A big thank-you to Brian Price for continuing to let us see his slide collection.
The latest slides take us behind the scenes to the
Turbine Control Room with Brian providing his commentary. If you recognise any of the officers on duty please let us know.
"Here two of the three officers on duty. I remember the engineer sitting down, but cannot remember his name I think it’s Ray.
In the Turbine Control Room, no prizes for guessing what they do here.
But nevertheless a brief explanation......they control the turbines.
That is they direct the steam coming out of the boilers and going into the turbines and make the turbines go faster, slower or astern, thus controlling the speed and whether the ship goes forwards or astern.
The OOW (Officer of the Watch) on the bridge will manoeuvre the bridge telegraph to indicate the vessels requirements from Full Ahead to Full Astern."
Bridge to Engine telegraph
"The above console is located on the bridge. On the left of centre, a row of switches for the port engine and on the right of centre a row of switches for the starboard engine, Both engines in this picture are on half ahead ie half speed ahead.
You’ll notice that the switches are oil stained.....the reason is that this picture was taken during a refit when they were being operated by engineers and not well manicured navigators!
The two outside rows of illuminated lights are a secondary confirmation of the engine speed situation."
Meanwhile in the TCR...
To the left of the lever is a row of lights which is a repeater of the bridge requirements for this engine. Just off the picture is the same repeater indicator and lever for the other engine.
The officer has received an instruction from the bridge (half ahead) via the telegraph, and he will confirm that with the corresponding switch and he will then manoeuvre the lever he is holding in his right hand the increase / decrease the steam going into the turbines until the required shaft speed is reached. Unlike modern ships, QE2 had a human link from bridge commands through to engine control. In front of him, the large dial provides him with a readout of revolutions either forward or astern....
(In the Geiranger Fjord, QE2 lost it’s steering capability at a fairly reasonable speed in the early hours of the morning, and it was only through an immediate understanding of the situation shared between the helm (most likely the Captain) and the officer in the TCR that a disaster was averted. This resulted in an unscheduled visit to Alesund and a stopover there while parts were flown out.
