Rocking and Rolling

[Ivan Cloherty]

[QUOTE=Paul Racine;152960]I had some serious rock and roll experiences crossing the Biscay but by far the worst roll I ever experienced was on my third day at sea as a JOS on my first ship the Harcliff.
Approaching Goole at night on a incoming tide I was on the foc'sle head with the mate and an AB. In order to get into the lock the skipper decided to drop an anchor and swing the ship around on the chain.The mate let go the anchor but when he put on the brake it failed and an enormous amount of chain roared out from below.By the time the brake grabbed the ship was swinging wildly across the river. /QUOTE]

Well remembered Paul, unfortunately that was the only way to approach Goole Locks, the river narrows, with engine stopped your still doing about seven knots, it's full astern-drop the starboard anchor-stop-hard a starboard- full ahead stick the bow on the bank, the tide grabs the stern swings you round quicker than a whore looking for your wallet and hope the windlass brake holds, the bosun already standing by the port anchor in case the starboard cable parts, which happens to many vessels. Nobody liked the foc'le duty approaching Goole Locks, only place I know where the mate stands abaft the windlass when letting go. Going through the dock system another nightmare that system having more knuckles that two knuckle dusters, which had to be got around using wire springs, first starboard and then port and repeated again and again depending which berth you were at. Many a ship's propeller damaged when in ballast going through that system. 'Keep her off the knuckle Harry' was a well worn phrase in that port and repeat the procedure on the way out, with a loaded vessel less responsive and the springs singing and working harder. For some reason the coaling berths were closest to town the only blessing being that you were nearer the railway station to get home to Hull if it was your turn off. Goole aptly renamed Ghoul by many a seafarer.

[leratty]

Cappy p6, it has always intrigued me as one who when ocean racing I would for the first day if rough weather be quite sea sick, yet when we came into smooth water or the next day I would be as if nothing had happened & right as rain? This was particularly noticeable when as we would call it if 'racing around the cans' off shore, just the day or long afternoon outside once back in shore not a problem, odd.

[Ivan Cloherty]

As the 'Wish List' post has gone, update on the Russian and Chinese icebreakers stuck in the Antarctic, they have now freed themselves and making for open water. You can imagine the signals from their respective Governments when the USA said they were sending the most powerful icebreaker afloat to rescue them, probably something like this ' You get your bluddy vessel out of the ice before that Imperialist vessel reaches you or don't bother coming home or if you do, you will see plenty of ice' Bet the ballast was going from port to starboard and vice versa quicker than you could say commissar to rock and roll their way out (had to get the rock and roll in somehow!)

[cappy]

#13......first raced out of Whitby with a one legged yacht owner the yacht had a tiller never liked them ''''''''just a small ruffian .....he and wife both lost there right legs in bike accident in paris.....going round the marker I was on tne foredeck and couldn't get the spinnaker down in time......he left it to late to give the order .....she fell flat and the spinnaker filled with water and me ......looked up and could see light at the top of the mast as I was trapped and swallowing copius amounts of water .............I started to edge up to the light......she came up very slowlyand he with a great sense of humour....as he was not half drowned asked what the eff are you doing up there but always found the north sea very cold even in the hight of summer .....prefferd the med and just cruising into little fishing ports after a good morning sail and then coming back in the evening sea calm lash the wheel and sit drinking vino as the little engine tookus back to our moorining in campomanes ......only once felt sick and that was on one of everards rock dodgers coming out of Middlesboro the old man said we will go the weather was really bad as we got to the bar the waves were big big and bigger ......when he saw them he bottled and started to come about ....crappy time engineer came up shouting whats effin happening....I felt a strange feeling which I later discovered was pure fear......the next day approaching the tyne the old man had a heart attack all bad karma

[cappy]

#14 year just imagine the whole Chinese crew trying to pretend they were penguins

[John Arton]

Another bad experience I had was in the North Sea which can have far worse swells than mid atlantic, plus the fact that you have restricted sea room.
I was master on a chemical tanker hove too just off the Texel when all of a sudden our controllable pitch system decided to pack up and jammed in the full astern position (caused by a speck of dirt in the operating piston we later discovered). Trying to stern first into hurricane winds and seas did the engine no good so it packed its hand in and the engineers could not get it restarted as it was in combined mode so the starting air had to not only start the engine it also had to overcome the torque caused by the prop being in full astern position. We were rolling 35 degrees either way in about an 10 sec rolling period which made it almost impossible for the engineers to disengage the controllable pitch system as every time they got the piston actuator to move towards the lock position she would roll and the actuator rod would go past the lock position. We spent 5 hours drifting towards the Texel islands before the engineers eventually managed to get the controllable pitch system disengaged and locked in the emergency ahead position so that when the engine restarted we eventually got ahead movement which was good as we were only 2 miles off the beach by this time and drifting towards it at 5 knots.
That two days in total in the North Sea was some of the worst weather conditions I can remember and the way we were being flung from side to side as we rolled it was a wonder that we never suffered any serious damage apart from books etc. being flung all over the wheelhouse and some damage to dry provisions.
rgds
JA

[gray_marian]

#17 Excuse my ignorance John, 'A speck of dirt in the operating piston' who if anyone was responsible and was there a way to avoid that and could it happen on a regular basis? Marian

[John Arton]

Marian
To cut a long story short it was the fault of the service engineer who had overhauled the system whilst the ship was in dry dock one month previously. He had connected two hose wrong way round so instead of sucking oil from a tank they blew it back in resulting in accumulated dirt and gunge entering the system. The Controllable pitch unit went tits up coming out of dry dock so it was back in and the system fixed by connecting up the hoses in the correct order but due to pressure of time the service engineer reckoned there was no need to drain and flush through the whole system, just a quick clean of the filter..huh, wish that bersterd could have been on board when it went tits up in the middle of a hurricane.
rgds
JA

[robpage]

I would assume it was a KaMeWa prop , as the Stone was a total heap of rubbish , and failed in neutral with no emergency ahead , as far as I understood them . Despite the things being huge they are hydraulic and push an actuator along the shaft to make the pitch alter forward or astern , When the Bridge , Engine room or local control tells the hydraulics to push the blades ahead or astern they do so , overcoming a bloody big spring , a bit of grit will scratch the piston and allow oil to pass the seals the wrong way , how a tiny bit of grit gets in , past all the filters , it is probably down to poor housekeeping when the system has been opened up so despite shoving propellor blades as big as a small car around , the control is delicately done with small hydraulic actuators

see if this explains it


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8AfsG2x0qk

[cappy]

kame wa prop sounds like a kiwi rugby player