.
it used to take the POMEM and 2 Stokers to flash the 2 boilers per boiler room 4 in total on Ark Royal and only used to take a couple of minutes without all the palaver there and where was the Lucas Igniter ? no need for face protection or anything else
Yep but the old Type D boiler the Jason had were the same as on USS Hector AR-7 were harder to get lit. They were old ships but had agreat time on Hector 81-83 R2 Engine shop EN3
Was a lot easier back in the 70s Navy, lit fires in t-shirts. No face-shields, no flash gear. We always got the job done safely with none of that yelling back and forth and drama in half the time.
Newport R.I. 1970; Lighting off from cold iron, U.S.S. M.C. Fox DD829 After Fire Room. We're steaming a B&W 600 P.S.I. "M" type boiler with variable controlled super heat. Shore steam= 90 p.s. i. mostly, less if nested out. Light off emergency feed pump, look for positive rise in gauge glass, secure pump to standby status. Roll over #3 fuel oil pump, cut in steam to fuel oil heaters, we're burning Bunker "C", regulate flow for 200 degrees F. Open recirc valve on the designated boiler. Messenger of the watch, check for L.P. drains set to bilges, ready 1 forced draft blower for duty. Check station manned, burnerman makes up a #42 orifice plate, loads into the mid burner station right next to the torch hole. Roll over forced draft blower, full open vanes, purge firebox. Ready torch with J.P. 5 soak, standby with Zippo, open torch port, light torch, shove in firebox, snap fuel flow handle up to max, crack air vanes for minimal flow, cut in fuel at burner and yell "FIRES LIT, #3 BOILER" messenger records time, Main Control gets a report. Close fuel oil bypass, adjust air vanes for very slight smoke (economy haze) Hard part of light off is now done, have a smoke and some coffee, took all of 15 minutes. We're Black Gang, we know our shit, officers never come down our hole-- ever. Christ it’s been almost 50 years ago, and I can still light off one of those suckers. ☺
Probably some sort of qualification exercise for an FNG. Gotta do it step by step per the checklist and shout out every step as you do it. Day to day they probably get the job done in 25% of the time with no one saying a word.
That's obviously a training evolution. You can tell by the other guys watching them and walking them through the evolution. They might be going through a training availability.
Not sure when this was made but I remember stealing parts off the Battan in the strip ship docks at Portsmouth ship yards around 03 or 04. Last I heard she became a target ship after that in a Sink X
This looks overly dramatic and primitive. Oil furnaces of the early twentieth century had spark ignitors, so I'm curious why military vessels used burning rags. I'm guessing to increase the overall stress levels.
She’s still using this method in the 21st Century, so as the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” I do imagine it has to do with being able to light without electricity, as was mentioned here, but I’m not sure.
I love jackasses like you who criticize. If this guy didn't have the safety gear you would be bitching about that! All you cunts on youtube know how to do is bitch! I was in the Merchant Marine for a while as a 3rd Asst Engineer on the SS Alpena on the Great Lakes. I only WISH we had the level of safety awareness and gear in the MM that the Navy has! I wish we had the level of training that the Navy has! Before you opened your cockholster did you ever stop to think this was training and that was why so many people were around? How about if something went wrong? If only one guy is there and he gets hurt or screws up somehow then who is going to fix the problem and get help right away? You are a mouthy little twat like the rest of the mouthy little twats on this channel. Better you should put a dick in your mouth. You might actually serve a purpose then.
Sorry, but this was on my iPhone camera, and I had another camera in my other hand, taking still photos, from which I did a painting for the Navy (I'm a combat artist). This video was taken as a bonus to aid in that if needed. Sorry for the sloppy shooting, but it worked out well. (you can see the work at www.paynesgrayandunderway.blogspot.com )
As many as the Navy says it does for various reasons such as safety, training, etc. Maybe you should go fuck yourself. How many guys does it take to jerk you off? Apparently just 2 , You and your dad.
Someone else in this thread pointed out that this must be a new guy being trained. Probably true. I know that they were starting the boiler for departure, and we set sail a few hours later...
Yeah. Modern boilers I've sailed with (on merchant ships) all have electric ignition. (Electric spark lights a little pilot burner, which in turn lights the main burner.) You just push a button and it starts itself. There's more to go wrong that way, though.
@@SteamboatWilley hey asshole, ALL merchant ships DO NOT have electric ignition. I served on the SS Alpena on the Great Lakes. It was built in 1942 and still is pretty much the way it was when it was built. Know what the fuck you are talking about before you open that shit hole under your nose.
