[DeHe Quick]

Dear All, Have any members here worked for Siba Ships or Vroon, tell us about your experiences on board the livestock Carriers.
Like to understand the cleaning up on the return journey.
Thank you

[Jan Hendrik]

More info on livestock vessels can be found under Special Purpose vessels, pages 3 and 4.
Jan

[R781128]

From my Danny F days I remember having to dispose of 2000 tons of manure,
washing and scrubbing for days on end followed by limewashing and woe betide you if you arrived in Adelaide with a crumb of brown stuff remaining as the authorities went over the ship very thoroughly looking for the slightest trace.

[bugga divino]

I did my 4 years as an apprentice with KLTT (Kuwait Livestock Transport and Trading), and continued sailing with them as a 3rd, then 2nd mate. The cleaning or sheephouse washing would commence the morning we left Dubai (which was normally the last port of call in the PG). The crew would commence washing from top - down (number 7 deck and proceed downwards). The ship was normally trimmed down by the stern, to enable better suction for the pumps and to ensure that the washed down manure flowed downhill from where it was let out into the sea. There was normally a round of 'hard washing', with sea water at high pressure. When the hard wash was completed, there would be a round of 'soft washing' which included scrubbing all the fittings down with wiregauze and washing any remaining lanolin off the fittings. Finally, there was a liberal spraying of soda ash to disinfect the decks and fittings, followed by a fresh water hosedown of the entire ship, to wash the salt away. This whole process on the larger ships took about 14 days from end to end, but left the ship clean enough to eat breakfast off the deck.

[Billieboy]

Vroon is a Dutch company situated in Breskens opposite Flushing on the western Schelde, (That's the one going to Antwerp). Never got into livestock shipping, but one of my makey learner draughtsmen, from my first job in Holland, was a designer at Vroon.

[frank power]

6hundred head of cattle from belfast to birkenhead one man per hundred in the fifites them were thesdays

[shanksy]

Did a trip down the Medi on the Lairdsglen in 1973 with 6 hundred head of
cattle called at Salonika,Patras, and Corfu. I remember the DIG OUT well
pitchfork and a wheelbarrow ha ha! was,nt that funny really. 600 cows leave
a serious amount of Crap after a couple of weeks mixed in with the straw.
money was ok though £6 per day bonus + 6hrs overtime every day,Just did
the one trip ha ha ha ! it was a load of CRAP really. Regards Shanksy

[Ian J. Huckin]

Originally Posted by bugga divino

I did my 4 years as an apprentice with KLTT (Kuwait Livestock Transport and Trading), and continued sailing with them as a 3rd, then 2nd mate. The cleaning or sheephouse washing would commence the morning we left Dubai (which was normally the last port of call in the PG). The crew would commence washing from top - down (number 7 deck and proceed downwards). The ship was normally trimmed down by the stern, to enable better suction for the pumps and to ensure that the washed down manure flowed downhill from where it was let out into the sea. There was normally a round of 'hard washing', with sea water at high pressure. When the hard wash was completed, there would be a round of 'soft washing' which included scrubbing all the fittings down with wiregauze and washing any remaining lanolin off the fittings. Finally, there was a liberal spraying of soda ash to disinfect the decks and fittings, followed by a fresh water hosedown of the entire ship, to wash the salt away. This whole process on the larger ships took about 14 days from end to end, but left the ship clean enough to eat breakfast off the deck.

I was Chief Engineer on Al Shuwaikh for six months prior to working in head office as Fleet Technical Manager under Pete Machado (?)

You are dead right as to how clean those ships had to be to clear the Aussie Inspectors. There were 57 Bangladeshi herdsmen employed to administer to the animals and keep things clean.

Mortality with KLTT was exceptionally low but even so disposal of dead animals was a bear......

[jimthehat]

Originally Posted by Ian J. Huckin

I was Chief Engineer on Al Shuwaikh for six months prior to working in head office as Fleet Technical Manager under Pete Machado (?)

You are dead right as to how clean those ships had to be to clear the Aussie Inspectors. There were 57 Bangladeshi herdsmen employed to administer to the animals and keep things clean.

Mortality with KLTT was exceptionally low but even so disposal of dead animals was a bear......

What happened to the dead animals in the gulf ports.
Reason i ask is that i spent a few years as safety officer in jeddah in the 80s and I had to make sure that no dead animals were landed as per JPM regs.
We do know that when the ships got outside saudi waters they would dump all the carcases overboard and those that were not eaten would wash up on our nice beaches.

jim

[Ian J. Huckin]

Originally Posted by jimthehat

What happened to the dead animals in the gulf ports.
Reason i ask is that i spent a few years as safety officer in jeddah in the 80s and I had to make sure that no dead animals were landed as per JPM regs.
We do know that when the ships got outside saudi waters they would dump all the carcases overboard and those that were not eaten would wash up on our nice beaches.

jim

Jim,

Deadstock was literally stacked on deck in "void" areas. This was also the case down in OZ or Kiwi when loading. As soon as you were back in International waters a long skewer was used to puncture the major organs on each carcass to prevent them from bloating up and washing ashore. Had to have a pretty strong stomach at times.

Injured and sick animals were to be dispatched with a humane killer but them damn sheep skulls are hard and many a thumb was broken or disclocated so a Hilti gun and an old coat hanger was often used.

