Oil Navigation Lights

[John Arton]

http://cdn2.shipspotting.com/photos/.../7/1772734.jpg
This is a picture of the worst ship I ever sailed upon. It had a very chequered career having been involved in a collision with a towed aircraft carrier amongst other things, also it was continually cracking at hatch corners and in the double bottoms.
The strangest thing about it was though that although it was built in 168 it also had a magnificent full set oil brass oil fired navigation lights as back up to the mains electrical nav. lights, two of which I donated to my cousin, a Lloyds surveyor, when he visited the ship to carry out a survey on repairs that we had been doing.
It got me thinking, why did she have these oil lights despite having the usual twin electrical lights with them connected to the emergency electrical system. Was it a requirement still to carry oil lamps as back up even as late as 68 or was it just a Norwegian thing as she had been built for Norwegian owners A.P. Moller, if I remember correctly.
Spent 6 months on it and it was without doubt the worst 6 months ever as even after spending well over a month in dry dock in Japan she still was a wreck and due to long running battles with the Captain I actually walked off her in Port Headland before being persuaded to rejoin by the new joining captain who found me sitting on the dock waiting for my wife to return back after a trip ashore so as we could both jump ship.
In the 6 months I was on her we only managed two trips with cargo after leaving dry dock in Japan.
Port Headland to Dunkerque with iron ore, then 10 days in Dunkerque fixing cracks in double bottoms.
then
Mississippi to Rotterdam with grain after spending all the westbound crossing trying to clean her for grain with loads of crude oil sludge still remaining in the hold bilges and having to employ shore labour in the States to get the holds clean enough to pass grain inspections.
Left her in Rotterdam where she was again undergoing repairs again, in a dock opposite the the Euromast. She was the biggest ship ever to go into that particular harbour and we were towed in by tugs, much to the delight of all the people gathered on the stands that had been built on the river side by the Euromast for the Rotterdam annual port celebrations. Still have nightmares regarding that ship having had to spend 10 days virtually living in the duct keel on the Atlantic crossing, operating bilge valves whilst the crew were engaged in washing the holds, the remote operating system for the bilge valves situated in the engine room, having failed two days out of dry dock so all the electro-hydraulic operating solenoids for the bilge valves had to be operated locally in the duct keel which had a nasty habit of filling up with water due to cracks in the double bottom bulkheads.
rgds
JA

[Rob Hollis]

Hi John, I was lampy on SS&A Britannic, built 1967 and she had a full complement of oil lamps. One of my jobs was to make sure they were filled, wicks trimmed, glass clean and ready for use. Same lamps were on all ships I ever sailed on so I would think there was a requirement that all vessels had to have these. The certainly were a work of art.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Don't think Norwegian rules were stricter than UK rules John, I had the unenviable task of converting a ship ('Seahawk') from Norwegian flag to UK flag, what was anticipated as a quick changeover turned into a 3 - 4 week marathon. Emergency fire pump on bottom plates of engineroom (quite useless really in event of engineroom fire) moved to foc'le, Lifeboat davits under Nwgn rules only had to operate at 10 degree list (UK 15 degrees), no emergency exits from some cabins (portholes had to be cut), hand grips outside some portholes on for'd bulkhead in case of ER fire, the list goes on, and at the same time draught marks recut as didn't align with Plimsoll marks (been sailing for years like that), new Registration numbers (no permanent IMO numbers then) cut into main beams, sounds simple, but whole vessel had to be remeasured to comply. All sound like simple jobs but involved ripping internals out of cabins, rebuilding and recertifying bulkheads in ER and other parts, altering lifeboat davits, not as simple as it sounds wedging them up altered stow of boat in davits, so can assure you Norwegian rules not the strictest afloat.

Ship built in Poland for Norwegian owners, outfitted with Rolls Royce generators noisiest things you ever heard, had to fit extra silencers which of course affected their performance, the engineers hated them, and many left because of them

All ships I was supt on in 60 thro 80's had to carry oil lamps regardless of flag. But eh! oh! it was never boring!

[Rob Hollis]

It was also the fact that electricity was of no use at all if a bulb blew. Nobody was going aloft on a very bad night in a gale to change a bulb.

[Ivan Cloherty]

. Nobody was going aloft on a very bad night in a gale to change a bulb.

Oh we did though Rob, quite a challenge at times, even done it when 3/m and 2/m, gotta keep your hand in!

[Rob Hollis]

Now-now Ivan; 'tis well you know that it would take two fools to do that job on a dark and stormy night. One to give the order and the other to attempt it.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Now-now Ivan; 'tis well you know that it would take two fools to do that job on a dark and stormy night. One to give the order and the other to attempt it.

Unfortunately some fools are volunteered and some volunteer, as the navigation lights essential for the safe navigation, especially to let the other ships know your course, anyway some of us enjoyed the challenge of keeping our shipmates safe, in my era we didn't have the luxury of a standby set of electric lights installed and not having the luxury of a lampy the oil lights were not always ready and trimmed, or even accessible (tut! tut!). We didn't see it as foolishness we saw it as necessity, would rather climb the mainmast than try and reach the foc'le in some weathers and to think we did it all without safety harnesses and hard hats, we did so many foolish things at sea in our era, but didn't hesitate to do them. Couldn't say oh!golly gosh! the weathers too bad, not going out to secure that derrick that's broken loose, or resecure deck cargo that's come adrift, another time a jumbo broke adrift in the tail of a hurricane, if it hadn't been secured by deck crew volunteering including all mates, it would have been curtains for all of us, that's what we got paid for, to get the cargo from A to B regardless of discomfort (or danger) to the crew(s) and we went back for more. Changing a light bulb in a storm was a piece of pizz, and anyone who didn't attempt it, was neglecting the safety of ship, crew and cargo, but that's a navigator's view of a situation, couldn't sit in a cabin and hope it would go away.

[Rob Hollis]

Ah Ivan. The person who was putting lives at risk was the person who did not ensure that the emergency lamps were not fit for purpose. Guess who!
As for Jumbo, derricks, deck cargo coming adrift ... that's a different matter and not what we are/were discussing and any ship I was on volunteering was not an option.

[robpage]

On a Clan Line steamship a World away a mate with a sense of humour sent the first trip Deck cadet down below with three colsa oil cans , one for red , one for green and one for white colsa lamp oil , two or three bottles of food colouring later the mate got his wish , and was not a happy chappy

[Ivan Cloherty]

[QUOTE=Rob Hollis;175723]Ah Ivan. The person who was putting lives at risk was the person who did not ensure that the emergency lamps were not fit for purpose. Guess who!

As we didn't carry a lampy, must have been the bosun then eh Rob! each to his own