# True or not true?



## geoffu (Mar 6, 2020)

A first trip 5th joined a ship in London. For some reason, after induction was put on midnight to 0800 watch. The 5th he was taking over from said "Everything is OK. Just check on all the pumps that are working and if one stops call the duty engineer." So the new 5th wanders around all night and none of the pumps stop. Unfortunately the "senior" 5th had forgot about the fuel oil transfer pump that was transferring oil from a quite full D/B tk. to the boiler ready use tk. The overflow filled the docks.
I've got a one similar but know it was definitely true.


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## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

On my first trip as Junior R/O on Texaco Denmark 96 tons of cargo were pumped into Pembroke dock as an overboard butterfly valve had a twisted spindle.

Said spindle was landed to Globe Engineering on what should have been a brief stop at Capetown. Back came the new one twisted to exactly the same degree as the sample (I cannot remember the Chief although I do remember he had started life as an electrician and also had a Radio 'Ticket'. The old man was Brian Giddings).


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

I met the Master in a Salen tanker, SEVERN STARS. He had his wife and a couple of children with him. In his early life he was a Radio Officer. The Old Man has his daughter on board and the ship and the Sparkie took a fancy to the young lass. The Old Man said, "No R/O is going to marry my daughter!" So, R/O went back to sea, as AB and then git a ticket to become 3rd Mate.... married the girl and he was Master in the SEVEN STARS.

SEVEN STARS and SEVONA TEAM were lying close at anchor at Eleusis Bay for three months, 1975.

Stephen


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## Tim Gibbs (Apr 4, 2012)

geoffu said:


> A first trip 5th joined a ship in London. For some reason, after induction was put on midnight to 0800 watch. The 5th he was taking over from said "Everything is OK. Just check on all the pumps that are working and if one stops call the duty engineer." So the new 5th wanders around all night and none of the pumps stop. Unfortunately the "senior" 5th had forgot about the fuel oil transfer pump that was transferring oil from a quite full D/B tk. to the boiler ready use tk. The overflow filled the docks.
> I've got a one similar but know it was definitely true.


#
There was a story circulated in Ellermans in the late 60s that the City of Chester was taking bunkers in Aden on the starboard side but not much was getting into the bunker tanks as the port side blank was off and the valve was open. Never met an eyewitness so probably not true?


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## Bill.B (Oct 19, 2013)

I witnessed a veritable Vesuvius of bunker oil when alongside at Amoy Bay on G A Walker. The vessel on the other side of the pier was taking bunkers but with not a lot of oversight. The result was an absolute geyser out of the over flow pipe which did catch someones attention eventually.


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## Engine Serang (Oct 15, 2012)

Varley said:


> (I cannot remember the Chief although I do remember he had started life as an electrician and also had a Radio 'Ticket'.


I admire an Electrician who has ambition. Would that there were more of them.


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## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

Absolutely. He took the radio ticket last.


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## henry1 (Mar 25, 2015)

A story when I was in LOF about a C/O who had a bit of a breakdown and talked two deck cadets to escape to an island they were sailing past, managed to launch the lifeboat ok vessel at full speed.


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## Mad Landsman (Dec 1, 2005)

Sometime in the mid 1970s the Sealink Ferry TS Normannia was working out of Weymouth. 
This ship had in the past suffered a couple of unfortunate incidents, one in the Channel Isles when it hit something tearing hole in the bottom and flooding the engine room, and another when it again hit an 'obstruction' at Dover and sank at her moorings. 
The upshot of this was:
Any part which was capable of harbouring rust was very rusty,
and, the engines were such that one could smell it coming before one saw it. 

One day in around 1975 she was on the link-span loading and bunkering. Suddenly a great hue and cry - Where's Ken the oiler, tell him to stop the pumps. 
The incoming fuel had burst out of the very rusty tank and was pouring into one of the crew cabins. 
It took a couple of hours or more to clear the worst and sort out some sort of cement box arrangement. 
The ship continued running for a few more months but the smell in the crew accommodation lingered to the end.


