Exploring the Heart of the RV Roger Revelle
The crew has really been a great help in my explorations of the Revelle.
We will feature some of the Revelle crew members individually, but this page is really focused on the "home" that we all share: captain, crew and science team. The picture on the front page was Danny, the Chief Engineer, with Evy, one of our petrologists. At breakfast, she was showing him one of the cool rocks we had just brought up in our dredge.
Our focus here is is to show you how the Revelle really works out at sea.
The RV Roger Revelle is an amazing ship and mostly because everything is powered with electricity. Some ships have diesel engines that are connected to propellers. They have rudders to steer with. Not the Revelle. This ship and almost all of the services onboard are powered by electricity.
Electric main drive motors? YES. The ship does not have massive diesel engines that connect to the propellers. The engines are huge GE electric motors that run on 600 volts of DC electricity. Want more speed? Turn up the voltage!
These 10 foot propellers are mounted on pods that turn 180 degrees. Cool, huh?
So maybe you are thinking...
Where does all that electricity come from? This is where our giant diesel engines come into play. They generate the electricity for the electric motors (and everything else). In fact, there are 6 large generators for electric power. There are three really large ones: each generates 1500kw (about 2,000 horsepower) and three smaller ones: 700kw or about 1,000 hp each. Let's do that math. (2000 X 3) + (1000 X 3) = 9,000 horsepower. Visualize this: it would take 9000 horses to do the same work as the Revelle.
9,000 horsepower. Lots of power!
OK, so part of the reason they run the ship on electricity is for flexibility. They use one smaller generator for the heating or air conditioning, computer power and lights.... then they use one or two large generators to produce the electricity for moving the ship. If the wind and seas are light, they may only need one large generator. When things get heavy, they start-up more generators to get the extra power they need.
When I saw the pictures above, I knew I needed to go back into the engine room and get some other pictures. These look like little tiny toy motors. See that overhead white vent pipe on the left? I can walk under that without even bending down. The engines are at least as tall as I am.
OK, see what I mean about size?
MUCH BETTER. I went back to the engine room and Charlie took a picture of me standing between two of the diesel generators. Remember, there are six of these in this room.
So next, let's take a quick look at the control room and how the electric power gets to the electric motors and everywhere else around the ship. Picture this! Multiple display monitors, lights, switches... This is better than a computer game. From a set of two trackballs you can run the whole ship. Fuel tanks, ballast, fire controls, turn generators on or off, rotate motors, open and close fire doors. Then... along massive conducting metal rails to the z-drive.
What's a z-drive?
Well, the motor shaft comes in (top of the letter Z) and goes down a tube (the up/down part of the Z) and back out horizontal again to the 10 foot propeller. (the base of the Z).
This picture shows the Z-drive!
You can see the huge electric motor shaft in the right rear. It connects to the gray z-drive that goes down to the 10 foot diameter propellers.
OK, yes, the bridge gets to steer, and they get some cool controls too, but do you know how they actually steer? They turn the electric motors to guide the ship. There are no rudders to steer with, just engines. They actually have three engines; two in the back and one in the front. If they want to, they can move the ship SIDEWAYS, or backwards, and yes, they also can go forward.
THIS IS THE REAL HEART OF THE SHIP!
Gamers delight! Instead of mousing around with simulations, here, a multimillion dollar research ship responds directly to these controls. The control systems are run by a cluster of four computers that are interconnected with special software. At the top of the picture above is a fire control panel, then you can see the displays for the diesel generators and the fuel tanks, and finally the trackball panel below.
How could anyone not find this cool? There are lots of interesting jobs in research ships like this one, and in other ships that travel all around the world.
Here, I found out some more about this!
During the past few weeks, I have learned about several schools that specialize in ship or maritime skills. One of them is the Maritime Academy in California and several of the crew have told me great things about it. (Meghan, Charles, and Danny, the Chief Engineer) Check this link out: The California Maritime Academy (Cal Maritime). The Calfornia Maritme Academy is a specialized campus of The California State University and is one of seven maritime academies in the United States.
