Was There Air Conditioning on the Battleship in WWII? 

a rare appearance by Ryan Spidermanski in this one. (awesome channel)

Served on board the NJ in 1953-54. When sailing in hot weather areas our sleeping compartment (on 2nd deck) was so hot there was always a rush to find a decent sleeping area on the main deck or above. Sometimes we passed some rain in the middle of the night, but that was the chance took for a little comfort. The temperature rose to 110 degrees one time we measured it in our compartment. In approximately one minute sweat would be all over your body when in your bunk.

I was stationed in Nam Phong, Thailand in 1973. I worked in a Marine SACE avionics shop that was mobile trailers bolted together to form our complex. We repaired the black boxes out of the A6 aircraft and the test benches we used needed a lot of A/C cooling to work. We had one big unit to supply air to about 15 to 20 trailers. Each trailer had it’s own unit to keep the inside air cool to work in. We worked 12 on 12 off for 12 days then got 2 days off. The huts we lived in had no A/C. Just screened in sides with an metal roof. I worked the night shift and got off at 7am. It got so hot that you couldn’t sleep past noon. I actually looked forward to going to work each night😅

I was on a WW-II destroyer deployed to Viet Nam. Officer and crew berthing areas had AC. Officer's Aft had a 5 ton Carrier unit. It was self contained. Rather than chilled water, it had a heat exchanger next to the compressor in the bottom of the unit. Sea water was pumped to one side of the exchanger and then back into engineering which was directly below our area. The bridge, gun mounts, engineering and most dry storage areas were "air cooled."

About 8 years ago in the summer, my son’s Cub Scout pack did the overnight camping experience on New Jersey. I have to say it was still very warm in the berthing spaces that night. I barely got any sleep in the top bunk that night. Still an amazing experience that I’m glad we did!

We visited on 7/13/24 during the heat warning and took the noon guided tour. Even got to see Ryan leading a private tour that crossed our path a few times, but didn't want to interrupt that to thank him for the content. Totally wanted to, but we'll be back to take the curator tour ourselves at some point. We were possibly there the same day this was filmed, but it's been hot for some time in Camden as I understand it. The ship was relatively comfortable, and walking under some of the vents was a fantastic treat. On deck it was rather oppressive in the direct sunlight, but inside wasn't that bad. In the engine room and turret tours, there are several large fans to help circulate air and they did a great job at keeping you cool. Tip: The restrooms located by turret 3 onboard the ship have a spot in the hallway to the sinks where you can stand under a very large vent. I swear the cold air comes out at around 20 mph. Best spot on the ship during a heat warning that we found!

In the Persian Gulf our carrier AC did not work. Water under the ship was so hot the coils would not cool down. At 0300 in the morning it was over 90* in my shop, I scuba dove down to 100 feet and I would swear that I was sweating down there.

On a WWII built destroyer during Vietnam the air temp in the boiler room, standing under the incoming air vent, was 140°F. There were places 180°. The berthing spaces had a large water cooled unit (cooled the Freon) that took the place of 3 bunks and the lockers underneath. It seemed to have 2 settings. On and off. It made the area cold, below 60°. Too cold for the one blanket we had.

I served 4 years on USS Preble DDG-46 from 81 to 85. It had air conditioning throughout however being a chilled water system its effectiveness dropped a lot when you were someplace like the Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean with sea water temps pushing 90 degrees sometimes. When we were in the shipyards in Pascagoula MS in the summer with everything shut down it was being in an oven!

Was on board today, was thankful it was working! Love how many areas you have open for tours! Will have to come back for the engine room, didn't have time to finish that.

10 yrs flying off Frigates - AC existed in Combat and Berthing (kinda)... and in WARM water the berthing went away to keep the Combat Electronics cool. There were MANY nights we would move out onto the Flight Deck with cots and sleep out there. Later did 6 years in Combat on Carriers - even in the GULF, the CIC/ASWModule spaces were COLD - we all wore sweaters and took them off the moment we left Combat.

My Grandfather was on the USS Tennessee. He got so hot his body quit sweating and his back was covered in boils. He was put on a hospital ship and spent 6 months in Seattle for recovery. Returned to his ship til the end of the war. All he ever told me was the nurses were pretty. I miss that man.

