Cold Iron

(h/t Russian Navy Blog)

Cold iron – that time in a shipyard when the ship is completely dependant on shore-based services; electricity, water, steam, etc. as the plant (conventional or nuclear) is shut down.  Of course, as is wont to be the case, that which is brought on from shore typically falls short of demand on the ship so things like HVAC tend to go wanting in the nether regions – like the island of a carrier… where the Navigator’s living and working space is located…ahem.   In the summer you are slowly baked as the vast expanse of steel absorbs the sun’s radiant energy.  Come winter – you long for those days because nothing is so cold as a ship, cold iron in the yard, deep in the grip of winter:

 

Behold the Indian Navy’s Vikramaditya (ex-Gorshkov) winter of ’05. (much more here)