Wires

[j.sabourn]

Not every ship has an incinerator. So what do you do with a couple of months garbage lying on deck? , it’s not the crews fault it’s the shipowners who don’t supply The facilities. Even in the 50s the Canadian government made a huge effort to control in the St. Lawrence. If you arrived in Montreal with your garbage bins outside the rails, the ship was heavily fined. If the bins were empty you were really fined , no excuses taken , it was assumed you had dumped on passage. They at the same time supplied big garbage skips or compactors on all the jetty’s to take ships waste. This was there a long time before other parts of the world tried to catch up. The Great Lakes was another strictly controlled area which I am sure others have memories of. JWS.

[Louis the fly]

Cannot remember which ship it was but we were dumping barrels of nuclear waste at sea.

[j.sabourn]

Louis have seen a couple of hundred ton of diesel oil dumped at sea it became a liability as couldn’t hide it anymore as were all deadweight cargoes and as said with a TPI of even say 50 was 4 inches on the plimsolls. Today your feet would never touch the ground and wouldn’t see the light of day for many years. All the chiefs saving of fuel oil did not a bit of good. He couldn’t hide it , as would have to appear. In the paperwork and the charterers would certainly have kicked up about it. Best to be honest and not try and be clever, it all comes out in the wash. A ships constant of 80 tons was usually accepted on the average 10,000 ton deadweight tramp this was to cover stores and ships fittings. To suddenly jump to 280 tons was not on. Cheers JS.

[Captain Kong]

Cannot remember which ship it was but we were dumping barrels of nuclear waste at sea. L;OUIS



On the 1st of March 1958, I joined the Urmston Grange, one of Houlders, in Liverpool. She was one of the `Park Boats`, similar to a Fort but with a raised focsle head. We were amazed to see all the dockers wearing space mens` suits loading steel drums on both sides of the after deck, from the mess room house and after accommodation for Sailors and Firemen to the accommodation amidships. A ladder both ends and a walkway of planks across the top of them.
We sailed later that day outward bound for Montevideo and Buenos Aires and then finding out that the contents of the drums was Nuclear waste. All that was on top of our accommodation.
On the way down to Montevideo we called at St Vincent in the Cape Verde Islands for bunkers. As the days got warmer we had to hose down the hundreds of drums with hoses several times a day to keep them cool as they started to make bubbling noises. We were headed for a deep sea trench to the east of South America around the same latitude as Argentina.
When we got there we lifted out the rails alongside number four and five hatches. The Liverpool Dockers had space suits on, we just had shorts and flip flops. We then rolled the barrels over the side, disappearing into the depths of this deep trench.
I have been thinking since, what happens when the drums corrode and all this nuclear waste leaks out into the ocean and then gets into the shoals of fish and also drifts north contaminating everything it comes across.?
At the time we knew nothing of nuclear contamination or its effects.

[Ken Norton]

I magine global interest if that were done today Brian

[Bill Morrison]

Louis have seen a couple of hundred ton of diesel oil dumped at sea it became a liability as couldn’t hide it anymore as were all deadweight cargoes and as said with a TPI of even say 50 was 4 inches on the plimsolls. Today your feet would never touch the ground and wouldn’t see the light of day for many years. All the chiefs saving of fuel oil did not a bit of good. He couldn’t hide it , as would have to appear. In the paperwork and the charterers would certainly have kicked up about it. Best to be honest and not try and be clever, it all comes out in the wash. A ships constant of 80 tons was usually accepted on the average 10,000 ton deadweight tramp this was to cover stores and ships fittings. To suddenly jump to 280 tons was not on. Cheers JS.

John when there wasn't a regular chief assigned it was surprising the amount of fuel that would accumulate. As long as the charter didn't change you could reduce the amount gradually a few tons at a time, the rig would question the amount but as it was over the figure quoted they didn't push it. The largest amount I had up my sleeve was 96 tons which took some time to reduce to the usual 15 tons which was considered the norm. There was a request for a few 5 gallons no questions asked now and then!
Bill

[j.sabourn]

Have seen that also on supply vessels Bill. Was not such a problem as on a trading ship though as vessels on the spot market always had an on/off hire survey. Fuel in any case was usually paid for by the charterers. A supply vessel wasn’t loaded like a conventional ship can never remember being in the situation of having to measure up. Would imagine if you thought the weights on board were excessive you would just carry a couple of hundred tons less of drill water. Supply vessels to a certain extent were built as fool proof as you could get any vessel as regards stability problems. The only way I would think of putting them in a precarious position would be going 2 or 3 high with the containers on deck, and never saw this done. When carrying casing and drill pipe never went above the height of the crash barriers. Biggest problem as Louis said on supply vessel was weather and the crew discharging and backloading on deck and their welfare. Cheers JS.

[robpage]

this has been a very interesting insight n the offshore industry , thank you

[happy daze john in oz]

The dumping of Nuclear waste now takes place in the Australian outback.
WE export Uranium to many countries though by legislation we are not allowed to have any nuclear power stations here, bloody stupid if you ask me.
But we take the waste from other countries and burry it way out back where it will take 40,000 years to degrade.

On modern cruise ships now the only thing to go over the wall legally is food waste. This is minced up and fed to the fish.
All other waste is bailed, there is a full time industry on board sorting and bailing ready to send ashore at the end of the voyage.

[Bill Morrison]

Have seen that also on supply vessels Bill. Was not such a problem as on a trading ship though as vessels on the spot market always had an on/off hire survey. Fuel in any case was usually paid for by the charterers. A supply vessel wasn’t loaded like a conventional ship can never remember being in the situation of having to measure up. Would imagine if you thought the weights on board were excessive you would just carry a couple of hundred tons less of drill water. Supply vessels to a certain extent were built as fool proof as you could get any vessel as regards stability problems. The only way I would think of putting them in a precarious position would be going 2 or 3 high with the containers on deck, and never saw this done. When carrying casing and drill pipe never went above the height of the crash barriers. Biggest problem as Louis said on supply vessel was weather and the crew discharging and backloading on deck and their welfare. Cheers JS.

John, speaking of stability Seaforth's first builds had the Flume tank stability system. It might work on a vessel where the cargo or as on passenger ships the load was constant but as you know on supply ships you could be discharging or loading at various platforms in a short space of time so the load was always changing. It was given up as a bad job, the tanks thereafter were ether kept empty or filled to capacity with brine.
Bill