On December 13, 1908, the Kansas arrived at Colombo, Ceylon, where the fleet was scheduled to remain one week. Such routine overhauling and examination as was possible was begun as soon as the engines were cool; this naturally included removing the bull's-eyes from the cylinder bonnets, and examining and oiling the interiors. The port engine cylinders were first opened, and everything was found to be in good shape. On the 16th, work was begun on the starboard engine, and when the H. P. cylinder was opened a very remarkable state of affairs was disclosed. There were seen to be two parallel scores, ?” deep and 1" wide, cut neatly in the liner on the forward side, and, in addition, a bad shoulder had been worn on the outboard after portion of the circumference, near the top. Removal of the piston follower developed the fact that the packing ring was broken in five pieces, one of which was missing. Although searched for in the other cylinders and valve chests, no traces of the missing piece have ever been .found. Probably it had been ground up, or else it remains hidden in some receiver space.
The place of the missing piece had been taken by the forged steel clamp which, as shown in Fig. 1, held the ends of the ring together, making the whole equivalent to a solid ring. This clamp was very securely held in place by the pieces of broken ring and bent and broken springs, and formed a splendid planing tool. The fact that the remaining portion of the ring was unable to move in the piston was probably responsible for the shoulder.
The damage had been done while en route from Manila, as all cylinders and rings had been examined prior to leaving that port. There was no indication of anything wrong inside the cylinder on this run, except an occasional clicking, to which little attention was paid as the metallic packing has frequently caused exactly the same sound. The increased coal expenditure was noticed, but was attributed to the stay in Manila Bay, where vessels foul very rapidly. Indeed, on arrival at Colombo, the propellers were examined by divers, and found to be thickly covered with good-sized barnacles. When these were removed it was expected that the coal consumption would resume its former ratio to that of the other vessels of the Kansas class. But this was before the damage to the S. H. P. liner was discovered.
There were but three days left of the stay in Colombo, and repairs of any description were out of the question in that time. Remaining behind was just as much out of the question. For almost exactly one year the fleet had remained intact, had made its runs on schedule time, and, judging from newspaper comment, had won the admiration of the world. To confess that one vessel was in such condition as to be unable to proceed would be to admit that a fleet of battleships could not make a cruise around the world. It was, therefore, essential that the Kansas leave Colombo on December 20, and that she accompany the fleet during the rest of the cruise. Of course, running under one engine would allow her to proceed, but her manoeuvring qualities would be practically nil, and her coal consumption would be so enormous as to necessitate her putting in at Aden. This would again upset the plans of the commander-in-chief, who had reported that the fleet would be at the Canal by January 4.
Had it not been for the bad shoulder in the liner, both engines could have been run without attempting to stop the leakage of steam through the scores, and the coal consumption would probably not have been much greater than on the run from Manila to Colombo. Had the spare ring been installed without removing the shoulder and truing up the liner, it is almost certain that the ring would have broken and caused additional damage. It was clearly necessary to rebore the liner, although unsafe to bore out enough to remove the scores, which, as mentioned, were ?" deep, while the thickness of the liner wall was 1½", the working pressure being 250 pounds in the H. P. valve chest. The filling of the scores would save steam, and the removing of the shoulder would allow a new ring to be fitted without incurring risk of breaking it immediately.
The piston and rod were removed, the liner was lifted out of the cylinder and hoisted to the superstructure, and the work of compounding the starboard engine was begun. This consisted in replacing the cylinder bonnet, removing the connecting rod, H. P. valve, piston and rod, plugging the piston rod hole, and blocking the steam ports with the valve rings, which were pressed out by improvised spiders. This was to prevent the H. P. cylinder from acting as a condenser by presenting a large cooling surface to the incoming steam. The crank pin was carefully wrapped with burlap to keep it from being damaged. The crosshead was secured in place on its guide.
The liner could have been swung in the large gap lathe in the ship's workshop, but, unfortunately, the shop door was too narrow, and cutting away the bulkhead would consume considerable time. The commander-in-chief had ordered the Panther to afford all possible aid, and accordingly a boring bar and motor were borrowed from her.
On the morning of December 20, the Kansas left Colombo with the fleet, and took her regular place in column. She took part in all the tactical exercises which were held daily, and no difficulty was experienced in handling the starboard engine. The coal consumption was increased to some 15 per cent above normal, and approximated very closely to the consumption on the run from Manila, when the engine had been run with the broken ring.
