How fast can a big diesel be run up to full power

When I worked (as a young lab assistant) for The Blue Funnel Line in
Liverpool they started to use diesel engines instead of steam turbines
in their ships. I remember cheekily marching on board the Demodicus, one
of the new ships and asking to be shown round. Since I was in my company
lab coat with A H & Co  (Alfred Holt &Co) on the breast pocket I got
away with it. I was shown the Mirrlees Blackstone 4 cylinder diesel
which just amazed me, since a 4 cylinder car engine was my concept of a
petrol or diesel engine.

However the thing that sticks in my mind is the engineer saying it took
them nearly an hour to warm them up ready for full throttle, and then
they could sail away. He said something about warming the bearings up
gradually so they would not melt and seize up (which would wreck the
engine).

Is that still so, or can cold diesels be run up to speed much quicker
these days?

Frank

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Well, certainly 1.6 MW size diesels can be fully loaded in something like 15 seconds. To achieve this they will have a jacket water heater so the whole thing is kept about 70C. They may also have automatic, slow rotation of the engine by a geared motor and an oil circulation pump to keep oil up to pressure and the turbo lubed.

Dave