McMorine
4th February 2010, 13:39
North Pacific, one hell of a storm, with a following sea. The stern was constantly going under as the waves crashed down on it. I had just finished lunch, the saloon table cloths were saturated in water to stop everything sliding about, even the chairs were on the move and the stewards doing their best to stay in one place to serve you. I came out of the saloon into the port engineers alleyway and through the small port hole in the storm door, could see the stern disappearing and reamerging as the ship battled with the sea. Then , this huge wave crashed down on the poop and the whole ship shuddered. I could hear alarms going off in the engine room, which was quite normal in bad weather, (tank high/low level alarms etc). The engineers changing room door opened behind me and the junior engineer appeared, shouting to me, that I was needed down below as both steering gear motors had failed and wouldn't restart.
I can't remember changing into my boilersuit, but I was down at the switchboard within a couple of minutes. The switchboard was situated fore and aft on the starboard side middle platform, along with the main engine control console. Each end of the switchboard housed the group starter panels for all the main machinery. The two steering gear panel failed lights were showing red. Checking the starters out and no apparent faults found, I told the Chief Eng'r I would have to go down aft to the steering gear compartment and see what was happening. Visions of the place flooded and motors under water came to mind.
The Chief decided it would be best that we both should go, but first we must speak with the Captain and put him in the picture. So up to the bridge to see the Skipper, I can remember him saying, with the weather conditions being so bad, "you may not make it" or words to that effect, meaning we were risking our lives. But we didn't have a choice, we had to get down there.
The best option was down the shaft tunnel and up the tunnel escape. The tunnel escape comes out via a watertight door for'd of the poop and the steering gear compartment w/t door is aft of the poop, so we are going to be outside getting from one door to the other. Life jackets were going to be too bulky for going up the escape and carrying them and putting them on once we were outside, wasn't an option. so we decided to tie a rope around our waist and hopefully be able to lash it to something solid on deck if we were going to go under. (seemed like a good idea at the time).
Going up the escape was like riding a roller coaster, but climbing a ladder at the same time. We got to the top and trying to judge when the ship was at the top of a wave, how much time we would have to get around to the steering gear door. I don't know which crew member had hammered up the dogs on the w/t door, but they had certainly done a good job. We knocked off all the dogs except two and waited our chance, as the stern rode up, the last dogs were off,we were outside, door dogged up again and making our move around to the aft end, hanging on to the grab rails around the bulkhead. We got the steering compatment door open and were both inside knocking the dogs tight as the ship seemed to fall away from beneath us, we got there that quickly, it was all a bit of a blurr. We were now standing at the top of the stairs leading down to the steering flat and the first thing we noticed, was how little water was swilling about and just a trickle coming from an air vent in the deckhead. The second thing obvious, was some of the fluorescent light fittings had come away from their mountings and swinging from their cables although still working. Once down in the steering flat, the two motors looked quite normal. Each motor has a stop switch mounted on the side of the terminal box, a cable is fed to the switch via a steel conduit coming down from the deckhead. Both switches had completely disintergrated, the force of the water on the deck above had pushed the deckhead down and pushed the conduit right through the switches and enclosures, effectively open circuiting and shutting down the motors. As all Electricians do, I always carried in my boilersuit pockets, various small tools and of course the very important roll of insulating tape. Using what was left of the switch terminals, I was able to short cicuit the severed wires and tape them up. All this was taking place while what seemed to be like riding a mechanical "bucking broncho" and the noise was horrendous. I've never ever been seasick, not even in a typhoon off Hong Kong, but I could feel the curry I'd had for lunch hitting me under the chin.
The Chief was on the phone to the bridge and I gave him the thumbs up to tell the engine room to start the motors. Both motors hummed into life as we checked around the compartment for any other problems. So, its job done and all we have to do, is get back the way we had come, which we did without too many problems.
I didn't know till later, the Sparks had sent out an XXX to all ships in the area. Thank God he didn't have to follow it up with a distress signal.
I can't remember changing into my boilersuit, but I was down at the switchboard within a couple of minutes. The switchboard was situated fore and aft on the starboard side middle platform, along with the main engine control console. Each end of the switchboard housed the group starter panels for all the main machinery. The two steering gear panel failed lights were showing red. Checking the starters out and no apparent faults found, I told the Chief Eng'r I would have to go down aft to the steering gear compartment and see what was happening. Visions of the place flooded and motors under water came to mind.
The Chief decided it would be best that we both should go, but first we must speak with the Captain and put him in the picture. So up to the bridge to see the Skipper, I can remember him saying, with the weather conditions being so bad, "you may not make it" or words to that effect, meaning we were risking our lives. But we didn't have a choice, we had to get down there.
The best option was down the shaft tunnel and up the tunnel escape. The tunnel escape comes out via a watertight door for'd of the poop and the steering gear compartment w/t door is aft of the poop, so we are going to be outside getting from one door to the other. Life jackets were going to be too bulky for going up the escape and carrying them and putting them on once we were outside, wasn't an option. so we decided to tie a rope around our waist and hopefully be able to lash it to something solid on deck if we were going to go under. (seemed like a good idea at the time).
Going up the escape was like riding a roller coaster, but climbing a ladder at the same time. We got to the top and trying to judge when the ship was at the top of a wave, how much time we would have to get around to the steering gear door. I don't know which crew member had hammered up the dogs on the w/t door, but they had certainly done a good job. We knocked off all the dogs except two and waited our chance, as the stern rode up, the last dogs were off,we were outside, door dogged up again and making our move around to the aft end, hanging on to the grab rails around the bulkhead. We got the steering compatment door open and were both inside knocking the dogs tight as the ship seemed to fall away from beneath us, we got there that quickly, it was all a bit of a blurr. We were now standing at the top of the stairs leading down to the steering flat and the first thing we noticed, was how little water was swilling about and just a trickle coming from an air vent in the deckhead. The second thing obvious, was some of the fluorescent light fittings had come away from their mountings and swinging from their cables although still working. Once down in the steering flat, the two motors looked quite normal. Each motor has a stop switch mounted on the side of the terminal box, a cable is fed to the switch via a steel conduit coming down from the deckhead. Both switches had completely disintergrated, the force of the water on the deck above had pushed the deckhead down and pushed the conduit right through the switches and enclosures, effectively open circuiting and shutting down the motors. As all Electricians do, I always carried in my boilersuit pockets, various small tools and of course the very important roll of insulating tape. Using what was left of the switch terminals, I was able to short cicuit the severed wires and tape them up. All this was taking place while what seemed to be like riding a mechanical "bucking broncho" and the noise was horrendous. I've never ever been seasick, not even in a typhoon off Hong Kong, but I could feel the curry I'd had for lunch hitting me under the chin.
The Chief was on the phone to the bridge and I gave him the thumbs up to tell the engine room to start the motors. Both motors hummed into life as we checked around the compartment for any other problems. So, its job done and all we have to do, is get back the way we had come, which we did without too many problems.
I didn't know till later, the Sparks had sent out an XXX to all ships in the area. Thank God he didn't have to follow it up with a distress signal.