# Odours



## spongebob

ODOURS

A recent comment was that the worst job in the travel industry is being the person on the airport air bridge who opens the door of a Jumbo jet on its arrival after a 26 hour almost nonstop flight from Europe.
Apparently the fetid odours are an overpowering mix of stale air impregnated with humanity, food and human waste that can dissolve the resolve of anyone standing in fresh air but is not perceptible to the passengers and crew who have spent a long time in flight “acclimatizing”
.
This snippet reminds me of the time that I worked on a submarine that had crossed the Tasman Sea in the 1950’s submerged and using its snorkel, the first submarine to do so. As I recall it was the Royal Navy Submarine HMS “Tactician” then based on the Australian Station and she submerged off Sydney Heads and did not resurface until she reached Auckland’s inner Hauraki Gulf.

The morning after she docked a leading hand Dockyard fitter and I, his apprentice, were asked to go on board to work on an engine problem and as with many other memories, triggers the Aircraft odour above, brought the recall off boarding that Submarine flooding back.

Many of the crew had been transferred to the comforts of the Naval Shore Barracks for the stay in port and ventilation was being pumped into the hull but the stench of humanity that hit us as we disappeared down that conning tower hatch was enough to make one gag and dry retch and offer a thanks that I had not eaten breakfast.
I mean no offence to the crew and it was understandable that 65 men locked in that skinny pressure vessel hull for 6 or 7 days with only a couple of heads (toilets) and, I imagine very limited access , if any, to a hot shower would build up a bit of BO that even lifebuoy soap could not dispel.
.
The engine problem was a damaged bottom end bearing on the port engine and after opening up the crankcase and lifting the piston the exposed crank pin journal was found to be scoured due to a blockage in an oil way and a lack of lubrication.
After many wise men from a Commander (E), Dockyard Inspectors, to the ships engineer had inspected the damage and uttered their pearls of wisdom it was decided that only an “in-situ” repair was possible and that the marked crank pin should be dressed up by hand honing. Of course, it was decided that such a job was ideal training for a senior apprentice so there I was confined to crouching in the crankcase for the next few days slowly working my way toward a creditable result. Meanwhile the bearing had gone ashore for re-metalling and machining and in due course the engine was boxed up and after basin trials and a further check they decided to go to sea for a few hours of further engine and dive trials. 
Of course the fitter and I were invited to go along but being claustrophobic at the best of times and having spent the previous few days in a confined space within the already confined atmosphere of the submarine hull and the continuing odour in my nostrils I declined the opportunity and a mate gladly went in my place.
Trials went OK and the submarine duly departed for Singapore as I recall.

After working in that atmosphere all day, I would go home and have a hot shower but my mother was still able to detect the odd smell and suggested that I was not washing properly!

I sure will have pity for the airline ground staff at the aircraft door next time I take a long flight.

Bob.


----------



## Engine Serang

spongebob said:


> ODOURS
> 
> A recent comment was that the worst job in the travel industry is being the person on the airport air bridge who opens the door of a Jumbo jet on its arrival after a 26 hour almost nonstop flight from Europe.
> 
> Bob.


Heathrow tells us that they pay a bonus for staff to be present for the opening of a Qantas door.(Jester)


----------



## stein

Unless they have some visitors, people in cold countries get "acclimatized" to a non-aired inside atmosphere that can be pretty awful. I remember while on a military winter manouver knocking at a door far north to ask if I could have some water filled in a bucket I was carrying. A lady opened the door, and the stench was so immediately horrid that I had to take several steps backwards and after asking for the water, change my mind and tell her I actually did not need any. The house and what little I saw of the inside looked clean and neat.

In general I would say that every house lived in has its specific smell that if intensified could be found revolting to others, and everybody who would like visitors should air it with several windows and doors open every week or so, even if they have the air cleamers going all the time. This is perhaps more true where temperatures forces people to try to isolate the house and to keep the heat generated inside. "We do not heat for the benefit of the crows" is a common Norwegian saying directed at someone opening a window in midwinter.


----------



## DickGraham

I think Gweneth Paltrow should be consulted as to a remedy for this problem(Jester)


----------



## spongebob

DickGraham said:


> I think Gweneth Paltrow should be consulted as to a remedy for this problem(Jester)


She couldn't light my candle, I've lost the wick


----------



## John Rogers

Didn't they have a name for Subs Pig Boats because of the smell.


----------



## John Rogers

When living in Germany the windows were opened in the morning and the bed clothes hung out the window.


