Me in an Engine Room, age 19

I decided to make you suffer with yet another photo of me. Somehow, there are only two photos of me in an engine-room, ever. So, blurry mess that this is, it is all I have. It is 1975 and I was 19 years old.

The boilers were 1000 psi sinuous header. The ambient temperature we worked in was 110°F to 135°F (43.33°C to 57.22°C). It is a steam ship so it is dripping with humidity. This is a small engine room because it is the Academy ship, The Golden Bear, which has now been made into razor blades.

The Academy was a turning point in my life, mostly as an escape from home, and suddenly being accepted by my shipmates.

The Merchant Marine is very different from the Navy. We are civilians and work for private companies making large salaries. I did serve some years in the US Navy Reserves (Lieutenant Commander). I was forced to do it to get my education subsidized with a relatively small grant.

I had very negative feelings about the Navy and refused to do any of my required duties. But they kept promoting me, LOL.

My time around the Navy showed me that it was an inherently abusive system that squashed innovation, incentive, and fostered abuse by officers who had no working knowledge of a ship's systems. I lost all respect for the institution.

Our Academy Training ship used Sinuous Head Boilers and Turbines. The Fireroom was where the Boilers were All of the ships I worked on, except for the Exxon Galveston, were Steam Turbine ships. These two videos shows roughly what our Training Ship Main Engine Room looked like, only ours was larger:
SS American Victory Engine Room
MATSON S.S Lurline

Video Steam turbine ship engine room tour part 1
Video Steam turbine ship engine room tour part 2

Video SS Norway's Engine Room
Video SS Norway Engine Room Adventure
Video Supertanker DIESEL Engine Room Tour
Video Diesel Ship Engine Room MSC Napoli