"Almost all of the ship's internal communications are based on Voice Over IP (with the exception of a few old-school, sound-powered phones for emergency use)."
Interesting, I'd never heard of sound-powered phones before:
Well, that brought back some memories. Shouting into sound powered phones over the din of the engine room of a submarine is one thing, but trying to actually hear what the other person is shouting back... it must be the audio equivalent of learning to read doctor's prescriptions.
I, too, had to shout into a sound-powered phone in the very center of a ship's plant. Often it was with the bridge crew. The bridge is very quiet at night, so the crew up there would almost whisper into the phone, completely oblivious to the fact that I can't hear a damn thing over the turbines.
Nuclear, but the plant was fairly loud. That or the phone system sucked, not sure which. The effect was still the same - lots of shouting and guessing what was said. :-D
Ah yes, the 8-step method conducted in accordance with the Doctrine for Submarine Interior Communications Manual (w/ Change 1). Fun times, especially if you were the phone talker.
Well, fixed installations of sound-powered telephones do typically come equipped with hand cranks to activate the "growler"/signaling system at the destination station.
However many sound-powered telephones are portable (as in, headphones and a microphone set with a long cord that you could walk around in). These portable sets would be quite unwieldy with a growler-style set attached, you'd have to crank throughout the conversation to achieve amplification, and you'd also make each sound-powered telephone set that much more complicated and expensive.
But the reality is that usually volume isn't that bad of a problem. If the circuit is quiet the solution is always the same: SPEAK LOUDER. Eventually you get used to being loud when needed.
Interesting, I'd never heard of sound-powered phones before:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound-powered_telephone