----------



## stein

They also have got constantly clean Autobahn toilets, a lovely country to drive right through? (-No, the Germans clean up everywhere. It is fun watching the telly every morning after New Year's celebrations. All the European capitals looks like garbage dumps, but Berlin has been cleaned during the night, and is spotless as usual.)


----------



## oilkinger

I once went into a confectionary factory where they were boiling up vats of licorise. Now there's an overpowering stench for you. I was gasping.


----------



## tunatownshipwreck

stein said:


> They also have got constantly clean Autobahn toilets, a lovely country to drive right through? (-No, the Germans clean up everywhere. It is fun watching the telly every morning after New Year's celebrations. All the European capitals looks like garbage dumps, but Berlin has been cleaned during the night, and is spotless as usual.)


I found Norwegian ships to be at least as clean as German ships. There comes a point where it's hard to tell what is the cleanest possible, but I'd say the Nordic ships were the standard of cleanliness.


----------



## spongebob

Where are the ex whaler factory ship crews with their views of odours

Bob


----------



## Varley

In the Kingdom of the nose-blind the whaler boys are well throne-distanced.

Mind you, a colleague recounted how the carriage of puer was not exactly inoffensive.


----------



## stein

My father as a young boy carried timber and ice with horse drawn carriages. He said that people knew at long distance what work he was doing. The same they said of the people operating the engines in early steam ships, and people in Scandinavia named them "tallow-cookers".


----------



## makko

stein said:


> They also have got constantly clean Autobahn toilets, a lovely country to drive right through? (-No, the Germans clean up everywhere. It is fun watching the telly every morning after New Year's celebrations. All the European capitals looks like garbage dumps, but Berlin has been cleaned during the night, and is spotless as usual.)


A friend, living in Germany, decided to wash his car one Sunday morning. Slowly, the neighbours appeared, staring at him. After a while, one came up to him and said,"We don't wash our cars on Sunday!" and walked off. That was the last Sunday wash for his car. 
Rgds.
Dave


----------



## makko

tunatownshipwreck said:


> I found Norwegian ships to be at least as clean as German ships. There comes a point where it's hard to tell what is the cleanest possible, but I'd say the Nordic ships were the standard of cleanliness.


And the Dutch Blue Funnels. Very clean, tidy and freshly painted, even bettwr than the AH Brits.


----------



## Farmer John

The smell of the land as you ended an ocean passage! Everything smells, you just get used to it.


----------



## Superlecky

Trident Tankers/P&O Bulk had four "Ard" class tankers, I sailed on the Ardsheil twice, the Ardtaraig and Ardvar once. Those ships had a very distinctive smell which was different from any of the others I sailed on. A few times since I came ashore, which is a long time ago now, I've smelt a very similar odour and immediately been taken back to sailing on them.


----------



## Tony Morris

In the Persian Gulf tied up behind a few sheep carriers, now that was a smell........


----------



## stein

makko said:


> A friend, living in Germany, decided to wash his car one Sunday morning. Slowly, the neighbours appeared, staring at him. After a while, one came up to him and said,"We don't wash our cars on Sunday!" and walked off. That was the last Sunday wash for his car.
> Rgds.
> Dave


That is religion. I remember findig a nail a stone and a bit of wood when I was around 5 years of age. I had not gotten the nail halfway in when my grandmother came running out and hit me with a swing that had me doing several rotations. "I will teach you to work on a Sunday" she screamed. "Keeping the Sunday peace" they call it here, and though I have got several neighbours that do not care, I can never bring me to mow the grass on a Sunday - and I actually would like to have a day of quiet a day every week. Though I believe the southern part of Germany are more strict than the northern part of Germany, as well as the Scandinavians north of that again.


----------



## John Rogers

I was sent by the Pool to sign on a whaler and as I got to the gangway I backed of as the smell was so bad. Another bad smell is a Tanning factory.


----------



## makko

John Rogers said:


> I was sent by the Pool to sign on a whaler and as I got to the gangway I backed of as the smell was so bad. Another bad smell is a Tanning factory.


My Nan used to tell me that on the site of the Black Horse in Wallasey Village, they had tanning pits and the smell was awful. They also had "lime pits". When the area was developed, every one breathed (literally) a sigh of relief.

