Being in an engineering rate I had to become familiar with different tools sued on our job. Special tools for working on the turbine engines were kept in one location. Each engine room also had its own set of tools used by everyone. Several sailors would also have their own personal tool boxes which the kept under lock and key.

So any time a job needed to be done you went and got the proper tools out of the tool box and headed off to do that job. 90% of the time the tool you grabbed was an all purpose tool, or a pipe wrench. You can work on any thing with a pipe wrench, from electronics all the way to pipes. I never said you could fix what you were working on, but you could work on it.

If needed you could crab the second all purpose tool to take along with you, a BIG hammer. I am serious when I say this. We would use a pipe wrench and a big hammer most of the time when working on things. Mostly because we worked on piping a good deal, but also because those were the only two tools not stolen out of the tool boxes in the engine rooms.

We had several sizes of all purpose tools, from short to really long, from claw hammer to 16 pound sledge. Some of the pipe fittings were really tight and needed the 36” wrench with the assistance of the 16 pound sledge to get it loose. When delicate work needed to be done on the engines those tools were kept safe and we always had what we needed for those.

Most civilians I know that work on machinery call either a crescent wrench or vise grips an all purpose tool. And they will throw in a hammer as well.