Originally posted by TopHatter
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Just to put this to bed, because I know someone will ask, a "high" power run is simply that; a speed trial done at a high power load, but not necessarily at "full" power. A "full" power run is just that; you are maxing out at design parameters on purpose. The high power run was done in the presence, when we still existed, of the Fleet Commander's Propulsion Examining Board (PEB). We wanted to see the plant run at high power for one hour. If that achieved the ship's maximum speed, fine, but that's not what we were looking for. We wanted to see the plant operate at high power without a bunch of gauges red lined. The full power run was done for the Type Commander and went into determining things like Battle E awards, etc., and it was also done in the presence of the Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV). Between the two, INSURV is what matters as that is a statutory board established by the Congress to inspect the material readiness of every ship in the fleet every three years and report its status to Congress. It totally bypasses the Navy and DoD Chain of Command. The Navy gets a "just thought you'd like to know" letter from the President of the Board, who is usually a highly regarded two-star who is nonetheless not going any further. In other words, someone who can't be hurt, and in turn, doesn't care who gets hurt by his bad report to the Congress. For about 15 years, that person was this guy:
If you don't know Johnny Bulkeley's story, you really ought to, because it really is "one for the books." In fact, the very first personal award I ever received was done by his hand. A Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal. Why? Because during our INSURV inspection, the bulk of my gear actually worked. He carried several of those things around with him, believe it or not, in his coveralls, and handed them out when he was pleased. This was aboard Constellation. I was lucky. He showed up on a good day. :red:
Regardless, the checks in the block that go into a successful four-hour full power trial are voluminous to say the least, and achieving one successfully is not done as often as you might think . . . or wish.
All of which gets me around to the speed I saw Missouri do with my own eyes while sitting near the main engine console for Number One Main Engine during a one-hour high power trial for her Operational Propulsion Plant Examination (OPPE) conducted in April or May (maybe even June; it all runs together after a while) of 1990, between Pearl Harbor and Long Beach. It was 30 knots and she wasn't breathing too hard, but there were some bearings here and there on Forced Draft Blowers and Main Feed Pumps, running pretty warm, albeit not yet "hot." Had they gone more than an hour, they would have been hot soon enough. The relatively warm sea injection temperature around Hawaii had a lot to do with that. Off of Southern California, she probably would have been fine, and you might have even gotten another knot out of her, but I doubt it.
Anyway, Mr. DiGiulian does his readers a disservice by not relating all of that information about what constitutes a successful, acceptable, full power trial for INSURV purposes, because as far as the Navy is concerned, that's the only one that REALLY matters. All of the rest is just bovine excrement for bragging purposes, and for old docents to relay while leading a bunch of wide eyed people around the deck plates. They are meaningless where it counts. He also does his readers a disservice by not really understand the whole "overload" paradigm. Like I said, think boilers at all times, and you can never go wrong. Main engines? They are basically stupid. Boilers are smart, and therefore dangerous. Keeping them happy is always the best medicine.
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