Been there, done that. 55 years ago. I had both 'M' and 'D' type boilers in my time aboard ships. One thing that most didn't realize was that in the combat zone, that boiler repair work was 24/7 until the boiler was buttoned up and re-fired. We had no 8 hr shifts. It was work until either it was your turn to stand watch again or the boiler was put back online. Many a night I snoozed on the deck plates. On most boilers, a burner was pulled to access the box. The 1600 hr steam time was just to clean and wire brush the exposed tubes and metal surfaces. Re-brick was only done in a yard unless there happened to be a brick failure and then the damaged areas were repaired with new brick. The studs were there to hold the plastic chrome ore (pco) that came in danm heavy short barrels that was rammed a handfull at a time with a pneumatic hammer, about the studs wielded to the tubes around the transition points where the tubed entered the drums. Most of the burners were fitted with pre-shaped fire brick supplied from B&W. Every opened boiler was a 'joy' to look forward to for the BT's. When I was in, the safety breathing equipment consisted of old T-shirts. That ash on the deck of the boiler was converted into clouds that a BT breathed for weeks when scooping it into buckets. That and the 120 degree heat of the Gulf made such a great incentive for telling the on-board recruiting NCO's where that stood in our lives. There was no cleanup when it came to chow. We would climb out of the hole and apparently looked like a pack of racoons standing in the chow line. From a good standing member of the Tonkin Gulf Club.

About a month ago I met my brother-in-law's 96-year old uncle who served as a boilerman on the Fletcher-Class destroyer USS Marshal. I asked him if he ever had to clean out the fire box and scraped the pipes. He was surprised that I knew about that, and responded that he indeed had that dirty duty. He went on to explain that that job always fell on the lowest-ranking, smallest member of the crew. This gentleman further explained that it always seemed that he was the smallest and lowest ranking sailor on the Marshal! It was a delight to talk to this former tin can sailor!

On the boiler tubes you called those protrusions on the tubing, but they are not completions they are actually studs shot by general electric stud guns that can be anywhere from 7/16 to 5/8 or half inch in diameter at about half inch to 3/4 of an inch in the length depending on the specifications by the boiler make. I worked for George p righteous years ago and we had the only stud guns that you can find in the planet. They went out of their way to buy every single part for every single broken or working gun they could find. We specialized in this work and traveled all over the world to do this kind of work. The studs are shot onto the tubing and the refractory is packed around the studs so the tubing wasn't damaged from the fire. The studs were to transfer the heat to the boiler too.

That is one EXHAUSTED curator. I got claustrophobia just looking at the access hatch.

I was on the USS Midway for 27 months during Vietnam. I was a BT (B division). We had 12 boilers divided across 4 groups (main engines), 70,000 BSHP/shaft. The funny thing is the keel for the Midway was laid as a Battleship in '43, shortly after it was redesignated as an aircraft carrier. At one time we had it cranked up to 37 knots. Of course we weren't doing flight ops or anything like that. We even took the evaporators off line for an hour to conserve steam for the main engines. Let me tell you, she was screaming. We were @117% of design power output and had the emergency backup (2 ea. 12 cylinder diesels) generators online to save even more steam for propulsion. Fun times, sometimes! Now, let's go fly some planes and shoot some munitions. We also had 5 inch guns.

As Boilers Officer on USS Lexington CVT 16 with same basic engineering plant as NewJersey, I was proud to served with 100+ Boiler Techs or “BTs”... salt of the earth sailors who made everything else that happened on the ship possible! Thanks for drawing attention to these unsung heroes.

In re relining the boilers - until the 1970s, Babcock & Wilcox firebricks contains asbestos and that's where a lot of service/maintenance exposure occurred when people were removing damaged/old bricks and relining the boiler.

That would've been a cool episode for Mike Rowe when he was filming "Dirty Jobs". He did one where he cleaned a ship's boiler, the New Jersey's boiler would be a good one.

This man is dedicated to his job - give him a raise!

Retired BT here.... love it!

