Blog 70 - Paying Obeisance to King Neptune - 'Aquavit' - Forerunners to the 'ISM Code'

King Neptune's Certificate - from the 'Talabot'

Comments on Blog 67 -

From Auldius Pais

Quote

"On both the ships where the anchor chain ran out to the bitter end, we had combined electric motor & hydraulic pump in one casing under the hydraulic motor on deck forward. Similar to the combined electric motor and compressor on some types of aircon plant power unit. So the 4" hydraulic pipe line on the exposed deck was only about 3' long each plus the 1" compensating hydraulic line connected to the header tank. On the tanker the header tank was inside the crow's nest and on the car carrier it was one deck above inside the car deck. We shifted the combined unit (elec. motor, hydraulic pump & motor to minimise the breakage of high carbon tensile steel Allen bolts, which was a pain to remove when broken.

I also had a generator uptake silencer getting choked with ash/carbon on one of the ships. But the problem was not so severe. The indication was high exhaust temperatures on all the units even after overhauling the turbocharger. So I got the other 2 silencers also cleaned (Not as dirty as the 1st one). Probably, this generator ran the longest on the dirty fuel supplied by the charterer. After that I also made it a point to check this on other ships when the exhaust temperatures were on the higher side.

Funnel top drain choking and rain water falling into the engine room in port was noticed on many ships. I had to get the drain pipes cleaned and then put a fabricated filter mesh at the top to prevent carbon dirt getting into the drain pipe. This filter needed cleaning frequently. But it was easier than dismantling and cleaning the drain pipes. On one ship the drain pipe was badly choked from top to bottom, leading to the sludge tank. Since it was time consuming, I made a hole on the funnel casing at the lowest point on the aft side. So the dirty water started draining on the outside of the funnel. Ch. Officer was not happy about it. But it was easier to clean than the dirty water dirtying all over the engine room.

Regards

Auldy."

Unquote

"Marine Musings 18"

EQUATOR CROSSING:

One of our subsequent voyages was to take iron ore from an Australian port to Ijmuiden in Holland.

Our southerly voyage from Japan took us across the Equator. As many members of the ship were crossing the Equator for the first time, an “Equator Crossing Ceremony” was organised, with 2nd Officer Srinivas and Chief Officer Manektala taking the lead in setting up the procedure and arranging all that was needed.

The Norwegians had left behind a veritable treasure of costumes for exactly such a ceremony, with thrones, crowns, beards and tridents for King Neptune, pseudo grass skirts and makeup for his assistants equipped with fearsome looking weapons.

We had a rather large swimming pool, which was cleaned, painted and decorated.

All first time crossers were given a bath in heavy oil, sludge and lub oil in the pool. My wife and son also had to get into the pool and fuel oil concoction was applied to their faces. All had to dance for King Neptune, with music playing. The full ship’s crew participated. Not to be undone, the Chief Cook had prepared a delicious feast for the party.

Unfortunately, the colourful photographs of the event are lying in Chennai. I will post them later when I have a chance to travel.

Below is a sample certificate from King Neptune that was awarded to all first time crossers.

Aquavit:

While handing over the vessel in France, the Norwegians discharged about 30 barrels, which had been looked after by them like it was the Holy Grail. During the voyage, I noticed that they were well lashed in a secure area. After I had become friendly with them, I was introduced to “Aquavit”, a potato based fermented powerful drink. It was not to my liking.

This drink is supposed to reach its full potency when it is carried across the Equator twice, southbound and then northbound, which the vessel had done. Later, I was on two such vessels that carried these casks. Once back in Norway, ‘Aquavit’ is bottled, with the label also including the name of the ship and the dates on which this particular batch crossed the Equator.

Strange World.

On a personal note

The Talabot was one of the very good vessels I sailed on, barring a rather sombre incident, in which my 18 month old son burnt his right palm badly by putting his palm on an open oven door in the galley, after he had waddled across, unnoticed, from the Smoke Room into the Galley. The vessel was rolling, he lost his footing and held on to the first thing close to him.

We were then on a long, 40 day, voyage from West Coast Australia to Holland, with a full load of iron ore. Fully laden, down to our marks, she was stiff and kept rolling - stiffly - for practically the whole voyage, except when we rounded the tip of Africa - Cape Aegulas - and crossing the Cape of Good Hope and the Bay of Biscay, where she not only rolled but pitched as well.

We were 20 days out from Fremantle, Australia when my son burnt his hands. We had to do what we could on board for the next thirty days. Capt Aindley took charge and lovingly - they used to play cricket in the corridor daily before this incident - medicated his hand and bandaged it daily.

We berthed at Ijmuden in Holland. By a quirk of fate, Ijmuden had one of the best hospitals in Europe for burn injuries. The doctors there said that, luckily, there had been no infection, in spite of third degree burns, for which Capt Aindley must be thanked. The doctors washed and scrubbed the hand well with disinfectant soap, cut away the loose skin, straightened the fingers, medicated and bandaged the palm, ensuring that all fingers were flexible at the joints and straightened out. They advised plastic surgery after a year or so.

Capt Aindley, my wife and I were in attendance during every visit to the hospital. On the assurance of the doctors that the palm will heal quickly, we decided that my wife and son will continue to sail. The hospital gave us enough burn treatment equipment, enough to treat many more for at least a month. Capt Aindley continued treating him after we sailed out - he was fine, except for the scars, in two weeks.

The treatment was obviously painful, but Amrith did not cry - he bore the pain like a true champion. The doctors themselves were amazed and loved him the more for it.

Thirty five years later, he still bears the scars on his palm, in spite of plastic surgery.