Rgds.
Dave


----------



## spongebob

This one could beat most stink stories.
The Taranaki Bye products works , one that boiled down all manner of deceased animals for fertiliser, called for a new boiler .
I flew down to deliver and present the tender and when I called at the office the receptionist motioned that the manager was down in the yard so , nice day, i ambled down to meet him . 
We got chatting and he took the bid envelope from me and started walking back to the office . 
He paused as he thumbed through to the price page ,as they all do , and just as we were passing a dead cow that was about to be hauled up the process chute
He raised his right leg and rested it on the cow's swollen belly to form a 'thigh desk' to rest the do***ent on and at that moment the cavadar decided to let go all the built up wind in its system in one big fart .
It was too much for me as I Retched and retched and hurried off to the toilet.
The man saw it as a huge joke and I did go home with an order for a 10,000 lbs per hour Steambloc boiler .

Bob


----------



## Steve Hodges

John Rogers said:


> I was sent by the Pool to sign on a whaler and as I got to the gangway I backed of as the smell was so bad. Another bad smell is a Tanning factory.


I ended up as a tannery engineer for twenty years after leaving the sea. You are not wrong about the smell, but you do get used to it....eventually!
But the tannery smell was surpassed while I was actually at sea - 40,000 tons of Qatari crude oil carried from the Gulf to Europe. There was so much hydrogen sulphide in it that the samples bubbled like lemonade, it carried on gassing off day after day, week after week as we plodded round Africa. The whole ship and everyone and everything on it stank of rotten eggs - horrible stuff.


----------



## makko

Steve Hodges said:


> I ended up as a tannery engineer for twenty years after leaving the sea. You are not wrong about the smell, but you do get used to it....eventually!
> But the tannery smell was surpassed while I was actually at sea - 40,000 tons of Qatari crude oil carried from the Gulf to Europe. There was so much hydrogen sulphide in it that the samples bubbled like lemonade, it carried on gassing off day after day, week after week as we plodded round Africa. The whole ship and everyone and everything on it stank of rotten eggs - horrible stuff.


And what a lot of people don't realize is that it is toxic and explosive!


----------



## kauvaka

stein said:


> That is religion. I remember findig a nail a stone and a bit of wood when I was around 5 years of age. I had not gotten the nail halfway in when my grandmother came running out and hit me with a swing that had me doing several rotations. "I will teach you to work on a Sunday" she screamed. "Keeping the Sunday peace" they call it here, and though I have got several neighbours that do not care, I can never bring me to mow the grass on a Sunday - and I actually would like to have a day of quiet a day every week. Though I believe the southern part of Germany are more strict than the northern part of Germany, as well as the Scandinavians north of that again.


Here in Tonga it is forbidden to work on a Sunday, It's written in the constitution and the law. For the most part it is upheld and expats will often go to nearby offshore island resorts for a swim. I have no problem as it gives workers at the bottom of the economic heap a day off,


----------



## John Rogers

Steve, there is a medal around here somewhere for you, Thats enough to Gag A Maggot Off a Gut Wagon.


----------



## Rosels

Was 10 years a c/engr of a freezing works in NZ that had a fellmongery and a rendering plant as well as the meat processing plant. Used to get in with the lads on breakdowns and even after numerous showers my wife could tell me exactly what dept had the problem.


----------



## Steve Hodges

makko said:


> And what a lot of people don't realize is that it is toxic and explosive!


We knew it was explosive alright, we had to pass the burnt-out wreck of the "British Crown" to get to the loading berth. I was told that the then ruler of Qatar would not let her be cut up for scrap because the wreck was the grave of those who were never found. RIP.


----------



## spongebob

kauvaka said:


> Here in Tonga it is forbidden to work on a Sunday, It's written in the constitution and the law. For the most part it is upheld and expats will often go to nearby offshore island resorts for a swim. I have no problem as it gives workers at the bottom of the economic heap a day off,


It reminds me of my banana boat days, 
In Western Samoa the cargo working gangs were grouped as the same religion and while the Catholics and prodestants abided by the Sabbath the Seventh Day Advent gang worked the cargo.

When we were in Nuku'alofa a Choir from the secondary school or a church group used to sing on the jetty as we cast off which was a great experience , very good voices .
Those were the Queen Salote Days 

Bob


----------



## R.kearsley

Gear Meat Works and Tallow factory at the bottom of Ngauranga gorge in wellington way back in the 50's stank to high heaven even with windows all closed in the bus heading into or out of town, fence was built around meat works to hide the sight when the queen visited wellington but don't know how long it was shut down so the smell had gone when she drove past Did a tour of a Whisky distillery on one of my trips to Scotland and the smell there wasn't enjoyable so goodness knows how people drink it, that should set a few people off!


