BLOG 76 - "Marine Musings 20" - 'Nosac Tai Shan' - Safety Aspects - A Tilted Deck

"Marine Musings 20"

THE LAUNCHING, A CELEBRATION AND DEPARTURE OPPAMA

A long line of limousines, with Japanese drivers in starched, white uniforms and with white gloves, with VIP invitees in black suits, with their kimono clad consorts in tow, drove up the ramp and, twisting and turning, reached the top most deck, Deck 12.

After a one hour tour of the ship, they all got back into their limousines and were driven out of the ship, towards the forward section of the ship. A champagne bottle was broken against the hull, the screen covering the name removed and she was officially named “Nosac Taishan”.

Another return to their limos and they were driven to a posh hotel for a celebration.

Captain Abraham and I formed part of this entourage, decked up in our ‘Reefers’ and Naval caps and given pride of place.

The highlight of this celebration was the decor of the hotel reception area. A huge 8 foot perfect replica of the vessel - carved from an ice block - was under (refrigerated) glass. (I am not able to find the photographs). It was awesome.

Toasts were drunk with ‘kanpai’ and ‘cheers’ resounding in the hall.

We were supposed to sail out that same night, as soon as we both returned to the ship. Our first load port was across the Tokyo Bay, in Yokohama, to load to near full capacity, cars for USA.

But trouble was brewing elsewhere - the wind had picked up, forcing many ships in Tokyo Bay to postpone their departure or docking.

When many of the attendees to the party became aware of this, the Chaterer’s and Owner’s representatives started pressurising Captain Abraham that it was a matter of prestige and face, “You must sail as scheduled”. Meanwhile, the Shipyard staff at the party came to Captain Abraham and said they were against sailing out under these conditions, with the Pilot also against sailing out.

Captain Abraham calmly assured all that he will make his decision when he gets back to the ship.

It was a decision fraught with dangers and risks, what with a brand new ship and a brand new crew, but we took it and sailed out without any mishap.

First Voyage

We went across the Tokyo Bay to Yokohama to load Japanese cars. Then on to Dalian in China for a batch of Chinese cars.

Copied from apl.com

Before I get into details of the voyage, let me write a few words about the ship.

A Picturised Version of a Cut Away Section, showing the Internals of a Car Carrier

She was named “Tai Shan”, which means “Big Mountain” in Chinese. Wilhelmsen were trying to break into the burgeoning Chinese car market. They had even sent an expedition to Mount Tai Shan, to climb it and plant the Wilhelmsen flag on it. They brought back a piece of stone from the mountain, which had been showcased and now lay reverently in the Smoke Room.

12 decks, one on top of the other, each larger than the size of a football field, numbered Deck # 1 at the bottom and Deck # 12 on top, the bottom three decks a little smaller in capacity due to the hull curvature.

The Main deck - the weather deck - was Deck # 7. Below this deck, for the purpose of of water tightness, Decks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were divided into 3 lateral divisions (side to side), with sliding watertight and gas tight doors (winch operated, with switches that indicate ‘closed’ or ‘open’ on the Bridge) that seal off the bottom sections, in the event of flooding or a fire. These watertight doors were to be kept closed and secured in place during a sea passage and opened in port for free passage of cars.

Decks # 7 and above can also be isolated in sections in case of a fire.

The whole ship - the decks and the Engine Room - was under the protection of Fire Sensors - some were heat sensors, some smoke sensors. CO2 could be injected into any specific area within a few minutes, from a huge low pressure CO2 tank that was kept refrigerated, so that the CO2 remains in liquid form.

This system had undergone a myriad of tests under the scrutiny of ClassNk and me, before being certified for use. Only then was CO2 filled into the tank.

This CO2 Tank looked colossal and foreboding. After a bit of study, I found it much simpler to operate - were it to be needed - than the previous ships’ banks of Kidde cylinders, images as below.

Previous ships’ CO2 system

Image from Sem-safe, Danfoss. Surprisingly, we had exactly this on board the Nosac Taishan

The one frightening aspect of this low pressure CO2 tank was that the refrigeration (cooling) system needed to be working perfectly round the clock. If this fails, then the liquid CO2 will turn into gas, internal pressure will increase and the relief valve will lift, sending most of the gas into the atmosphere and mostly emptying the cylinder.

In order to make everyone familiar with the system, I used to take one batch of 5 every Saturday and go through the whole system.

On my second ship with Barber’s (1977), we had a crew of 38 or so. In 1986, for the “Nosac Taishan”, being an “Unmanned Machinery Spaces” ship, the engine staff was cut in half. There were no Fifth Engineers, only one Motorman and one Wiper. The number of Deck crew was also reduced. Chief Steward was eliminated. From three stewards, we were down to one steward.

We now had a crew of 21.

The reduction in crew and cutting corners everywhere, had a very heavy impact on all of us. Our workload increased and our rest hours reduced.

Many Safety aspects were being compromised.

