USS Lexington Question for You Navy Guys...

[kfields]

I am only into the Introduction to the book The Lexington Goes Down by A.A. Hoehling and already I have a question.

 

A sentence reads: " If her cast iron mains, for example, were Victorian, the Lexington's propulsion was dramatically of the future: turbo electric drive. "

 

My question is what are the " mains " ?

 

thanks,

 

Kim

[aerialbridge]

"Main" refers to the mainmast on a ship. And the Lexington had a mast tower. Not sure about "mains". As far as books on the Lady Lex, I'd recommend "Queen of the Flattops" by Stanley Johnson. The backstory on Johnson is also very interesting. My 2nd cousin was on the Lex when she went down. He had nothing but praise for her skipper, Capt. Sherman.

[Bob Hudson]

"Cast iron mains" typically refers to cast iron pipe, but I don't think she would have had gas mains, so I'd presume that refers to water mains. They may date to the Victorian era, but in places like Philadelphia most water mains are made of cast iron.

[TreasureHunter]

Main engines, ships today still call the place the engines are "main spaces". 1 main, 2 main and so on. USS Kennedy had 4 main spaces where the boilers & main engine turbines were.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I467 using Tapatalk

[Bluejacket]

Kim,

I think you'll find the word refers to the water mains that ran throughout the ship. One of the problems most of our pre-WWII ships found during combat was the cast iron water pipes fractured easily from bombs or torpedos, and on several occasions prevented effective firefighting and subsequent loss of the ship. This was later corrected by using steel piping (more flexable to shock) and to installing multiple water mains, at least in the larger ships. It's interesting how people refuse to learn frm the past, as at least one Royal Navy ship was lost during the Faulkland War due to her firefighting system being eliminated by bomb damage.

 

Bluejacket

[kfields]

Okay, thanks guys!

I think I have a much better understanding.

 

On this particular ship, water was heated by burning fuel oil to create steam (pressure) which ran through cast iron piping to run the turbines. Something like that?

 

Aerialbridge - thanks for the suggestion on the book.

 

Kim

[topdcnut]

This reference is not about pipes or mainmasts, it is an antiquated allegorical reference to to the ships hull moving through the sea under modern propulsion. There was no cast iron piping in the boilers on the Lexington, the earliest steel ships hulls were Victorian and inferior but navies moved on to better quality steels before the turn of the century. The UK ship lost in the Fallkland war was due to an Exocet missile strike and the catastrophic failure of the aluminum superstructure.

 

John

[RustyCanteen]

I concur, in this instance the term 'mains' refers to the propulsion plant.

[kfields]

Granted I'm only a few pages into the book and I have small knowledge of naval ship construction, however the sentence I quoted above within the context of the paragraph it was written suggested a more literal interpretation to me.

With that said, perhaps the author made a mistake or maybe I really am missing his allegorical point (per the two of yours' comments).

 

In any case, thanks for everyones replies. I now have more ambition to read more about the subject!

Kim

 

[Salvage Sailor]

Concur

 

Main Engines or Main Propulsion

[topdcnut]

Well, I have to admit I was wrong. Not being able to question the author of the original statement makes the whole question a little harder to decipher. The Navy however to this day speaks a language riddled with allegorical statements, bidding one Fair winds and following seas, the raging main, paying homage to King Neptune at the crossing of the equator, Davey Jones locker etc. So I thought his reffering to cast iron mains was more toward the idea of the raging main. Having given this a bit more thought and not knowing the extent of his engineering knowledge I would have to say that he was speaking of the boilers because even though externally they resembled the Victorian boilers having a great deal cast iron components but this is where the comparison ends because the Lexington's internally very different ie oil vs coal, forced draft vs natural etc from the boilers of old. And to say that turbo electric as being the future, somewhat true but a majority of ships were using reduction gear vs turbo electric well into the 80's. still it is one man's observation in the late 20's early 30's of the future but the the moment he says Victorian, I think he has waxed on allegorical. But if he made this statement in the future in the authoring the book itself, it shows a bit of technical ignorance. I personally think it is a cool statement about an awesome ship, just not something we can take literally in a technical sense.

But, I have been wrong before

 

John

[Wharfmaster]

In his sentence, he is talking about two different things. He is stating that the mains were of old outdated (Victorian) design and the propulsion was of modern design.

 

 

 

W

[Salvage Sailor]

Spot on Wharf

[kfields]

For what its worth, the book has a 1971 copyright date.

His background is entirely as a newspaperman and writer.

I say that as it suggests to me that he does not possess

a technical background.

As I read more of the book, he does use quite a bit of flowery language to describe situations and events so it now makes me think I should not literally interpret

Some of his word choices (cast iron mains as an example).