----------



## reefrat

Queen Salote was a very large lady and favourite with the British public. She and Haile Selassie, a tiny figure of a man, shared a open landau in the Coronation procession in 1953. Noel Coward viewed the procession with his niece who asked "Who is that with Queen Salote", Noel replied "He my dear girl is her lunch"


----------



## Engine Serang

reefrat said:


> Queen Salote was a very large lady and favourite with the British public. She and Haile Selassie, a tiny figure of a man, shared a open landau in the Coronation procession in 1953. Noel Coward viewed the procession with his niece who asked "Who is that with Queen Salote", Noel replied "He my dear girl is her lunch"


Some say luncheon was Sultan Ibrahim IV of Kelantan. Far more tasty than the wee Abyssinian.


----------



## Rosels

R.kearsley said:


> Gear Meat Works and Tallow factory at the bottom of Ngauranga gorge in wellington way back in the 50's stank to high heaven even with windows all closed in the bus heading into or out of town, fence was built around meat works to hide the sight when the queen visited wellington but don't know how long it was shut down so the smell had gone when she drove past Did a tour of a Whisky distillery on one of my trips to Scotland and the smell there wasn't enjoyable so goodness knows how people drink it, that should set a few people off!


But it was good enough for a prince to sniff!!!! Philly toured the plant in 1956. My Father was a shift engineer at Gear Meat. They had to erect a royal loo just in case Phillip needed to do a royal poo. Rumour has it that the engineers (all ex MN) were going to mount it if it happened and display it with the Royal Turd obtained when Gothic was used for Lizzies royal tour


----------



## spongebob

Talking of Odours

I have just read a little booklet put out by the Bermondsey Borough council in the1960’s and titled “The story of Bermondsey”
The booklet was found among the possessions of a 94 year old who had died recently and who had lived in this London area up until the start of WW2. It details the history and growth of the borough over several centuries and from the 18th century thro’ the 19th Bermondsey became the centre of the London butchering trade which included many slaughter houses and the associated fell mongers and tanneries all of which bought on a continual pall of very unhealthy odours that pervaded the whole area.
This period also saw the borough as one of the major centres for the stabling of carriage and Hansom Cab horses and at the turn of the 20th century there were an estimated 8000 horses accommodated in the area.
Odour and its associated disease was the biggest by-product of these industries and the forward thinking, for its day, council constantly worked to improve drainage and sewerage facilities to minimize the pollution and human health hazards that went with this activity. It all makes interesting reading and highlights the fact that the council was indeed one of the most progressive in the City.

Another addition to the borough’s woes was the shipping industry which saw thousands of animal pelts shipped in from overseas, bullock hides from South America, sheep pelts from Australia and New Zealand and seal, minx, ermine and silver fox pelts from Canada’s Hudson Bay and other regions when the fur trade flourished and fur coats were the height of fashion for the wealthy. All these were discharged at docks on the South Bank of the Thames just below Tower Bridge for delivery to the nearby tanneries.
The end result, a very smelly borough, all day and every day, smells that most of us can’t imagine and for the multitude of working class residents there was no escape. A huge amount of this polluting waste was in fact discharged into the river.

This account that I have just read makes my complaint about the submarine odour seem a bit trifling.

Another smelly episode to their story comes from an account of the air raids during WW2 and one story relates to a large Canadian ship discharging a grain cargo at the Bermondsey Docks. She was caught with her hatches open and received direct hits from a few incendiary bombs which set the cargo alight and the quick solution was to douse the fires by virtually flooding the holds. It worked but other crises in the area prevented any attempts to immediately unload the cargo which had begun to sprout and it eventually turned into a stinking rotting mass that had to be trucked through the streets for disposal

Today we are accused of being a rapacious and conspicuously over-consuming society, what with our demands for every thing that opens and shuts including the plastic bags to carry them home in but after reading this little booklet I realize just how bad things used to be and how far we have really come in some respects.

Bob


----------



## bundanoon

*Bundanoon*

I well remember working on whalers as an apprentice. You wore the smell for weeks I reckon. Then, later in life on a suction dredge, dredging alongside the wharf at an abattoir. That perfume was truly memorable!(EEK)


----------



## Pat Kennedy

makko said:


> And what a lot of people don't realize is that it is toxic and explosive!


But H2S once it becomes concentrated, also becomes completely odourless, and highly toxic.
My partner in the Siebe Gorman smoke tank, (see my post on the claustrophobia thread) had a story about a fitter who cracked open a flange on a H2S pipe in Stanlow refinery believing wrongly that it had been purged, who dropped dead instantly after inhaling one breath.


