U.S.S. Hickory — Engine Room
Detailed Involvements
Events with rich location context
The cutter's engine room is described as being on fire and the source of the cutter's failing systems. Its condition drives the emergency: smoke, heat, and failing propulsion/lighting create the immediate danger that the signalman reports and that the White House must respond to if possible.
Hot, smoky, chaotic — an active danger zone below decks threatening crew survival.
Source of the cutter's mechanical failure and imminent hazard requiring damage control and rescue.
Embodies the physical breakdown underlying abstract institutional failure — internal systems burning out.
Restricted to trained engineering crew with firefighting equipment; dangerous to enter without protective gear.
The engine room is cited as the site of a raging fire — the mechanical heart of the cutter under threat — converting a communications problem into a life‑threatening technical emergency that demands damage control and immediate skilled action.
Hot, smoky, dangerous; an enclosed source of threat audible in Harold's report.
Source of immediate physical danger that escalates the call from informational to urgent rescue.
Embodies the internal breakdown within the fleet: when the machine that powers the ship fails, human lives hang in the balance.
Restricted to engineering crew; hazardous to enter without protective gear.
Events at This Location
Everything that happens here
Leo reports that nearly the entire fleet has gone silent and only a small maintenance ship, the USS Hickory, remains reachable. In the Formal Dining Room-turned-briefing room, President Bartlet places …
When the fleet's radios fail and only the little maintenance cutter Hickory can be reached, President Bartlet personally takes a crackling patch-phone call from Signalman Harold Lewis. Harold, injured and …