# Engine Failure



## Harry Nicholson (Oct 11, 2005)

Hello, chaps. I'm tinkering with memoir and struggle to recall an event in 1956 on mv Corburn, a 2,000 ton collier of Wm Cory. We broke down off the Longships near Landsend bound Plymouth from Barry with coal.
I was R/O and had to transmit XXX the emergency signal as the storm pushed us towards the reefs. Just a few hundred yards from disaster the engineers got the diesel running again and we cleared Landsend into the safety of the lee of Cornwall.
I recall the silence from the engines and the howl of the storm, but what I'd like advice on is how the wheelhouse would communicate with the engine room, and vice-versa in that situation. Would it be by a primitive telephone system? Hand-cranked? 
I think Corburn was built about 1953.

regards
Harry Nicholson


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

must ER phones were hand cranked in those days even into the70's the bunker phone was hand cranked.Speaking from experience the C/E used to use it to get in touch with the ER(quote "Frost answer the bloody phone") because all you use to get from the bridge "how long you going to be"reply not to long if I didn't after keep answering the phone.(pre Wakie Takie days)


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## dannic (Mar 10, 2013)

Still have to have additional sound powered phones usually ER - Wheelhouse, Steering gear room - wheelhouse, chiefs cabin and masters cabin also have them,,,,just in case master nd chief havent noticed the blackout!!
Dannic.


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## Supergoods (Nov 25, 2007)

Harry, I seem to recall that some of the older ships I sailed on still had speaking tubes from the bridge to the master's bedroom and to the engine room. Otherwise the hand cranked sound powered phone
Ian


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## woodend (Nov 23, 2009)

It happened on the TAMELE when I was Apprentice and the electronic telephone had also packed up. The voice pipe couldn't be heard (quite a few years of ciggy ash etc.down it) so the two Appy's became 'runners', backwards and forwards between Old Man and Chief until everything back to normal. About 20 hours if I remember correctly.


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## Colin P Wood (May 28, 2017)

On Mandagala which was a Victory Ship so fitted with phones. Ours had broken and been replaced by redundant smoke helmet tube from bridge to ER through the skylights. A string was threaded through the tube with a tin and striker at each end. 
Leaving Calcutta with a new crew, the striker kept hitting the tin and we could get no answer from the ER Went out on the wing and there was a new QM with a very perplexed look staring at two ends of the air hose connecting bridge to ER and voices coming out of each pipe.

Even funny at the time.


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## Harry Nicholson (Oct 11, 2005)

Thank you for the responses, gentlemen - they clear my confusion. I can now write the next scene with more confidence. 
I've visited the cliffs opposite the Longships reefs (a frightening array of granite lumps) since then and remembered how grateful we were that the engineers brought the little Corburn back to life that day. She was stern-structured and built like a long-toed boot. In the breakdown, naught could be seen of the deck except for a foaming sea with two masts rising out of it.


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## D1566 (Sep 7, 2009)

The sound powered phones on the Matco Avon were a constant source of joy for the engineer designated as electrician. Usual faults were in the wiring along the flying bridge ... always in good weather of course.


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## Harry Nicholson (Oct 11, 2005)

Supergoods said:


> Harry, I seem to recall that some of the older ships I sailed on still had speaking tubes from the bridge to the master's bedroom and to the engine room. Otherwise the hand cranked sound powered phone
> Ian


Thank you, Ian. I hope all is well with you and the memsahib. It occurs to me that you might be the only shipmate I've met since those days. It surprises me sometimes - how we are now dispersed!


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## Basil (Feb 4, 2006)

Can't recollect if we had to turn a handle to ring ours although I do remember one of the mates on Tilapa getting very cross because I answered the Wheelhouse>ER 'phone with: "Nerve Centre!"


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## D1566 (Sep 7, 2009)

Basil said:


> I do remember one of the mates on Tilapa getting very cross because I answered the Wheelhouse>ER 'phone with: "Nerve Centre!"


My favourite was "Stonehenge, Chief Druid speaking"


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## Les Gibson (Apr 24, 2004)

Reputedly on an Empress boat (CP Ships) coming alongside Liverpool.
Phone rings in ER
Junior engineer "Nerve centre"
Wheelhouse (OM)" That is not the correct way to answer the phone, do you know who I am?"
Junior engineer " Tough sh1t, do you know who I am?"
OM "no"
JE "Good" hangs up


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