# steam queens



## david freeman (Jan 26, 2006)

Just read the crankcase crawls. My time was basically steam, and my respect for the senior engineers who would enter the uptakes, furnance in a boiler taken of line, sometimes pressure reduced, sometimes blown down, but the latent heat from the brickwork and drums still quite substantial, tracing a leaking tube.
Again respect for motor men and the inspection of a scotch boiler/ taken off line with residual heat, and the initial inspection though the fire box doors to assess the problems.
My hat off to you all.


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## JohnBP (Mar 27, 2008)

Yes Dave, dont know anyone that "liked" entering an isolated boiler or a crankcase. While on the Br. Sargent in some port in India, we had to isolate the port scotch boiler because of excessive leaks. Even after many hours the unit was very hot. 2nd found the leaking tubes and sealed them. He had burns on his hands and knees. Only consolation was that while going through a rain storm after leaving port we collected many ton's of rain water.


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## twogrumpy (Apr 23, 2007)

Oh the joys of entering a not so cooled down furnace, with a flat steel bar, hammer and water hose attempting to remove [email protected] from between the tubes.
Scaffolding plank on the floor in the hope that the soles of your boots would not melt, asbestos gauntlets, and the contents of the rag bag on your head to keep the hot sooty water off.
Never really sure whether wearing glasses was a pro or a con.
I found that on the way in one would take great care not to get burnt or the overalls caught up, but come time to get out I felt like a flying leap from six feet would take me straight through the manhole onto the boiler room deck.

I must say that I did chicken out on the motorships when the ball fell off the low water level trip, for some reason the claustrophobia hit me on that one.

The Mitsubishi R boats made up for all the grotty times.

Then of course there was the main condenser diving..................


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## Engine Serang (Oct 15, 2012)

I think there is no comparison between a crankcase crawl and an afternoon in a steam drum. I have great admiration for the wartime engineers who went into boilers to repair them whilst the convoy steamed ever onwards.


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## stevekelly10 (Apr 3, 2012)

My biggest hate\fear was entering the water drum on a watertube boiler, an ESD3 variant, as it only had a manhole door at one end, so you had to crawl out backwards and if you got stuck, heaven knows what would have happened ! This didn't stop me and my sense of humour, having a bit of fun once. Whilst in drydock in Dubai, the boilers were being surveyed, neither the DNV surveyor, who was a rather portly chap or the C\E were willing to inspect the water drums ! so as 2\E the job was delegated to me. After inspecting one of the drums, I exited with a concerned look on my face and told them, they better take a look at the far end of the drum ! Both of their faces dropped considerably ! I then told them I was joking and everything was fine  and they both gave a huge sigh of relief ! They still treated to a meal out that night for doing the job.


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## Samsette (Sep 3, 2005)

Engine Serang said:


> I think there is no comparison between a crankcase crawl and an afternoon in a steam drum. I have great admiration for the wartime engineers who went into boilers to repair them whilst the convoy steamed ever onwards.


Not wartime but, something that demonstrated to me the unpleasant lengths to which engineers had to go, in order to keep the ship safe and on course. Homeward bound, somewhere between Cape St. Vincent and Finnisterre, during January, the Samboat Eurypylus had to shut down one of her boilers while the engineers had to go inside to expand tubes. I think that was the term - anyhoo, the heat was so intense, they had to be covered in watersoaked burlap to ease the effects of the heat and, frequently exchange places so as not to be overcome by it. All this and a following sea to add to the uncomfortable movements of the ship. So, caps off to the old steam engineers.


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## Russ Lowdon (Feb 28, 2007)

Sailed with Ted Jones an old Chief Engineer with Elders and fyffes who during the last war on a ship that had been torpedoed and was sinking had rescued his fireman and was badly scalded when escaping from between the scotch boilers. He was our Chief engineer on his last trip on the SS Tetela and he always advocated that we carry a 'Chrome' spanner as being more useful that a torch to escape a steam leak in the engineroom.


