Tankers

[j.sabourn]

Perhaps someone can tell me today what the usual manning of an oil tanker is... I can only quote from my own experience for about a year starting in 1974 when joined in Banda Mashur. Never been on a tanker in my life prior to this. The bridge manning then was Master and 3 mates as watchkeepers plus a ch. officer who was not watchkeeping but purely cargo work. I was 1st mate and we loaded Naptha for Japan. Arriving Japan the Chief officer paid off and went home, also the pumpman paid off. I was promoted to Chief officer and was then the cargo officer and also watchkeeper. We then returned to the Gulf for another cargo for Japan mainly of Jet A1 and Jet A2, remember I had no experience of tankers and was to my knowledge sailing short handed. I later flew from Teheran to Oz to join the sister ship which went on the Kiwi coast for the next 3 months running from the oil terminal in Whangerie to all the ports just about in N.Z. Fortuanetly we had a pumpman this time. This was also a 4 mate ship. My query to those dried in the bush tankermen, was this the usual practice to have 4 mates, I know its a bit late in the day to claim short hand money, or was this just about the time of crew reductions.. I cant see where the work on a tanker re tank cleaning etc. can have been reduced, so the work load must still be the same. The biggest job as I remember were the dozens of sample bottles at different levels in the 26 tanks that had to take and mark at what ullage they were taken when loading. Cheers JS

[John Arton]

John S
The VLCC I was on, we had 4 mates with the Chief Officer on day work but that was unusual but happened as the 1st Officer was new to the company and tankers.
On all the product tankers I was on there were only 3 mates so when in port or tank cleaning then myself and 3rd mate were on 6/6 watches.
Later as Master on small chemical tankers where we traded around NW Europe and the U.K. I had a Chief Officer, 2nd and 3rd mates, Bosun, 3 A.B.'s 2 O.S., Chief Engineer, 1st (2nd) Engineer, 2 motormen, Cook.
The Extra O.S came about when ISPS came in and we had to have a continual gangway watch in addition to a cargo watch.
With the longest voyage been usually around 72 hours with the odd exception for a Northern Spain or Medi. trip there was hardly a day at sea when we were either not tank cleaning or just trying to keep up with general maintenance and statutory drills.
The Deep sea fleet had 4 mates but we could never had such due to accommodation restrictions.
In most of the oil majors it was up to the individual companies to decide if their ships were 3 or 4 mates. Thinking back to the 70's I seem to recall Esso (eat,sleep,****,overtime) having 4 mates on its VLCC's, Shell, BP and Mobil I cannot recall.
One think, even on the small chemical tankers I was Master on, every tanker I sailed on had a dedicated pumpman though on the smaller ships he would double up as bosun.
rgds
JA

[John Albert Evans]

John S.

Tankers 1957 to 1962. 12/18000. tons very small compared to the later monsters. The following may not be exactly correct but from my memory:-
1 Captain, 1 First Mate, 1 Second Mate, 1 Third Mate, 3 Cadets.
1 Chief Engineer, 1 Second Engineer, 1 Third Engineer, 1 Fourth Engineer, 12 Firemen.
1 Radio Officer.
1 Bosun, 1 Pumpman, 1 Carpenter. 12 Deckhands (AB's,EDH,SOS,JOS,Deckboys.
1 Chief Steward, 1 Second Steward, 4 Assistant Stewards, 1 Peggy. 1 Chief Cook, 1 Second Cook /Baker. 1 Galley Boy.
That comes to 49 but again from memory I always thought we had a total crew of either 50 or 52 (Where the others have gone I just don't remember.)

John Albert Evans.

PS> Just remembered 1 Electrician.

[Braid Anderson]

In 1958 we had a crew of 51 on spirit ship Clyde Explorer. The summary above is just about bang on, except we had 2 cadets. We always called the pumpman the Donkeyman.

