Fire at sea

[cappy]

##just as a matter of interest i recall one or two small vessels with no covering on the bulkheads just the bare metal in the 50s ...they was always damp in the cabin more or less .....but i wonder in these massive holiday type vessels and even more workhorse container ships whether the inside coverings are fire proof the coverings look plasticky..some of thesebig holiday camps have theaters 5 and six decks down ..filled with curtains and different effects i suppose ther are sprinklers perhaps but these big showpiece atheniums look very risky to me ...80 or 100 ft high ..making fine chimneys to draw air on .....it will happen no doubt ..but wonder what sort of fire proofing is on these ships anyone know anything about it ...cappy

[j.sabourn]

#1.. The most apparent fire proof vessels I sailed on Cappy were American built ships. Accomodation was very austere and to people's minds poor. They were I suppose built on wartime fashions of being fireproof . All tin lockers iron bunks and in a lot of cases bare steel bulkheads as of old which sweated as you say. Even the cargo was better protected against sweating with the spar ceiling down the hold. Fire proof furniture and such is the claims made today but as recent fires as of recent times they are dependant on how truthful the claims are. The only way of finding out is to have a fire I suppose. This will probably be done to claim a fire proof certificate I suppose. However look at the number of ships built with aluminium in their structure and it took the Falklands war to show how well aluminium burns. Cheers JS

[vic mcclymont]

Passenger ships rules state that no timber should be used in the construction of the accommodation.
Regards
Vic

[cappy]

that sounds pretty sensible vic ...at least there is some thought there....cappy

[robpage]

in the 1960's Clan Line circulated pictures of an accommodation burn out caused by a cigarette lighting up a bunk , but thoe old ships had a marvellous fireproof material too called ASBESTOS

[cappy]

yes it is just seeing a good mate of mine off at the moment gasping for breath ....good old asbestos......port line engineer of the 50s and 60s ...said every time she bumped hard the asbestos came down like snowflakes......cappy

[John F Collier]

Food for thought there cappy, it made me think of the hazards of ship breaking in the countries that don't have the regulations that we have and all of those old ships broken up before before asbestos was found to be so dangerous, there must have been
many deaths and crippling illnesses that we will never hear of. JF

[cappy]

#well JC as you know it can take years to come out my buddy left the sea 2nd engineer as he got older but got a job as fireman in leeds ..did that a few years then took a gamekeepers course and loved that job ...bang in the bar one day told me he was struggling to breath ...eventually asbestosis ...he is now knacked ..a good mate but what can i do .....nowt cappy

[Louis the fly]

On Palm boats the accommodation was all aluminium. On deck level where our cabins and the galley where , bars on the portholes to keep the West Coast thieves out.
For us this was good , no rust , no chipping and scraping. We never gave a thought of fire.

[Richard Quartermaine]

There are many buildings in Australia built with asbestos and in fact there was a company, 'Mr Fluffy' that that blew asbestos fibre into the ceilings of houses back in the 60s and thereabouts. The government is presently assisting home owners with the cost to suck it out.
I lived in a non insulated asbestos walled house in my childhood as many thousands upon thousands of families here did. It was white asbestos that is not as dangerous as blue or brown, i believe. So far so good!
Cappy, All the pre WWII ships I sailed on I recall as being bare metal bulkheads. Sad about your old mate. I was Engineers Boy for the first couple of weeks on Port Line's MV Lowlander in 1947 then later Saloon Boy. Also Officer's Steward on the Port St John and the old Port Dunedin in 1949/1950. I wonder if he would have been on those.
Regards, Richard