The use of DC mains in US Naval Vessels circa WW2

[transmaster]

This is my first posting here. I navigated here with Google and there was and old thread about ship board power but a forum search did not answer my question. I am a retired US Navy Radioman. My Dad is a retired Senior Chief Petty Officer Electrician's Mate. I have a question which My Dad has been talking about for many decades. As a young petty officer in the early 1950's he was stationed on US Navy transport and a refrigerator ships that used DC for their main power system. He has told me for more years then I can remember how much of a nightmare it was maintaining them. I can understand an ammunition ship, or perhaps an oilier of WW2 vintage using DC power however I was stationed on the USS Mispillion AO-105 and it was an AC ship, and it was launched in 1945 Can one of you answer this question so my Dad, can have the answer at last?

I have a couple nephews who are currently ET ratings in the Navy I will be sure to turn them on to this forum, thanks in advance.

 

[cloa]

You might consider putting a crosspost in Engineering History and possibly Electric Engineering Forum with a link to this post such

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=269850&page=1

 

[sphinxios]

electricity is a funny thing in lots of matters and it can surely behave in wierd ways not allways expected of it dc or ac doesnt matter that much really. unexpected things can happen ini both of them if some things arent properly made. lets say you have the ship as ground and only have one wire distribution +v/ac then all stel in the boats needs to be a proper ground if it not you can get strange flows of electricity in the ground wich can make lots of problems for everything using power(electricity) som can get less voltage than required and some can let power go thru them letting power to other gadgets so imagine what hell that can be on a boat. it the same om a truck or a car if something aint properly grounded, i have had those weird situations on an army truck while working as a mechanic. if you lets say use ac or dc with a 2 wire distribution you wont have those problems as you would get with the boat as ground. electricity allways goes the easiest way. like some says "lucas"(brittish car electric manufacturer) he invented the darkness.

lets also not forget on a boat u will have corrosion and that might make that the ground(boat)wount have the same conductiviy all over the ship thats is big problem for the electrics no matter or ac or dc cars and trucks have the same problem.

regards

 

[rovineye]

Maybe they wanted DC on the reefer ship to control speed of the compressor motors. Similarly on the supply ship for the crane or elevator motors.

 

[waross]

I did some work on a landing craft called the Lusitania that dated back at least to the Korean police action. When I arrived on site, one of the the ship guys that I knew told me about all the DC gear that was scrapped the month before I arrived. The only DC left was an orphaned DC pump for the venturi type bilge pumping system.
My job was to supervise the rewiring with AC. Even the lights had been stripped and sold for scrap by the mechanical guys.

Bill
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"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter