Sorry but according to NAVSEA there are no naval ships in US service
that burn HFO or bunker oil. Haven't been since the early 1980s. "

sorry indeed. You must know every medical boat there is then and all of
them must be navy.

"AFAIk the complaints were that it took a week for the orders to be
cut""

Not the same ship-
"On many steam ships, first you have to wrap up ongoing repairs and
off-line maintenance. That's one big reason why steam ships are out of
favor nowadays. "
yes - so?

"Shucks, the destroyers I steamed for Uncle Sam occasionally got under
way with two hours notice. On one memorable occasion (which I'd rather
forget) we went from a complete tear-down of all 4 boilers to getting
underway within 30 hours. "

You're trying to tell me that a mothballed ship can go from nothing to
underway in 30 hours? Get real!

'As a civilian contractor on MSC ships, I often worked on the big steam
plants and conducted training for the crews. A week to get underway...
unless there was a really serious problem... would produce a blast from
the top brass... if this is what happened, the contractor should be
dropped and made to pay a non-performance penalty."

Again, you must not get the picture. The ship in question was non-op.
Not just at port. Is there any way you can really say you think a ship
that has been sitting, doing nothing, with no crew, without any
insurance, can sail that fast? I think you are missing something - no I
am sure of it. I am not slamming you here, I don't think I would have
read through that long flame either but read this now. The ship was
non-op when call to service!