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## China hand (Sep 11, 2008)

I was Mate in a bulkie when the donkeyman did something silly and some tubes collapsed. The Chief Gingerbeer nominated the 3rd to go and expand. He was a shortarse. I am also a shortarse so I said "show me what to do and I'll give you a hand." He did, we did the job, and it was bloody hard work. Taught me a bit about nasty work in the Chug chug room. Respect.


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## JohnBP (Mar 27, 2008)

Yes thanks for that WW2 engineers must have been awful especially on the Russian convoys....


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## Fergie (Mar 3, 2007)

Too young to be part of the heroics those at sea did during the war years in various boiler furnace/drum repairs.
I left NZ as supernumary 5th on a Williamson tramp in 1949. My head was full of the theory teaching at Marine School. When a tube burst in a scotch boiler I knew all about Manganeseite, brass gauze reinforcing, tube blank caps and threaded rods. Once the boiler was blown down to below the leaking tube it became my job to go in and fit the cap over the cleaned leaking tube and hold the nut while it was tightened at the smoke box end. The heat was incredible, the rope around my waist my lifeline but I was unlikely to stay on the plank over the corrugations if I was unconscious. So after about 36 hours on my first ship this was my introduction to being a marine engineer. Much better occasions were waiting to come, away from the engineroom.


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

Fergie said:


> Too young to be part of the heroics those at sea did during the war years in various boiler furnace/drum repairs.
> I left NZ as supernumary 5th on a Williamson tramp in 1949. My head was full of the theory teaching at Marine School. When a tube burst in a scotch boiler I knew all about Manganeseite, brass gauze reinforcing, tube blank caps and threaded rods. Once the boiler was blown down to below the leaking tube it became my job to go in and fit the cap over the cleaned leaking tube and hold the nut while it was tightened at the smoke box end. The heat was incredible, the rope around my waist my lifeline but I was unlikely to stay on the plank over the corrugations if I was unconscious. So after about 36 hours on my first ship this was my introduction to being a marine engineer. Much better occasions were waiting to come, away from the engineroom.


Fergie's story above was a frequent event in those days of Scotch boilers with riveted drums and expanded tubes coupled with dubious water treatment when the 'perfect ' water house keeping was really a myth. 
I knew many old engineers that could relate very plausible stories of such boiler problems and their repairs plus many relating to those of entering pressure vessels via manholes.
16 x 12 inches was the standard size manhole in a boiler drum but this was reduced to 15 x 11 inch for higher pressure drums due to the compensation needed at that pressure level. This reduction in access area made a vast difference when it came to squeezing through and many a man became proud of his added girth on such occasions.
Being claustraphobic I have always dreaded entering drums and did my damdest to avoid it and luckily my years with Babcock was mostly in an estimating and sales role which kept me excused.

Bob


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## sternchallis (Nov 15, 2015)

When I came back to the UK after my shore job in the States I was a boiler inspector ( Pressure Vessel Surveyor) for Ajax Insurance and would crawl round various boilers during the summer during the shut down periods, all of them cold and cleaned out on the gas side. I was originally on motorships with Cochranes and Clarksons, but during my apprenticeship had to to remove and fit the internal pipes on 3 furnace Scotch boilers fitted to trawlers and watch the fitter floating the safety valves including superheat sets.

All of this came in handy at sea and later inspecting boilers and witnessing the lifting of the safety's. We also inspected connected steam pressure vessels, medium and high temp water boilers ( those running above 100°C but pressurised). Came across one watertube boiler at a paper works that ran at 60bar but used a back pressure turbine driving an alternator to drop the pressure to 1 bar or less.

Try and find somebody with experience with steam these days. Even the RN are gas turbines and what youngster goes to sea these days.
I cannot see graduates having the will or experience to do these jobs. There is only the power stations these days that have steam and they are becoming extinct.