Where his discriptive language comes alive for me is during the attack of the Lexington and other ships by the attacking Japanese planes....bombs exploding and every single gun being fired....the ships tossing and turning....what terrible noise and distraction affecting every single sense of your body all at once!!!

[kfields]

Okay, I'm on page 134 and now another reference to cast iron mains.

To give a little chronological perspective as to what has happened up to page 134, the Lexington has survived the initial attack by the Japanese strike force, has taken several torpedoe and direct bomb hits, taken on water, explosions and fire. The crew appears to gain the upper hand when suddenly the ship is wracked with new and more severe internal explosions and the fate of the ship is suddenly in doubt.

Here is what the author says at this point:

" The explosion left only number 3 pump, aft, in operation. Although hoses were switched to different "risers", the hydrant-like pipes, only 20 pounds of pressure could be coaxed out of those on the flight deck. Not only was there now only one-third pump capacity, but the cast-iron mains, installed when the Lexington was being constructed as a cruiser, had been cracked either by the bombing and torpedoing or the explosions, or both."

 

Sorry I'm such a hard headed case but can someone better describe to me what the "cast iron mains" are? Is it the pipes, the boilers or the propulsion system. If propulsion system, what does that mean: engines? boilers? generators? water containment system? or something else?.

Or is there a consensus that the author is completely over his head and his reference to cast iron mains are erroneous.

 

Thanks!

 

Kim

[Salvage Sailor]

Aloha Kim,

 

This makes the issue you are asking about much clearer.

 

We are talking about the 'main spaces' in engineering and in particular of the Boiler Rooms. The cast iron mains that the author is describing rather poorly are the water mains which supply not only three of the main boilers of LEXINGTON, but also her port fire main. Much of this water is drawn from the sea, strained, and then utilized by the ships engineering plant as necessary.This excerpt is from NAVSHIPS 16 (424) which contains the survivor interviews with the crew when they first arrived at San Diego on June 2nd, 1942. Note item 1 which discusses the damage to the boilers and firemains. It is the authors inference that these 'victorian' mains which were originally installed in the Battlecruiser LEXINGTON (CC-1) were made of iron rather than steel or other strong composite materials of the era (1920's). Well, that's fine and dandy but the most immediate cause of the firemains failure was a Japanese type 91 'Thunderfish' torpedo striking the port side.....

 

Reference Link

http://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/WarDamageReports/WarDamageReportCV2/WarDamageReportCV2.html

 

 

 

 

PRELIMINARY REPORT

U. S. S. LEXINGTON (CV2)
LOSS IN ACTION
CORAL SEA
8 MAY, 1942

Preliminary Design
Bureau of Ships Section
Navy Department
15 June, 1942

WAR DAMAGE REPORT No. 16

Printed By U. S. Hydrographic Offic

 

 

TORPEDO ATTACK AND DAMAGE

The torpedo hits on the port side occurred almost simultaneously, but it is believed that the forward hit occurred first.

(a) The after torpedo explosion, whether of one or two torpedoes, appeared to be centered at about frame 85.

A photograph was taken from the flight deck life nets and showed the light upper blister plating to be blown outward at this location.

As a result of this torpedo explosion, the following damage occurred:

(1) Some fractures in piping occurred in boiler rooms #2, 4 and 6, the most important of which was the rupture of the port firemain which was subsequently secured, cutting out the port firemain system in the forward part of the ship.

(2) As a result of the ruptures of piping and minor leakage around rivets boiler rooms flooded as follows:

BR #2 - 18" over floor plates BR #4 - 12' of water BR #6 - 6' of water

All these boiler rooms were subsequently pumped dry (except for very minor leakage) and secured. The Engineer Officer stated they could have been placed in operation again if needed.

(3) No damage occurred to main holding bulkheads of the torpedo protection system, except slight weeps noted above.

(4) Fuel oil and reserve feed tanks between frames 73 and 103 were reported to have been contaminated.

 

(5) There was no damage to main propulsion machinery and the ship continued to make 25 knots for some considerable time after the three boilers were secured. Shock damage to electrical equipment was inconsequential.

(6) It was reported that oil seeped up through the third deck into compartments located outboard of the longitudinal bulkhead.

See link above for entire report.......

...........and also this write up of the Type 91 which includes the fast torpedo bombing tactic the Zuikaku and Shokaku pilots used to destroy the USS LEXINGTON (CV-2) during the Battle of the Coral Sea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_91_torpedo

[kfields]

Thank you Salvage Sailor!

 

I'm almost through the book....all the living have left the Lexington including the Captain.

 

When I'm done, I plan to circle back and read through the links you included in your post. I find this fascinating!

 

Thanks for responding!

 

Kim