Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

CHAPTER 37
USS INGRAHAM (FFG-61)
NORTHERN STRAITS OF HORMUZ
SUNDAY; 20 MAY
1844 hours (6:44 PM)
TIME ZONE +4 ‘DELTA’
Auxiliary Machinery Room #3 was a labyrinth of piping, pumps, relay
panels, and electrical junction boxes. The compartment was home to
several critical engineering systems, including high- and low-pressure air
compressors, the fresh-water distillers of the potable water system, and #4
and #5 fire pumps. But through the center of the maze ran the most
important piece of equipment in the compartment: the propeller shaft,
known to the engineering crew who maintained it as simply the shaft.
Over two feet in diameter, the huge steel shaft performed much the
same function as the drive shaft on a car, only instead of carrying power
from the transmission to the rear axle, this shaft carried power from the
ship’s main reduction gears to the screw that drove the ship through the
water.
Gas Turbine System Technician–Mechanical Third Class Michael
Carpenter laid his hand against the housing for the line shaft bearing that
supported the shaft. He could feel the throbbing vibration of the huge
propeller, right through the thick steel housing of the bearing’s oil sump.
Of all the spaces on the ship, this was where you could feel the power of
the turbines the best. You could hear it better in the Main Engine Room,
where even the acoustic enclosures could not eliminate the jet engine
scream of the twin General Electric LM-2500 gas turbines. But you could
feel it better here, in AMR #3.
Standing in the bilge next to the line shaft bearing, with only about a
half-inch of steel hull plating between his feet and the ocean, Carpenter
could feel the hiss and rumble of the water as it passed under the hull. Just
a few yards aft of where he was standing, the tremendous bronze screw
churned the water into froth as it drove the ship forward.
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