How to cope with a disaster

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

This is the tale of a ship that worked between the UK and Santander in Spain carrying granite chips for making slabs.They were close to Santander and the engine threw a conrod. Their first action was to drop the anchor and debate what to do and how to proceed. Now, tug recovery of a stricken ship is costly and they decided to ask for a Pilot boat and be towed in. They then tried to raise the anchor but had run out so much of the chain that the weight of the run out chain was too much for the winch as they were in deep water it was hanging straight down. The decision was cut the chain. Once in the tidal port they were able to strip parts of the engine and then found that the conrod had snapped ! The bits were taken out and this left the crankshaft journal bare with an open oil feed. Due to Insurance they informed the Ins. Coy. and permission was sought to proceed with the journal covered in a bandage clamp to stop the oil coming out and so they loaded their cargo of granite chips and came back to the UK at reduced speed. They made the journey Ok and ported in the Medway and unloaded and then tied up alongside the Chatham dockyard. A ship engineer company were called in and they stripped the engine down and lifted the crankcase to one side.

This where I came in to measure the crankcase bed and determined that the bed was banana shaped with 278thou. side to side deviation and a 180thou. drop at both ends of the bed with variations along the bed. The crankshaft I could not measure but the journal was scored badly. Lloyds Maritime Ins. paid up and a new bed and crankshaft from Doxfords were delivered. How to get the new bits into the ships engine room? Also to get the damaged bits out. They cut a hole in the bulkhead of the engine room from the cargo hold and using a dockside crane were able to extract and insert the items. The work was done and the ships engine ran OK.

How do I know all this? The ships engineer was my Son. So some lessons were learnt, dont drop an anchor in deep oggin as it cannot be lifted, so a total loss. Anchor chain is meant to lay along the sea bed with only a short drop from the boat. Rely on cunning to save losing money and an expensive salvage operation at sea. Still carry out the cargo run so as not to lose revenue. During then repair they called in an oil recovery lorry and sucked out 400gal. of oil from the bilges in the engine room, my Son recovered loads of tools and items from the bilge when it was clear, spanners and nuts and bolts and other sundry items. This ship also had a Lathe fitted and a workshop space with a bench vice and a drill.

Clive

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Blimey that sounds like an expensive little exercise. Bet Lloyds were well not pleased.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

How 20th century!

Correct procedure for major problem (such as director losing pencil sharpener) now is
1/ arrange conference calls hourly to discuss situation for next 3 months (minimum time required to actually make a decision).
2/ send hundreds of emails from blackberry or iphone to show you are busy and on the move, always including powerpoint presentation on pencil sharpening proposals.
3/ hire crisis manager from the most expensive agency possible
4/outsource all future pencil sharpening to India
5/after 2 months cancel all activities owing to lack of budget
6/sell company
7/reorganise company making 50% of most skilled people reducndant.

[RobboParticipant @robbo]

Bazyle,

Your procedure fails on a basic point.

What is a director doing with a pencil sharpener? He doesn't know how to use one, and somebody else sharpens his pencils anyway.

[ScottParticipant @scott]

A Doxford Clive??? That was neither today nor yesterday! I've been at sea 30 years and never heard of one that was still going!

Good advice about anchor cables though. Windlasses are designed to have the capacity to lift all of the chain in the locker if it's hanging vertically out of the hawse pipe but by the time they've seen a bit of use it's unlikely they would. Walking the cable out is a recognised technique for trying to influence the drift of a disabled ship in deep water though.

I've heard of ship's running to a more convenient port for repairs with one unit in the engine disabled but never seen it done myself.

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

My first ship in 1964 had a Doxford engine, but I thought the company went burst in the 70's, certainly by the 80's.

I am amazed that a broken con-rod did so little damage that they could make the engine run with the just broken con-rod and attached bits removed.

Doxford engines – opposed piston 2strokes – had spherical main bearings. Taking crankshaft deflections was a nightmare as the readings were all over the shop!

I believe an old Port Line ship built in 1955 is, or was until recently, still going having been converted into a cruise ship – where they get the Doxford spares from is any bodies guess! You can google m.v Port Sydney and read all about it!

Having said that, it was a very resourceful voyage that Clive's son had, if a bit traumatic! Wouldn't have liked a cargo of granite – sailed on an ore carrier once, never again, reckoned if we hit trouble it would have none of the floating characteristics considered desirable.

i have sailed on a ship where we had two units disabled, on a V14 medium speed engine, but all the bits were still going round and round and up and down, just the fuel pumps lifted on the two units, one unit was off to balance the other, but never on an in-line engine with bits missing.

I am still amazed at the story, when the con-rod snapped that would have allowed the cross-head complete with piston and piston rod – a not insignificant weight of metal – to drop down onto the bottom end, and what damage did the broken co-rod with the piston etc dropped down on it do before they managed to stop the job? Glad not to have been on that ship!

Chris

Edited By ChrisH on 20/03/2014 20:18:50

Edited By ChrisH on 20/03/2014 20:21:18

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