[TheForge] The propeller shaft

[Ron Childers]

Many years ago a guy at K-Mart Automotive did a temporary repair by tying up
a muffler with wire. When finished he looped the left-over wire around the
drive shaft and the friction ultimately cut the shaft in two. Something
similar could have happened to the ship. But why would the FBI, CIA or any
other entity care?

Ron Childers 

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Garrick Peterson
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 7:59 PM
To: Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Quesiton about a weird event...

Strangely enough, this sounds like the effect you get when you take a
cylindar of clay, grab it with both hands, and twist quickly in
opposite directions. A nice, clean sheer.

That would be my guess: a defect in the metal combined with a seisure
of the prop caused  the shaft to sheer. I can't even begin to imagine
how rare such a failure might be, though.

~Garrick

On 6/6/06, Demon Buddha <osan at netlabs.net> wrote:
> I had an old (literally) friend, Walter.  He is a retired merchant
> marine captain.  He had a hundred stories of his life on the sea, but
> one of the ones that really stands out involved an equipment failure.
> He was captain of a freighter passing scross the Carribean.  As they
> made headway one evening, the ship experienced a vibration and then
> stopped making headway.  He called down to the engineers and they said
> that everthing was OK by them.  He went below and they walked the prop
> shaft.  He told me that in mid-span between two bearings the shaft, some
> 24" of solid steel, split such that there was about 1/16 inch gap
> between the rotating end and the end attached to the prop, which had
> stopped dead in its bearings.  He told me that the shaft was cut so
> perfectly that you would swear it was done by machine, so to speak.
>
> They had to get a tow.  When they got into port, NSA, FBI, and CIA were
> waiting for them.  After the inspection, the crew were warned not to
> speak to anyone about this for any reason, lest dire consequences befall
> them.  It never happened and they never saw anything.
>
> Anyone have any clue as to what this could have been about?  How does a
> shaft that large fail in such a fashion that the break is so perfect
> that you could not perceive motion of the shaft by observing the break?
>   Walter was a character, but he was dead serious about this one.  Said
> it was the strangest thing that he'd ever experienced.
>
> Comments/speculations welcome.
>
>         -Andy
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