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## sternchallis (Nov 15, 2015)

When I came back to the UK after my shore job in the States I was a boiler inspector ( Pressure Vessel Surveyor) for Ajax Insurance and would crawl round various boilers during the summer during the shut down periods, all of them cold and cleaned out on the gas side. I was originally on motorships with Cochranes and Clarksons, but during my apprenticeship had to to remove and fit the internal pipes on 3 furnace Scotch boilers and watch the fitter floating the safety valves including superheat sets.

All of this came in handy at sea and later inspecting boilers and witnessing the lifting of the safety's. We also inspected connected steam pressure vessels, medium and high temp water boilers ( those running above 100°C but pressurised). Came across one watertube boiler at a paper works that ran at 60bar but used a back pressure turbine driving an alternator to drop the pressure to 1 bar or less.

Try and find somebody with experience with steam these days. Even the RN are gas turbines and what youngster goes to sea these days.
I cannot see graduates having the will or experience to do these jobs. There is only the power stations these days that have steam and they are becoming extinct.


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

As someone who has sailed on what could be termed the older steam jobs with Scotch Boilers the water treatment was the same as the Ships Hull in that Zinc Plates were bolted inside the Boiler, these were about 12inch square by 1inch thick and were changed by an Engineer if required during a Boiler clean. Like most Steam Engineers crawling up the back end of a Boiler expanding tubes or blanking them off was all part of the job as described by Fergie. 
Despite the discomfort doing certain tasks I thoroughly enjoyed my time running Steam Enginerooms.
Having been inside Boilers and doing the Diesel Crankcase crawls they gave me no concerns, my concerns came in regard to working in the Duct Keel of a certain vessel, I know there will be members who have worked in Duct Keels and thought nothing of it but in my case having witnessed a structural failure which flooded the same Duct Keel three weeks before on what was a newly built vessel I did have concerns in regards to the same thing happening again the first time we went into full Ballast and I was down there at sea.


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## BobClay (Dec 14, 2007)

My very first trip to sea was as a fireman/greaser with Shell on a tanker called the Venassa. She had Foster Wheeler watertube boilers and one morning I was called out of my bunk at about 5 am and asked to go down to the boiler room (I was a day worker.)

They had a hatch off the front of the boiler next to the burner platform and the Second told me they thought they had blown a tube. He asked me if I'd go in to the furnace as I was very skinny in those days and the hatch access was limited. He said the fires had been off for a while but it's still pretty hot in there so we've put a plank in for you to walk in. I was to go over to the back of the tube array and look for debris, and if possible bring out a sample.

I got in easily enough but the plank was a bit wobbly and they had lights and torches shining in after me. I found some debris and brushed it across to the hatch. To tell the truth it looked like pumice stone to me, but the Second said it was tube debris. I got out pretty sweaty (the brush had started to smoulder) and the Second sent me down case of beer that day, which was quite something as we were limited to 2 cans a day.

I often wonder if I got that job because I was skinny, or because I was a first tripper ? ... still ... a case of beer is a case of beer. (Pint)

(Gleam)


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

You were expendable Bob(Jester)


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## BobClay (Dec 14, 2007)

(Thumb)

Thanks ...... (Jester)


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

BobClay said:


> (Thumb)
> 
> Thanks ...... (Jester)


Now it's just expandable for most of us(*))


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## Basil (Feb 4, 2006)

China hand said:


> I was Mate in a bulkie when the donkeyman did something silly and some tubes collapsed. The Chief Gingerbeer nominated the 3rd to go and expand. He was a shortarse. I am also a shortarse so I said "show me what to do and I'll give you a hand." He did, we did the job, and it was bloody hard work. Taught me a bit about nasty work in the Chug chug room. Respect.


That was bloody big of you. Respect!

Watched the sec go into a hot furnace with no-one togged up to rescue him if he'd collapsed from heatstroke - scary.


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## Jim Glover (Aug 13, 2006)

On the Shell tanker Hemiplectica port boiler shut down 0600hrs,to plug an air heater tubeI was sent into the boiler and was like a furnace,they had to pull me out through the manhole due to the heat.Back in after a couple of hours cool down .Totally blackened and f--------,2/E still expected me down for his chow relief.Today we would have a risk assessment,SJA.Tool Box Talk and a permit after climbing 10 flights of stairs,such is life
.


