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You know how much we love gas turbines and diesel engines on #WarshipWednesday but steam still makes much of the fleet go -- and accordingly *look* at this amazing capture of EMCS Tessema lighting off a boiler on LCC 19 by MC3 Hall
What on Earth is happening here? 
LCC 19, the USS Blue Ridge, uses dino juice to boil water to make steam, which spins the equipment it needs to push itself through the water, power the ship's PlayStations and so forth. A human sailor still needs to get that fuel burning!
LCC 19, the USS Blue Ridge, uses dino juice to boil water to make steam, which spins the equipment it needs to push itself through the water, power the ship's PlayStations and so forth. A human sailor still needs to get that fuel burning!
If you look carefully (high res here https://bit.ly/2JI0o6H ) you'll see Senior Chief is wearing a big heavy protective covering with many sailors' names on it. Ideally he will get to write HIS name after having fired this boiler
... the Navy has fewer steam ships than the old days and fewer still by the year; new gators and LCSes have diesels and/or GTs; destroyers and cruisers have been GT-powered force for years. So this opportunity is gradually becoming rarer in the fleet
is gradually becoming rarer in the fleet
Aircraft carriers and submarines are steam-powered ships too but the heat comes from magical pebbles; for some reason the Navy doesn't promulgate any photos of sailors in those machinery spaces who fire those boilers or serve as the atom stokers