I'm not sure what's more fascinating. Hearing your in depth knowledge on just about every aspect if this fine ship, or seeing all the retired sailors chiming in with even more knowledge to fill in the gaps.

Deja vu; seeing you crawl into that boiler brought me back to 1963 when I was 19 years old. Not many people know what it feels like to get into small spaces like that. I worked in the mine at Franklin, N.J. We were working down to 3,000 feet to take out 86 different minerals. Once, I was "invited" to go into a particular hole that the miners who were working it were very proud of. Most of our shift crawled through a hole about the same size as what you were going through to admire their work. We were in a cave about 50 feet long and 3 feet high with the roof loaded with blasting powder and fused, ready to be set off. I looked around and said, "It would be very hard for all of us to get out of here if anything went wrong". No one said a word, they just quickly left through that little hole. Later that year my twin brother and I enlisted in the USAF for 4 years. Interesting times. I made a plastic model of the N.J. when I was 12.

The engineering in all these machines is amazing.

Started my 35 years in navy civil service working at Norfolk Naval Shipyard as a boilermaker apprentice in 76. This brings back memories. I was smaller then, about 155 lbs, so I always got the jobs in tight places. Spent many 12 hr shifts rolling boiler tubes in water (mud) drums because it was easier for me to maneuver in them.

Congratulations to you filming partner for getting in there with you.

I am certified for dangerous vessel entry myself and have been in everything from high and low pressure seperators to the main condenser on an Adams class Destroyer. Those entries cannot be done by people with claustraphobia either. That was a great job man. I've been in the bilges myself, good job!

my dad graduated from Great Lakes in March 1951 as a Fireman Apprentice. he arrived at Norfolk, assigned to DE 698 the USS Raby. he said it was wreck with paint being chipped and red/orange undercoating showing all over and since he was only about 130lb and 5'4" he was sent to the fireroom with a couple of other guys. he spent 7 weeks hauling bricks and cement out of the boilers to be dumped before the boiler could be relined. i think theres a photo of him in a Med Cruise book from the USS Walter B. Cobb (APD 106), in one of the boilers doing something similar or at least making some kind of repair. pushing 92, its surprising that he has no respiratory issues from any of the soot or asbestos on the ships... thanks Ryan for your adventures!

I can tell you, the most god-awful job in engineering was cleaning "fire sides" and "punching tubes" doing "water sides" on a naval boiler.

I’ve been watching this channel for about two years now. Not every single video can be about the 16” 50 caliber guns. But somehow you keep interesting and educational content flowing. I hope to visit the New Jersey one day. Keep up the hard work and never ever quit learning and having fun.

I worked at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. I went through the apprenticeship as a boilermaker. Some spaces were very tight like in the water or (mud) drum. Laying on your back rolling the tubes in, hard work.

This video really made me smile. I’ve seen diagrams showing the boilers on other channels but I’d never got a good fix on the size. Knowing they are ‘1 curator’ tall was very interesting. Thanks for keeping the channel interesting. It’s fascinating to follow what your doing.

I grew up in Barberton Ohio, where B&W’s Main Offices are located. Do you know where the NJ’s boilers were manufactured? My father was a B&W design engineer. This video gave me a better appreciation for the work he did, and for all the 24/7 activity we put up with growing up in Barberton. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Great job explaining the workings of these boilers. A few comments; the saturated steam is all steam - the superheating to raise the temperature of the steam to a point that when expanded through the turbine the steam is still slightly superheated at the exhaust of the low pressure turbine. Superheating steam prevents water droplets forming on the turbine blades at sub-atmospheric condensing conditions. The nubs on the tubes were addressed by other folks in comments, there to allow for refractory to be shot onto the tubes. These boilers were designed with far small diameter tubes for greater / faster steam production. The engineers designing these beasts were top notch heat transfer savants - their design of multiple burners strategically located within the walls of the firebox positioned within the firebox to facilitate rapid response to ship speed requirements. Burning #6 oil, their were several types of burner guns which were often switch out while operating to provide the various propulsion requirements. Typically the superheater burners weren't needed unless the ship need full speed to assure non-condensing conditions at the exhaust to the condenser. Freaking amazing engineering.

