German Navy’s Brandenburg-class frigate FGS Schleswig-Holstein (F 216) experienced an engineering casualty recently in one of its diesel engines and requested assistance from the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Cole (DDG 67).
The cause of the casualty was a 1.5mm metric nut that held down one of the pistons on a diesel engine. The Germans were unable to repair or replace the part, and it had caused them to make an unscheduled stop in Souda Bay, Greece for assistance.
Machinery Repairman 1st Class Phillip Markets was called to assist with the issue. Being a machinery repairman, manufacturing repair parts like the nut the Germans needed was second nature to Marcotte, but this job was a particular challenge for him.
First off, it was metric, which is totally different from what we use in the U.S. Navy.
I also had to custom-make a high-speed internal threading tool because we didn’t have a small enough threading tool aboard the ship for the lathe.
After creating the tool and reconfiguring the ship’s lathe, a machine which crafts parts for metric threading, Marcotte made a brass prototype to test the fit.
With a successful prototype made, Marcotte found a hex-head bolt and crafted a nut from it.
The following day, the part, which fit perfectly, was installed aboard the Schleswig-Holstein. The repair allowed the German ship to regain maximum fuel economy for their engines and depart on schedule later that day.
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Press release, Image: US Navy