I served on this ship as and EDH in the early seventies when she was the Bridgepool. She carried grain at that time, and you can see from the photo here that she was fitted with derricks, which made her a versatile bulk carrier. I remember them being used to discharge grain in sacks filled in the hold in Senegal.
Her derricks were very heavy, as I found to my cost one night stowing them readying for sea! We started with the starboard side furthest aft, and rather than shackle the bull wire from the topping lift gear and run the whole wire onto the winch barrel, I decided to take four or five turns on the barrel instead to save time. This was common practice with lighter derricks, you just lowered away while someone held up the safety bar on the topping lift barrel. But not with these babies!
Things went ok till a certain point, and then gravity took over. The bull wire took on a life of its own and I could not hold it. I shouted at the deck boy to drop the bar he was holding, and he stood there frozen! Again I shouted drop the f*****g bar and this time he did praise be. There was an almighty shaking of derrick and rigging and clouds of rust everywhere. When things settled, much relieved if shaken, we dropped every derrick strictly by the book! Never made that mistake again for the rest of the trip.
Her derricks were very heavy, as I found to my cost one night stowing them readying for sea! We started with the starboard side furthest aft, and rather than shackle the bull wire from the topping lift gear and run the whole wire onto the winch barrel, I decided to take four or five turns on the barrel instead to save time. This was common practice with lighter derricks, you just lowered away while someone held up the safety bar on the topping lift barrel. But not with these babies!
Things went ok till a certain point, and then gravity took over. The bull wire took on a life of its own and I could not hold it. I shouted at the deck boy to drop the bar he was holding, and he stood there frozen! Again I shouted drop the f*****g bar and this time he did praise be. There was an almighty shaking of derrick and rigging and clouds of rust everywhere. When things settled, much relieved if shaken, we dropped every derrick strictly by the book! Never made that mistake again for the rest of the trip.
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