April 3, 2006

Funded by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs

Location: Latitude 55° 45' S, Longitude 63° 39' W

Air Temperature: 7°C

Engine Room Tour

Deep in the bowels of the ship is a sight seen by invitation only, the Engine Room, which is manned well out of the light of day in shifts by four Engineering Officers and four Oilers, who work tirelessly to ensure that the rest of us working on the deck levels above arrive at our various drill sites safely and with power to spare. When a notice went up on the white board in the galley today saying "Engine Room Tour, 1300 hrs", we knew this was our chance to find out what in that unseen underworld is really is driving this ship.

Assistant Engineering Officer Carl Largan first took us down one flight of stairs to the Control Room, where he spends about half his time monitoring a myriad of dials, knobs and switches that cover one entire wall and several consoles. These control most of what goes on that deck (the "Generator Deck") and the one below, the real "Engine Room". The four brightly painted yellow generators are sizable, and provide electric power throughout the ship. The four yellow Caterpillar diesel engines on the deck below are even bigger, with two connected in line to drive each of the ship's two main-shaft, variable-pitch propellers. For routine transits our ice-capable ship needs to use only one of those engines per prop, but will rev up all four to break ice. We could only marvel as we stood next to one of the yellow behemoths, taking pictures and notes as it hummed away. In conjunction with the main screws, two other propellers allow the ship to maintain its position above a drill hole. These are the directional "thrusters", one in the bow and the other in the stern, each with its own generator. The ship can literally square dance over a given spot on the seafloor, guided by satellite. They call it "dynamic positioning", which allows us to a drill hole into the seabed in waters hundreds of meters deep.

But that is not all that goes on here. There's the air conditioning and refrigeration compressors (would you believe we still have lots of fresh fruits and vegetables after 33 days at sea?), a "Boiler Room" (actually a 'heating unit' that warms and circulates antifreeze beneath the fantail over the stern to keep that vital workspace free of ice and slippery surfaces), an emergency generator in case of a power failure, a sewage processing plant, big pumps of every kind, and a machine room/workshop/parts store to fix anything that needs it. All of this takes a lot of preventive maintenance, schedules for which are computer generated and followed religiously. Above all, security and safety are the bywords. After each 4-hour shift, the Engineering Officer and Bridge Officer coming off watch together make a top to bottom inspection of the ship to be sure that everything is properly secured and that there are no safety hazards. While we sleep peacefully in our bunks or work in our labs or out on deck, their "ultimate goal", to quote Officer Largan, "is to get from point A to point B in shipshape and in a sailor-like fashion".

--Woody

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