Destroyer Escort Slater - Engine Room
Bill Maloney 4/29/2006 |
01 Control Panel | 02 Control Panel | 03 Control Panel | 04 Breaker Panel |
Although not yet ready for visitors, I was allowed a quick look in the engine room as that is the station where my dad worked when he served on the Destroyer Escort Bangust in the south Pacific. To have this opportunity to visit the engine room meant the most to me as I could see my dad working at panels like these as they sailed through 3 years of fighting the Japanese. I just wish he were still here so he could explain the workings of the panel controls. He used to tell me how in the typhoons as they crested a wave the screws would come out of the water and overspeed, triggering a shutdown of the generators and drive motors. Then they would have to go through a restart procedure to bring the generators back online, then start the electric motors that drove the screws all while wallowing in seas that sank a number of much larger vessels. My tour guide Jack reminded me of my dad in some ways and coincidentally shared the same name as my dad.
Dad actually volunteered painting and scraping work on the Slater when it was first berthed at the Intrepid. The ship was a sorry sight and the volunteers in Albany have done a super job of cleaning and restoring it.
A more extensive gallery of engine room photos can be found in the December 2006 galleries