I found it much easier to slide in and out on my back. Keeps your face and arms out of the soot and you can use your feet to push of the outer air casing. Navy Special Fuel (NSFO) is F-77 NATO I believe. It was Bunker "C" blended with 20% JP-5 which reduced the viscosity so it could be pumped without heating in most ambient conditions though it still require heating for proper atomizing. It was phased out in the 1970's. Navy Distillate (ND) or NATO F-76 replaced NSFO as a boiler fuel for ship propulsion. It looks like a dark beer and even can have a head on it. Our ship converted from NSFO to ND in 1972. The Captain run the ship, but the BT's made the ship run! Oilking DE-1076 1971-74, DD-596 before that

I sure hope there's a shower on board for Ryan to clean up. This was a great video. Thanks for taking us into the boiler!

"Hi, I'm Ryan Szimanski, curator and contortionist..."

This is so cool. Thanks from a retired Boiler Technician.

Ryan, you and your film crew deserve a shower and a beer or two after today's video! Thanks for showing us the places we can't go.

Ryan - this is pure curator greatness. Thanks! Almost beyond the call of duty.

Cool. I recently learned that my neighbor growing up was a civilian boiler water chemist at the Philadelphia navy yard and did some work on the Iowas when they were being reactivated in the 80's. I wasn't able to get out of her whether she worked on New Jersey or not.

Love the shirt. As a former Submarine Sailor I was happy to see the Navy honor those ships by reusing the names for Submarines.

As an HVAC tech, I can appreciate this. Very cool, and yes, very dirty. I thoroughly enjoy these in depth tours and information on parts of the ship most don't ever get to see. Thank you for the videos! Lets see the condensers, sea chests, next.

Go inside the economize and count the tubes ! The ship I was on...(U S S Columbus C G 12) also had 600 lb Babcock and Wilcock boilers and we were required to do fireside every 600 hours of operation. And waterside every 1200 hours of operation. This time frame may have been changed when they switched to the newer cleaner fuel. Our ship used the thicker crude oil..(Known as black oil) . Best way to explain it is it's the raw crude oil that comes out of the ground..it just has been filtered to remove rocks and dirt from it. The oil then is heated to make it a thinner viscosity and some benzene was also added to help fire up a cold boiler ( it helped make the oil more flammable).

Feed water goes from the DFT through the main feed booster pumps to the main feed pumps where it's pumped through the economizer before it enters the steam drum on top of the boiler. From there, out of the top of the stream drum it's now saturated steam (approx 495 degrees) on it's way to the superheater to be made into main steam (850 degrees)

In college I worked at a power plant built in 1949 that had Babcock & Wilcox boilers. At the time of them coming online, it was the most efficient coal-fired plant in the world. It was always mind blowing to think that machines that complex were designed using nothing brain power, slide rulers, and coffee.

Hats off to Ryan for a video of an area of the battleship that few people will ever see. Those inspection hatch's are only for the slim and wiry type. Thanks for your efforts.

20 year old me thinks this looks like a lot of fun. 35 year old me has a sore back just from watching.

Ryan, seeing some of the confine spaces you enter is like watching a scary movie to me. 🤣 This one was chilling. Enjoyed every moment and very informative as usual. You are the ultimate curator.

The tubing on the outside bulkhead is a water cooled wall. First, like the name says, it cools the outside walls of the boiler reducing the amount of insulation required. Second, like the economizer, it preheats the feedwater before it goes into the steam drum.

I “got to” climb inside the boiler of a DDG on my 19th birthday to scrape the tubes on my midshipman cruise. It was still pretty hot.

These videos are great! Thank you for the detailed explanations. You have such a cool job!

Great video. I always wondered how big the boilers are. Love your videos. Very fascinating.

