The 280 equivalent was the heavy workshop (and in one really extended 18 hour bilge pumping in Florida the boat deck).
I think one of the big differences was it was usually long after most other departments had secured, we were just getting wrapped up, and it was a departmental thing for another work day that ran to the point where going ashore no longer made sense. The beer was supplied by the senior folks in the department (which was a lot when you had 70-80 people) and it was a thank you for the department for their hard work.
Not that other departments didn't do work, but honestly outside some storsies there was no one else regularly around after hours and weekends still working to make sure the ship sailed doing repairs, fuelings, trials etc etc, where it really was a regular things for almost all MSED personnel. Things like the MSED parties onboard, sexy coffee in the MCR, very rare departmental breakfasts and some similar things made a lot of sense when you spent weeks at a time working with the same group of peopel 16 hours a day, and helped get through those 20 hour fuelings and other things that were probably pretty unecessary still joking around with each other.