Where's the Curator is my favourite ongojng humour. Ryan never ceases to amaze me.

Just this past weekend I was up in Massachusetts visiting relatives, and while I was up there, we visited Battleship Cove. Unfortunately, since I was there the first time many years ago, the Navy actually took back and presumably scrapped the East German missile boat, which was really sad. On a more positive note though, their Balao-class sub, the U.S.S Lionfish was closed because her interior was getting a massive refurbishment. So while I would've loved to have boarded the old girl, I'm glad she's getting the work she needs

I like how he's in a new position, other than just sitting in a chair or standing! It'd be interesting to know how the USS NJ's enviromental controls compare to other ships of her era. (Bismarck, Warspite, Nelson, USS Washington, Musashi, etc..)

climbing up there like that, you give new meaning to the name "powder monkey."

I toured the North Carolina a few years ago and discovered to my surprise that it was not airconditioned. This was in late summer. I had toured many much newer navy vessels and they were all air conditioned. I had assumed that all of the modern battleships were air conditioned. I was sweating buckets by the time I finished and need to drink several bottles of water to avoid heat exhaustion. It gets really hot and humid in Wilmington, NC.

I have read in a WWII military book , that battleships Yamato and Musashi had air conditioning in high ranked officials premises !

This year we can only dream of more than 75 degrees (f) in the UK . It's mostly been unseasonably cold but ships do have air conditioning which has made them an attractive place in summers past , most places don't . Of course it's very uncomfortable during refits when systems are removed for overhaul . It is interesting to see how far back these chilled water systems go .

I was on USS North Carolina in August.... it was pretty brutal. Wisconsin is also very hot. Only one room off the wardroom is fully air conditioned.

Perfect timing as I sit on a bunk doing training for the Army. No AC here folks.

I was on Wisconsin recently and was amazed at how loud the air handling equipment was! Especially around the mess halls

Thank God I served on a modern ship! 😅 USS Iwo Jima LHD7. The racks each had a little airliner style vent you could open and point while the rest of the berthing space was force ventilated with A/C or heat. I can honestly say I slept well and that goes a long way for morale and job performance.

The USS Hermitage (LSD-34) was the first dock landing ship to be fully air conditioned throughout the living spaces, including troop berthing. She was commissioned in 1956.

Sixty eight is my preferred temperature in the home . Duvall Washington here shipmate! Thanks for the video! I’m proud of what you’re contributing to Naval History Preservation! Bravo Zulu from a retired Navy guy…. 👍

USS Ponce, 2001, still had chill water systems in all the electronic spaces. No other AC except a few questionable modifications. Portable AC’s were added to the bridge when we deployed to the Persian Gulf. Fortunately for me, I was a ET. The transmitter room was mine.

What physical activity you’re doing depends on what sort of air conditioning is required. Having the air dry enough to be able to absorb your sweat matters more than the exact temperature. To me, doing typical chore work at home is comfortable at 75 or 76 Fahrenheit as long as the humidity is abound 50%. Losing energy through the endothermic evaporation of your sweat is what keeps you cool, not so much the air temperature. When I had my A/C installed back in the 1980s, I had it sized just large enough to keep up with the temperature outside, but it does a great job of removing humidity like crazy. My unit runs a lot, but that is good for keeping the air dry - and it is less stressful on the unit not to be cycling. My 1986 A/C unit is still running fine. I avoid changing temperature frequently. It seems to be less expensive to run at a moderate rate rather than cycle. I used to work in a place which shut down the air handlers at 16:59 and turned them on at 08:01. You’d come in in the morning to all the paperwork on your desk being soggy and the air handler vents screaming trying to make up for being off overnight. I doubt that place was really saving any money and they were stressing the equipment by having it run full blast for hours every summer morning.

Ryan doing his best Batman perch.