Examples

We had lesser number of personnel in case a fire broke out and we had to fight it. Would anybody have concurred with us if we just abandoned ship, because of a fire?

Every ship is in a very vulnerable situation during certain core operations. Two of them are arrival / departure ports and during bunkering. For safe operation, there are many key areas requiring monitoring and which needs personnel to provide input from the spot being monitored. We were now expected to be at two places at once. Factor of Safety for each hazardous operation had now been cut down to zero.

The blatant disregard given by Ship Management Companies to the training of future Deck Officers and Engineers first surfaced around this time - 1986 - wherein ships were not sent any Deck Cadets or Junior Engineers.

The Cost Cutting Ship Manager had now arrived, pushing out the Efficient Operation Ship Manager from the scene. A paradigm shift in the philosophy of operating a ship had now raised its Hydra Head, brought about by the retirement of the ‘Old Guard’, who had initially set up the Ship Management Companies. As younger Managers, with not much of experience as a Chief Engineer or a Master, took the place of the retiring “Old Guard’, they literally threw the baby out with the bathwater, cut costs any which way they can and started totally destroying a legendary institution.

As usual, I digress. But when one sees something grand being diminished by pettiness from those who had benefited from it, vexes me. I was seeing the grand edifice of the life of a seafarer beginning to be belittled notch by notch by men who knew not its roots.

Shakespeare has this to say, through Brutus:

“But ’tis a common proof

That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder,

Whereto the climber upward turns his face.

But when he once attains the upmost round,

He then unto the ladder turns his back,

Looks in the clouds,

Scorning the base degrees

By which he did ascend.”

Once we sailed out and conducted the mandatory drills, we found several glaring omissions in Muster Lists for Fire and Abandon Ship Drills. As these were Class Approved, any changes that we wanted had to be documented, sent to the Company’s Safety Department, who would analyse it and forward it to Class NK for final approval - all of which will take more than 6 months to complete and implement.

We had to bend the rules. We kept the approved Muster Lists in place, but devised variations of our own, in order to increase the efficiency quotient, especially in Fire Fighting.

Here I must state a long standing regret or anguish of mine. In Ship’ Muster Lists, especially Fire Fighting, duties are allocated by rank - ie in case of a fire 2nd Officer’s duties are such-and-such, 3rd Engineer’s duties are such-and-such, each duty being rank centric. It does not take into consideration the physical and psychological profile of a person and whether he will be willing and able to fulfil a hazardous duty.

I cite the example of the explosion and fire in which I was one of the participants on the “Chennai Sadhanai”, where I was Second Engineer. The Second Mate, as per the Muster List, was designated as the one who was to wear the Fire Suit and Smoke Helmet - I am referring now to the prehistoric age before the advent of SCBAs and, Fire Suits and Helmets with microphones transmitting on the VHF range.

The fire was intense. He wore the suit, put on the Helmet for which air was supplied by bellows and tube arrangement and stepped into the corridor that was leading into where the actual fire was located, to search for a missing crew member. He took two steps in, saw the fire which was at least 6 metres away, ran back and was shivering uncontrollably. We took off his helmet and fire suit and the first aid team took care of him, while we fought the fire. I wore the suit, went in and found the crew member - he was dead.

Some people go to pieces under such situations. So Muster Lists are in name only. They should be ship specific and, to a large extent, person specific.

On the Voyage from China to the US:

At 0630am, there was an urgent call. The Captain and I were called to # 7 Car Deck and found a heart stopping sight. One of the liftable sections above # 7 Deck was tilting at a precarious angle. It had a load of more than 100 cars on it but, luckily none of the cars had shifted or scraped against each other.

It must be mentioned here that cars are loaded one after another with only 2 inches to 3 inches gap between each one. 4 adjustable nylon straps are used to hold down the cars, one hook of the strap at the bottom of the car and the other hook engaging into a small hole cut into the deck. The loading is done in a certain sequence. The discharging starts by carefully driving out the ‘key car’, where a little bit more space is given for the driver to enter the car, start it, reverse it and drive away. This continues for each row of cars.

Now we had a tilted deck, with cars hanging on by their straps.

The weld of the wedge support holding the weight of the deck had given way in one of the four corners, tilting the deck. We needed to lift the deck up at the tilted portion before we could think of repairs.

Luckily for us, there was a cabin - for storing material - which ceiling was just about 6 feet below the tilted deck. Anywhere else and the height involved would have been 14 feet.

Using metal plates and Main Engine cylinder head nuts, we built a platform on which a 30 ton jack could be placed and slowly pumped the jack till the deck tilt had been negated. Then we gingerly drove out those cars on the tilted deck to a safer place, cut and rewelded the clamp.

Car decks are notorious for accumulation of flammable gases, so we took all necessary precautions before the ‘Hot work’. Since it was a ‘Guarantee’ defect, the welding was redone by the Shipyard when we returned to Japan.

===== Continued in Blog 77 =====