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

As you are aware Jim what happened ashore or when alongside when a boiler problem occurs is a lot different to when you were at sea, the fix had to be done.
I am not at sea in today's world but I don't suppose it is any different now, the only time it is highlighted now is if a serious accident occurs and "lessons will be learnt" is trotted out, until the next time.


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## Engine Serang (Oct 15, 2012)

Today the H&S paperwork can drive you crazy with frustration but would shield you from a bollix of a Second Engineer.


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## sternchallis (Nov 15, 2015)

*Lessons wiĺ be learnt*

That much trotted out phrase, same as "Sorry", by politicians , but are lessons really learnt when £€$¥$€£¥$ is involved. Are they going to wait for a boiler to be cold or blow for a tug. Course they aren't, you have to risk your life for the profits of shareholders who couldn't care a hoot.

Same old same old.


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## ART6 (Sep 14, 2010)

During my time at sea I did a number of Scotch boiler smoke box rivet caulks and got fried. I did boiler cleans on Babcock boilers in the middle of the Caribbean and coughed up soot for days. All of those jobs were a real pain, but then I came ashore and was free of them - except that I got myself a job as deputy chief engineer in a new power station, and a boiler survey was due after the first year after commissioning. It was my job to conduct the surveyor in the climb through all the tube banks, and I wasn't looking forward to it.
The surveyor arrived -- an extraordinarily gorgeous blonde girl -- and I began to think that this boiler crawl business might not be such a trial after all. Wriggling after her through the narrow passes of the superheater banks caused all sorts of problems because she was streamlined and I was -- well -- Er -- not, due to some hormonal issues! (*))


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## tom roberts (May 4, 2008)

Sorry engineers,when I saw this threads I thought it was about those ladies on the cruise liners of the fifties I.e.the Empress of Scotland,Mauritania,which I sailed on,they did the laundry and great ladies they were.


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## billmaca (Jan 14, 2006)

Going in to inspect was bad enough but it fell to the ratings to work through the electric snake tube by tube marking each one with chalk as you went, did not like that job at all.


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

Despite the fact you have set the Safety Valves and they are starting to feather, the Fireman is watching the steam gauge and giving you the countdown to the blood with his fingers it's still a shock to the system when they go BANG and fully open. If I was doing it now I would most probably have a heart attack.


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## Engine Serang (Oct 15, 2012)

Two things frightened me on big boilers, floating the safety's and the ac***ulation of pressure.
I'd pull a unit anyday.


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## sternchallis (Nov 15, 2015)

I used to like the safeties lift with a bang none of this feathering? They were either open or closed, otherwise drop the pressure right off , remove them and check the seat height and adjust it up to give correct lift. I learnt that one at sea when Lloyds came to witness the safeties lifting on verical donkey boiler on a motorship. They just feathered and he told us what to do. How or why it never came up at college or previous boiler surveys I don't know.
After that I never forgot to check the blowdown ring height, then when surveying I could tell the fitters how to do it or to check it before boxing up the safety valve.
They had to use my tested gauge fitted to top of the boiler, so stood up there on a 60bar boiler waiting for them to crack and hope you didn't miss a crack on the steam drum inspection. The good places always went through the tests before I arrived, so it was just a formality. The worst is when say a laundry has some contractors in to strip the boiler and box up and carry out the tests. Some of them hadn't a clue and you used to get the excuse " The other surveyor didn't ask for this". Answer"As I am putting my signature and job on the line to say it is safe for the laundry to use, we do it my way or I call your boss and the Laundreys boss".

There have been a few surveyors lost their job and lives by letting things go.
Our Chief Engineer always used to say, " If you have to go to court, I want you as a witness for the Prosecution". If you was there for the defence, they would disown you.


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

See attached. Note lip of the feather.


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## Engine Serang (Oct 15, 2012)

Could "Sketch and Describe" with my eyes closed for Seconds.


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