The actual repair work was begun as soon as the vessel cleared the breakwater. To carry out the plans, it was necessary to bore out the shoulder, fill in the large scores, enlarge the piston and follower, and make a new ring, as the spare would be useless after reboring. Various materials suggested themselves as suitable for filling in the scores. It was finally decided to fit cast-iron strips, as the Babbitt metal on board might run, and "smooth-on" would probably crack off and ruin all the other cylinder liners. To fit these strips, the sides and bottoms of the scores had to be exactly true, and, while the clamp in its capacity of planing tool had done a very good job, the scores were not absolutely straight. The milling out of the scores was successfully done by an ingenious device invented by Machinist E. G. Affleck, U. S. N., who had complete charge of the repairs, and who, by working day and night, pushed them to a speedy and successful termination.
The liner was laid in a horizontal position on the superstructure near the engine-room hatch, and that part of the ship was roped off so that the mechanics could work without interruption. A wooden dam was built to keep the water away from the liner and motor while the decks were being washed.
Splendid weather and a smooth sea favored the undertaking. In addition, the Red Sea did not live up to its reputation and the men did not suffer from the heat.
After the scores had been milled, the cast-iron strips, made from furnace-door lintels, were accurately fitted, and driven in place. They were then drilled, and ?” studs were tapped into both the strips and the liner. It is unfortunate that the strips could not have been each in a single piece, but the material available on board demanded that each score be filled by inserting three strips end to end. As will be seen later, the strips were not entirely successful and were removed.
The scores being filled, the boring bar was rigged, and three cuts were taken, each cut requiring about 10 hours. The liner, after boring, was 33" in diameter, whereas the original design called for 32½". The tool was set by assuming the counterbore to be concentric with the liner, and this assumption proved to be justifiable, for careful calipering showed that the liner had been bored exactly true, and, when afterward set in place in the cylinder, was perfectly in line.
While the work of boring was going on, the piston and rod had been centered in the large lathe, and a cut taken from the piston and follower. Fig. 2 shows the original arrangement, while Fig. 3 illustrates the conditions after enlargement. The intention was to shrink solid cast-iron rings on both piston and follower, and then to turn the whole to suit the new diameter of the liner. A casting of sufficient size to make both enlarging rings, as well as a new packing ring, had been obtained from stock on the Panther before leaving Colombo. The shrinking-on was successfully done, but it was while finishing the enlarging rings that a very serious set-back was received. One cut was sufficient to disclose the fact that the casting was so badly honeycombed as to render it useless. Fortunately, the packing ring, made from the same casting, turned out to be sound. It was now necessary to resort to some other expedient, and time was getting short, since the possibility of bad metal had not been figured into the calculations. The engineer's blacksmiths took the only piece of 2" square steel on board, bent it to a perfect circle of the proper diameter, and welded the ends together. As blacksmithing has to be done in the fire-rooms. where the foundations for the anvil are none too solid, and as all work has to be done by hand, this piece of work may well be considered an exceptional job of ship's blacksmithing. These two blacksmiths, T. Lentz and J. Mullins, deserved the received special commendation for this exhibition of skill.
Two such rings were needed; the second one was ordered by wireless from the Panther, and put aboard the Kansas on arrival at Suez. Both rings were shrunk on by the engineer's blacksmiths, and the work of turning them up was begun when the ship started through the Canal.
The fleet arrived at Suez on January 3. The First Division, comprising the Connecticut, Vermont, Minnesota, and Kansas, proceeded through the Canal on the morning of January 4, and tied up at Port Said about I a. m., January 5. Coaling was begun at once, and while in progress hurry orders were received to get out at daylight, January 6, in order to reach the vicinity of the Messina disaster as soon as possible. This left about 28 hours in which to complete all repairs to the starboard engine, and it was not possible to begin work on the engine itself for 4 hours, on account of the heat of the metal.
Turning the ring received from the Panther took a great deal more time than it should have, as it was made of the hardest kind of steel. Taking one light cut made regrinding the Armstrong tools necessary, and these were made of the highest grade of self-hardening, high-speed steel.
When the engines were cool, the liner was secured in the cylinder, the joint under the flange was made, the connecting rod was swung back into place, the crosshead and crank-pin brasses were adjusted, the compounding devices were removed, the piston and rod were put in place, the H. P. valve was installed and set, the new ring was accurately fitted, and the ship got under way at 14-knot speed at 5 a. m., January 6, headed for Naples.
The repairs thus effected were successful, except that on arrival at Villefranche (to which port the ship had been diverted while passing through the Straits of Messina), one cast-iron strip was missing while another was found to be cracked. Accordingly, the remaining strips were removed, the scores were devetailed, and white metal from a spare set of United States metallic packing was poured in hot, and peened and scraped in place. On arrival at the Navy Yard, Philadelphia, the liner was in splendid condition, and the places where the scores had been filled in could scarcely be seen.
It is calculated that the rate of coal consumption was practically the same coming from Manila to Colombo, with the ring broken, as it was from Colombo to the Canal with one engine compounded. On the runs from Villefranche to Gibraltar, and thence home, the consumption was decreased 15 per cent, resulting in a saving of 230 tons in 4600 miles.