ART6
17th September 2010, 16:21
Anyone out there who remembers this old timer? I joined her in Milford Haven in 1964 as 4th engineer. I vividly remember a group of us standing on the jetty as she came alongside, and the first question was "which b****y way round is she?" since the bow and stern looked similar and her steering was a little uncertain (she hit the jetty).
In the engine room everything was driven by steam recip engines and DC motors, and the twin triple expansion engines had no rev counters, so responding to telegraph instructions was a matter of uneducated guesswork. On "full away" we used to try to match the speeds of the engines by standing between them and trying to match the rate of movement of the HP con rods, and we rarely got it right so the bridge would assist us by telling us what steering angle they had to maintain to go more or less straight, following which we would carry out adjustments (or not as we thought fit).
The one thing I really remember, apart from the twin scotch boilers that would blow rivets at regular intervals and blow back from the furnace fronts if they took exception the you, was the 'fridge system that worked on chlorine gas. Every now and again the 'fridge pumps would start to attempt pumping liquid chlorine, and that caused a massive overload in the DC pump motors. The result was a dimming of the engine room lamps and, if we didn't get to the pumps quickly enough, an enormous bang as the fuse blew and blasted the back panels off the switchboard.
On my watch I had a greaser who would insist on sneaking off behind the panels for a pee in the bilges, and however many times I warned him with a logging or a flogging, he kept doing it -- until the day when the 'fridge fuse blew while he was at his ablutions. He staggered out and muttered " F**** me four-oh, I think I'd rather have the logging if it's OK by you!"
In the engine room everything was driven by steam recip engines and DC motors, and the twin triple expansion engines had no rev counters, so responding to telegraph instructions was a matter of uneducated guesswork. On "full away" we used to try to match the speeds of the engines by standing between them and trying to match the rate of movement of the HP con rods, and we rarely got it right so the bridge would assist us by telling us what steering angle they had to maintain to go more or less straight, following which we would carry out adjustments (or not as we thought fit).
The one thing I really remember, apart from the twin scotch boilers that would blow rivets at regular intervals and blow back from the furnace fronts if they took exception the you, was the 'fridge system that worked on chlorine gas. Every now and again the 'fridge pumps would start to attempt pumping liquid chlorine, and that caused a massive overload in the DC pump motors. The result was a dimming of the engine room lamps and, if we didn't get to the pumps quickly enough, an enormous bang as the fuse blew and blasted the back panels off the switchboard.
On my watch I had a greaser who would insist on sneaking off behind the panels for a pee in the bilges, and however many times I warned him with a logging or a flogging, he kept doing it -- until the day when the 'fridge fuse blew while he was at his ablutions. He staggered out and muttered " F**** me four-oh, I think I'd rather have the logging if it's OK by you!"