From: user@example.net
On 2/11/2026 3:14 PM, john larkin wrote:
> On Wed, 11 Feb 2026 18:52:24 +0000, liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid
> (Liz Tuddenham) wrote:
>
>> john larkin wrote:
>>
>>> On Wed, 11 Feb 2026 09:30:39 -0800, Buzz McCool
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 2/11/2026 7:56 AM, john larkin wrote:
>>>>> Ships are most all diesels now. Steam plants are efficient but complex
>>>>> and it's hard to get crews who can run them.
>>>>
>>>> I didn't know that. Thanks for sharing.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Steamships burn Bunker-c, which is about the cheapest hydrocarbon
>>> available. It's stiff tar at room temperature. Nasty, stinky stuff.
>>
>> You need steam to heat it so that it can flow into the burners. The
>> steam comes from the boilers that are heated by burning the fuel - but
>> the fuel can't be burnt until it has been heated by the steam wbich
>> can't be made until.....
>>
>> Steam plants are complex....
>
> On the ships I worked on, they burned diesel to bootstrap the process.
>
> They had a "take home" motor, an electric motor powered by a diesel
> generator, that could push the ship slowly when the steam plant broke.
>
> Horsepower needed goes as about the square of hull speed, so it didn't
> take a lot of power to make 5 or 10 knots.
>
> A pinhole leak in a high pressure steam joint would produce a silent,
> invisible jet that could slice your arm off.
>
>
> John Larkin
> Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center
> Lunatic Fringe Electronics
Large reciprocating steam engines like you might have seen for the
Titanic's side propellers were started by little 25 hp put-putters,
there's a video of the process on YouTube (not of the Titanic, obviously)
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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