Blog 87 - Tussle Between Management and Vessel - What To Do With the Slop

MARINE MUSINGS 24 - MV THOR - to be CONVERTED TO A SELF UNLOADER

MV Thor - 15th Aug 1991 (Ulsan) to 21st March 1992 (Ulsan)

As usual, I flew out of Bombay to Seoul, South Korea this time and took another flight to Ulsan. The Agent took me on board directly.

The ship was under Wallem Ship Management, had been bought over by a US Company, Vulica, and been handed over by the new Owners to Barber Ship, New Orleans, for Management. The Chief Mate and I boarded the vessel as advance party to take over from the Wallem’s staff as soon as discharge was completed in Ulsan.

Vulica had bought this ship with the express purpose of converting her into a Self Unloader and using her for a Mexico to Houston or Tampa run. They were in the process of acquiring the Mexico - Houston contract for carrying gypsum from Punto Vinado in Mexico (or maybe had already acquired the contract).

I don’t think they had good advisers or consultants for buying a second hand ship, although it was bought at a pretty cheap price. The ship was in a run down condition and would require a lot of effort and expense to upgrade her.

After boarding the vessel, we were asked not to unpack or occupy any cabin. The vessel had been told by Health Authorities that she needed to be fumigated, before cargo discharge started. She was carrying a full cargo of soya beans.

All of us were transferred to a ‘hotel’ by the Wallems Agent. “Hotel" was a fanciful name for that establishment. A polite term for it was ‘a house of ill repute’. Rat and cockroach infested, the Agent insisted we also stay there. I refused and, along with the Barber’s Chief Officer, took a cab and went to a good, decent hotel, with the idea that I would pay for it myself even if Barber’s were not to reimburse me. They did reimburse me later.

Three days later we, the Chief Mate and I, boarded the ship and started taking over. Things were in a bit of a mess but nothing that could not be set right.

Although rival Management Companies - Wallem's and Barber's - there was good camaraderie between us and a pretty 'open' handing over.

After discharge was completed, the Wallem’s staff left and our crew boarded.

Initially, we were not made aware of when exactly the vessel was to undergo the conversion to a Self Unloader. So, we kept trading between Australia to either China, South Korea or Japan, as a regular bulk carrier.

Finally, around end January 1992, we were informed that the vessel would be going to an Ulsan Ship Yard for conversion in mid March.

We were suddenly inundated with a series of instructions to keep various items in operational readiness, which were already so, for I had kept the staff busy in the interim months, having anticipated what should be in readiness prior going into a shipyard.

Cleaning Oil Tanks

The one instruction from the Office that created a lot of friction between the Office and the ship, was in cleaning of Double Bottom Fuel and Diesel Oil tanks and keeping them ready for hot work.

We were willing to do the job, even though it was, rightfully, a shipyard job. Being a Bulk Carrier and not a tanker, we had no slop tanks. So, when the query was posed to the Office as to what we were supposed to do with the slop, there was a studied silence on this topic and never an answer.

There were four double bottom tanks that could be cleaned.

In the days ahead, we marshaled the full Deck and Engine crews, gas freed three tanks and spent over 12 hours a day washing down each tank and wiping them down. We spent nearly 21 days in all in getting those tanks 'fit for hot work' with the limited man power we had.

We used the fourth tank as a ‘slop’ tank.

We were berated rather harshly, through the medium of messages, by the Ship’s Superintendent that the fourth tank was not not cleaned. After a few such telexes, we sent back a rather terse reply with only one question “What do you want us to do with the slop?”

It was obvious that this particular Superintendent was implying that we pump out the oil mixed slop into the sea and pressurising us to do so, without putting it in writing.

The Captain and I had decided that, even if a written order to pump out the slop into the sea were received, we will not abide by that order. Our reply was kept ready, quoting the relevant sections of ‘Marpol’ which prohibited us from doing so.

A few months later, when the conversion was taking place in the Shipyard, I was taken to task for not having cleaned the fourth oil tank, which had been used as a slop tank. It led to a big confrontation with the Superintendent to the extent that I finally said “I am fed up, I am going home”. When I stood my ground on not wanting to be the cause of polluting the seas, I also asked him “Would you do it and face a jail sentence?”

The heat cooled but the bad blood remained.

After the vessel reached an Ulsan Shipyard in March 1992, I was signed off and sent home to wait for a recall during the final stages of conversion to a Self Unloader.

Rangan

===== Continued in Blog 88 =====