Free Three Knots to Nowhere by Ted E. Dubay

exception. My gut told me different.
    We climbed down the ladder to lower level machinery 2 and stood on a diamond-deck walkway. I re-oriented myself. We were at the back end of the compartment on the starboard side looking forward.
    Davis pointed at a large horizontal cylindrical machine next to the starboard hull and told me it was one of the 300-kilowatt (kw) motor generators (M/Gs). The other was on the port side. They were remarkable machines. When the submarine’s ships service turbine generator (SSTG) was producing power, the AC end of the M/G was a motor. The other end was a DC generator, which supplied DC loads and sent a trickle charge to the submarine’s 126-cell main battery. On a loss of an SSTG, the electrical operator adjusted the M/G controls to reverse the operation of the M/Gs. The DC end transformed into a DC motor, powered from the battery. The AC end, which had been a motor, became an AC generator.
    Dominating the middle of the compartment was the emergency diesel and its associated generator. Underway, the crew employed it whenever the reactor was not producing enough steam to operate the ships service turbine generators and there was not much juice left in the 126-cell main battery. The Clay would come up to periscope depth and snorkel.
    On the aft bulkhead was the steam generator water level control station (SGWLC). Davis informed me the station was usually just called “Squiggle.”
    We returned to the upper level. Davis deftly slipped through the hatch and entered the upper level engine room. I followed, but not nearly as smoothly.
    The engine room’s brightness surprised me. I looked up and saw a large hole aft where we were standing. Shipyard workers needed it for some of their work.
    Since the Clay was in dry dock, most of the engineering systems were shut down. The engine room was devoid of the oppressive heat, humidity, and loud mechanical noises of ordinary operations. The Navy still required a few watch standers to monitor plant conditions.
    The shutdown maneuvering area watch (SMAW) was in maneuvering. He maintained oversight of the reactor. The SMAW was also the senior watch station. The shutdown roving watch (SRW) was a machinist’s mate and had responsibility for monitoring the mechanical equipment. The shutdown electrical operator (SEO) tended to the electrical gear. Unlike the other two watches, the SEO did not have to remain in the engineering spaces.
    Maneuvering, the control room for the engineering spaces, was a few feet aft of us, on the Clay ’s starboard side, and segregated from the engine room by having its own air-conditioned enclosure. The reactor, electrical equipment, and steam plant were controlled from maneuvering, making it the nerve center of the nuclear-related machinery. It was even more significant to me. I had spent the past two years training and gaining experience, preparing myself for duty in maneuvering. An open doorway existed on the enclosure’s inboard side facing the passageway. A chain stretched across the opening. From my angle, I could see only a small portion of maneuvering. I was itching for Davis to show and tell me about the control panels for operating the electric plant, reactor, and the main propulsion turbines. It was almost as if he could sense my anticipation and was withholding going over there on purpose.
    I stifled my eagerness as Davis started again, “Those tall tanks with the sight glasses on either side of the hatch are the feedwater surge tanks.”
    His eyes moved from my head down to my feet and back up. Then he ominously said, “Wow! You’re the perfect size to fit inside them and work on the level indicators.”
    I looked at the tank. It was not more than two feet square and eight feet tall. At the bottom, about six inches from the deck, as a manway for entry. I hoped he was pulling my leg.
    Next to the starboard tank was a chrome ladder leading to the after escape trunk. The lower hatch