Pumping capacity (fire main/damage control) and fire main diagram for the Essex class?

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CSEverett
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Pumping capacity (fire main/damage control) and fire main diagram for the Essex class?

Post by CSEverett »

I've looked everywhere I could think of, checked every digitized primary source I could find, and still can't find much real information about the fire main and fire pump capacity for the Essex class (or Yorktown class). What I have gathered is probably like most ships there's a fire and flushing pump in each boiler room (capacity unknown), it can be taken for granted there's some sort of pump in each engine room, there's two diesel fire pumps forward and two aft, 1000 g.p.m. each (I'm almost certain).
The fire main could in theory be divided into up to 16 sections with their own pump although it's not a great idea, which means there has to be at least 16 pumps, and since there's an electric load that seems somewhat significant at least some of the fire pumps must be electrically driven. (Once source went into so much detail as to divide up the Essex class's electric load, but said nothing about the fire main). It's a given there's emergency diesel generators, and there may or may not be electric emergency fire pumps with them. The War Damage Report for the USS Wasp (fire main diagram for her is there, but all online versions have that plate at such a low resolution it's completely illegible) gives capacities for the Wasp, and interestingly enough notes she had 10,000 g.p.m. damage control pumps that could be used to pump just about any liquid on board wherever it can be sent. Were such damage control pumps common equipment on US capital ships?
But I'm still missing a lot of information on the pumping capacity and fire mains of the Essex (and Yorktown for that matter) class. (The Essex class hanger had eight sprinkling bays divided by water curtains - did the Yorktown class? If they didn't have sprinkling bays, then that would naturally explain the unusually good success the Enterprise had with foam on avgas fires later in the war - it was reported that water from the sprinklers ruined most of the effectiveness of foam.) Also looking for a firemain diagram.
I've tried contacting a museum of a preserved Essex-class carrier, but haven't gotten any response. Some sources go into far more detail about just about every other piece of machinery, so the simple absence of the information seems somewhat strange. Help?

Thanks.
OpanaPointer
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Re: Pumping capacity (fire main/damage control) and fire main diagram for the Essex class?

Post by OpanaPointer »

How many sections did each pump serve? I was usually on the inport fire party for my ship and by placing the pumps strategically they got one pump serving two sections.

And I may have misinterpreted your question, I've got an IV going right now and Ford's in his flivver.
CSEverett
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Re: Pumping capacity (fire main/damage control) and fire main diagram for the Essex class?

Post by CSEverett »

R Leonard wrote: Tue Jul 25, 2023 3:03 pm Did you look here?
https://maritime.org/doc/carrierspec/index.php#toc
Yes. Several times. It's entirely about "quality standards," more or less, not "what to build." It does suggest that the contract plans might be the place to look, or perhaps some kind of contract specifications, but either way those don't seem to be digitized.
Thanks though.
Bill Jurens
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Re: Pumping capacity (fire main/damage control) and fire main diagram for the Essex class?

Post by Bill Jurens »

The ship's General Information Book should include most of this information. Copies should be reasonably easy to get from the National Archives, although when it came right down to it each ship in a class varied somewhat due to differences in supplied items, e.g. the company which supplied things like fire pumps, etc., and updates to various systems made 'on the fly' while the ship was in service and never recorded in the G.I. Book at all. The archives typically only retained copies of one or two "typical' copies for ships in a larger class. For ships in the Essex class, the 'old' G.I. books were usually discarded when the ships were upgraded with angled decks, so an original G.I. book might be fairly difficult to find.

Hope this helps...

Bill Jurens
OpanaPointer
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Re: Pumping capacity (fire main/damage control) and fire main diagram for the Essex class?

Post by OpanaPointer »

Naval History and Heritage Command should have the books if they still exist.
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