Thanks for all the effort you go thru to make these informative videos

Very cool video! Thanks for the taking the time to crawl in there and show and tell us about the boilers in the ship. I have always wanted to see inside of one! Love watching all your videos!

Ryan, that was really interesting! I'm always surprised and pleased at the depth of knowledge and experience by those who post in the comments. Thank you Ryan and everybody!

Having climbed into many boilers I appreciate you (and Libby) taking us inside. I don't think I would be flexible enough to do it now. Some how I doubt the combustion chambers would be rebricked every cleaning. You would need to carry too many bricks on board. You would only replace any that were badly damaged.

Another great video Ryan! Thanks

Fascinating, thank you for sharing this video.

Awesome video. Great info….extremely interesting. You’re a huge asset to the community of battleship enthusiasts. Thanks very much.

I was a Boilermaker at PSNS, completing my Apprenticeship in 71. Posters are correct about the studded tubes being used to retain plastic (malleable) castable to protect tubes from direct flame impingement. That boiler appears to have been using distillate fuel, rather than Bunker C. Bunker C would leave a lot more black soot and tarry deposits.

Fantastic. Thank you

Fantastic. You are showing so many things that I have wondered about for years.

I've been enjoying your videos for quite sometime now. As watched this one in particular, I was shocked at how comfortably you climbed into a confined space. Please be careful, confined spaces are incredibly unforgiving especially without PPE and procedure. Stay safe Ryan and company!

Seeing it, I understand the purpose of the fire brick but before seeing it, had you told me there were bricks used to build the NJ I would have thought you were messing with me. Great video. Keep it up.

That was great Ryan! Thank you for doing that for us. So incredibly interesting.

This is awesome thank you for doing this.

Having been a BT on a destroyer many years ago it wsa nostalgic to be inside a boiler again. If you realley want be cramped try going iside the steam drum or better yet the water drums , whiich was required to clean the water side of the tubes to remve the chemical buildup. A great video thanks

Well done Ryan. I think I might have fitted through those holes to gain the same access as you did when I was half the age I am now.

This is one of the videos I've been waiting for!

Another good job- Thanks Ryan for your time and love of the ship. Looks like you really enjoy your job.

Ryan. I can’t imagine a better curator than you, my Girlfreind and I have been watching you for a long time, Thank you.

Dude...Ryan you are just an amazing host. Your level of knowledge is so extensive but yet you make it digestible by us viewers. And what you get to do!!! I saw the video title and thought...surely I misread that. Nope...somehow you amazed me again by your total lack of claustrophobia. Thank you for doing what historians should....make history fun, amazing and alive. One question though....have you or do you plan on doing a video about the Constitution? I've been on her many times and im not ashamed to say i tear up every time.

Thanks so much for the videos! Need to experience what it's all about. Planning a trip soon!

Thanks Ryan, great information and education

Wow, great informational video! As a formerly licensed biller operator and as a tall and super skinny guy, I was the one that was designated to go into the boilers through the manhole. However, my extreme fear of confined spaces got me out of that job. I never once saw the innards of a boiler because of that reason, but I really wanted to. I just couldn't control my fear of confined spaces and it did bad things to me. I tried, I tried, because I wanted to go inside so badly, but I just couldn't conquer that fear. It gave me the willies just seeing Ryan in the boilers. Again, great job and great information!

I actually still have some of the original studs that have not been used in a boiler before they are shot through the gun if you would like some email me.

A big thanks to the Camera Operator for going in with him. TBH I was expecting Ryan just to go in on his own. With a camera strapped to his head. this was much better. so thanks again for another great video.

Great presentation ! Can't thank you and your team enough !

A video on the funnels would be good, from the boilers all the way to the tips would be cool

Because of your channel, I now have to see your ship.

Awesome job Ryan!

Can't get enough of these videos.

There's something that just feels so weird about seeing brickwork (including what looks like some kind of mortar) as part of a ship's construction. Even when it makes logical sense for some reason it feels out of place somehow.

Great Video Ryan, thank you. Question where did the battleship stored bricks to replace the ones in the boilers and how many replacement boilers bricks were typically carried on a deployment?

Love it! Thanks for sharing.

Very informative, thanks for the great videos!

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="690">11:30</a> Ryan, shame on you for making Libby climb in there! 🤣

We don't have that cleaning problem on HMS Victory, you chaps want to get up to date. The only oil that old lady used was whale oil for the lamps. I'm a tank man myself, just a smaller coffin when a shell says hello. Seems a shame to see such a wonderful ship laid up. I'm glad though she hasn't been turned into baked bean tins. Why we kept HMS Belfast light cruiser (6" pop guns) instead of a King George 5th class battleship I have no idea. Mind you us Brits have had too many punch ups over the last couple of thousand years and we are only a tiny island.

Very cool look at the insides of a battleship.

Thanks a lot for this video

I just can’t imagine a 900’ long battleship going 40 mph - just another example of how the Iowa’s were really the epitome of battleship design. Hell even smaller and far more modern warships can’t approach speeds like that… just amazing when you’re talking about technology 3/4 of a century old.

I know others have mentioned it but I would never go inside one of those boilers without an asbestos respirator all of the mortar and insulation are filled with it. I was a BT3 from 1970-74. When we had Marines on board they would send the ones that got into trouble to the boiler room as punishment. Had them paint Red Lead and High temp silver...

Really appreciate your deep dive videos into New Jersey, Thank you .

Hey, thanks for doing that. I appreciate it.

Naval architects are some truly sick sadists. It’s almost like they take very detailed measurements of exactly how much space is needed to fit humans in places and then deliberately subtract 25% just for giggles.

this video makes me wonder about pinch points - specifcally in the cramped turret spaces- how did sailors operate in those confined spaces whilst being assured of not being crushed as those barrels and turrets rotated and spun? oh and Ryan, you should do the next boiler video in a fresh new pressed tuxedo!

Congratulations on freaking me (and I’m sure others) out as you squeezed through that port :-). But that is the kind of unusual, cool stuff that has us watching

I wasn't at all claustrophobic until about 5 years ago (I am 61 now). An amazing video, but I was hyperventilating for part of it. Thanks Ryan, your videos are always fascinating.

I like how in Battleship the movie, they start the boilers and make 600# steam in like 15 minutes. Yeah right movie. I’d believe in the aliens first.

loved that. Thank you

Ryan, you do have a way of doing interesting things, well done Ryan.

Back in my much younger days, I used to crawl into boilers like that, not on board ship but in land based power plants. Definitely not a place to go if you suffer from claustrophobia.

Next on "What is the dirtiest and most cramped hole on a battleship we can squeeze a curator into" :)

You knew a great job explaining everything better than anybody else I've ever seen if you ever get any spare time it would be neat to see you do some stuff on the Missouri I remember seeing the Missouri going out to war when I was a kid back in desert Storm you keep up the great work and be safe

Great video. So impressive that the New Jersey could get up and really move by steam power. As a qualified throttleman on a sub ( love that shirt you're wearing ), I could appreciate getting the steam to the main engine to move the boat. Hats off to the BT's and all the engine room crews on all Navy ships.

I cannot envision NOT superheating the steam. Doing so would seriously degrade the turbines. We would NEVER put steam to the header that was not superheated.

Gearing DD snipe, '69- '73. Punching downcomer tubes while on your back in the mud drum was the worst job, using a 3" rotary wire wheel driven by 150 p.s.i. air just inches from your face and relying on the guy outside to bend the hose, which was your on/off mechanism. He literally held your life in his hands, no PP or respirators either, just a bandanna scavenged from the rag bag. I got a V A rating for tinnitus damn near on my say so alone just because of my job & workspace. Other rates feared and hated us snipes and officers NEVER came down our hole, as long as we answered all bells.

Thanks for a very interesting video!

Thanks Ryan

today on "battlewagon spelunking", ryan goes where no human should ever go (nonrates only).......TWICE!