[j.sabourn]

Thanks your replies, I was never a dedicated tankerman, in fact as an outsider they seemed different people as had this air of nervous people at times, having to have a dedicated smoking area, and being marched ashore in some of the Gulf ports if were caught with a box of matches in your cabin by some arab guard didn't go down too well with me. As regards having no pumpman my first trip was just the way it panned out as he was paid off sick and not time to get a replacement. In addition to the 26 cargo tanks there were 4 paraffin tanks on a separate pump line right forrard with 4 steam pumps and starting and stopping these pumps discharging made it obvious a pumpman was required. I believe I was being groomed for this big monster they had lying up one of the fiords in Norway, which never came to fruition, as the story went that the other ships in the fleet were sold one by one to pay for this white elephant. I preferred as John Masefield, dirty British trampship with a smoke stained smokestack ploughing up the channel in the mad march gales........... Cheers JS

[Fouro]

In 1956 on Shell "H" and "V" Tankers, the engineering staff consisted of -

1 Chief engineer, 1 Second engineer, 1 Third engineer, 1 Fourth engineer and three 5th (junior engineers). Sometimes an engineering cadet would be aboard.
Watchkeeping-
4-8 Second engineer, 5th engineer and one fireman.
8-12 Fourth engineer, 5th engineer and one fireman'
12-4 Third engineer, 5th engineer and one fireman.
The Third engineer was also responsible for all electrical repairs in engine room and elsewhere.

FOURO.

[j.sabourn]

Fouro.. The average 10,000 ton tramp had 40 of a crew, and on the older DC ships was always the 3rd Engineers job as electrician, is where he made his overtime if on B articles, as spent most mornings lamping up, whether needed or not. Think it was the advent of AC ships that an electrician was called for. Even to run the Gyro Compass years ago on a DC ship the power source had to go through an alternator to produce AC and then through carbon piles to keep a regular supply with supposedly no fluctuations. Was why the Gyro compass was likely to wander at various times. Think today a ship losing its power source and battery backup would cause consternation if had to go back to basics. Would imagine the US navy on bringing back training in the use of the sextant and astral navigation, are probably also bringing back training on the use of the magnetic compass. Who knows they may even bring back compulsory seatime. Cheers JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Only did one on a tanker, maiden voyage of British Hawthorn, crew numbers would have been about 45 or so if I recall the catering arangements. Deck and egine officers and some general hands. Cook, if you could use the word corrcetly, second cook and brick layer, galley boy and a number of students. The cook was an alci and offered to sell his knives to any one in order to get money for grog. The worst part of the voyage was the food in port. All had to be steamed and was fairly grim. Steamed eggs, bacon and sausages was not my idea of a good meal.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John.
I was on quite a few tankers in the 50s and John A has it about right for number of crew. Definitely only three watch keeping officers, no Chief officer on day work in those days.
Cheers Des

[Fouro]

The Shell "H" ships were 19,000 tons, the "V" ships were between 33,000 and 34,000 tons, one could say they were the first of the supertankers. Down below we were only concerned about two pieces of equipment from the bridge, the terrible "T"s the Telegraph and the Telephone. We had other things to think about such as maintaining 600 lbs per sqare inch superheated watertube boilers at a temp of 850 degrees farenheit. We had evaporators to maintain which changed sea water into fresh water.The 4th engineer was responsible keeping the 'vaps in good order. There were two 'vaps which meant we could always maintain one while the other was running. If a vap didn't produce 4 tons of fresh water during a watch, we were in trouble. Inside the 'vap were copper heating coils which were prone to salt scale,which caused a loss in output of distilled water. The remedy for this was to shut off the sea supply and fully open the steam supply to the heating coils. Doing this dried the salt layer sticking to the coils. When the coils were visible I used to cold shock them which got rid of most of the scale and just to make sure the job was well done I chipped the remaining scale off. On top of this I had to do an alkalanity check and chloride check of the boiler feed water twice a day to make sure no impurities such as salt exhisted,as this would have formed into scale which in turn would have caused the main turbine blades to break. Thank goodness we never experienced this happening otherwise it would have been a case of the Deck Officers hoisting the black balls up the mast to warn other shipping that we were adrift and out of control. Being an engineer I'm not sure if I've described the black balls proceedure correctly.

FOURO.