70F is plenty cool enough for good sleep. I grew up in Houston, so I can tolerate some heat and humidity. When I served on USS Saipan in the '90s, the engine rooms were hot. We had some ventilation pipes that would blow chilled air down on certain work stations, but the rest of the space was pretty uncomfortable. The office/control room was fully air-conditioned. When we were in Cuba, the ambient temperature in the engine room was around 100-105F. And we had to make steam 24/7 to run the generators for the hospital deck and other facilities. Some guys who grew up in colder climates had real issues with the heat. Cheng kept us supplied with Gatorade and rotated us in and out of the A/C areas. Every once in a while I have a bad dream of being lost in a maze of pipes with heat and steam and scary noises. I wake up drenched in sweat! I tell myself, "Boy, that was thirty years ago - let it go!"

1. I visited USS Iowa in August 2016. The visitor spaces were insanely hot. 2. It makes me appreciate why pre WWII Navy ships were painted buff white, had lots of portholes, and put up awning in every port.

I appreciate you mentioning the Maine. The vague nature of its destruction could make this plausible. Although I am sure humidity that day could have been an issue. It is a point of American history which will [probably] remain ambiguous.

on the one hand, its the coolest place on the ship. on the other hand its the room full of high explosives

I spent a summer night aboard USS Massachusetts with my BSA troop, and being utterly unable to sleep in the berth due to the heat. I eventually went out on deck with a pillow and curled up in one of the quad Bofors tubs for the night. (The foremost one on the port side, as I recall) That was still a really neat experience. I'd love to do it again, but maybe in the fall, lol.

How much difference in temperature was there in spaces above the waterline compared to those below?

High temperatures could also effect the ballistics of fired shells. The temperatures of the magazines would be taken into account by the fire control computers in determining a firing solution.

Ryan, I know we talked about your cooling tower back during early Covid. I have been a little bit constrained for a couple years but still want to come up to check out your tower and see the ship TOO.

A CVN sailor here, when the AC units are off line, my berthing tended to become an oven and on hot humid days the ship as well would become hot and humid, A-Gang truly have an important job with their AC&R shops, -much love from an propulsion guy,

Wonder how bad it was for my dad, he was on a Gearing Class destroyer off Vietnam. Costs to put AC in more places were probably down a lot and resources weren't stretched as thin. My grandfather almost certainly didn't have any AC in WWII. USS Plunkett.

Chill water supplies all the air handlers and magazine coolers.. When it exits the units, it goes back to one of the main AC plants where it's rechilled. During the 80's they upgraded the AC plants and I believe they added another one. Anyway, after the chill water comes out of one of the huge AC units,(I believe there are two per AC plant) it's stored in a large chill water accumulation tank while being pumped back throughout the ship. Been a long time, but the consoles in the electronic spaces are cooled wtlh demineralized water which is routed back to a pump room heat exchanger where it's cooled by chill water

Ceiling Ryan wil forever haunt my nightmares now

I would love to see the actual air handlers, evaporators, and condensers. Where were they mounted? What sort of maintenance is needed to keep them going? How is the evaporator water handled?

The chill water radiators on the ship still work?

When we went to Pearl Harbor a few years ago it was a cool, rainy, humid day for touring surface ships and submarines. Thank God it was not sunny and hot. It was already uncomfortably warm without ventilation. I can’t imagine what it must have been like in the South Pacific or off Vietnam without air conditioning. Contrast that experience with open bridges on the Murmansk run in an arctic winter. Sailors were tough.

Would love to see a part 2 that shows the chillers and how they work

There are so many good comments in this section. An old navy guy that I knew asked me one time what I thought the biggest killer in the military was. He said it was heat exhaustion.

Chilled water systems are great they are very efficient at moving heat around. In data centers they use chilled water systems to keep the server racks cooled. By either using a door mounted radiator or a big tower in-between the server racks themselves.

Many years ago I spent a spell on a Saudi oil tanker as an engineer. While at anchor in the Persian Gulf, one of the vent fans for the engine room broke. Specifically the purifier room, which was usually the hottest place on the ship anyway. It rendered the space virtually un-inhabitable instantly. If you spent more than around 10 min in there you could feel your skin starting to burn and the heat just got completely unbearable. It's incredible the difference even just forced draught can make at keeping somewhere cool, even when the fan is sucking on already hot air...

I toured USS Cod last week and even though the morning was not especially hot, it was edging on a constant sweat down in the hull. The air from the vent in some compartments was awesome in those conditions. Can't imagine what it was like when down deep and under attack, all the ventilation closed off and shut down for silent running. Not my cup of coffee.

