# Black Oil



## jamesgpobog (Feb 18, 2012)

Beside my AWOL episode, I was not without screw-ups of my own in The Hole. There was a very common mistake to make; it seems that at some point in their Navy career, every BT (boiler tech) did this…some more than once.

The Babcock & Wilcox 450lb. sectional header boilers on Mispillion were fired with NSFO (Navy Special Fuel Oil). At the time, this was the lowest grade of fuel oil, the heaviest and least processed. There were other grades that we carried as cargo for replenishment of other ships. This oil when cold (a relative term) is very thick, almost like tar. Before it is piped to the boilers t is run through a heater and its viscosity becomes very much like kerosene. It doesn’t look like kerosene however, it is extremely dark brown, almost black, and hence is usually called “black oil”.

After the oil is heated it is distributed to each boiler by a separate line, and at each boiler, to each burner by a separate line. All of these lines can be isolated with their own cutoff valve. 

Mispillion’s boilers had four burners each. A small sprayer plate was at the end of an atomizer tube (or “gooseneck). These had different size orifices that allowed fine tuning of the amount of oil that was delivered, and thus the amount of heat created in the boiler, and were interchangeable. 

This gooseneck was in turn placed into the burner/air register assembly in the front of the boiler and was secured with a yoke and screw clamp. The curved neck had a convex surface that fit against the concave surface of the oil feed line.

These surfaces were brass and sometimes slightly marred, so we would make little scrap paper gaskets to help make a seal that wouldn’t leak. The screw clamps had a “T” handle and were the standard “righty tighty, lefty loosey” thread. Because even when tightened hard on the paper gaskets the joint would leak slightly, there were stainless steel drip pans along the front of the boiler face. Part of the job on watch was to keep the drips to a minimum, and the pans cleaned.

One particular Sunday morning, and I remember it was a Sunday because everyone not on watch had the day off, I was on watch when I noticed that one burner on boiler #4 (port side aft) had developed a bit of a leak, a moderate drip….drip…drip. You don’t let these things go because beside the mess they make, it’s also a fire hazard. 

Well, I was an experienced boiler operator now, so with chest suitably puffed out, I trotted over to the leak and hit the screw clamp.

The problem was that I hit it lefty loosey, not righty tighty.

The fuel oil in the line right there is 150 degrees F., and under 300 psi. pressure. The spray hit me square in the face and instinctively my hands went to my eyes yet instantly back to the screw clamp and hit it shut hard.

As was usual, I did not have a shirt on and was virtually black from head to foot. I was absolutely soaked in oil. After a few moments I got enough oil out of my eyes to be able to see through a slightly blurry film. The oil had sprayed for only a very short time, about the count of “one thousand one”, but what I saw was amazing. 

The entire front face of the boiler was black, about 10 feet wide and 15 feet high, and because of the air blown by the ventilators, there was oil around the corner on the left side. Worst of all was the pool of oil that was sloshing around on the deck with the motion of the ship.

I had just ruined the rest of my day off, and ruined the day off for several of my crewmates. This could have been a situation for me like Dan Gary flooding After Steering, “Clean it up yourself”, but this was also a safety issue with the severe fire hazard. Word was sent up to the living quarters and several guys came down to help me. There may have been more, but I remember Wayne Rankin, Tom Wigmore, and Graham Symons coming to help. Being soaked in oil, I couldn’t even function until I had cleaned up. The dungarees got a float test, and a hot shower with lots and lots of soap got most of the oil off my body and out of my hair. I was then able to join in the cleanup efforts.

The cleanup took several hours and it would have taken forever for me to do I by myself. I am very thankful and indebted to my shipmates who helped me that day.


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## kauvaka (Oct 11, 2009)

james, many thanks for that interesting tale, just shows how quickly bad things can develop on the boiler flat. On the boilerfront without a shirt on though? Not that it would have made much difference in this case. Not in my day.


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## kewl dude (Jun 1, 2008)

re: Navy Special Fuel Oil

NSFO was the BEST #6 fuel oil we got.

You have not lived until you get 10% water and/or sand.

I never forgot which way to tighten the yoke although we typically had steam atomization and as such a different type connection. It was round and flat with a shoulder on the burner that slipped over the male connection and had a manufactured copper gasket. Our oil drip trays were to catch drips when changing burners. 

Greg Hayden
Vista - San Diego area - California


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

A well told story James, boiler fronts are always a hazardous place.
Was it the well known B&W 'Y' Jet burner nozzle?
I have never experienced these events myself but we. Had many an event with both oil and natural gas fired boilers plus the odd coal fired drama.

Bob


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## david freeman (Jan 26, 2006)

Your heading for this group of missives is 'Black Oil'. The story as it unfolds teaches one the hazards of firing a boiler! However 'Black OIL' is a term I associate with my elders and it had or had to me a specific meaning? 'Black OIL' was for the old steam up and downers cylinder lubricant, and in some instances used on some of the deck machinery for lubricating stuffing boxes? Yes? or I am I off my perch?


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

David, I have never heard the term 'black oil' referring to oiler fuel.
We called it HFO, heavy fuel oil number 6 or graded by a Redwood or similar viscosity number.
Lubricant for the rods of a steam engine used to be a emulsifying type of thick swabbing oil

Bob


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## jamesgpobog (Feb 18, 2012)

kauvaka said:


> On the boiler front without a shirt on though?


1972, young and dumb with attitude. They were always on me about it. I thought 100* was just "too hot"...


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## jamesgpobog (Feb 18, 2012)

spongebob said:


> Was it the well known B&W 'Y' Jet burner nozzle?


This one...


