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Originally Posted by Doc Savage
Hmm...
I assumed the ship turbines would be running off boilers - something like a conventional coal powerplant or a PWR nuke reactor
i.e. some thing (oil/diesel/U235) heats water (in the case of the PWR it would be the reactor fuel), water builds up pressure, runs though a turbine which is coupled to a shaft which in turn is coupled to the ship's screw or to a turbo electric generator.
The jet engines turbine would be different because the aviation fuel is burnt directly and run through the turbines.
From what you described above it seems the ship turbines are more like the latter case.
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It's exactly like the latter case. They're just marine versions of aircraft jet engines. They don't run on avgas, but diesel fuel oil, although they can run on a mix if necessary (we had to mix it with helo fuel when we almost ran out halfway between Hawaii and Japan, one time).
An idling GT in a properly enclosed and damped space will not be detected by anyone outside of very close range. Even at speed, particularly below cavitation speed, modern ASW ships resemble a nuclear submarine on a gram. Operated carefully, they can be very hard to find.