A Tribal destroyer's engine room and power density

Haida's engine room shows why a smaller warship still needed controls for every boiler, turbine, generator, pipe, and pressure circuit. The machinery count was lower than in a cruiser or battleship, but each plant required monitoring and adjustment, leaving the compartment densely packed. Three Admiralty three-drum boilers and two Parsons geared turbine sets produced 44,000 shaft horsepower, enough for a top speed of 36.5 knots and about 32 knots at full service load. A complement of 259 people had to operate and maintain the ship within that narrow hull. The same density that produced speed made flooding in a large machinery space especially dangerous. Engineers and volunteers also preserved operating knowledge that formal written descriptions did not capture.