Geograph - photograph every grid square

Opportunities to visit steam turbine powered ships are now few and far between and the recent scrapping of older passenger tonnage due to stricter SOLAS regulations has not helped. SS Margaret Hill was a liquefied natural gas carrier with the boilers fired on boil-off gas (BOG - yes really). The vessel was built in 1974 by Moss at Stavanger, Norway and fitted with a General Electric cross compound steam turbine of 30,400 horsepower and good for 19.5 knots.

This is the generator area in the cavernous machinery space at the stern of the ship. There were three turbo-generators and one diesel generator. Part of generator No. 2 is seen on the left and if I recall correctly this had an atmospheric condenser and was a lower efficiency machine. Generator 3 is the main focus of the photograph and No. 4 behind it were plumbed into the vessel's main surface condenser. This is a single casing steam turbine with reduction gear box driving to an alternator that appears water cooled.

This was an excellent visit to a large and interesting ship and I'm unlikely to ever see the like again (never say never).