Flag away

[j.sabourn]

#46... Seen the flag locker inside the funnel. Used to take willing female passengers there when they wanted a conducted tour round the ship. Another was inside the Deck Reefer boxes, not the frozen ones only the chilled used to dampen their ardour. JS

[John Arton]

strangely enough, the ceiling on a ship is on the deck at the bottom of the cargo hold.

Just to throw my half-Penney in
Deck on the bottom of the cargo hold = Tank Top, upon which dunnage is laid to prevent cargo coming into direct contact with the steel of the ships hull. This prevents damage and also spreads the load to ensure that point loading stress is not exceeded. The point loading figure for your ships hold will be given in the ships particulars.
Ceiling= Spar ceiling, wooden battens running either vertically or horizontally fixed to the cargo holds vertical bulkheads to prevent cargo coming into direct contact with the steel hull with possible resultant damage to cargo through sweating and to give an air gap between the cargo and the hull for air circulation.
Spar ceilings can be fitted even on double hulled ships as sweating can still occur plus direct contact to steel of the cargo can cause damage to said contact if the cargo moves ever so slightly due to ships motion when under way.
The forest product ships in C.P. had hold dimensions that exactly fitted the standard lengths of timber and plywood bundles or rolls of paper that we used to load in B.C. and had both bale and grain capacities due to the permanent spar ceilings fitted.
rgds
JA

[cappy]

#46... Seen the flag locker inside the funnel. Used to take willing female passengers there when they wanted a conducted tour round the ship. Another was inside the Deck Reefer boxes, not the frozen ones only the chilled used to dampen their ardour. JS

.....and something about a rivet no doubt.....regards cappy

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not on braids ship ....it in the wheelhouse....regards cappy

[Ivan Cloherty]

#53 John you may also remember in addition to spar ceiling a 'ceiling. was a permanent wooden covering on top of the tank top of general cargo vessels, which didn't always do away with the dunnage requirement for various cargoes, but was normally found on vessels trading from cold climates to tropical climates and vice versa and help to alleviate the sweat damage caused by cold water in the double bottoms when traversing temperate seas to cold seas.

[j.sabourn]

In theory the dunnage was always laid thwartships so that any water ran in the direction of the bilge. Round the bilge suctions were the strum boxes which had to be cleaned out, before putting the limber boards back covering the bilges, then covering these with burlap nailed down with wooden lathes. If carrying grain, of course the dunnage boards would not be used in this case. Usually stowed in the tweendecks and also covered with burlap if wanted to keep. Loading grain on a conventional cargo ship was totally different labour procedures than on a bulker. Was discussed on a previous post. I said was a piece of pizz loading on a bulker compared to a conventional ship. Someone didnt agree obviously never loaded grain on a conventional ship. Cheers JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

Quite agree loading a bulker with grain when the vessel had lower and upper wing tanks together with lovely deep hatch coamings was a doddle compared to a tweendecker; The bulker had arrived, loaded and sailed before you'd completed constructing a bluddy feeder on a tweendecker.

[j.sabourn]

Plus you had the complications of working out a more complicated stability plan. Loaded 6 different grain types once, no tonnages given just the nominal percentages of a fully loaded ship. Plus or minus five percent of each type. Kept on changing the figures right up until the last minute. The owners did not want any bagging off of cargo as was cheaper for the ships crew to build bulkheads in the tween decks. When you get into the likes of rice and flax seeds they have a free surface effect akin to water, so especial scrutiny by grain inspectors re stability plans. A Bulker if necessary no such complications, if had to as a last resort could use seperation cloths between two commodities in the same hold. Plus always had the upper wing tanks to act as feeders if necessary. Also on top of this would be given a maxinum draft to arrive at the port of discharge at, so usually had to arrive on an even keel. Wonder how many these days could work out without the assistance of lodicators and computers just the ships stability book a pencil and paper. JS

[j.sabourn]

Also only given an approximation of the stowage factors of the different grain types. Used to have to use your head and think back on your own experiences re the same. JS

[j.sabourn]

#54... Did not send them looking for the golden rivet Cappy. I was always kind hearted and used to put it in their hand to save their poor old legs. JS

[cappy]

what an unexciting life did cappy have .....when looking atthe ship loading....etc .......much more exciting than turning the eggs after 60 days at sea to stop them going off altogether .....or telling the cabin.boy to tell the chief steward he had seen a rat in the dry stores .......so he could get some overtime in trying to catch the it.....regards cappy

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a bird in the hand is nearly in her bush john .....you are indeed a gentleman.......and even moresoe a geordie gentleman ....not many of them about ......regards the other one