For the purposes of this tour the “Engine Room” comprises the whole of what is usually
termed the “machinery spaces”. Working aft, the turbo-generator room was ahead of
the boiler room, with the starting platform and turbines aft of that. The Engine Room itself
comprised of the huge turbines which drove the propellers.
The photographs on this page were probably commissioned by Cunard but were first published in a
magazine called “Art & Industry” in 1949. Expansion of the information placed
within the Art & Industry
Virtual Tour comes from at least two former Caronia engineers.
Both George Peterson and Robin Chalmers served aboard in the 1960s and with their help I'm
aiming to take you down below into what was a very hot part of the ship. Before we go further,
you may want to don some virtual overalls; it's going to get hot, sticky and extremely dirty
down here.
I still have quite vivid recollections of passing the access door to the generator room along the
working-alleyway. Other than perhaps during emergency drills, this hatchway was never closed.
Each time you walked past, you could not miss the strong blast of hot air that emanated. All I
can say is that I was very relieved that I could always walk straight past it.
If you can imagine a fan heater on its hottest setting at full blast with an aperture the size
of a door, you're getting close. Just inside was a very steep companionway down to “C” deck,
followed by others down to the depths of “D” and “E” decks. Inside this floating equivalent of
a blast-furnace worked several very brave souls - I never envied them!
Once in a while, you'd see someone emerge. He'd be living proof that it wasn't wise to venture into that hot-house space!
[Left:]
The main electrical switchboard was sited at the forward bulkhead of the generator room, on a platform
above the generators / turbines. The photo was taken from the Starboard side.
[Photo: Art & Industry magazine 1949]
The soiled white overalls, usually open to the waist, matched by a partly blackened face presented quite
a scary sight at first.
Despite the partial disguise, as you exchanged an empathetic glance, you'd always get a nod of
acknowledgement and an expression of relief from the escapee. No wonder really, as George Peterson
confirms, “The generator room was a very hot place to work as temperatures went to 140°F
ambient in the tropics”.
Generator Room Cutaway
Powering a Small City
The plant, comprising of 4 turbine generators, in this small section of the “Green Goddess”
could provide enough power for the equivalent of a city of 150,000 people. All of the power
distribution on the ship was divided into several sections and managed from a Main Switchboard.
A similar plant in a power-station ashore would be housed in a building several times the size
of this cramped space. Nevertheless, the maintenance that was required was just the same.
Probably the hardest and dirtiest job was servicing the commutators. Almost constant attention
was needed to keep the correct tension on the brushes, along with removing their carbon build-up.
George Peterson writes…
At any one time there was one generator either on standby or being serviced. The three running
generators were linked together to supply the necessary power for the whole ship. The power supply
was switched through individual breakers to sub-boards sited around the vessel, which in turn
had hand operated breakers to supply their local sections.
In an emergency, for example, if a generator got into difficulty and had to be shut down suddenly,
then preferential breakers would automatically operate and switch off to allow the other two generators
to safely manage the load. The Galley would be one of the first to switch off as this area took
one of the heaviest electrical loads.
The load readings displayed on the meters were recorded in the log book each hour of each watch.
The log book desk can just be glimpsed beside the second stanchion on the left of the top photograph.
George continues…
It is difficult to see from the photograph which generator is not in use but clearly “No.3 gennie”
is in operation as the “neutral” breaker handle is shown in the operational position. We ran
three generators at the same time to give operational power to all sections of the ship.
The fourth generator would be serviced i.e. cleaning away carbon dust (a very dirty job),
replacing carbon brushes where necessary, testing spring tension on each brush for equal
pressure and finally using a special cutting blade between the commutator segments for any
proud mica insulation. This whole operation took three men about two hours to complete.
Mine Protection
Behind the Main Switchboard was located a large breaker which operated the Degaussing coil. This
was a cable fitted to the Caronia in 1958 to create a magnetic field around the ship as mine
protection. Apparently not all the mines laid in the Baltic Sea during WWII had been cleared,
so this was switched on for that purpose only on North Cape cruises.