LOL, I'm just imagining sailors lancing through the main gun armor and installing little window units in them to be more comfortable... :-)

Thx for sharing your knowledge with us Ryan

I hope we get a new thing of Ryan being in unexpected positions each video

Love the format.

My ac at home.stays on POLAR....driving through Delaware today my truck read 103°.

im in alaska, air conditioning means opening a window. we did get heat pumps but we shut them off in summer.

I was an Electrician's Mate assigned to the "Chilled Water Shop", A Division, aboard the (Rosie) FDR CV42. A/C &R was king during my time aboard, 75-77.

Man, I love those older electronics, as a repairman from older and new transmitters I have something with those things. It's become more and more a thing, because there aren't many people that have the knowledge about that stuff. And of course warships too. Love them. I have no air-conditioning, I can't have one, because I have a muscle sickness. And cold air affect them very quickly. But I have tricks to cool down the house, except there are days in a row with heat, and it doesn't cool off at night.

As an air conditioning technician, I found this video very interesting ! thank you

During the Pacific part of WW2 Gen. MacArthur's flagship was the light cruiser Nashville. It had air conditioning. Itt was built just a few years before Pearl Harbour.

I visited the USS Wisconsin just recently on a hot summer day. The entire ship felt like an oven. Couldn't imagine living on board without an A/C

In Vietnam, I was assigned to a Navy hospital. The wards and offices had AC, but nothing but fans in the barracks. My friends on ships tried to sleep in their offices, as the crew areas weren’t as well ventilated.

I've been on the Texas in July, oh boy. It was HOT. Did not stay below long.

How was the condensation on the chilled water radiators handled? Or, since the charges were in cans, was humidity a concern?

Oof those wet bulb temps are pretty miserable. 86 isnt too bad but that is assuming a normal humidity but an 80 wetbulb temperature is pretty high. If it is 82F dry bulb with an 80F wet bulb that means humidity is about 92%

You could look at USS Massachusetts to see how they ran the WW2 chilled water cooling in the various radio and radar rooms. Presumably they are still in WW2 configuration.

My grandfather was a Plumber. During World War 2 his job in Auckland, New Zealand was to install airconditioning systems in newly built US ships that served in the Pacific.

My grand father told me stories of running around the ship in skivvies & boots on the merchant marine ships that had no AC what so ever. Glad all my ships had AC lol.

I keep my house at 73 or 74 during the cooling season.

i keep my home ac at 76 during the day and 68 at night and with the temps in my area (eastern NC) hitting the upper 90's during the day with index's of up to 120

How often were awnings and deck shelters rigged to help cool spaces below, and were they effective?

I've wondered for years about air conditioning or however the environs of ships were done back during WWII and before and after. I didn't think a large metal container would be comfortable in the blazing sun on the ocean. My son was on the Frigate Elrod in the early 2000's and said he bunked on the top bunk because it was nearest the air conditioning.

Hi there! Love the vid and Battleship NJ! May I ask where you found that photo in the thumbnail? One of the men looks like my grandfather!!

2 years on a sub tender. I remember sleeping in the machine shop(above the water line) because a sub was pinging for two days straight, tied up on our outboard. The a/c was great on both of my ships🥶

I've gotta think that cased ammunition is going to be far less susceptible to humidity degradation, and that the turnover rate for the AA ammunition was highest, followed by the 5". Less time in storage means less time to go bad. 🤔

I would think a coil on top or side of the Turrets and the corresponding other one inside would ad a modest armor boost as well as help to clear the air during firing. The engine room use of steam would make it hard for any system to counter and the draw on power would increase the heat too though placement of an evaporative chiller unit above the steam returns might help some.

21°C (70°F) for the home or car. At this temperature you can be comfortable in a t-shirt or short sleeve shirt.

Thanks for the warning. I'll come during spring or fall.

It’s like a game of Red Flag. Pros, the space you work in is air conditioned. Con, it’s full of cordite propellant that could kill you 😂😂

How about IJN BB Mutsu ? Didn't her own magazine explode likewise while in harbour?