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## mcglash (Oct 14, 2005)

First time bunkering the MV Afric in Las Palmas I had Heavy Oil everywhere including where it should be,in the Port Double bottoms but not in the Starboard side DBs because I had forgotten to open the crossover valve under the plates. We had a Teledep system on board and the operation of which was very easy but when you see that Mercury rocket up the glass and before you can phone the deck and have them shut the pump off, you panic and shut the tank inlet valve against the pump pressure so that the fuel has no where to go except escape through the weakest point which was the deck connection, filling the scuppers full of Heavy oil, fortunately the Bosun had plugged the drains so the spill was contained somewhat.
In the Engine room things were a lot worse because although I was quick to shut the valve in my panic it was too late to prevent the over full tanks to send a fair volume of fuel up the tape sounding pipes which covered both the raw sea water pump and the fresh water circ pump with Heavy oil. The Chief John Talbot was on the plates by this time and wanted to know what was happening so I told him what had gone down and up of course meaning the Spray I had given the pumps. He had the Electricians turn too and start to clean the pumps, Mike Pond was 1E/E and John Duck second (I kid you not with their names) The Chief looked over my shoulder for the remainder of the bunkering which went without incident Im pleased to say and homeward bound bunkering was a breeze, because by that stage I had got my bodywaste tightly corralled.


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## Tim Gibbs (Apr 4, 2012)

This one is true: 
Sometime in the early '60s the City of Brooklyn was entering Avonmouth Docks. She was coming out of the lock and the pilot rang Dead Slow Astern on the engine telegraph. Unfortunately, the engineer put the engine to Dead Slow Ahead and so, when the pilot, noting that his order had not had the desired effect in slowing the vessel’s movement, put the telegraph to half astern but the engineer not realising his mistake increased power to half but still ahead. The next movement was Full Astern which resulted in the engines now running at Full Ahead. Meanwhile, immediately opposite the lock, the crew of a small cargo vessel, the Cato, were just starting their breakfast when the bow of the City of Brooklyn crashed through their ship, effectively pinning it to the quayside. The crew made a very rapid escape to the quayside and then watched in amazement as the City of Brooklyn backed away from their ship which then sunk slowly to the dock bottom. As a consequence of this disaster, all our vessels were fitted with a “wrong way alarm” - sort of shutting the dock gate after the ship had bolted. The ‘Brooklyn was sold in 1967 and in 1970 whilst carrying a cargo of fertiliser from France to China blew up and sank off the coast of, what was then, Ceylon


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## Bill Morrison (May 25, 2013)

mcglash said:


> First time bunkering the MV Afric in Las Palmas I had Heavy Oil everywhere including where it should be,in the Port Double bottoms but not in the Starboard side DBs because I had forgotten to open the crossover valve under the plates. We had a Teledep system on board and the operation of which was very easy but when you see that Mercury rocket up the glass and before you can phone the deck and have them shut the pump off, you panic and shut the tank inlet valve against the pump pressure so that the fuel has no where to go except escape through the weakest point which was the deck connection, filling the scuppers full of Heavy oil, fortunately the Bosun had plugged the drains so the spill was contained somewhat.
> In the Engine room things were a lot worse because although I was quick to shut the valve in my panic it was too late to prevent the over full tanks to send a fair volume of fuel up the tape sounding pipes which covered both the raw sea water pump and the fresh water circ pump with Heavy oil. The Chief John Talbot was on the plates by this time and wanted to know what was happening so I told him what had gone down and up of course meaning the Spray I had given the pumps. He had the Electricians turn too and start to clean the pumps, Mike Pond was 1E/E and John Duck second (I kid you not with their names) The Chief looked over my shoulder for the remainder of the bunkering which went without incident Im pleased to say and homeward bound bunkering was a breeze, because by that stage I had got my bodywaste tightly corralled.


Bunkering was always squeeky bottom time. On the Zealandic it was the Pilgrim control system easy to operate, Though the Chief was never far away. It's in centre of photo. :sweat:


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## george e mitchell (Jan 22, 2016)

hi MCGLASH and Bill Morrison, Havent seen any posts from you for a long time.
I WAS 2ND ENGINEER AT THE TIME ON THE AFRIC. IT WAS BAD ENOUGH AT THE TIME but wasn't QUITE AS BAD AS A MINOR BLOWOUT ON A RTG I WAS ON YEARS LATER . That went from the rig floor to the main deck then the sea.
Hope you are all well. and good luck to us all with this virus thing
. 
GEORGE MITCHELL



WE REFERRED THE ELECTRICIANS AS THE DUCK POND DEPARTMENT


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## skilly57 (Mar 11, 2008)

Back in 1986 I was going down the gangway on leave when a bit of excitement livened up the afternoon. The local oil companies had just installed a new IFO180 pipeline down from the Kaiwharawhara Oil Tanks to Aotea Quay on the Wellington waterfront, NZ. 