So, first you learn the skills and then you need to pass a test. Sound familiar? On a ship, almost all the positions require a specific license that is issued by the USCG. Once a person passes a specific test and gets a license, it lets them work on ships of all kinds. It ensures that the crew know all of the important rules for operating a ship and the equipment on board. We will talk more about this, but it is really important because a ship is far from help if an emergency does happen.
But back to the Revelle...
Here is just one more example of the technology onboard: during the past few days, we have been dredging along the slopes of an undersea volcano. In principle, we put a bucket over the side, lower it down, scoop up some rocks and see what is there. No big deal.
In reality, it is not quite so easy. Our "bucket", is a steel frame that is lowered on a massive wire cable for about two miles to the ocean floor. Check out this spool of wire on the right, below; it is 2 meters high (6 feet) and has up to 12,000 meters of wire right there. Oh, and there are two spools! They are another way to make sure that there is a backup for every important system onboard.
In our Question & Answer section, we discuss the dredge bucket in some detail. Let's say here that it is not really just a simple bucket! We lower the bucket on the cable while the ship is over the exact location that the science team has marked on the map. AAhhhhhh. Here we come to some more complexity. The ship has to stay directly over this spot while the wind and waves are trying to drift the shift away.
We will visit the bridge later and learn more about the skills they use to navigate and position the ship, but now you know more about what REALLY goes on inside the ship.
All to get us here in position to explore the 90 East Ridge.
- Updated July 7, 2007
(alphabetical order by last name)
Sarah Baumgardner - Geosciences, MIT
Darryl Churchill - Engine Room Propulsion, RV Roger Revelle
Tom Desjardins - Captain, RV Roger Revelle
Meghan Donohue - Resident Marine Technician (aka restech)
Amy Eisin - Marine Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M
Jay Erickson - Senior Cook, RV Roger Revelle
Joseph Ferris III - Second Mate, RV Roger Revelle
Dr. Fred Frey - Geochemistry Professor, MIT
Heather Galiher - 3rd Mate, RV Roger Revelle
Jackie Gauntlett - Geology and Oceanography, UCT
Howie Goldstein - Marine Mammal Biologist, Observer
James Edward Hayden, Sr. - Second Asisstant Engineer, RV Roger Revelle
Philip Hogan - Engine Room, Propulsion, RV Roger Revelle
Shari Hilding-Kronforst - Marine Geology & Geophysics, Texas A&M
Lara Kalnins - Geophysics, University of Oxford
George Kennedy - A/B Deck, RV Roger Revelle
Clemens Kessler - Seaman, RV Roger Revelle
Dr. Kolluru Sree Krishna - Marine Geophysics, Goa, India
Dr. Oleg Levchenko - Shirshov Inst. of Oceanology Professor, Moscow
Joe Martino - Seaman, RV Roger Revelle
Evelyn Mervine - Geochemistry Woods Hole / MIT
Laura Morse - Marine Biologist, Marine Mammal Observer
Brandi Murphy - Marine Geophysical Technician
Leslie Nemazi - Marine Geology & Geophysics, Texas A&M
Soumen Mallick - Isotope Geochemistry, Florida State University
Matthew Peer - Third Asisstant Engineer, RV Roger Revelle
Ines G. Nobre Silva - Isotope Geochemistry, University of British Columbia, Canada
Holly Owens - Geochronology, MIT
Scott Rasmussen - Geosciences, Brown University
Christopher Paul - Marine Geology & Geophysics, Texas A&M
Dr. Malcolm Pringle - Research Scientist / Geochronologist Professor, MIT
Dr. Dasari Gopala Rao - Marine Geophysics & Geology, India
Dr. Will Sager - Marine Geology & Geophysics Professor, Texas A&M
Dax Soule - Geophysicist, Geology, Texas A&M
Masako Tominaga - Marine Geophysics, Texas A&M
Richard Vullo - Chief Mate, RV Roer Revelle
Rory Wilson - Teacher at Sea, JOI Learning
James Wiltshire - Marine Geology, UCT
BACKGROUND
7/7 - Exploring the Heart of the RV Roger Revelle
6/29 - Looking into the Geophysical World (Undersea)
6/24 - Another Look at OUR WORLD
6/21 - First Look... Onboard the RV Roger Revelle
