# Annex to historic ramblings



## zebedee (Dec 19, 2010)

In my posting entitled historic ramblings, I got as far as the Vancouver area and loading cargo: this cargo was taken to Japan. Unfortunately this did not set a precedent, on the three occasions on which we loaded similar cargoes later they were taken to the UK or Continent, as the charter party would have described it. Instead on this occasion it was taken to Japan! Unfortunately I cannot remember the name of the port or ports involved; after all it was all of 50 years ago!
As a junior watch keeper I had had the regular chore of going into the space between the scavenge pump and the engine proper to follow-up bolts securing the guide to the "A" frames. This guide spanned the distance between the "A" frames to which it was secured by numerous 1/1/4 inch Whitworth bolts, the top and bottom two forward and aft all being fitted bolts. As fourth engineer I did not have this chore; not because I had a junior engineer to do it for me but because all of these bolts had been replaced by fitted ones!
As the vessel had been converted from running on diesel oil to consuming bunker "C" the piston ring life was very much curtailed and so much time was taken replacing these that other routine maintenance in the crankcase tended to be neglected. So it was no surprise that when we arrived in Japan it was decided to renew piston rings. When we opened up number two unit we had a very nasty shock: the starboard side of the bottom half of the liner was badly scored while the port side of the cast-iron piston skirt was also scored throughout its length and had worn a groove in the bottom of the cylinder liner! The starboard side of the piston head, which had been renewed at the same time as the guide was secured had had its bearing rings, which were originally about 1mm proud, completely worn away causing the steel of the piston to be peened over the grooves trapping the piston rings which still exhibited their original machining marks on that side but were completely worn away on the opposite side. An alignment check revealed that the bottom of the crosshead guide was 1 mm further away from centre than the top of it was! It would seem that the alignment had not been checked prior to installation all those fitted bolts: but as I was on leave at the time my conscience was completely clear as regards the consequences. Obviously fitting a new piston head would solve that part of the problem but what to do about the rest of it? On the advice of the Lloyds surveyor and with his full approval an excess clearance was given to the spherical securing arrangement at the bottom of the piston. For the benefit of the many unfamiliar with Doxford construction, the bottom of the piston stalk is a concave partial sphere which sits on a collar similarly shaped on top but flat underneath and sitting in a recess on the crosshead. It was intended that the excess clearance would allow this collar to float laterally thus preventing a recurrence of the problem. Opening up number two cylinder in New Zealand in our first loading port proved that the surveyor had been correct and no further damage was noted.
We proceeded to our second loading port which I do remember was Invercargill. There we were informed that after proceeded to our final loading port we would not be allowed to take on board freshwater as it had not rained at the Bluff for a month. As we only needed 40 hours cargo work this did not appear to be a problem. When we arrived at the Bluff we were told there was no berth for us as it had rained the previous day. 
I understand that wool, like coal is liable to spontaneous combustion if allowed to get damp. 
So we had to anchor off in the lee of Stuart Island. Stuart island is roughly circular with a large vee-shaped indentation at its southerly side in which we took refuge as there was a storm forecast: we were glad to be sheltered as there was nothing between us and the South Pole except water and ice! In the event we swung around the anchor for a couple of days and then were allowed to berth; incidentally after two days of being dragged around on a rocky bottom the anchor cable resembled a large silver watch chain. As it had not rained fora month it made up for it by raining every day for the next month so we took the opportunity of checking crankshaft bearings. To refresh memories and enlighten youngsters, the process of checking bearing clearances in those days was somewhat Victorian. As I have not been actively involved in marine engineering for over 50 years I've no idea how it is done now so I will describe the process we had to follow then: with the crank shaft at top centre the bottom end bolts were slackened off with the aid of a 14lb hammer, with the aid of chain pulley blocks the bottom half was lowered to enable the insertion of 1/32" lead wire. The bottom half was lifted up and the nuts hammered tight, then slackened off and the bottom half lowered so that the lead wire could be retrieved and measured: in this instance the wire was completely untouched, repeating the process with two wires twisted together, and then three wires, and eventually four wires produced no better results. More or less in desperation all the spacers and shims were removed from between the butts, a single lead wire clamped in place, the space between the butts measured as accurately as possible and it was discovered that we had to remove 0.110" to obtain any sort of lead. This from a bearing which was supposed to run at a clearance of 0.005" to 0.008"! We followed this procedure for all the other crankshaft bearings but with hindsight there would have been a much simpler method. If we had made a ball, or a nest, of lead wire about 3/8 of an inch in diameter we could have had a quite accurate first indication with much less effort. However, it is rather late now!
Towards the end of the month it was quite clear that we could have all the water that we needed; however we were rather low on our reserve fuel supply and we needed about 100 tons: to the chief engineers casual remark "What size hose will be on your tank wagons?” The reply was "Hose? it's coming in 40 gallon drums."
"Oh no it's not we will go back to Invercargill" was the prompt (and censored) reply. Which we did and then set course for Panama.
En route we discovered two things: that the water was so acidic that the amount of soda ash necessary to keep it alkaline resulted in all the impurities remaining in suspension so that the water in the gauge glass was a pale brown colour: eventually I was instructed to cease adding soda ash. The second thing was that we had water leaks into the crankcase from defective elbows in the swinging links; this meant that we had to run the lub. oil centrifuges 24 hours a day and also that we had to run the distiller to keep the supply topped up which meant additional extra feed going into the Cochrane boiler.
Somewhere in the Panama Canal transit we fitted five replacements elbows and when we bunkered in Curaçao we replaced another three or so of them but within a day or two of leaving we had water leaks into the crankcase once again! The result of six weeks water washing of the lubricating oil was that it was a faint yellow colour instead of the usual dirty black, so pale in fact that it was necessary to chalk the dipstick to check the level in the sump!
Lionel.


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## eldersuk (Oct 24, 2005)

Thanks for that zebedee, I was just about to retire for my well earned rest, instead of which I'll now be lying awake all night adjusting Doxford bottom ends, machining the piston rod nut, changing elbows etc.
I still remember the sinking feeling on seeing the crankcase observation glasses again clouding over with emulsified oil a few hours after changing piston cooling elbows.

Derek


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## ccurtis1 (Aug 16, 2007)

It was those darned "Banjo" pipes which gave us most grief. There were dozens of repaired pipes strung upon a wire along the shaft tunnel and it took ages to find one which would fit easily.


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## A.D.FROST (Sep 1, 2008)

In the words of the song "Those were the days my friend" I thought they would never end all because of a bottom end


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