Factorys Act Book

[j.sabourn]

Anyone remember the proper title of such, was something like "Register of wires chains blocks shackles". All certificates appertaining to wires and such were contained in such. This post should be in Then and Now, but couldnt find. Australia depending on port was a mates nightmare as if the stevedores unions wanted to be bolshoi would demand to see all certificates and want to know what shackle was where, and wanted to sight the same visually with the number of shackle visible etc. There were an awful lot of shackles on the average cargo vessel in those days. Ships used to go into Australia brand spanking new runners etc. old preventer wire their certificates were sometimes asked for. Preparing for the onslaught of entering Australia had to commence many days before arrival, unless I suppose were a regular trader on the coast. My 11 plus years spent on the coast here I saw none of this previous extremely high sense of so called safety or whatever, as brought ships into the country which would never have been entertained 50 years ago. However is the Factory Acts Book of today still in the same format or is there another way of picking out items of running gear with their cert, numbers etc. Maybe this has been computerised to make the job easier. Cheers John S

[robpage]

The Current MCA advice seems to be

The MCA advise operators to:

Lifting equipment will normally require a certificate of test and thorough examination. This should
show the load to which the equipment has been tested, and its safe working load (SWL).
If the test certificate has been produced outside the EU it should be viewed with caution, in any case
of doubt a reliable certificate should be obtained.

It is important after any test to ensure that a thorough examination has taken place.

Keep track of their lifting gear by using a chain register (a record of maintenance for lifting
gear). This need be a simple list of wires and blocks with a record of maintenance. Further advice or
a guide document is available from your local Marine Office.


Ashore there is a print out from the Insurance company , issued by them after the surveyors inspection

[John Arton]

John S
The chain register format has never changed and a paper copy is required to be held on board as it requires signatures of the person carrying out the inspections and examinations.
It still requires all loose gear (chains, shackles, chain blocks, handy billys , rescue harness's etc.) to be recorded and nowadays as persons are considered to be loads, then such items as accommodation ladders, personnel transfer baskets are required to be entered into the chain register.
The biggest change is that nowadays , no one on board is deemed competent to carry out the annual inspections unless they have a certificate from either the manufacturer or the ship owner has sent their crew members on specific H.S.E. training courses.
So a Chief Officer with maybe a master licence or a chief engineer is now not considered competent to carry out annual inspections of the gear, which as we all know would consist of examining all wires for broken strands and opening up the lay to examine the core, checking that blocks were turning free and greased and showing no signs of damage, shackles not being bent out of shape or showing signs of stress, hammer test of the bolts securing the swivel rings on pedestal cranes, physical examination of all beams to check they are not stressed and out of shape, lifting the heels of any derrick etc. etc. All jobs that any decent seaman can and should be able to do as after all in the main it is most likely that those on board are going to be the main users of the gear.
rgds
JA

[Don Rafferty]

'If the test certificate has been produced outside the EU it should be viewed with caution, '

For a long while, I was able to get cables from somewhere that fitted drum winches to breakdown trucks etc., most of these winches came from the States with cables fitted, it was cheaper for the company to 'scrap' the fitted cable and fit one with a relevant test certificate. Last time I tried to get one they'd actually been destroyed - cut into short lengths.

[Ivan Cloherty]

