hatch boards

[Keith Tindell]

I was having a drink with an ex AB who retired from Esso 8 years ago, we had also worked on several of the same company ships on trampers in the early 60s, and the conversation got round to the workup involved with the cargos. When discharging cargo used to dread the call *its raining*, drop everything and rush out and start putting hatchboards in before you could drag a tarp over the hatch, and that could happen several times a day. On the later ships what a pleasure just to shackle the wire on the Mcgregors and haul on a winch. On the old hatches making ready for sea, each hatch had to have the beams lifted in, boards lifted in by hand, all the tarps pulled on, battens and timber wedges knocked in, and finally hatch bars bolted down across the top. No wonder we needed so many crew. i suspect today there are even more efficient means of covering the hatch, and Mcgregors are museum pieces. KT

[robpage]

I saw a couple of near miss accidents with McGregor hatches , I used to give them a very wide berth when they were moving

[Keith Tindell]

Thats right Rob, if you had a guy who was heavy handed on the winch, and they got a gallop on, they could quite easy jump the track, but i was lucky and never saw that KT

[j.sabourn]

#1.. Keith the person who came up with the idea of tents for covering the hatch during rain, gets my vote. Saved a heck of a lot of work, However in those days the shipowner the same as most things was loath to supply to vessel, and was usually on the charterers insistence they were supplied and used. Cheers John S

[Keith Tindell]

That was obviously a very good idea John, i can honestly say i never used or indeed saw one in my time at sea.By the time i came ashore in 65 every ship i was on by that time was using Mcgregors. If i remember correctly, we still had hatch boards on the tween decks. I wonder where all those hatch boards ended up ?, they were made of hevty timber, KT

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi Shipmates, Hatch -boards and proper Cargo holds were hard work,which needed plenty of skilled men to work them you had a job well done on the finish. Mc Gregor were a breeze to work ,but sometimes we had to open them too soon going into port, saw a few come off the rails and go down the hatch but the chains held on them, brute power and a chain block sorted it out? Loads of minor accidents with the wheels and pins...

[j.sabourn]

#6.. " I was Quite light and small then", Richard are you saying you are big and fat now. Cheers John S.

[robpage]

Now you are En France , Blame the Goose fat , the Duck fat , and the fat livers , Mmmm but what a way to go

[j.sabourn]

Another thing of the past and haven't seen for years was the spar ceiling. Was a pain in the backside having to climb up and brush off. Easier though than having to clean the box beams after a grain cargo. Present day bulk loaders have none of these problems. John S.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Look on the bright side, throwing those Domino hatch boards around kept us fit, lean, healthy and strong and there was an art in getting them off and on in the right sequence, because if you didn't you had to start looking for a couple you could marry, as some used to swell and some didn't, always remember making a peak of the last two in a row (always on the centre line) so that you had to jump on them to make them marry up.

Tarpaulins, always three, newest on first, stiff as a board and bloody big, then one easier to handle and finally the oldest, so that the thwartship batten bars didn't ruin the new tarps, also an art in putting the tarp battens and wedges in so that if by a sea it tightened them and did not force them out. We all did it naturally by watching those who had sailed before us and we learned by experience, we never considered it an art, but it was, get it wrong and your home may not have completed its voyage.

MacGregors, convenient but dangerous, and bitches if the ship had a list or was out of trim, seen them closed in a hurry with no concern for the belaying wire to slow them down. Wheel bars cracking many people on the head if the wheel slots were worn, also the hatch coamings were always higher than on hatchboard ships, so those wheels were always at eye level and you had to jump up to get leverage on the bar, luckily having heaved thousands of hatchboards, the strength required wasn't a problem...........memories