From: Timothy Collinson <xxxxxx@port.ac.uk>
To: xxxxxx@simplelists.com
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2018 3:44 PM
Subject: Re: [TML] HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier



On Thu, 10 May 2018, 21:19 Michael Houghton, <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
Howdy!

On Thu, May 10, 2018 at 10:26 AM, Timothy Collinson
<xxxxxx@port.ac.uk> wrote:
> Hi there,
>
[snip]
>
> You can find some basic details here:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth-class_aircraft_carrier
>
> I appreciate that although it might "Britain's biggest", our American
> friends are probably laughing in their boots compared to your carriers, but
> it didn't look too dwarfed when she met the USS George H.W. Bush in the
> third episode.  And as was pointed out, she's much more modern.  (But
> electrically powered, rather than nuclear powered).
>
Well, the things spinning the big wheels at the back are electric
motors (just  like
CV-2, Lexington had a few decades ago). The prime movers are gas turbines
and diesel engines (instead of a nuke plant).

...just clarifying.


I wouldn't disagree, but that was the exact description given.

By the captain I think, without rewatching it, rather than the narrator or something.

There was something in part 1 about it having unusual - and highly dangerous if water got in - (very) high voltage cables snaking through engine room.  Next episode there was a flood. They were very very cautious about dealing with it...

tc
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to several books I read some decades ago & as best I remember;

When the USN began building Dreadnoughts it also began an evaluation of propulsion schemes by building pairs of ships (classes) w/ differing propulsion;

#1 reciprocating vs turbine  (YES, the USN actually built early Dreadnaughts w/ reciprocating engines!)
     the turbines won so;

#2 turbine vs turbine (2 competing turbine designs. I believe that one was named 'Parsons')
     one design was selected & then;

#3 conventional turbo propulsion vs turbo-electric

The turbo-electric won out & all the later WWI-class BB's originally had turbo-electric propulsion.
(I recall something about some thousands of volts of DC delivered to electric motors coupled to  the drive shafts)

I believe that the turbo-electric was removed when the ships were overhauled later in their lives while the new designs drawn up in the '30's all had conventional turbo propulsion.

I always wondered if the turbo-electric ships eventually displayed some sort of long-term problems, what with the omnipresent, corrosive seawater that they were constantly exposed to.

I also recall an account by the US Naval Institute regarding a BB (nicknamed the 'pond lily') that was actually rendered unserviceable at SanDiego due to 'corroded pipes' of some sort. The article detailed how a new Capt was determined to get the ship back in service &, despite Depression-era budget restrictions, managed to secure the necessary funds & devised an original scheme (only about a dozen of the ships crew, incl two officers, were small enough to squeeze thru an improvised 'opening' so they had to do all the actual replacement work, incl the officers) to complete the repairs.