I could hear a bit of muttering from under the wharf, then saw a worker fighting with something just under the wharf level. He had been waiting for the commissioning slug of oil to come down the pipe, but it had taken a long time, so he wrestled the camlock coupling cap off the pipe to check if there was any air pressure. Too late! Just as he got the cap off the oil arrived, and he couldn't get the cap back on! The fountain persisted for about 10 minutes!

I hurriedly dropped my bag, grabbed my camera out, and took a series of photos of the incident, mainly to ensure we didn't get the blame for the oil now floating everywhere around ourselves and the Union Rotorua, which was berthed astern. This was on a film camera, so the harbour board offered to develop the film providing they could have a copy of the relevant photos for prosecution purposes. 

The buggers took my film, developed it, and the attached photo is all I ever got back, so I can't remember what else was on the negatives!


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## david freeman (Jan 26, 2006)

the chief in the boiler room of a steam turbine job, requesting more 'Steam' These was a whoosh! and the starboard& Port boiler furnaces tubes let the boiler contents [800psi 1000F] extinguish the 5 burner flames,in each furance: However the chief got his steam?? and went off most excitedly!!


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## dannic (Mar 10, 2013)

Bill Morrison said:


> Bunkering was always squeeky bottom time. On the Zealandic it was the Pilgrim control system easy to operate, Though the Chief was never far away. It's in centre of photo. :sweat:


Guess measurement similar to mercury column type.....pneumercator. Port Chalmers and Caroline it had to be relied on as no sounding pipes for double bottom fuel tanks!! Was no fun bunkering on them.
Dannic


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## sternchallis (Nov 15, 2015)

Most Blue Star ships (not the bought in reflagged ones) I sailed on had all the fwd deep and double bottom tank valves across the fwd ER bulkhead above these was a bank of pneumercators ( Kelvin Hughes come to mind, but could be wrong). There were deep and double bottom tanks aft of the ER also, with the valves down the tunnel. It was usually a one man job in the ER with the donkeyman on the sound powered phone at the bunker station on deck.

They also had a bunker tank/ overflow tank for both HFO and Diesel which were about the size of the settling tanks and usually next to each other.
Should a tank start to overflow or the system overpressure it came up this pipe and into the Bunker tank across Mobrey float which set off an alarm.
The tank also had high level alarms. If your over flow alarm went off you would ask for a slow down on the pump or open more tank valves.
The deep tanks tanks were the worst to fill as you were pumping against a head. We would sometimes allow the Bunker tank to fill up then stop the bunker barge and gravitate from bunker tank to deep tanks. 

We didn't use sounding pipes on any fuel tanks, though I think they were there, usually for adding Gamelin prior to bunkering.
So bunkering was pretty straight forward because BSL's Engineering Department told the shipyards how it was going to be, they wrote a cast iron spec for their ships with no wriggle room. 
All tanks eventually would cascade to the bunker tank. Service tanks back to the settler all of which had high and low level alarms, always the Mowbry float. 
I only experienced one bad spill opposite the yatch club in Panama at night, when the junior helping with bunkers either opened or closed a valve to said overflow tank, went to the bar for some softies, got yarning and there was oil from the bridge front doors on one side round to the bridge front doors on the other and across the rear doors of the bar.

These yatchs woke up to a brown wave design on their seaward side hull, we had long gone.
How the crowd got rid of the oil I don't know, but it was all cleaned up when we took on the pilot and went through the locks and lakes.
It probably saved some of them from catching something ashore that night.(Jester)
Homeward bound the 2nd was pumping ER bilges going through one of the locks in broad daylight, luckily the chief got a whiff of oil whilst on deck, so rung down and told him to stop in no uncertain terms. We scraped by on that one as well.

Two Salem ships we bought were not so good, dips fwd of the accomodation and a weird pneumercator for after tanks which was one dial and a bunch of knobs so you could only sound one tank at once.
Though bunkered from the manifold on the focsle into the 300 ton forepeak tank would have been a doddle, just gravitating , but no chief used that method. As mentioned in other posts the DO tanks had sounding tubes in the ER and this caused a fire during bunkers.


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