The takeaways from the “Talabot”

1. When a ship is running smoothly, there is a tendency for staff to start taking things easy and a sense of complacency sets in. I realised this within a month or so after our crew joined the vessel. This complacency can lead to tragedy when neglect sets in. Drinking increases, lethargy sets in. Punctuality becomes an issue. Discipline goes down the drain to the extent that lawful orders are not carried out.

One, then, has to raise the bar and set higher standards of maintenance and discipline. The Engine Room was already in “Unmanned Machinery Spaces or UMS” mode. I became a bit of a tyrant and started becoming more stringent in my daily inspections.

For example

Oil leaks, water leaks, gas leaks were being neglected. I started setting time frames for the location and rectification of the leaks. It would sometimes mean the dismantling of machinery and use of spare parts. So be it - as the Norwegians had left us a treasure trove of spare parts.

Log books were being carelessly written and would not correspond with actual situations. A few stern words were needed to alleviate this.

UMS protocol requirement was the Bridge be informed before entering the Engine Room and after departing from the Engine Room. The “Alarm Control” mode also requires to be put to “Engine Room Control” when the Engine Room is manned, even when taking the night inspection round. I found that only the Second Engineer was doing this properly, not the Third and Fourth Engineers, when it was their turn for “shipkeeping”. When pulled up, they were reluctant to admit it at first. When probed, their excuses were laughable. They were not on talking terms with the Third Mate. I called them all, including the Third Mate, to my cabin, talked to them like a Dutch Uncle, gave them a few beers and sent them off as friends.

2. In those days, Maintenance Schedules were very rudimentary and did not include a lot of items that could cause major problems. It did not include “Under Floor Plate” Inspections or easing up of all valves in the Engine Room, regular greasing of all grease points, cleaning of bilges and tracing leakages into the bilges so that they can be rectified.

Now, I had been orchestrating all this work on my own on all my ships, having learnt it in the hard school of SISCO ships.

One of the ‘neglect’ items that used to bug me was “Bilge Well High Level '' alarm, be it Port Forward or Starboard Forward or Aft Well or the well under the flywheel. It meant that some fluid, mostly water, had entered that bilge well and filled the well to the alarm level. 99% of the time, the Duty Engineer used to empty out the Bilge Well by transferring it into the Bilge Tank and keeping quiet about it. Next morning’s Tank Soundings would show an increase of Bilge Tank Level. The Alarm List would reveal which “Bilge Well Level High” had been activated in the night. Interrogating the Duty Engineer, I would find that he had not taken any action on locating the cause. Just a tight lipped frown would suffice to activate him to search for the root cause. Others also would receive their lesson.

Thus the Talabot was, at that time, the best maintained ship in the fleet.

2. Once again, I set up a large whiteboard in the Engine Control Room and got everybody together, including the fitter, motormen, wipers and, starting with basics, started teaching them about what I knew well and answered their questions. Whatever I did not know, I researched it and answered them.

Safety was paramount. I took the opportunity to make a checklist of various dangers involved in many maintenance jobs and persuaded them to use the checklists before starting a job.

An example I gave them was a very simple one but could prove to be physically dangerous. A service air line filter - operating at 8 bar - is choked and requires cleaning. Without thought, a person would normally just close the inlet and outlet valves and start opening the four nuts on the cover of the filter.

No thought has been given to

1. Bypassing the filter, which leads to starving of service air to some essential components which, in turn, triggers alarms and shutdowns.

2. The dirty filter itself contains compressed air at 8 bar and a heavy amount of dirt.

3. If this air is not drained, opening the cover would be disastrous, as the 8 bar escapes suddenly and spews out all the dirt on to the hands of the worker. At 8 Bar, the particles of dirt will embed themselves into the skin and will break out as sores. No amount of washing can get rid of the embedded dirt.

Another example I gave was of entering “enclosed spaces” and taking precautions like checking Oxygen levels - most Norwegian ships of those days had some rudimentary detecting equipment - , taking a live compressed air hose tied to your side, a hammer and a good torch with them.

I told them of my hearing about an incident on one of the Scindia ships, where two cadets were sent into a ballast tank by the Chief Officer. A while later, somebody else closed the manhole and the tank was ballasted. The boys drowned inside the tank. The Chief Officer was a psychological wreck for the rest of his life.

Why take a compressed air hose tied to your body? Apart from providing a small and steady stream of air right across your face - thereby reducing the impact of any obnoxious or poisonous gases - somebody will have to come into the tank to get to the beginning of the hose to either rescue you or before closing the manhole. The hammer was for the last resort of trying to attract attention by banging away.

Another incident that I related to all on every ship that I sailed was one of a Wiper losing his entire hand. He had been cleaning dirty scavenge ports on a loop scavenged MAN engine and had put his hand inside to remove the accumulated carbon, when the 3rd Engineer, who was working in the crankcase, turned the engine. His hand was sliced off.

Precautions that I used to take?

1. Use a heavy duty vacuum cleaner to suck out the carbon dust. Most ships did not have them. So one of my first requisitions used to include this item.

2. Make the Electrical Officer in charge of turning the engine, whenever multiple jobs are needed to be done on the engine. (Sometimes, time is short and risks have to be taken. You try to minimise the risks or eliminate them altogether). He keeps the fuses with him, checks and informs everybody before operating the turning gear. (It also kept the Bathi Saab busy and motivated).

One of the consequences of such classes was, when the Captain heard of them, he asked me to conduct weekly lectures for all Officers.

So my lectures started including many safety features, contingency plans, conduct of drills and such.

It was actually the crystallisation and accumulation of decades of safety practices learned from old sea dogs plus a bit of original thought.

They were the forerunners to the International Safety Management Code of later years.

I came to know that what I was teaching on board many ships paid dividends to those who had listened to me, when chaos descended - later - when the ISM Code was introduced, made mandatory and implemented.

===== Continued in Blog 71 =====