Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

SEA OF SHADOWS 265
In AMR #3, the burning bearing seized up, grinding the spinning
propeller shaft to an abrupt halt.
In the Main Engine Room, Ingraham’s gas turbine engines continued
to crank forty-one thousand horsepower of torque into the input shaft of
the main reduction gears. But the reduction gears couldn’t turn, because
the output shaft was locked in place. The transverse frames that supported
the reduction gear housing began to buckle under the strain, as the howling
turbines attempted to turn the entire main reduction gear, housing and all.
The monstrous stress ripped open welds between plates of the ship’s
hull, and the sea came flooding in. The MRG housing cracked, spraying
lubricating oil all over the engine room, and throwing off hot steel
shrapnel like a bomb.
A fist-sized chunk of broken gear caught the Upper-Level Watch in the
left cheek. Moving at the speed of a meteor, it tore the side of his head off
without even slowing down. His limp body fell off the catwalk and into
the rapidly flooding bilge.
Ingraham drifted to a stop and wallowed at the mercy of the waves.
The chase was over. The submarine was gone.