The place where the speed of the ship is really controlled

Fine-tuning ships speed takes place here

Low pressure turbine named Shirley

Carl explains the operation of an air ejector

Carl explains more about engine room operations

The bottom of the ship can be seen here

Looking up an escape route to a hatch near the top of the ship

Shipboard eating utensils— stainless steel tray used by enlisted men

Our first stop in the engineering area was the place where the orders from the wheel house are received. The orders are then used by the engine room crew to set the speed of the ship. It seems that even though an engine-order-telegraph orders a speed such as, "all ahead two-thirds", the actual speed often was fine-tuned, so to speak. To fine-tune the speed, the actual number rotations of the propeller shaft or RPMs can be set between 000 and 999 to the actual running speed of the ship.

Much of what we saw in the engine room was unknown to me as I was a member of the Operations Department when I was in the Navy. This meant that I spent most of my time up around the top of the ship. I very seldom ventured down in the engine room — maybe three times during my tour of duty. That made this tour of the engineering section interesting to me as well as being a bit foreign to me.

We learned how the power of the steam propulsion system was made up of different stages of power extraction. For example, the output of the high-pressure turbine was fed to the input of a low-pressure turbine to get more power out of the supply of steam. The low pressure turbine we saw was named, "Shirley".

The turbines tend to vibrate a bit which can put stress on the steam supply pipes. To reduce this stress, the supply lines are suspended on shock-absorbing spring mounts. We were told that even with the vibration suppression mounts, the vibrations along with all the other machinery, made the working environment very noisy.

Carl enlightened us as to the use of desalinization equipment used to produce an unending supply of fresh water from the sea. The water produced was used in the steam propulsion system as well as for other uses throughout the ship. On my ship, one use of the fresh water produced was to supply the showers and sinks in the heads. Toilets were flushed with salt water. And in those days the sewage went right out the side of the ship into the sea.

As we moved through the engineering area we were shown various work areas that contained machine shop equipment and an electric repair shop. I had forgotten how small such areas are; it is something that one gets used to with time.

We were so far down in the ship that Carl pointed to an opening where we could see the bottom of the ship. A hole in the double hull allowed us to see a small area of the hull that was the actual bottom of the ship which was all that was between us and the sea.

Then looking up we were shown an escape hatch where crew members could climb a ladder all the way to a deck where they could get to the outside world. I could have climbed the ladder back when I was in the Navy, but today I don't think I could get to the top very fast.

Carl led our group back up to the second deck and turned us loose. He said we were free to explore until closing time. With that, we spent a little more time looking around while trying to find our way out. We passed another galley and a mess deck. At one point there was a display of the various dinnerware used aboard a ship. Most of what we saw was used by Officers and Chief Petty Officers. The average enlisted man ate off of simple stainless-steel trays that had divided areas that held different types of food.

It didn't take very long for our trio of veterans to find our way back up to the museum store where we could leave the ship. As I walked down the gangway I was looking across the pier where my ship would have been tied-up back in my Navy days.

This visit to the USS Hornet Museum was a fun trip down memory lane. I tried to make a connection between the museum and my OFS HOME stories. However, I feel that anybody, RVers and non-RVers alike, would find visiting any military museum very interesting. If nothing else, it might help to understand some of the sacrifices made everyday by our men in uniform.