Engine Room

  Today we had the opportunity to tour some of the engine room and related spaces, descending down into the hull well below the waterline.

  MS ROTTERDAM has five, 16-cylinder diesel engines.

  The engines are controlled directly from the bridge with informational and backup systems in the engine room control station and other key locations throughout the engine spaces.

  The pitch of the blades of two propellers influences the speed of the ship more than the number of revolutions of the shafts.

  The diesel engines do not power the shafts directly but rather feed power to generators that power the electric motors that turn the shafts. The number of engines running determines how much power is being generated for the propellers, thrusters, stabilizers sewage treatment instrumentation, ventilation, lighting and everything else that requires electricity. Today we were running on three engines.

  Heat from the engines as well as electricity from the generators is used to make fresh water. One system heats seawater. The steam created is free of salt. It is channeled to a condenser when it is cooled creating distiller water.

  The ship also makes water through reverse osmosis. In simple terms, the system filters out the salt in seawater. The reverse osmosis steam on ROTTERDAM can create 100 metric tons of water each day.

  Climbing up from the engine room (midship and below the waterline) the nine decks to our cabin (60+ feet above the water and forward) we noted a significant increase in the motion of the ship, the height in particular amplifying the pitching and rolling.

Location:about 740 NM southwest of San Diego