Chris Hodge OBE, 61, is widely credited with creating the electric warship. He read mechanical and electrical engineering at the Royal Naval Engineering College and served for 26 years in the Royal Navy, in nuclear and conventional submarines and at the Ministry of Defence. After a spell at Rolls-Royce he joined BMT Defence Services in 2005 as chief electrical engineer.
Getting bitten by maths changed my life. Until I was about 16 I wasn’t very bothered with school, but then maths got interesting and I became almost obsessive about it. My father was a marine engineer, so becoming a Navy engineer seemed a logical choice.
Joining my first submarine was heaven for a young engineer. It was “proper” engineering – steam-and-feed and power and heat. She was HMS Warspite, already quite an elderly nuclear-powered sub, so we were constantly battling with defects and replacing things, sometimes thousands of miles from home.
A nuclear submarine is one of the most complex things ever created by mankind. It’s a stunning piece of engineering design and very integrated. The whole point about engineering is that it makes things that are difficult easy, and things that are dangerous safe, and nothing better exemplifies that than a nuclear submarine.
Serving on submarines is nothing like people imagine. Subs don’t feel intimidating and you don’t dream about coffins. The atmosphere is quite relaxed. You’re respected for what you can do, not your rank, and you need to be a bit of an extrovert to keep up morale. The most common danger is putting on weight: meals are a social highlight, and they’re served four times a day.
My MoD team converted the Navy to electric propulsion for surface ships in the 1990s. Driving a ship’s propeller directly from the engine is inefficient because the engine speed is limited by the speed of the propeller. It also makes it difficult to connect multiple engines to one shaft. If you use the engines as generators you can connect any number and drive them at their optimum speed – more fuel-efficient and better for the engine.
Man in navel uniform
Day-to-day: Chris Hodge finds the lack of repetition as an engineer exhilarating
Electric ships are better warships. We had to be diplomatic and “sell” the idea on the basis of saving fuel and reducing breakdowns. But high-voltage electrical power can also drive state-of-the-art weaponry such as high-energy lasers and “rail guns”, which achieve a very high muzzle velocity and so don’t require explosive-filled shells.
Being disrupters wasn’t easy, but it was great fun. The secret of success was getting the idea discussed and harnessing the whole professional community to support us. We attended all the engineering conferences and seminars and toured all the UK’s shipbuilders and marine engineering firms, as well as writing endless technical papers. It took about five years but now our navy is largely electrically propelled.
Engineers don’t do repetition. Once we’ve solved one problem we move on to something new. Even now I never know what I’ll be doing in six months’ time, which is exhilarating. And every time you accept a challenge you end up acquiring new knowledge. Learning doesn’t end when you take your degree.Engineers don’t do repetition. Once we’ve solved one problem we move on to something new. Even now I never know what I’ll be doing in six months’ time, which is exhilarating. And every time you accept a challenge you end up acquiring new knowledge. Learning doesn’t end when you take your degree.
There’s no more rewarding career than engineering if you have a passion for it. It’s practical and theoretical, hard science and applied science, getting the big picture and understanding the detail, fierce debate and furthering the human race. You can make it whatever you want.
Telegraph
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