# Engineroom Washing Machines



## Jocko (Oct 31, 2011)

They say that "Neccessity is the Mother of Invention. Well we made some crackers.
Items required= One reasonably sized oil drum, One 10 inch flange with an eyebolt affixed. One good length of rope with pulley block.
Place mingin boilersuits in drum, add soap powder, fill with scalding water. place flange in drum. Then at risk of life and limb attach the end of the rope to any moving part of the engine and Hey Presto you had a perfectly good washing(egg) machine that far surpassed todays poor excuse for washing machines.
The most important task was in the rinsing. Loads of water were blattered on to the poor overall as failure to do so resulted in serious Dhobi Rash.
PS. I knew one ejit who threw his boilersuit over the stern attached to a piece of rope. When he finally hauled it in there was hardly anything left of said boileruit.


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## makko (Jul 20, 2006)

The other was to put a steam line into the dhobi tub - I never risked my boiler suits to this method! On one ship, everyone else did. Armless, ripped, shrunk and shredded was the result!
Rgds.
Dave


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## John Rogers (May 11, 2004)

How to make a small washing machine. Take a large plastic garbage bag,add a little soap powder,add water,then your clothes,(good for undies). Tie the bag and then keep bouncing the bag on the floor. After a little while change the water and rinse.


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## TonyAllen (Aug 6, 2008)

In the galley on the avistone hot water was by the steam pipe,so after dinner and washdown clothes ect in the large sink grated soap water well above said pipe then steamed for 30 minutes rinse and over the still warm ovens till morning Tony


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## Jocko (Oct 31, 2011)

Yes Tony, I went into the galley once to sort a wee steam leak. What I did see was the cooks kaks etc simmering away in the dixie which would used for our next meal. It did give me the idea that I should go on hunger strike.
John, I hope weren`t bouncing that garbage bag of dhobi on the deck in your cabin!!!!!!! If it bust, big problem.


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## michael charters (Apr 4, 2010)

never ever able to wash out the black hand marks from my brand new white... boiler suit. as soon as you put on a newboiler suit. some joker would approach you from the front, with greased hand black with oil and grip your rear.
The hand marks stayed as a friendly reminder of comrades at sea.


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

Bucket, steam pipe and a bit of washing soda for Blue's(Thumb). White's were kept for when alongside.


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## surfaceblow (Jan 16, 2008)

One ship that I was on had a 55 gallon drum tied to the foundation of the emergency steam air compressor attached to the cross head of the compressor was a plunger. We would fill the drum with water, clothes, soap and line up the compressor to a slow speed. 

Joe


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## Derek Roger (Feb 19, 2005)

In Brocklebanks the Cassab was tasked with washing the boiler suits ( for which he was paid by all the enginerrs at the end of a trip )
On my first trip to deep sea on the ss Maipura we had a Caird and Rainor ( spelling ) low pressure Evaporator which used steam through the heat exchanger . About every month or so the heat exchanger was changed for a spare and the removed unit put into a custom made tank to be chemically de-scaled . After a few hours with the acid clean the unit was removed and gleaming ; awaited as a spare for the next change out .

The Cassab having seen this operation thought it a good idea to use the acid clean to do the boiler suits instead of his 50 gallon drum with a steam coil .

The results were devastating as he was to find that all that was left of the boiler suits were a bunch a very bright brass buttons . 

He did not get any bonus from the engineers .

We all had to get the tailors in Calcutta to make us some new ones ( which was the norm in any case )

Looking back I think with the exception of a few suits I had more " Custom made Boiler Suits " than any other apparel "
Quite inexpenive too .

Derek


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## teb (May 23, 2008)

chadburn said:


> Bucket, steam pipe and a bit of washing soda for Blue's(Thumb). White's were kept for when alongside.


That's the way we did it in the 40's even the whites seem to remenber they did not last too long though !!!


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

The Union Co standard seemed to be a crank arm out of the engine room lathe headstock driving a rod with a large piece of rubber insertion as a plunger paddle. This working in a suitable drum and the addition of a couple of cakes of USSCo toilet soap did the trick. Perhaps many a Colchester was worn out in washing machine mode.

Bob


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## NoMoss (Mar 14, 2007)

When I sailed on a 1400 ton ship (Alpera) in the 50s I used to visit the engine room (I was the RO) and was amazed to sea a bucket of dhobi with a weight on a rope connected to a piece of the engine which went up and down (I was an RO). It seemed to work, for the engineers always had clean boiler suits. 
I had previously been on a coal-fired banana boat (Ariguani) and we had to go the the bathroom to get hot water for our cabins and heat the water with a steam pipe. My chief used to put his dhobi in a galvanised bath, fill with water and put the steam pipe in to boil away. This caused steam to flow down the alleyways into the mate's cabin and he would come and turn the steam off. There then followed a ding dong battle which I kept well out of.


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## bill mc guire (Jun 10, 2010)

on my first trip mvteviotbank the dhob wallah decidedto invent a new method for washing ourdirty overalls i remember i gave him three overals (spent a full watch lapping and testing main engine injectors)got the overalls back minus legs only found out later that his way to clean overals was to tie the legs with a length of rope toss the whole lot over the side and trail them along needless to say this was not well recieved by anyonehoweverin fairness it did clean the overalls.all be it two of mine had legs missing


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## JET (Oct 22, 2005)

'Linking in' the washing machine to the air pump drive arm, following Full Away, was standard procedure on steam recip jobs.
John


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## oilkinger (Dec 17, 2008)

I was on a Charles F Adams class destroyer in the Royal Australian Navy. As with all American built ships it had an excellent commercial laundry. Pneumatically operated, steam heated, presses and an electric motor driven washing machine that was steam heated. The washing machine had 3 compartments that rotated on a central shaft that was horizontal. All nice & shiny stainless steel. Anyway - the stoker in charge of the laundry came by some live crayfish ( lobsters ) and thought bewdy - I'll boil them in the washing machine. In they went and the drum was rotated until the crays were in the water level at the bottom. Then it was just a matter of opening the steam valve and - oops, the crays were blown to smithereens. For weeks later our clothes smelt of dead fish and, occasionally, when putting on a clean pressed garment, you'd find a piece of cray claw pressed flat into the fabric.
Aaahhh well - I reckon even Einstein made a few blunders.


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