I worked for two years on the design of a purpose built livestock carrier, unheard of I guess, and disposing of mortality was a big issue. My design had a below decks flensing unit with boilers, renderers and freeze driers. The
by-product would be skins, oil, and bagged bone meal. Plus capture and process all animal waste for fertilizer (3,500 tons per voyage)

Another consideration was perhaps just to cremate the carcasses and utilize the waste heat. I even flew to Germany to investigate this idea as the Germans are supposedly the world's experts on cremation (!)

Livestock carriers get a poor rap which is a pity. The engineering skills required to keep these older, much modified ships up and running were way up there, as any loss of generation or even propulsion had a huge effect on mortality. By the way, the old "Al Shuwaik", now the "Al Kuwait", was the Norwegian Panamax tanker "Ervicken" and she was taken out of lay-up in Norway and steamed down to Meyer Werft for cutting in half, 120' removed, gluing back together, construction of a new fwd accom. and the addition of 14 sheep decks with all automatic feeding, watering and ventilation. Later we fitted three Wartsilla diesels in one of the old cargo tanks. Extra RO generators were installed too. 12RD90 Sulzer pushed that old boat around at about 17.5kts if I remember right. The old wheel house was turned into a fantastic bar...................with an elevator for the C/E and Old Man to get to it!!!!!!

Dry-docked at HUD once and removed, rebabbited, re-fitted (as in blued and scraped) every single crosshead bearing (24) in about four weeks. Good job I love my job eh?

[kevinmurphy]

Originally Posted by jimthehat

What happened to the dead animals in the gulf ports.
Reason i ask is that i spent a few years as safety officer in jeddah in the 80s and I had to make sure that no dead animals were landed as per JPM regs.
We do know that when the ships got outside saudi waters they would dump all the carcases overboard and those that were not eaten would wash up on our nice beaches.

jim

We had a large mincing machine called the HOGGER, below which was the HOGGER TANK, basically chuck a dead carcass in, it was "minced "into small peices, tank held about 400 liquid animals, when we got clear of the gulf open the valve and a black mess went into the oggin. Very tight security on the machine with breakers removed etc into leckies cabin in a locked drawer, Mate had keys for the control box, - we didnt want any unpopular shipmates dissapearing!
Kev

[Shipinfo]

Originally Posted by Ian J. Huckin

Jim,



By the way, the old "Al Shuwaik", now the "Al Kuwait", was the Norwegian Panamax tanker "Ervicken" and she was taken out of lay-up in Norway and steamed down to Meyer Werft for cutting in half, 120' removed, gluing back together, construction of a new fwd accom. and the addition of 14 sheep decks with all automatic feeding, watering and ventilation. Later we fitted three Wartsilla diesels in one of the old cargo tanks. Extra RO generators were installed too. 12RD90 Sulzer pushed that old boat around at about 17.5kts if I remember right. The old wheel house was turned into a fantastic bar...................with an elevator for the C/E and Old Man to get to it!!!!!!

Dry-docked at HUD once and removed, rebabbited, re-fitted (as in blued and scraped) every single crosshead bearing (24) in about four weeks. Good job I love my job eh?

My favourite ship! Do you know where she is now?

Joy

[Ian J. Huckin]

Originally Posted by Shipinfo

My favourite ship! Do you know where she is now?

Joy

Shipinfo.....the last time I checked she was re-named Al Kuwait still sailing with KLTT, with the new fleet addition called the Al Shuwaikh....I guess origionality was never an option!

[Shipinfo]

She was here (Portland, Vic. AU) on 20th January taking a cargo of sheep, hasn't been back since. I can't find any other reference to her after 20th March on Marine Traffic site. Maybe she'll just turn up again when least expected, she used to be a regular down here.

Joy

[bugga divino]

Peter Paul C.

[Karlosjj]

My Father Jens Jensen worked on the first ships to transport livestock from Australia to the Persain gulf back in the early 60's the ships he worked on were the "Kaethe Jebsen" & "Clara Jebsen" which were general cargo ships. 6000 head of sheep were carried on open deck. At the time this was considered a huge number of sheep to transport! In the early 80's he worked for KLTT & worked on AL-Meseelah AL-Kaleej AL-Yashra AL-Qurain & the AL-Shuwaik I did work experience on AL-Shuwaik back in 82 doing a trip from Kuwait to Adelaide. By the time the ship got back to Adelaide it was Squeeky-Clean & yes you could eat your breakfast off the deck! I can remember pakistani crew following the customs inspectors with a dust pan just incase the customs saw something he didn't like!

[bugga divino]

Originally Posted by Karlosjj

My Father Jens Jensen worked on the first ships to transport livestock from Australia to the Persain gulf back in the early 60's the ships he worked on were the "Kaethe Jebsen" & "Clara Jebsen" which were general cargo ships. 6000 head of sheep were carried on open deck. At the time this was considered a huge number of sheep to transport! In the early 80's he worked for KLTT & worked on AL-Meseelah AL-Kaleej AL-Yashra AL-Qurain & the AL-Shuwaik I did work experience on AL-Shuwaik back in 82 doing a trip from Kuwait to Adelaide. By the time the ship got back to Adelaide it was Squeeky-Clean & yes you could eat your breakfast off the deck! I can remember pakistani crew following the customs inspectors with a dust pan just incase the customs saw something he didn't like!

Hi Karlos, I remember your father - he was C/E on the Al Yasrah around 1988 or so....Jens Jacob Jensen (or JJJ) as he was also known. 2/E was Nick Millward, OM was Adrian Jespersen (then from Adelaide).....I was a lowly deck apprentice at the time...Hope he is well.