Butterworthing.

[robpage]

With Gulf Oil the No-spark tools were Bahco and in the early 1970's were insanely expensive and in short supply , i.e. deck use only

[John Arton]

Keith at T
#2 explains how a tank cleaning machine, or Butterworthing operates.
JWS
Inert gas systems take flue gas from the main engine, pass it through a scrubber to remove particles and any remaining oxygen. It then goes through the deck water seal which acts as a non return valve to prevent any hydrocarbon carbon gases getting from the cargo tanks back to the engine room. I sailed on a vlcc that when the regulation's regarding the fitting of an inert gas system came into force, we had two inert gas generators fitted on deck below the bridge wings. They consisted of a structure housing a diesel engine that supplied there flue gases to the inert gas system of blowers, scrubber and deck water seal. Bloody noisy when in operation and not very efficient. Chemical tankers cannot use flue gas for inerting cargo tanks as it would put the cargo off spec. Instead they put a nitrogen blanket on top of the cargo, topping it up with nitrogen supplied from bottled nitrogen carried for the purpose, or from their own onboard nitrogen generator. The nitrogen used for blankets/ inerting tanks has to be 99.9% pure in order to prevent cargo contamination.
Rgds
J.A.

[j.sabourn]

#32. If things had turned out different I would of probably carried on with J.I.J. And finished up on the big monstrosity they built and lay up one of the Norwegian fiords and never carried a cargo for them. They even built a wharf for her to lie alongside. Think I was one of them being groomed for her. However the bottom dropped out of the market and she finished up a white elephant and broke the back of the company , the dry cargo ships paying the price. As said in a previous post I had a lot of time for JIJ and believe they were one of the original private owned tanker companies. The new building I didn’t even know her name if she had one and not just a number. I had The choice of going with Runcimans . back where I started or Chapman’s , I got the interview in my house , Runcimans got there first and went back with them, big mistake never go back with a company you once spent 11 years with, everyone thinks your a company spy and getting preferential treatment , one trip and I got out. This was another Exmoor think one of the members was on her under Runcimans shipping at a different time, what I saw of them the night of the long knives had nothing on them. Suppose they were all terrified of redundancy. JWS

[Ken Norton]

While on board an old riveted tanker, which was kept purposely for Northern Hemisphere ports to carry furnace oil to very remote places it was necassary to carry out repairs to leaking cargo heating steam pipes in the tanks. Not a very pleasant job and usually the chief would choose a couple of junior engineers for the work, remember being down there between ports, light ship repairing (Thisle bond bandages and flange jointings in the main) field days galore. Only bonus was a tot of Four bells per day for tank diving, always got good measures so didn't moan at all. Happy Days lol

[Ken Norton]

Inert gas systems for tankers https://cultofsea.com/tanker/inert-gas

[Tony Taylor]

While on board an old riveted tanker, which was kept purposely for Northern Hemisphere ports to carry furnace oil to very remote places it was necassary to carry out repairs to leaking cargo heating steam pipes in the tanks. Not a very pleasant job and usually the chief would choose a couple of junior engineers for the work, remember being down there between ports, light ship repairing (Thisle bond bandages and flange jointings in the main) field days galore. Only bonus was a tot of Four bells per day for tank diving, always got good measures so didn't moan at all. Happy Days lol

Nice one Ken, done lots myself, but no Thistlbond on heating coils, we had to do em the "right way". On that subject tho, in late 60s, Shell removed all oxyacetylene gear from the fleet and replaced it with "sophisticated repair kits", in other words, a blue toolbox with a few tins of Thistlebond, some glass bandage, a couple of wooden sticks (spatulas even) and a couple of tubes of A&B cement. If you were in hot climates you had to be super quick when mixing otherwise there would be an exothermic reaction and the resin would boil out of the tin before you could use it.

[Ken Norton]

Hi Tony yes in those days we never carried welding equipt. as time went by we did and then used to fabricate pipe section replacements also, in the main the old Thistlebond was a temporary evil as it never lasted long (Bodge up), never used it much after that ship so pleased for electric arc welding machines as where I had served my apprenticeship I had become a class A welder, so you can imagine the frustration of using "glue" for repairs. However we still never carried oxy- acetylene, used to have to use a giant vaporising oil blow lamp (eng. rm.only) for silver solder and the likes. (Frustrating to say the least but hey) what as it we used to say "If you can't take a joke you shouldn't have signed on" Ken

[Red Lead Ted]

As far as I am concerned all of you who worked on Tankers were heroes. I was on General Cargo all my seafaring time and deep tanks were enough for me. We carried linseed oil, palm oil, vegetable oils and some stuff called ' Iso -octinal ', something to do with Aircraft Jet Fuel. How you went through all you did, tank cleaning and living with the ever present risk of gas and explosion I don't know. All I can say is ' thank you ', thank you very much.

Chris, A few years ago Pete Price was doing his late night show on radio { Magic } He was banging the drum for the trade that the scrape and metal mincer which as you know is situated on the dock road had brought to the city, I rang him and basically asked him where he was coming from, That heap of junk that was once a dock on the dock road is trade know one on Merseyside wants its toxic/ Unsightly/ And basically a bloody disgrace we are becoming the capital of asthmatic kids growing up around that . As you probably know he was a Merchant seaman, That is if a few Montreal crossings on the Empress of Canada qualifies you because that was all he done, Where about do you live he asked me Seaforth I said what's that got to do with it ? Well he said know one complained when the oil tankers unloaded, Pete I said there was no oil discharged on this side of the river only Palm oil from the Palm boats of which I sailed in a couple myself. I beg your pardon he said I was in the M.N. So was I Pete but unlike yourself doing a few crossings on the Empress of Canada which I also done, You are talking out of your The phone went dead. Just shows you how misinformed people can be. I agree one Tanker was enough for me give me a good old General cargo boat with a good mix of crew any day. Terry

[Captain Kong]

That Thistlebond was also very useful for filling teeth when a filling came out. it worked.

[Lewis McColl]

Do you mean the A&B cement?