# Last RN ship powered by triple-expansion engine



## Powertrain (Jul 15, 2011)

I am considering building a model marine condensing triple expansion engine (for which castings are available) as I once saw one running.
As a civilian service engineer in the late 1960s(?) I was flown out to work on HMS London to work on an Allen gas-turbine generator set that had failed. During the trip I was taken on-board an (ex?) naval ship that was acting as a floating electrical power station. It was fitted with a triple expansion steam engine and I am sure I was told that it was the last naval ship so powered. Several engineers came to see the engine running because I think it was just about the last time it would be used before the ship was scrapped. I was seriously impressed by the Chinese oiler who managed to get his oil-can and arm into open linkages without loosing either.
Can anyone confirm its existence and give me any details?


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## James_C (Feb 17, 2005)

I think the last RN ship with a TE engine was HMS Reclaim, a salvage vessel commissioned in 1949, decommissioned in 1979 and broken up in 1982.


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## LouisB (Dec 23, 2007)

Powertrain said:


> I am considering building a model marine condensing triple expansion engine (for which castings are available) as I once saw one running.
> As a civilian service engineer in the late 1960s(?) I was flown out to work on HMS London to work on an Allen gas-turbine generator set that had failed. During the trip I was taken on-board an (ex?) naval ship that was acting as a floating electrical power station. It was fitted with a triple expansion steam engine and I am sure I was told that it was the last naval ship so powered. Several engineers came to see the engine running because I think it was just about the last time it would be used before the ship was scrapped. I was seriously impressed by the Chinese oiler who managed to get his oil-can and arm into open linkages without loosing either.
> Can anyone confirm its existence and give me any details?




I remember HMS Hartland Point - Submarine Depot/ repair ship out in Singapore - she was scrapped in 1979. Triple stage steam recip' methinks. Canadian built wartime tonnage built 1944 with eleven knot service speed. There were also quite a few ammunition Fort Class vessels built by the Canadians around the same time, they were eventually takrn over by the RFA in the early fifties and scrapped in the seventies. They were all steam recip'.

Some similar Depot vessels, HMS Berry Head and HMS Girdle Ness and a few others were scrapped in 1990.


LouisB


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## Duncan112 (Dec 28, 2006)

How about HMS Rame Head - broken up last year

http://www2.edisposals.com/docs/rame_head.pdf


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## waldziu (Jun 17, 2008)

James_C said:


> I think the last RN ship with a TE engine was HMS Reclaim, a salvage vessel commissioned in 1949, decommissioned in 1979 and broken up in 1982.



I think that you be correct, James, although Wakeful comes to mind also.


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## Powertrain (Jul 15, 2011)

Thanks LouisB - it was Hartland Point that I visited. HMS London was in Singapore at the time of my service visit - so it looks as if it was not the last of the TE engined ships in service but it had sufficient generating capacity to keep London working while we had her own generators out of commission.


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## LouisB (Dec 23, 2007)

Powertrain said:


> Thanks LouisB - it was Hartland Point that I visited. HMS London was in Singapore at the time of my service visit - so it looks as if it was not the last of the TE engined ships in service but it had sufficient generating capacity to keep London working while we had her own generators out of commission.


Hi Powertrain,

I think that Hartland Point was still in commission when you were in Singapore - I was in and out of 'Singers' throughout the sixties and early seventies and I seem to remember that HP had an official inspection that involved firing her Bofors a few times. She possibly had shore labour in her machinary spaces - it was not unknown in those days on Far East station (Pax Britannica). (Thumb)

Regards,

LouisB


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