----------



## Varley

H2S (the sour in a sour oil well) several times more toxic than HCN. I understand that it is not the smell that goes away but that with sublethal exposure our ability to continue smelling it is eroded. Very easily made with the home chemistry (Ferrous sulphide and almost any acid) set and Pa (in the oil industry) was always amazed that it was not responsible for mass misadventure.


----------



## waldziu

Whilst in the RN in the Med, we sail aft of the Kiev at anchor and the smell was very unpleasant. 
After leaving the mob I became a telephone engineer in the private sector and one company had a contract with a company in Haslemere called Robertet (UK) Ltd who made food and perfume essences. On first entering the premises the smell was somewhat overpowering but not unpleasant. On arriving home The Long Haired House Admiral would enquire if I'd been to the brothel again as the smell would permeate one's clothing. How did she know what a brothel smelt like? I did not enquire.


----------



## Tim Gibbs

My smell memories:7,000 tonnes of fishmeal from Walvis Bay to Rostock, 400 tonnes of hot coconut oil from Ceylon to Montreal and a very strong almond smelling additive in the crankcase of old LB Doxfords used to raise the alkalinity. All quite eye watering in their own way.


----------



## RobHillier

I remember a survey on Union Aotearoa in Keppel dry dock alongside a Russian whaling ship (I think it was an ex Salverson job), the stink was horrendous. Also remember going on board Russian cargo ships of that era, they smelled different from western ships because they extensively used water based latex paints as well as the disposal of toilet paper in covered buckets carried around by the stewardesses, the ships sewage systems couldn't cope.


----------



## spongebob

Even the constant smell of a banana cargo can become cloyingly overpowering and even objectionable after seven days at sea with forced draught fans constantly purging the cargo to remove the eythlene ripening gas .

Bob


----------



## dannic

spongebob said:


> Even the constant smell of a banana cargo can become cloyingly overpowering and even objectionable after seven days at sea with forced draught fans constantly purging the cargo to remove the eythlene ripening gas .
> 
> Bob


Maybe mentioned it in another thread but on Scythia had whole hatch, No. 5, go ripe. Couldn't dump them as insurance had to inspect them and decide why. Fortunately not ships fault, stem disease or skin disease or something but poop deck which had swimming pool on it was total no go area all the way from Central America to Bremen. 
Dannic


----------



## John Rogers

waldziu said:


> Whilst in the RN in the Med, we sail aft of the Kiev at anchor and the smell was very unpleasant.
> After leaving the mob I became a telephone engineer in the private sector and one company had a contract with a company in Haslemere called Robertet (UK) Ltd who made food and perfume essences. On first entering the premises the smell was somewhat overpowering but not unpleasant. On arriving home The Long Haired House Admiral would enquire if I'd been to the brothel again as the smell would permeate one's clothing. How did she know what a brothel smelt like? I did not enquire.


The name escapes at present, but the Sh... they use from the whale is what you are smelling and they make perfume out of it.


----------



## Pat Kennedy

When I was a crane driver on the docks, I recall vividly the worst smell ever. I was driving a crane at West Alex in Liverpool, at, I think, a Scindia ship. On taking the hatch covers off at the main hatch, a huge cloud of buzzing flies and various jaspers arose, accompanied by an atrocious miasma so foul that some of the Dockers fled the scene, retching and balking.
The cargo was wet hides, and bones.
The pontoons were immediately slammed back on and all work stopped on the ship.
How it ended I don't know because I was sent back to Birkenhead that afternoon.


----------



## Joe Freeman

On one return trip 1966 from Japan onboard Benvalla the ship sailed through a typhoon east of China, there was a lot of things broke loose in the holds some of which were 45 gallon drums of perfume essence along with the first little Honda cars. The smell was unbelievable but the worst was when the smell was mixed with the bulls blood in some fire extinguishers that broke loose in the engine room. The smell lingered for the whole return voyage. I remember when we docked and the Hondas were unloaded they were in such a mess it was a shame to watch. 
Possibly Ian Kyle may remember more as I think he was on that voyage.
Joe


----------



## davidrwarwick

John Rogers said:


> The name escapes at present, but the Sh... they use from the whale is what you are smelling and they make perfume out of it.


Whale Vomit otherwise known as Ambergris very valuable and used in perfume making


----------



## John Rogers

davidrwarwick said:


> Whale Vomit otherwise known as Ambergris very valuable and used in perfume making



Thats the word, Thank you.(Thumb) People find it on the beaches and they say it stinks so bad.


----------



## trotterdotpom

davidrwarwick said:


> Whale Vomit otherwise known as Ambergris very valuable and used in perfume making


Nowadays ambergris has been replaced by Gwyneth Patrow's "Eau de Snatch".

