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Yes, fresh water is a valuable commodity at sea; on U.S. Navy ships, water-flushed toilets are flushed with sea water, not fresh — or at least that's the way it
by dctoedt 7y ago
Yes, fresh water is a valuable commodity at sea; on U.S. Navy ships, water-flushed toilets are flushed with sea water, not fresh — or at least that's the way it used to be, and I can't imagine it'd be different today. (Source: Three years' sea duty as an engineering officer in the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, CVN-65.)
EDIT: See https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=103122 https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=103122 for a 2017 press release describing how the Reactor Department produces fresh water aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (a Nimitz-class carrier, i.e., an old design). TL;DR: It's done with giant evaporators, that is, distilling units.
Fun fact: At sea, one of the big uses of fresh water aboard a carrier is the repeated washing down of the aircraft to reduce corrosion from the salt air.