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Livestock carriers

18K views 19 replies 14 participants last post by  Pop Alexandra 
#1 ·
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
 
#3 ·
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.
 
#4 ·
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.
 
#8 ·
Al Shuwaikh



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......
 
#9 ·
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
 
#5 ·
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.
 
#7 ·
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
 
#14 ·
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
 
#16 · (Edited)
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!
 
#17 · (Edited)
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.
 
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