Workshop capabilities on ships?

[Neale]

Just been listening to radio item about new aircraft carrier. Leaving all the questions of mobile task force/big floating target aside, I started wondering what workshop/machining capability something like this would carry. Anyone know?

[Jo]

All large warships have excellent machine shops on board. I would expect her to carry high spec stuff including 5 axis CNC as well as basic tools.


Jo

[92220]

As Jo say. And staff to be capable of make or mend almost anything on board....Staffed by model engineers??

Bob.

[RGR 60130]

Apr 26, 2021 7:55:42 GMT 92220 said:

As Jo say. And staff to be capable of make or mend almost anything on board....Staffed by model engineers??

Bob.

Looking back over 40 years at sea I only ever came across two other guys who did any model engineering. Perhaps a bit surprising but back in the early days we had bars and beer was cheap. Latterly when doing basic 84 hour weeks people just wanted their beds.

Merchant ships have always been very basic with a large, much abused lathe, perhaps a power hacksaw and big drilling machine supplemented with burning and welding gear. The usual power tools and hand tools made up the collection. Chevron tankers usually had a large multi-purpose machine which gave some milling capability. One of the old Port Line vessels had a ML7 as well which by that time was pretty much clapped out. Despite the limited resources a lot of good work was achieved.

Reg

[Neale]

What made me think about this was the stories you hear sometimes about models started on board a ship and finished years later. I've also met people with machines apparently built for shipboard use - although quite how they differed from "normal" machines wasn't clear! One of the members of my local club is an engineer on a boat that wanders around the North Sea but that's not quite the same as something that does long trips far from port. Needs a bit more self-sufficiency, I guess, in that case.

[92220]

Hi Reg.

Yes, I can understand merchant ships having very basic equipment, but warships need the facility to repair or remake items damaged at war, if at all possible.

Bob.

[chris vine]

My Grandfather was in the Royal Navy before and during the first world war.
He used to tell me the story of how he paid for his "run ashore" when in foreign lands.
He would go down to the engine room with a 1 pound tin of tobacco. (This would have been around 6 or 8 inches tall I would think.) He would get one of the men to put it under the steam hammer and crunch it down to the thickness of a normal tin of tobacco.

That this held much more tobacco than was apparent was completely understood by locals in ports, and it could be sold for sufficient to pay for a good night out!!

So, to keep to the topic, large ships must have had a steam hammer in their onboard workshop facilities...
Chris.

[andyhigham]

I believe that many round bed Drummond lathes spent their working life afloat

[johnd]

This post brought back memories of when i first started model engineering. I came to be friends with a retired oil tanker sea captain who built a 31/2” loco using the ships workshop whilst serving on his voyages. It just needed painting when in his home port.
A real character who always had time and much patience with a beginner, much missed.

[simplyloco]

My Navy mechanician cousin once told me that the warship he was on had not only the customary centre lathe, but also a chucking lathe at each end of the workshop, presumably to take the odd gun barrel or prop shaft!

[jem]

I had the concession for water sports at Pontinental in Cala Mesquida Mallorca from 1970 to 79, in 1969 a ship carrying stainless steel washing machine parts Mercury and copper cable sank in 12 foot of water, it was being salvaged in the following years, and we often took beginner divers onto it. To get to the point, it had a big lathe on it, and plenty of tools, many of which ended up in my workshop, not the big lathe though.

Were any of you dear friends divers with me in those days?

Jem

[ettingtonliam]

Apr 26, 2021 11:46:42 GMT andyhigham said:

I believe that many round bed Drummond lathes spent their working life afloat

I'm not sure about the Roundbeds, though they might have been, but Drummond made a version of their flatbed, called the 'Admiralty' Drummond. This differed from the standard version in several ways, chiefly in the provision of power cross feed. The Drummond website hgas some of the old Drummond records, which, given the machine serial number, can often identify which warship it was supplied for. Some of their lesser known large lathes went into ships as well.

There was a thread on www.homeshopmachinist a lttle while ago, which described the machine shop on one of the preserved American navy ships, and it was mindblowing! Huge machines of every type you can imagine, and the armoured deck above the machine shop had a section which could be lifted out, allowing a component to be worked on to be lowered in.

[JonL]

I think I mentioned on another thread, someone who brings his engines to our model engineering society shows has a collection of stuart engines he built entirely on board a nuclear submarine using their lathe. Not many of us have had to pause our model making for silent running... as mentioned elsewhere, I always laughed at the idea of a russian sub picking up a Harrison at 200 RPM off the Port Bow! 

I found these pictures too:

HMS alliance I think it said.

and HMS belfast

[don9f]

The Light Cruiser HMS Belfast, moored near Tower Bridge in London has its workshop as part of the tour below decks. I haven’t been for many years, but I recall that there are quite a few machines on board that you can inspect....as Nobbysideways says, there are some photos available if you Google.

Cheers Don

[Jo]

On a slightly different type of workshop..

My father was Buffer on HMS Sheffield (Type 42). He had his "domain" right up in the bows where they stored the ropes and in here he had his hand powered sewing machine. By all accounts he did very well out of providing a repair service to the crew (my grandmother taught him embroidery when he was a child).


It is amazing what capability they have aboard - some planned others (like my father's sewing machine) more of a local enterprise

Jo

[silverfox]

Jo
My mate was on Hermes in 82. if you missed an earlier ref , your dad may like this

www.arrse.co.uk/community/threads/pull-up-a-bollard-memoirs-of-a-matelot.198097/

[jma1009]

Fred Wills late of the IWMES built an LBSC 3.5"g 'Bantam Cock" mostly on HMS George V after WW2 before it was decommissioned.

The boiler was probably built with assistance of the lads in the Portsmouth RN Dockyard.

They certainly made a "Speedy" boiler for him.

Fred had a very distinguished WW2 record in the RN and had joined up before 1939, and continued in the RN as a chief engineer in the RN after WW2.

[smallbrother]

Apr 26, 2021 18:04:36 GMT JonL said:

I think I mentioned on another thread, someone who brings his engines to our model engineering society shows has a collection of stuart engines he built entirely on board a nuclear submarine using their lathe. Not many of us have had to pause our model making for silent running... as mentioned elsewhere, I always laughed at the idea of a russian sub picking up a Harrison at 200 RPM off the Port Bow! 

I found these pictures too:

HMS alliance I think it said.

and HMS belfast

Not long after I started in this hobby I took my youngest to Portsmouth Historic Docks and we went on HMS Alliance. As you can see on your photo, you go through a hatch and lo, there is a lathe tucked away on the left.

Always wondered how many critical parts were hastily produced on that by some clever person(s).

Pete.

[johnd]

This topic is really interesting, regarding navy ships HMS Maidstone is interesting,
Built in 1937 as a submarine depot ship she had full facility’s on board including a foundry, coppersmiths, plumbing and carpentry shops, heavy and light machine shops, electrical and torpedo repair shops and plants for charging submarine batteries.
She also shipped with 100 torpedoes and 100 mines. Full medical facilities including dental surgery and just for good measure a bakery and cinema.
Now thats what you call living on the edge, torpedoes and a foundry.

[durhambuilder]

Don’t forget these behemoths
www.lathes.co.uk/adcock&shipleycombination/index.html