SS Jeremiah O'Brien, Chatham - engine

Image: © Chris Allen Taken: 11 Jun 1994

The Jeremiah O'Brien is a WWII 'Liberty' cargo ship built in 1943 and now preserved in San Francisco. She came to Europe for the 50th anniversary of D-Day. The vessel is 441' 6" long by 57' beam. The displacement tonnage is 14,450 long tons. Propulsion is by this 2,500 horsepower inverted vertical triple expansion engine. The cylinders are 24.5", 37" & 70" bores by 48" stroke. Steam pressure is 220 psi and service speed 76 rpm. This is the forward starboard side of the engine. The buff column covered with pipes is supporting the high pressure cylinder. The brass disc above a silver steam cylinder is the reversing gear. The boilers are to the right. The brass cylinder dangling on the left is a bell, presumably for sounding the watch changes. It was rather busy down here and the engine was too big to get in one frame anyway. This and a view from the generator flat was about as good as it got. The engine, two boilers and all the auxiliary plant share one large space amidships. One torpedo amidships would take out the lot. The Liberty ships were a standardised class known as the EC2-S-C1 cargo vessel and 2710 were built. The fastest build time was 4 days, 15 hours and 29 minutes from laying the keel to launch. The actual time from laying the keel to delivery into service was a bit longer at 7 days, 14 hours and 32 minutes. One of the items in my collection is the official Instruction Manual for this class of engine. This was printed in 1942 in Hamilton, Ohio.

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