I hope you guys have some way of documenting, like tech drawings, these parts for stuff like the AC units. While there may be a dwindling supply of parts from the mothball fleet, these items might also be able to be manufactured once more. Just a thought

Air cooler coils are dependent on the air temperature in their environment, if you try to run water through them that's below the environments condensation temperature you'll have a rain machine in your space. If the 5" magazine is closer to the top or outside of the ship, they wouldn't be able to run the cooling coils as cool as those in the 16" magazine. When talking about aircon for buildings we divide them into 3 types: - ventilation (no cooling or heating) - partial aircon (cooling and heating with dehumidification) - full aircon (heating, cooling and dehumidication with rehumidification) Air cooler coils aren't considered aircon but more of a room temperature control surface just as the radiators for heating are.

Stagnant air even during the Gulf War sometimes weren’t good on amphibious ships… at times lol. Running out of toilet paper at times on a ship wasn’t fun but none of us had t shirt sleeves until port

The US was also an early adopter of AC on Submarines

Thank God for AC. Did a summer deployment in the Persian Gulf/Gulf of Oman/ Gulf of Aden, and the AC barely cooled things off over there, but way better than nothing!

The info that Vietnam era crews did their own (I assume unauthorized) mods and mounted window AC units inside bulkheads they cut out is blowing my mind for some reason.

There’s a Chilled water scuttlebutt on USS Olympia just across the River from New Jersey, and that was in the 1890s. I don’t know how it was generated, or even if it was installed much later than the Spanish American war.

Even on newer ships (I was on DDG-114) it's REALLY hard to keep a metal box cool in the south pacific or Persian gulf. What we and alot of newer ships have and by newer I mean like laid down in 2010 or later is something called CPS or collective pressure system. Basically if we get his by a gas attack the ships interior is overpressurized so even if there is a hole in the ship air is blown out so the gas won't get in. This also means that if you just leave it on and close all the airlock and hatches the ship will stay a comfortable 75 degrees in places like the gulf IF everyone keeps all the hatches and airlocks closed. Once you lose the cold air no amount of time is getting it back.

May I please ask you where did you find the thumb nail photo of the sailors/soldiers lifting weights on the ship the one man looks like he can be my grand fathers twin he was on a ship in WW2 I really like to find this picture please!

In the house? 68F in Summer, 65F in Winter. I'm in NC where today it is 100F outside, 36% Humidity, i.e., it is HOT.😄

USS Fort Snelling LSD 30 A/C was ok throughout the ship except for the engine room ( hole) Forced Air in the engine room . Climbing up the steel ladder when your shift was over could get slippery. Temps of over 120 F in the engine room with huge air tubes blowing topside air . Could get very unpleasant.

"Ryan Szimanski is supported by this yellow I-Beam"

I have my air-conditioning set at 17 celcius. We use the exact same chillers at work for machinery as you have in your battleship for air-conditioning, who would of guessed.

The intros are getting slowly more and more subtlety unhinged and I'm here for it

My dad was an electrician on a naval ship in the South Pacific during WWII. He said when it got real hot he went down into the refrigerator and spent the time there.

Submarines has AC in the late 30s/early 40s. It was still very hot and the AC mainly just reduced condensation to prevent electrical shorts. Reference Clay Blair's Silent Victory.

Question, is your long-term goal besides weapon and engine systems to return her to the condition she was in when the crew disembark for the final time in the year of her decommissioning that you are working towards?

Some Us navy subs had air conditioning during WW2, since the water condension would have ruined the electrical systems when operated on tropical climate.

I wonder if they used refrigeration for the chill water in WWII, or did they just draw seawater from the bottom of the ship and use that for cooling?

I have been on the USS North Carolina during the heat of summer, and can tell you that the heat was unbearable and we had to rush through the ship and get the hell out of there. That was the most uncomfortable tour that I have ever had the miss pleasure of experiencing! i have been on the USS Alabama and it was air conditioned and was totally the opposite of the Carolina! There is no reason for no air conditioning on a tour except trying to save a penny!

I was wondering about those vents and the 80's reactivation. Considering the NBC threat and the attempts to rig washdown systems using the ship's fire hoses did they make any modifications to the air vents so that they could be closed off?

This reminds me of when I was a kid, I was on the TV and my Mom said "get off of it before you break it!"