"David Manley?" Topic

Is the David Manley that appears in an episode of Drain the Oceans the Same David Manley that is a member and poster on TMP? If so, Whats the big pipe your about to smash? Do ships boilers use sea water, I've never thought about it before?

Ships boilers most certainly do not use sea water. Some ships have distillers to allow them to make fresh water from sea water though.

That makes sense, they would clog up on salt. Does that mean they carry a supply of water for the boilers? Clearly I don't know.
In the video he's smashing a large, presumably cast iron, pipe to scuttle a ship. It obviously allows seawater into the ship and it looks larger than you'd need for drinking water.

imdb.com/name/nm10798735

Naval Architect, UK Ministry of Defence

Major General Stanley,

Steam ships would carry supplies of boiler feed water, which would be topped up from desalinated water whenever possible. The boiler water would be used, then cooled in a condenser, and then reused. Some steam would be lost (sometimes it was injected Into the exhaust to increase the draught of air drawn into the boilers), which is why the feed water needed to be topped up.

By the way, it is the same David Manley. He is a Naval Architect as well as lecturing in naval architecture at UCL. PDF link

Thanks. Thats Great.

Yes , it is me.

You are right, boilers don't use sea water (except in emergencies, and then they are pretty much written off afterwards). But condensers use a LOT of seawater on a continual basis, so large ships using steam systems had (have – there are still some around, and of course SSNs are "steam" ships as well) large bore, high flow rate inlet and outlet pipes to supply cooling water. One of the easy ways to scuttle a ship would be to sever these pipes, and in old ships where pipework was made from relatively brittle materials (as opposed to more ductile materials that are now in use) it was possible to shatter them with some well aimed blows, hence the sledgehammer. Ideally you'd close the inlet and outlet valves, break the pipe, and then open the valves to begin the scuttle in a controlled manner.

That particular scene was filmed on HMS Belfast. I don't know how long that sequence is (I've never seen it, hate watching myself on TV, I've done nine or ten shows so far) but I reckon its 2-3 minutes tops. Took us seven hours to film it :)

Oh, and I never realised I had an IMDB page :)

congrats on your stardom. Those shows are a bit cheesy, but I usually learn something from them.

In a similar way, railroads in the western US had to watch out for water with a high alkaline content. Either you had to find fairly pure water, or treat the alkaline water, so it wouldn't cause scale deposit and clog water lines. Lots of alkaline water out here.
For what it's worth, water with high alkaline content can appear a kind of whitish green. If you drink it, you'll find yourself squatting behind a bush or boulder with your pants down.
Not quite on topic, but a similar logistical problem that somebody might want to build into their Old West game.
I'll have to remember to watch Drain the Oceans one of these days when I'm channel surfing.

Grelber

It is a great series if sometimes a bit overly dramatic. I shall look for Mr. Manley in future viewings as I am a fan.