Page 64 - Mastheads July-Dec 1945

PAGE 6 THE MASTHEAD, SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, 1945
SPl/TT/Nfi THE IJRIINIIJM II TOM ••• It's A Bet Jimmy
In the Diesel laboratory there Jimmy Durante reporting on his
Engineering Department are thirteen engines for study in Alaskan trip, told Garry Moore he
Of OTS Trains "Bla,k- the power supply of Higgins' saw a sign outside an igloo which
boats, motor whale boats;' and
read "Eskimo Spitz Dogs-five
Gang" For Destroyers other small craft. There .are puri'- dollars apiece."
fying machines for all types of .
"Well, what's so unusual about
fuel-oils which the students know that?" said Garry.
Early in 1943 hundreds of new,
fast destroyers were sliding 9own thoroughly. "Unusuai!" exclaimed Jimmy.
the ways, scheduled to accentuate One room of the department is "I got fifty dollars that says the
the counter-attack of our Pacific equipped with complete refrigera- Eskimo can't do it!"
Fleet. These new destroyers could tion units, used on various ships.
not fight without the "black- In this room there are evaporat- a field, -creating a crater the size
gang," below decks operating the tors which purify salt water, con- of a swimming pool. Several of
powerful engines;·Early that sum- verting ·it into either drinking the contraptions started small
mer the Engineering Department water or feed-water. The feed- grass fires in March ,on Mt. Diablo
was added to OTS of Treasure Is- water is transformed into steam and other bay area ranges near
land to provide these men, in for the turbines by the boilers. San Jose.
large numbers for the destroyers. Automi:i,tic feed-water regula- Found by Prospector
Just one year later the-counter- tors are studied in the boiler One blasted a large hole in the
attack had become an offensive room. tfntil recently the OTs· Santa Clara River bed near Sati-
and our fleet wa:s deep into the could not obtain boilers for the coy in Ventura County on Janu-
Pacific. The hindering " supply department, but . last week two ary 15. A second balloon, Sheriff
problem was being won by 'the arrived. When they are connected L. Howard disclosed, was sighted
Fleet's Train, newly organized up they will supply the entire off the coast line four miles west
and composed of auxiliary ships. engineering department with of Ventura June 11 but capricious
More "black-gangs" were needed. power to run all class-room equip- THIS IS A VIEW of the Hanford Engineer Works, near Pasco, winds carried it to sea.
The · Engineering Department in ment. Wash., one of the three production plants used for the manufacture An aged prospector, believing
of the atomic bombs. W,orkers at this plant didn't know what they
early 1944 expanded; began train- The · students of the '·black were building until one of their bombs was dropped on Hiroshima, the Government "had lost some-
ing them, too.
gang" p.ave a lot to learn in a few Japan, on August 5. thing," delivered a bombless but
Teaches Many Subjects short weeks, but they are ex-. inflated balloon by burro from
Complemented with a teaching tremely interested in their work. County reported the bomb was hills near Elko, Nev.
staff of four officers and fifty-six Although the total enrollment for JAP BALLOON PERILED rendered harmless by the water. Ranch hands at Yerington, Nev.,
men, headed by Lt. Commander each class i·s about three hundred The balloon was one of 12 which found the first loaded device to
R.H. Jacobs, the Engineering De- and fifty students, each receives MARE ISLAND SHIPS settled in the San Francisco north land in that state on November 9.
partment is divided into three sep- special attention from their in- bay County in eight months, he They tied it to a car rear bumper
structors who have all learned the The Japanese scored what may and towed it to a garage. After
arate sections, which are the be their nearest bomb balloon hit said.
boiler room, the engine room, and hard way- at sea. When asked if failing to receive an answer to
he was learning anything valu- close to any military objective re- California with all of its war their letter to authorities, they de-
electrical section, with classes
able to him, one student retorted: cently when one of th e le th al plants received only a small part flated it and used the white rub-
held for special students. The
"I used to clean tanks for my loads landed in a duck pond dan- of the 230 balloons which fell on berized silk to cover a haystack.
special students receive instruc- home town's water department. gerously near U. S. warships at th e Pacific CoaS . Two demolitions still remained
t
tion in one or more of the follow-
ing subjects: Evaporators, Diesel When I get back I'll know enough Mare Island. Forewarned residents of Santa hidden in the bag's base when
engines, special tools and device, to manage the waterworks!" Sheriff John Thorton of Solano Rosa saw one explode its bomb in state police called to inspect it.
refrigeration, movie projectors,
and automatic combustion con- 8/t1clt f;t1n9 Ret1dled to ... _Tt1/te 011er lnte9rt1/ Jo/Js Wit!, Fleet
trol. ~-,
Have Short Classes
Classes are composed of both
officers and enlisted men who, as
students, are enrolled in either the
regular class of instruction, or as
special ·students. The department !
\ receives students from boot camp, t
sea, and from other shore estab- I
lishments. Some are college grad- j
uates while others have not fin-
ished secondary school. Enlisted
men. spend from four to six weeks
in the regular ·school while officers
spend one week in the regular
school learning mostly about the
administrative duties of engineer-
ing officers. Special students
spend from one to two weeks at
the Engineering Department.
Men assigned destroyer duty
spend four weeks m· class; go to
sea for one week; then spend
their last week back ashore doing
review work. Men assigned to
auxiliary ships spend two weeks
in classes and then undergo spe-
cial instruction at sea for one
week.
Students Operate Engines
The class rooms are equipped
with thousands of dollars worth
of engines, motors and machines
used aboard Navy ships. An auto-
matic combustion control board
is hooked up and is operated by
students. Lt. (jg) C. L. Keay ex-
plained that the board is a rela-
tively new instrument in the Navy
although it has' been used by the
merchant marine for several
years. Automatically controlling
the fuel combustion of the boilers,
it does the work of three or four
men.
A dead-front operating board
has been installed for the electri-
cal class. Built for destroyers, this
board reduces the danger the
electrician was formerly exposed
to and saves countless man-hours
of work. The term "dead-front"
means there are no live openings
on the board, which is plastic and ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT of OTS is one of the best equipped burners by using the burner fronts. In the lower right CM M Scott
built in three _sections. It controls schools on Treasure Island. Pictured above are sailors who in a short tells his class about the evaporators, which make feed-water aboard
the entire electrical supply, both time will be operating machinery below decks of a destroyer or a destroyer, while in the lower left WT1c Fennel points out the way
Auxiliary ship. In the upper: left hand corner CMoM M Smith ex- to operate the Bailey Automatic Combustion Control Board which
alternating and direct currents of
plains to his Diesel class the manner of overhauling a motor .whale automatically controls the engines of the boiler-room by regulatinl
the destroyer. boat engine. Upper right, CWT Wansley explains the way to change the com·bustion.