John T


----------



## spongebob

Ambergris had a real charm about it when I was a kid.
We were told about its value rather than its stink and while living up in the far north we used to roam Ninety mile beach for seemingly miles looking for a big chunk thrown up by the frequently passing whales and imagining the riches if we found some.
As for Gwyneth ,well we all went through that time of life didn't we?

Bob


----------



## w1rc

The stench surrounding a paper mill can also be horrible. 

My in-laws used to have a house in Eastern Ontario on Lake Saint Francis. The nearest town, Cornwall,used to have a big pulp and paper mill on the west side of town and a Nylon factory on the East side. The stench was unbelievable. Fortunately the Nylon plant closed and the environment was somewhat improved.


----------



## Pilot mac

I did a trip many years ago on a 'Middle trader' where we were fixed to load in Norway a cargo of ferro manganese ore for Chicago. It took a while to realise that there was not a Chicago in Europe and it was in fact the Chicago across the pond.
Anyone that has carried ferro managanese will know how heavy that stuff is, we were stiff as a board. Anyway we set off in a Southerly 9 and spent an increadibly uncomfortable passage across to the Pentland Firth. It was actually really pleasant going through the Pentland but once clear we met another Westerly gale, and so it continued. Our nicest day was a westerly 8. It took 3 weeks to get to Belle Isle. Once a day we would come off the wind and venture forward to see what else had been destroyed/removed during the night. It was great to get out into the fresh air! On opening the accommodation door on our return from forward the smell was putrid, I imagine very similar to opening the door of a Qantas flight at Heathrow.

The good part about this trip was a week in Montreal to repair the damage and supply us with new seaway gear as ours was all lost.


----------



## rogd

In the mid seventies two Manchester Liners were chartered to do the East coast of Oz to Taiwan and HK. On one trip we had 2 boxes of raw sheep skins. Even though they were loaded right forrad the 18 knot breeze did a fine job of wafting the pong aft and straight into the accommodation. To put the tin hat on it, it was even worse with the air con working!
Roger.


----------



## tom roberts

I have posted before when as a young boy on a skin boat on 4to 8 look out of Ireland I smelt fresh cut grass before sighting land cutting the lawn always takes me back to that day another wonderful aromas was experienced when on my narrow boat when aproaching burton on Trent oh the brewery aromas ?And they took me back to visiting Wrexham as a child when in Tuttle street the well known Wrexham lager we brewed but the worst smelling food was my first meal at the TSS Indefatigable a green looking mince on a slab of bread ugh.


----------



## tunatownshipwreck

Nobody ever carried fishmeal? Phew.


----------



## China hand

Wet salted hides. Rotting palm oil residue. A nasal experience.


----------



## waldziu

"The name escapes at present, but the Sh... they use from the whale is what you are smelling and they make perfume out of it."

No John, more like the perfume department of a store but many, many times stronger. After a while, one would enjoy it, better than the smell of death from an abattoir.


----------



## John Rogers

trotterdotpom said:


> Nowadays ambergris has been replaced by Gwyneth Patrow's "Eau de Snatch".
> 
> John T


Oh come on John, it was you that said "After you get past the smell you have it licked."(==D)(==D)(Jester)(Jester)


----------



## pitcrew

What about the ox’s blood fire extinguishers. The smell hung around in the engine room for hours after fire drill.


----------



## spongebob

w1rc said:


> The stench surrounding a paper mill can also be horrible.
> 
> My in-laws used to have a house in Eastern Ontario on Lake Saint Francis. The nearest town, Cornwall,used to have a big pulp and paper mill on the west side of town and a Nylon factory on the East side. The stench was unbelievable. Fortunately the Nylon plant closed and the environment was somewhat improved.


That smell comes from the chemical recovery boilers that burn the liquid residue from the paper pulping process in order to recover valuable chemicals for reuse .
Not only does it stink to high heaven , the fumes are highly corrosive as we experienced when our service engineer parked his Vauxhall Victor along side the boiler house while commissioning a recovery boiler years ago.

Bob


----------



## Farmer John

Wigtown in ***bria had a very bad smell. The old joke was that a young lady from Cockermouth in the throes of passion whispered in her boyfriends ear "Kiss me where it smells". "I'm not driving to Wigtown at this time of night".


----------



## rogd

Farmer John said:


> Wigtown in ***bria had a very bad smell. The old joke was that a young lady from Cockermouth in the throes of passion whispered in her boyfriends ear "Kiss me where it smells". "I'm not driving to Wigtown at this time of night".