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## jamesgpobog (Feb 18, 2012)

david freeman said:


> Your heading for this group of missives is 'Black Oil'. The story as it unfolds teaches one the hazards of firing a boiler! However 'Black OIL' is a term I associate with my elders and it had or had to me a specific meaning? 'Black OIL' was for the old steam up and downers cylinder lubricant, and in some instances used on some of the deck machinery for lubricating stuffing boxes? Yes? or I am I off my perch?


I suspect we may be into the cultural language differences between Brits and the U.S. here. You know, don't even think about asking Yanks about bangers and mash or spotted dick. If I remember, I'll look at my old navy training manual and see what they call it there. 1972 on USS Mispillion we called it black oil or bunker C.


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## ART6 (Sep 14, 2010)

spongebob said:


> David, I have never heard the term 'black oil' referring to oiler fuel.
> We called it HFO, heavy fuel oil number 6 or graded by a Redwood or similar viscosity number.
> Lubricant for the rods of a steam engine used to be a emulsifying type of thick swabbing oil
> 
> Bob


Yup. In my time in VTEs black oil was what one lubricated the eccentric sheaves with. It was mixed with graphite flakes and tea leaves from the engine room kettle, the scientific principle being that the oil carried the graphite to the bearings when it ever melted enough to do so, while the tea leaves took up a cushioning role where the sheaves had a gap that one could stick one's finger in. That gap had shortened the fingers of more than a few of the unwary who dutifully checked the sheave temperatures by hand.


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

On the Loch class naval frigates the valve eccentrics used to be surrounded by a sheet metal pan and immersed in the oil. I seem to recall them being referred to as the soogee pans, no relation to the wash down soogee.

Bob


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## steamer659 (Mar 18, 2009)

Hmmmm, I have "steamed" a lot of vessels; from the sister ship to the Misipillion (Passumpsic)- to Victory Ships..On the Passumpsic during that time we burned DFM (Diesel Fuel Marine) in the Boilers- was a straight distillate with no resid left...

If memory serves me correctly, NSFO (Navy Special Fuel Oil) was a Distillate-Resid blend which would correspond to IFO-180. I have burned much heavier, much "worse"- on the SS Ultramax, we usually burned 380 cst bunker fuel, but got shafted with a load of 460 cst fuel one time- it sucked...

The best "black" fuel I ever remember burning in Boilers was stuff we picked up in Port Lyttleton NZ- it was called LFO (Light Fuel Oil) and was a very nice blend which gave great heat output without much of the combustion bi-products...

Today, the B&W that I have runs on RMG-380 HS crossing the pond and MGO in the ECA's (Emission Control Areas).. We generally heat the 380 to 113-118 C. for injection... Nearly the same as you would for boiler fuel... (about 100-108 C)...


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## Ian J. Huckin (Sep 27, 2008)

Say no more...one of my better days...


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## oilkinger (Dec 17, 2008)

James - I was Oilking on the Australian navy DDG's during the VietNam conflict.
Overtime I guess I would have done 100+ replenishment-at-sea fuelings plus numerous in harbour. USN oilers Passumpsic, Hassayampa are a couple we frequently fueled from. In our navy that ****ty black custard was called FFO, Furnace Fuel Oil. Although a job ( and a good one ) that you normally rotated out of every six months I kept it all the time as, somehow, I had the knack of never having an oil flood, internally or externally, at sea or in harbour, as most of the others seemed to do. And captains just love Oilkings that don't fill Sydney Harbour or the South China Sea with FFO !
I notice from recent video clips, that the hose probe now travels down the span wire in "slow motion" and it is seated in the cup by winching it in with a block & tackle. In my time the tanker held the fuel hose concertina fashion against her side and with the probe end high up on the span wire at the top of the gantry.
We all then had to duck for cover as the tanker winch sailor released the brake and the probe came flying down the wire by gravity and, virtually, crashed into the cup seating itself.
Aaaarrrggghhhh - the smell of the stuff - bewdiful.


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

Ian J. Huckin said:


> View attachment 96410
> 
> 
> Say no more...one of my better days...


Priceless, only happened to me once but thankfully with marine diesel or LFO.

Bob


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

steamer659 said:


> Hmmmm, I have "steamed" a lot of vessels; from the sister ship to the Misipillion (Passumpsic)- to Victory Ships..On the Passumpsic during that time we burned DFM (Diesel Fuel Marine) in the Boilers- was a straight distillate with no resid left...
> 
> If memory serves me correctly, NSFO (Navy Special Fuel Oil) was a Distillate-Resid blend which would correspond to IFO-180. I have burned much heavier, much "worse"- on the SS Ultramax, we usually burned 380 cst bunker fuel, but got shafted with a load of 460 cst fuel one time- it sucked...
> 
> ...


That was probably residual oil from NZ's only refinery based at Marsden Point Whangarei where the limited capability of the plant resulted in a fair surplus of fuel oil graded 200 and 1000 Redwood No one. In those days the refinery feed stock was mainly crude oil from Iraq under our governments agreement to barter oil for sheep meat and it was high sulphur at 3.5 to 4%.
We burnt a lot in the land based industrial boilers with ongoing problems from killing off neighbouring vegetation to corroding boiler pressure parts when operating at low loads and near sulphur dew points

By the way we had a similar barter trade agreement with the Russians where we accepted Lada cars and station wagons for milk powder. That was a disaster 


Bob


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## jamesgpobog (Feb 18, 2012)

Ian J. Huckin said:


> View attachment 96410
> 
> 
> Say no more...one of my better days...


Apparently that stuff is corrosive. Look what it did to your hair...


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## Ian J. Huckin (Sep 27, 2008)

jamesgpobog said:


> Apparently that stuff is corrosive. Look what it did to your hair...


Nah, that was caused by blasting the old BSA and Velo around southern England without a helmet....


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