Ocean ans and liberties

[j.sabourn]

John re forward lookout, when in latter years have you seen a lookout anywhere near the focsle head. Or in a lot of cases when have you seen a lookout. Regards John Sabourn

[Tony Wilding]

RE POST 29. DAN DARE ! And the dreaded Treens and head Treen, The Mekon, that brought back memories, more scary than a Dalek, the Eagle was a brilliant Comic. how youngsters pleasures have changed. i prefer those times. little did i know the windy path i would tread,

[Ivan Cloherty]

RE POST 29. . little did i know the 'windy' path i would tread,

Respectfully suggest you cut out the beans Tony

[Tony Wilding]

HI IVAN, the penny just dropped, about 2 hours later, ! am not sure if i spelt it correctly. windy, windie ? . a very apt reply. Tony.

[Ivan Cloherty]

HI IVAN, the penny just dropped, about 2 hours later, ! am not sure if i spelt it correctly. windy, windie ? . a very apt reply. Tony.

I think you want 'winding path' Tony, but I preferred your version

[vic mcclymont]

Interesting thread.
Lining up sections I would have thought would have been fairly straight forward to half decent shipwrights.
Regarding mismatch of sections that must be put down sheer incompetence as all factors are taken into consideration, even the angle of the slipway when considering the position of the hull on the slipway.
In my home town they launched super tankers in two halves and joined them up in a tidal river.
As for ships breaking up after launch again must be poor workmanship to blame. How many ships were launched from slipways without incurring any strain on the hull? I would have thought that the Naval Architects would have taken strain calcs. into the launch sequence.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Vic having worked with Naval Architects I found that their mathematical modelling/test tank simulations/computer aided calculations convinced them that they had every avenue covered, unfortunately I never met one who had 'actually' been at sea in any conditions; smooth or rough, to experience what the aforementioned methods could not cover....mother nature in all her unpredictable ways and rogue waves. Which waves they thought were a figment of a seaman's imagination, until the advent of satellites made them realise that indeed it was their own lack of belief in seamen's tales that was at fault. But they still didn't listen or take into account the rogue wave syndrome, I found that they took less notice of their own shipwrights than they did of the attending owner's superintendent and it was only by stopping all work that got the managements attention to what I considered an unsafe solution contemplated by their whizz kid.

[vic mcclymont]

Ivan,
Sorry maybe I didn't make myself clear. My posting was more to do with sections not lining up on the slips and ships suffering from strain damage after launching.
vic

[John Arton]

Just a little footnote.
On the Beaverfir the British Ship Research Association fitted stress gauges on the main deck. I believe this was the first time that they actually fitted these on a working ship. They consisted of metallic strips welded to the main deck which when the ship was working in a seaway sent a signal to an analogue machine on the bridge that had loads of counters that used to whizz round as the ship worked. These counters readouts were recorded by us every 2 hours and then sent off for analysis by the BSRA.
The guys finished fitting the bits on deck and had the recording machine all set up and working. We had to shift ship so the techs watched to see if all was working o.k.
As we shifted ship the counters started whirling round clocking up numbers. Working fine? we asked the techs.
Bloody hell they said, according to this machine the ship should have broken in half 5 mins ago!.
Well she did not and went on for a number of years before her sad demise.
Don't know what that proves but perhaps that was the start of my suspicions of so called experts who never actually have experienced what they are talking about./
rgds
JA

[Captain Kong]

Very interesting film Tony , Thanks.
I sailed on the Simon B Elliot, SAM Boat. later, Glen Shiel when I joined her, then changed her into the Euryades of Blue Funnel in 1959.
I found they were good ships, very handy on deck, five hatches ten Derricks, and everything was easy to handle.
I try to get over to San Francisco every couple of years and go aboard the Jeremiah O Brien, brings back the memories. I also went to London in 1994 when she came over to be moored alongside the Belfast and spent three days going aboard.
Here are three photoss of the Jeremiah O Brien in Frisco and on the Simon B Elliot, now Euryades.
On deck with our Parrots and Charlie Kakatoa, my cockatoo, we spent six months in paradise in the Spice Islands on that one..
Cheers
Brian