# Ghosts of Christmas past 7; Ascension New Year and other happenings



## R798780 (Oct 27, 2004)

MT "Luxor" Christmas 1973

We had loaded a mixed cargo of petroleum products in Little Aden and Mina al Ahmadi for discharge in Angola and Ascension Island. Some time after we left the gulf (Persian Gulf) the engineers noticed a problem in the steering flat. The "Rudder Carrier", the bearing which takes all the weight of the rudder or should I say "load" when it is angled against several thousand horsepower of engine thrust when turning the ship was cracking apart. We pulled into Mombassa to have the rudder carrier Metal-locked. 

Whilst in Mombassa my brother, working up country in Kenya as a civil engineer, supervising the building of roads, came to visit. En route he turned the car over. His hitch hiking companion at the time said it had happened to him last time he was hitchhiking and had happened one time before that as well. (At sea we would have called him a Jonah!)

After the repairs we proceeded south and then west, taking stores by boat off Durban, plus some boiler tubes to fix our leaking boilers. We got as far as Walvis Bay on the other side before calling in for more fresh water bunkers. Christmas day was between Walvis and Ascension. In late December we moored at Ascension Island and proceeded to discharge part of our cargo, a couple of tanks of diesel and a couple of tanks of JP4 (gasoline based jet fuel) for the USAF at Wideawake airfield. JP4 is wonderful stuff in military jet engines, beyond that it ceases to be wonderful. Pumped JP4, like kerosene, acquires a static charge and a probe inserted into the tank can produce sufficient discharge (spark) to ignite and explode. Being petroleum based or, more particularly, gasoline based the fumes make you drunk. More fumes make you sleep. More fumes make you dead. As we "lined up" (opened valves from the cargo tanks to the pumps) one of the tank suction valve handles spun freely. The spindle joining the valve handle on deck to the valve at the bottom of the tank had sheered. And it had to be one of the two tanks containing JP4. The shore terminal said they had a pump which could be landed on deck to pump the contents of the tank with the broken valve spindle into the tank on the other side from which we were able to pump. That worked but was slow going. Another pump was located, the old diesel powered booster pump which had been used to assist less able ships to discharge cargo right up to the airfield. That worked better. Eventually it lowered the level about half way - it was a physical impossibility to lower the level by much more than about twenty five feet. At this point two men equipped with breathing apparatus entered the tank. The ladder access into the tank met the valve spindle just below the joint that had sheered and using the largest stilson wrench I've ever seen (48" ?), turned the intact part of the spindle and opened the valve. The race was now on, the authorities wanted the ship clear of port before dark on New Year's eve. We made it, just. Next stop Moçamedes in Angola, then Lobito and Luanda. First job, take on more fresh water bunkers. That was an almighty thirsty ship. Without a supply of fresh water measured in hundreds of tons the boilers couldn't keep going, and without boilers we couldn't pump cargo. Later in the trip they got on top of the water losses.

Earlier in the trip we loaded in Kwinana (Freemantle, Western Australia) for New Zealand. A few hours after leaving Kwinana we went round the bend, from a southerly course to an easterly one to cross the Bight. There we hit a bit of a blow and started rolling. During the early hours ( I was keeping the 12 to 4 watch) I put the kettle on for a brew. The kettle unmounted itself from the shelf which was adapted with three holes in which to locate the three feet on the bottom of the kettle. No fancy cordless kettles then, they may not have been invented.

First pick up the kettle to refill it and also the black hood from the radar (to enable daytime viewing) which had slid across the deck. On knees with one item in each hand, slide sideways and then back again. Did she ever roll! Plug in and switch on, except it was taking an almighty long time to boil. Check the plug. One wire loose. Fix it. Still no go. Check the kettle plug at the other end. Two wires loose. I did get my cuppa about an hour later.

In the morning we could see that three of the ten foot sections of the catwalk on the foredeck, made of teak three or four inches thick, had been dislodged by the seas sweeping across the deck, and these were secured about eight feet above the deck. Another three aft of the bridge were also lifted up against the catwalk railings exposing the steampipes underneath. Thankfully none were lost because they were the only means of access in any sort of weather other than flat calm, from the midships "island" to the after accommodation. I lived amidships, the dining saloon and galley - and the bar - were all aft. You end up either wet or hungry. Before leaving New Zealand we loaded sixteen hundred tons of fresh water into a pair of cargo tanks to ease the passage up to the Persian Gulf where we loaded the cargo for Ascension Island. We only just made it, were in dire straits. It didn't help of course, that whilst transferring said fresh water to the ships working tanks using the fire main, that several hundred tons disappeared down the anchor washing pipes which should have been isolated. Yes, all traces of mud had disappeared from the anchors!


----------



## sidsal (Nov 13, 2007)

What a story !
The joys of tankers. We who went into tankers needed our bumps feeling !
Sid
HAPPY NEW YEAR


----------



## makko (Jul 20, 2006)

Great story, Hugh! Peace and prosperity to you and yours!
Rgds.
Dave


----------