factories Act Book, by any other name, in Australia was a worthless book if the Dockers didn't want to work on a particular day or someone on board had upset them. Was on a British built UK registered ship on second voyage from builders yard and the WWF refused to work until they had seen every shackle on every bit of the cargo gear which meant flattening all the derricks and find the relevant certificate in the register, you can imagine how long that took, were not allowed to top the derricks at the hatches had been passedor resume discharge until all those still not completed had been inspected. The WWF was a very powerful body in 50's to 70's. On another ship changed flag in Fremantle in 70's would not recommend it, had tried to forestall complications by having all gear certified in India, had a brand new gangways flown out from a well known maker in South Shields and took aboard in Colombo, they were lovely pieces of work, WWF refused to come up them as they looked too new and were from Colombo, no amount of certificates or AirWay Bills would convince them that they were UK made and certified, so I hired the gangway the Queen had used on her visit and the Bolshie barstewards tested every step on that gangway, jumping up and down on it, even their foreman got annoyed at this, shouting 'If its good enough for the f----ing Queen its good enough for you' Had to remove my brand new gangways from the ship, send them ashore, not just retest them, but cut them in half, have them repaired by an Australian yard, have an Australian Certificate issued, only then would they use them, that was Australia in those days. That was only the start of my troubles on that ship, changing it from a Greek flag and Greek crew to Singapore flag with Yugoslav officers and Bengali crew, knives and guns were in abundance and had to call in armed police on a couple of occasions, once for the very vicious fighting between Greeks and Yugoslavs and another between Yugoslavs and Bengalis, never met anyone as racialist as the Yugoslavs at that time, one of the joys of being a Supt. because at sea, having travelled the world we seamen became very tolerant of all creeds and colours and their various customs, some good, some bad, same as ourselves.

[j.sabourn]

Wasnt my imagination then. Always or nearly always had trouble in Australia re running gear etc. Shipowners very loathe to send ships here at one time. However as remarked re shipping I brought down from Singapore to Oz was mainly shipping seen its use by date in the North Sea. No problems or very little that I saw from 91 onwards. Thanks your replies. I wasnt dreaming then. John S

[Ivan Cloherty]

Wasnt my imagination then. Always or nearly always had trouble in Australia re running gear etc. Shipowners very loathe to send ships here at one time. However as remarked re shipping I brought down from Singapore to Oz was mainly shipping seen its use by date in the North Sea. No problems or very little that I saw from 91 onwards. Thanks your replies. I wasnt dreaming then. John S

No you were not dreaming John, Oz in the 60's and 70's was a deck officers nightmare, the WWF always nit picking about something/anything to avoid working or alternatively getting bonus money undeservedly. It was also a Supt nightmare if they knew one was in town, they could screw a higher up official than they could a shipboard one (captains included). A favourite con in Melbourne was rain money, they wouldn't work in the rain (we're talking intermittent drizzle) unless you gave them a bonus which if wasn't paid, they would then come up with 'give us wet weather gear and we'll work) some owners fell for it, provided the gear and the dockers walked off because by issuing wet weather gear the owner had acknowledged it was raining, they didn't work in the rain without a bonus so all went home on full pay, another day lost. The owner I sailed with to Oz said they would only go again if Charter Rates were extremely good, the owner I worked with as a Supt never sent another ship there. Bluddy nightmare place to try and keep a ship on schedule and keep costs within a non bankrupt situation

[John Arton]

I was 2nd Mate on a brand new 5 hatch geared bulkcarrier of around 31000 tons. First trip was from Japan to Newcastle NSW with fluorspar and then down to Wollongong to load steel coils for Marseille.
No problems discharging in Newcastle but on arrival in Port Kembla the WWF rep. immediately banned the ship saying hatch and crane access ladders were incorrect, Gave the Mate a long list of "defects" that needed fixing. The Mate then showed him the certificate (signed by the same guy) that stated that the ships fittings etc. all complied with the WWF requirements. This threw him for a while but then he pointed at the date the certificate was issued which was about 2 months previous (ships delivery had been delayed) and said triumphantly that since the certificate had been issued the regulations had changed. He then gave the mate a list of companies that would come and tender for the necessary work. Could only get hold of one outfit who when we talked to them said no problems mate, know exactly what you need and so sight unseen a day or so later they turned up with all the required steel work and within a further two days and $25000 later, we were passed fit for loading.
We were working supposedly 24 hr. shifts with no work at weekends, loading 10 ton steel coils. The most we ever managed to load in 24 hrs. working 3 hatches, was 130 coils. Every shift started with a walkout, no hot water in the shore hut, train bringing the coils going too fast, you name it they went on strike for it.
Great for us as at weekends we were invited to barbies, went up to Sydney and also the Blue Mountains.
Quite sorry when we eventually finished loading. Next trip was Steel coils from Port De Bouc to Basra, not great.
rgds
JA