The Engineering Department
By Commander Vaughn V. Woodward, U. S. N.
On July 26, 1917, the Commandant ordered me to report to the Vaterland for duty, which I did, and on the above date the vessel was commissioned. When I arrived on board, the engineering department was in charge of the Shipping Board Engineers and personnel. There had also recently arrived about 200 Navy firemen and a few petty officers; this was the total of Navy engineering personnel on board. In company with one of the junior engineers I went below for an inspection of the department. During the next three days all my time was taken up getting my bearings below and the layout fixed in my mind in order to make out a station bill so that I could determine as quickly as possible the personnel required.
At the end of the third day I conveyed this information to the Captain with the request that he bring pressure to bear on the Bureau of Navigation to send our personnel, both officers and enlisted men, as quickly as possible. The men and officers began to arrive and by August 15th the last officer of the complement had arrived. As each arrived he was put in charge of a station and told to trace out his station, make a thorough examination of the interior of all piping and machinery and submit a report on repairs necessary and estimated time. Most of my time during the day was spent below and the nights were occupied drawing up station bills and handling the office paper work, my only assistant being a reserve yeoman in the service of the Shipping Board. I realized that, even at the expense of time that should be spent inspecting repair work, I must get my organization planned and laid out as quickly as possible, and in operation. By August 5th all station bills and organization had been completed and blueprinted and all officers on board instructed. At this time, on account of report of damage to machinery under repair on German ships by aliens, I organized a secret service force below in an effort to detect any attempts made to inflict damage. I purposely let the report spread around among the civilian workmen that there was a large force of government agents employed among them and also in the crew. This seemed to have the desired moral effect, because during the entire period there was but one case of attempted malicious damage, which was discovered immediately. An attempt had been made to thrust welding wire into both of the L. P. astern turbines through the gauge line holes in the flanges and thus damage the blading.
I will not go into details as to the condition of the machinery, but will indicate some of the work done and the changes made in order to get her ready for sea in the quickest possible time. Most of the changes in design and arrangement were made before her dock trial.
Each piece of machinery and boiler was opened up in all its parts and thoroughly examined for foreign material or damage. While open necessary repairs were made.
The joint on every auxiliary steam and exhaust line at the piece of machinery was broken and steam blown through before attempting to operate the machine: this to free the line of foreign material.
All main, spring and thrust bearings were opened up, examined, cleaned and realigned.
The float of the main thrusts were changed from.006 to.015 inches to conform to U. S. Naval practice.
The rotors and casings of the four astern turbines were all partially rebladed in place in the ship.
The dummy ring and piston were found broken in the port H. P. astern; but these were renewed and machined in place, the jacking engine turning the rotor while a cutting tool was attached to the flange of the casting, thus making a lathe out of the turbine and solving the practically impossible problem of removing the rotor from the ship to be placed in a lathe ashore.
It was found that the impulse stages in this turbine had been the cause of the damage to this dummy, so it was decided to remove the impulse stages entirely, which was done. This decreases the economy of the turbine, but the safety guarantee to the successful operation of this unit so far overbalanced this factor that economy was sacrificed.
The starboard H. P. astern casing had several bad cracks in both top and bottom, and from records on board had not been in use on the last voyage of the vessel. This was in process of being electrically welded when I reported on board. The method in use, however, proved later on test, to give a faulty weld, so that it was decided to cut a deep “V” groove in the cracks and lace with steel studs, the lacing being filled in with the weld, thus giving the weld holding power due to the welding material fusing with the studs. This machine operated successfully during the entire commission of the vessel with no signs of ruptures or faulty welds.
On examination of the main throttles the starboard H. P. astern throttle spool was found to be broken and off the stem. This throttle was renewed and operated satisfactorily.
The system of automatic control of feed pumps in the engine room by float and pressure control was decided on as being highly dangerous, this system was at once removed and hand control of pumps substituted.
After operating for some time it was found impossible to obtain a vacuum that would afford economical operation for a turbine plant. The capacities of the pumps and condensers were computed and checked up and found adequate for the horsepower to be handled. The low pressure system was then tested out by water pressure and every noticeable leak stopped. This however gave us no better results, the best vacuum we could obtain averaging around 27 inches under normal operating conditions. The question of the wet and dry suctions of the pumps was next taken into consideration and it was decided to blank the dry suction off from the condenser and lead it into the wet suction of its own pump. This was done and with the results desired. The vacuum desired can be obtained at all times. With circulating water at forty degrees a vacuum of as high as twenty-nine inches has been obtained. The average vacuum under all conditions obtained since this change is about twenty-eight inches.