If you have seen any old movies with a ship, you have probably seen an Engine Order Telegraph. This video provides a good look at a couple and you can see how it is used to give orders and then confirm that it was understood. Pretty Neat! Once again, Thank You, Merle, for spotting good ones. Just in case any of our visitors do not know; you can view the video on YouTube by clicking the YouTube logo in the bottom bar of the video. You can then see who made the upload and read the description.
Thanks to you and Merle for this one.
ReplyDeleteI served on two destroyers and spent a fair amount of time in the enginerooms answering bells.
The Navy used the Engine Order Telegraph (EOT) and the Engine Revolution Indicator (ERI).
Each pie slice on the EOT corresponded to a specific number of revolutions and was used for coarse speed adjustments.
The bridge used the ERI to fine tune the ship's speed.
This is a link to a photo of the throttle board on the USS Harold J. Ellison (DD-864) when she was decommissioned.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/specialfeature/0586443.jpg
You can see the polished brass rectangle of the ERI in the center, and the EOT is just to the right of the ERI.
The entire series of photos is here.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/864b.htm
During normal underway operations the throttleman would get a speed change on the EOT, record the change on the log, and answer the bell.
When alongside for replenishment, or when maneuvering to go alongside a pier, the bell changes would be so rapid that another snipe had the sole duty of recording the changes in the log.
The black circle at the top of the throttle board is where the clock would have been. It was either removed and stored, or since the ship was being decommissioned, the clock might have grown legs.
And no, my ship didn't have reciprocating steam engines. As hard as it is to believe, that was before my time!
A direct link to the ship shown in the video is here.
https://ss-shieldhall.co.uk/the-ship
Again, thank you both.