I've always known she was the only battleship to get underway during the attack, but how did they manage that? Were her boilers hot or was it just coincidence that morning they had enough pressure to make way? Absolutely valiant to try to move that steel island and fight back, 1500 paid for it unfortunately.
She wasn't on shore power so had a boiler running to provide power to the ship. As was mentioned they were going to switch boilers at 0800 and thus had the second boiler heating up at the time of the attack. Of the ships that made it underway that morning all were in the same situation. All the ships who made it underway that morning did so because of young leaders taking initiative and acting on their own in face of extreme conditions. In a couple cases it was relatively new Ensigns who were standing watch, because that's who draws duty on Sunday morning in port, and stepped up and made critical decisions instead of waiting for orders from superiors.
Thanks for the information guys, I need to do some research into the Nevadas boilers after her refit I think in the thirties? Boiled tech came a long ways, and this was bolstered by oil firing, which alot of modern navies at the time fought uo until the very early 1900s. Such amazing machines, just a shame she's 15kft down near Hawaii.
Propulsion improvements included replacement of the original 12 boilers with 6 more efficient boilers, and replacement of the original direct drive steam turbine with geared turbines.
Useless factoid: The Nevada class battleships (Nevada and Oklahoma) were the first USN battleships built with all oil fired boilers. The preceding New York class were coal fired. The Delaware had both coal and oil fired boilers
Useless factoid: The Nevada class battleships (Nevada and Oklahoma) were the first USN battleships built with all oil fired boilers. The preceding New York class were coal fired. The Delaware had both coal and oil fired boilers
Texas also had traditional reciprocating engines, triple expansion I believe. Water tube boilers were much more efficient than flue tub boilers, still probably took considerable time to raise pressure.
Tough old lady, should have been saved but I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky we have an example of every modern battleship built. North Carolina, Sodak and Iowa, so many countries came out of that conflict beleaguered and financially destroyed, they scrapped it all.
It was also a split class, with Oklahoma being built with triple expansion engines vs Nevada's turbines. Part of the justification for not righting Oklahoma until all other salvage efforts had taken priority was the inferior machinery aboard. They also only carried the 14/45 main battery, which while they ended up being useful, where inferior to the other battleships. Also the primary reason Arizona was ignored, she just wasn't worth it after the black powder magazine hit ripped her apart.
Yes SOME still did, as the ignition charge for the main powder. Arizona used an older gun and charge, an had a sizeable blackpowder magazine still aboard the morning of Dec 7th, where a hit in the area of A/B turret is a good candidate for what actually destroyed her. The old theory about a bomb down her main funnel is completely debunked, and there is quite a bit of physical proof one of her main magazines did not detonate.
Drachinfel's video on the subject is an excellent summation, and give his sources as well. The evidence does point to the blackpowder magazine she had aboard as the source of the explosion.
In fairness I didn't until not long before his video came out, it was my understanding that all the 14" and larger American BBs had been converted before the war. Unfortunately for the Arizona, that was not the case :-(.
Speaks to the advancements in cordite and smokeless powder after Jutland that not only did her main magazines like not actually explode, they found hunk of unburnt propellant hundreds of yards from the ship.
I shoot some traditional blackpowder rifles on occasion... having a pound of it in the house makes me nervous.... 1000 or so pounds in a sealed metal box with high ex and an O2 supply suddenly introduced makes my skin crawl.