First, like its predecessor, the turboelectric drive used boilers to build steam and move a turbine, and returned wasted steam to a condenser for reuse. Instead of providing direct power from turbine to propeller, the turboelectric drive used a two-stage mechanical to electric process. The turboelectric ship addressed the problems of efficiency, flexibility, and survivability. Combine that with all of the steam pipes needed to send power throughout the ship’s mechanics, and the direct-drive turbine system was left susceptible to damage in many places and left less room to hold weapons. They also needed specialized gearing to prevent turbine damage when the ship backed up. For one thing, they need multiple turbine stages to achieve fuel-efficient cruising speeds, high speeds, and backing power. Because they proved to be highly complicated mechanical systems, they demanded a lot of room.

Waste was inevitable when the propeller was operated too slowly or too quickly.Īnother important problem of direct-drive steam turbines was their vulnerability in the event of attack. Its major flaw was the way it paired a high fuel-efficient rotation-the turbine-with an inefficient rotation rate-the propeller. This system was very efficient at generating mechanical energy. Each had a separate engine room and drove two shafts. Dreadnought had two paired sets of turbines. The HMS Dreadnought, which entered into service in the British Navy in 1906, was the first battleship to use direct drive steam turbines, and revolutionized this field of war. As the turbines rotated, they moved the propeller. Boilers created steam, which was sent to the turbines that operated on the head of the propeller shaft. The turbines on steam-powered ships traditionally provided direct power to the motor. The technology continued to be used in steam-powered commercial and passenger vessels in the following decades until the development of gas turbine engines in the 1960s.

These efforts revived during World War II. In the 1910s, the United States Navy built a series of turboelectric drive warships but ended production because of cost and treaty prohibitions on such heavy vessels. Marine turboelectric drive was an advance in the design of steam turbine power systems.

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