Sorry to be pedantic John but its Wigton in ***bria.
Wigtown is over the border among those Scottish types.
Cockermouth lasses always were a bit adventurous!!
Roger(*))


----------



## tom roberts

China hand said:


> Wet salted hides. Rotting palm oil residue. A nasal experience.


On Palm oil,a main route in Liverpool has been closed for a while due to a palm oil spillage after a collision apparently local authorities hadn't a clue how to get rid of it.i sailed on the opobo Palm a bloody hell of a trip cleaning tanks was murder your seaboots rotted you sweated like a pig and when you got out of your bunk you left a greenish outline of your body like the Turin shroud lousy food and in a storm she was like a bloody submarine needless to say one trip and out


----------



## trotterdotpom

John Rogers said:


> Oh come on John, it was you that said "After you get past the smell you have it licked."(==D)(==D)(Jester)(Jester)


I never said it was a bad thing, John!

John T


----------



## tiachapman

the bog in bettys bar took some beating


----------



## tunatownshipwreck

Copra? Urea?


----------



## Farmer John

rogd said:


> Sorry to be pedantic John but its Wigton in ***bria.
> Wigtown is over the border among those Scottish types.
> Cockermouth lasses always were a bit adventurous!!
> Roger(*))


Roger, you are of course right. The smell has been ameliorated by the fitting of a scrubber. Seems rather curious.


----------



## rogd

Farmer John said:


> Roger, you are of course right. The smell has been ameliorated by the fitting of a scrubber. Seems rather curious.


(Jester)(Jester)(Jester)(Jester)
(Applause)(Applause)(Applause)(Applause)
(Pint)


----------



## Tim Gibbs

Pilot mac said:


> I did a trip many years ago on a 'Middle trader' where we were fixed to load in Norway a cargo of ferro manganese ore for Chicago. It took a while to realise that there was not a Chicago in Europe and it was in fact the Chicago across the pond.
> Anyone that has carried ferro managanese will know how heavy that stuff is, we were stiff as a board. Anyway we set off in a Southerly 9 and spent an increadibly uncomfortable passage across to the Pentland Firth. It was actually really pleasant going through the Pentland but once clear we met another Westerly gale, and so it continued. Our nicest day was a westerly 8. It took 3 weeks to get to Belle Isle. Once a day we would come off the wind and venture forward to see what else had been destroyed/removed during the night. It was great to get out into the fresh air! On opening the accommodation door on our return from forward the smell was putrid, I imagine very similar to opening the door of a Qantas flight at Heathrow.
> 
> The good part about this trip was a week in Montreal to repair the damage and supply us with new seaway gear as ours was all lost.


In the '60s recall loading that manganese ore in Masinloc in the Philippines. It only looked a little heap on the tank top in each hold but believe it was about 1000 tons. With the rest of the hold spaces filled with general cargo for the trip home I don't recall the motions were uncomfortable and neither can I recall a smell , except the fumes in the engine room from the 75LB6 Doxford(Cloud)


----------



## Varley

Fumes in the engine-room? I cannot believe anything (when working 'properly') can have contaminated the local atmosphere as thoroughly as the Grande Motori with unenclosed under-piston 'gap'.


----------



## Victor J. Croasdale

Varley said:


> H2S (the sour in a sour oil well) several times more toxic than HCN. I understand that it is not the smell that goes away but that with sublethal exposure our ability to continue smelling it is eroded. Very easily made with the home chemistry (Ferrous sulphide and almost any acid) set and Pa (in the oil industry) was always amazed that it was not responsible for mass misadventure.


Actually H2S causes many deaths each year.
Basically it can be smelt at about 6ppm (parts per million) at about 11 ppm is overwhelms the smell sensors in the nose and it is fatal at about 13 ppm.

After being at sea I went into construction of water and sewer systems. We treated H2S with great care.

https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/hydrogensulfide/index.html


----------



## Varley

Yes. I think what amazed him was that those casualties did not number small boys in their play-rooms. Having started as a 'civil' before acquiring a 'mechanical' string to his engineering bow he always thought well of the water engineers and thought them hard-done-by in terms of salary.


----------



## tom roberts

tom roberts said:


> On Palm oil,a main route in Liverpool has been closed for a while due to a palm oil spillage after a collision apparently local authorities hadn't a clue how to get rid of it.i sailed on the opobo Palm a bloody hell of a trip cleaning tanks was murder your seaboots rotted you sweated like a pig and when you got out of your bunk you left a greenish outline of your body like the Turin shroud lousy food and in a storm she was like a bloody submarine needless to say one trip and out


They still haven't cleared the palm oil spill in Liverpool I guess the authorities would welcome any suggestions ,I bet we have many who can offer the answers.


