neat steam engine video

[willmarsh3]

I was poking around youtube and found this of a running triple expansion steam engine on a tugboat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0SMmlP7pd4

[Bruce Hooke]

Pretty cool.
Thanks.

[CAPNBIL]

Brings back memories - My first voyage, in 1945, was as an 18 year old newly minted merchant mariner, shipping out on a Liberty Ship, in the engine room. I shipped out as an oiler, tending to a triple expansion steam engine, much larger than the one shown in this video. We called those engines "up and downers". The Liberty's engine was really large, 4 foot stroke, the low pressure cylinder, the largest, was 4 feet in diameter. It turned over at about 76 RPM, as I recall. Every half hour I had to feel the crank bearings as they swung by, as it was the only way you could tell if they were overheating, which was pretty scary. I had this awful feeling that a misstep could put me down into the engine's guts. When we were in a seaway and the screw came out of the water the engine would race and fling oil all over the engine flat, even though curtains would be rigged around it. The voyage took about 20 days, N.Y. to Naples, and about the same for the return with plenty of rough seas in December and January.

[Bob Adams]

I had a rare honor Labor Day.I went for a run, as I rounded Sparrows Point, there was the unmistakeable profile of a Liberty off in the distance. It was the John Brown, out for her annual Labor Day cruise.I ran along side her for 15 minutes or so, it's wonderful some people had the vision, dedication and energy to save her.

[Phillip Allen]

My first ship had two 5 cylinder Skinner Uniflow steam engines...250 pound saturated steam and presurized boiler rooms. I took readings in the shaft alley and when the screws came out of the water the shafts tended to jump around...a dark and scary place