Most of you have probably seen the pretty awesome pictures on gCaptain of the Navy’s newest destroyer, the Zumwalt, or DDG-1000 as she will be designated at her commissioning sometime in 2015. She is a pretty cool boat, whether you love her or hate her. New is always interesting. I have to say though, I saw a news clip about her recently that has raised some concerns for me. If I was in the Navy and heard a year from now that I would soon be deployed on the Zumwalt, I would be thinking about heading to Canada to get out of it…
The prop of a Kilauea class ammo ship would come out of the water pretty often in a big enough swell. I vividly remember looking at the blades slapping the water making an approach to her from astern during VERTREPs. If you were on board, the entire ship would shake like a big oscillating sander when it happened. Same thing with the old Cutter Taney when I rode her. A good roll would bring either prop out of the water. If the starboard prop came out, a loose shaft bearing set up the “Taney Tremble”, a period where the shaft oscillated and shook the length of the ship until if eventually settled down, until the next big roll.
“the Zumwalt uses an entirely new concept. The engines actually turn generators that produce a total of about 80 mega-watts of electrical power that supplies the vessel’s electrical grid. A portion of that electrical power is then used to turn the ship’s propellers using advanced induction motors—which are spun using electromagnets. The motors are powerful enough to push the massive warship along at better than 30 knots.”