----------



## spongebob

There was a time when a large Belgium suction dredge had completed its work on the new Bluff Harbour reclamation and needed to be towed up to Lyttelton Harbour to do more work.
Our ship Navua was offered the job so we hitched up for the 48 hour tow taking the engineers and couple of deck crew with us in case of difficulties while the balance of the dredge crew went by bus.
We had a single bed hospital cabin and a pilots cabin which accommodated a couple and we agreed that the others could bunk down on the watch keeping engineer's day beds for a kip.
The chief engineer grabbed mine for the morning 12-4 time for a couple of nights and all went well and we handed the tow over to Harbour tugs at Lyttelton heads and carried on up north.
A day later I decided to take an evening nap on my day bed before my watch and was almost knocked over by the odour of garlic, it was so heavily impregnated in my visitor's skin it had invaded the fabric of the day bed and needed a good sponging and a day or two in the sunlight to get it back to normal.
I like a bit of garlic but on a plate ,

Bob


----------



## Dave Lambert

Remember as first trip Junior Eng being given the job of recharging bio enzymes into a ship's sewage plant. The enzyme powder was double bagged in plastic and still stank. The 2nd gave me instructions - "take the top cover plate off, cut the top off the bag and pour the stuff in but make sure you push the bag as far into the unit as possible. Don't worry about the air pressure blowing out - we'll leave the compressor running". Of course the air pressure blew the powder straight up my boiler suit sleeve and round my torso. I couldn't get rid of the smell for days and no one would come near me for a while. Never caught again!


----------



## tom roberts

tom roberts said:


> They still haven't cleared the palm oil spill in Liverpool I guess the authorities would welcome any suggestions ,I bet we have many who can offer the answers.


Any member have a solution to the Palm oil spill in Liverpool its now been several weeks since the spill and it's still been cleared? Maybe if you have please let the authorities know.


----------



## John Rogers

Tom I think you left out the word (Not) in your post


----------



## Stuclem

*Whaling smell*



spongebob said:


> Where are the ex whaler factory ship crews with their views of odours
> 
> Bob


I worked on whaling chasers, we did not have any smell other than the normal engine room odors, however the whaling processing plant ashore was different all together. The plant was on the other side of town but when the wind was blowing across the harbor the whole town could smell the factory. 

I now volunteer at the station that is a museum and no one can describe the smell including ex-employees or visitors that had visited when the plant was operating, other than it was very noxious. 

Would think the whaling factory ships would have the smell of oil through the ship along with by-products


----------



## trotterdotpom

#77 . "I now volunteer at the station that is a museum and no one can describe the smell including ex-employees or visitors that had visited when the plant was operating, other than it was very noxious."

I've been in that museum, Stuclem. One of the best, keep up the good work.

I remember the smell of the whaling station at Durban - you could smell it half way to Fremantle!

There's a skeleton of a whale in the museum at Portland, Victoria, that's been there for years and it still stinks. Makes me blubber any time I go in there.

John T


----------



## Frank P

tunatownshipwreck said:


> Nobody ever carried fishmeal? Phew.


On the Estrella in one hold we carried bulk fishmeal loaded in Buenos Aires to Rotterdam during the loading and discharging it smelled bad, but the worst was to come, we left Rotterdam and went to drydock in Copenhagen and when it came to cleaning the hold and ventilation shafts, they were full of insects and grubs and many of them were still alive, it was not very nice.................(Cloud)

Cheers Frank


----------



## Dave Lambert

Another good pong. We carried shark's fins in hessian bags in deck lockers from Colombia to Asia. They had started to hum a bit after a few days in the tropics. You couldn't get in the lockers to do anything as the air was so foul and the bugs pretty grim.


----------



## Bill.B

Paper mills here on the US East coast take some beating. Thames board mills at Purfleet was pretty bad too. As far a cargoes go loading ***ene in Cagliari on the Denholm Chemical ships, Explorer and Venturer, gave an instant headache. 
Sailing barge Lady Daphne broke her keel in the late 70s and had to go on the yard and be repaired and doubled. To do this we had to take out the sh*t tank and the grey water tank from under the focsle floor. Thought the sh*t tank was going to be the worst but wasn’t too bad. When we opened the grey water tank up it drove us out of the space. The years of decaying grease, tallow and fat gave off a smell that was overpowering.


----------

