scavenge fires

[Michael Jobson]

If you will permit a narrative on this topic from a (at the time) 2nd Mate of a 5-cylinder motor ship which went by the name of Huntsfield, owned by a Mr Oscar Gross, London. As I understood it, there had been some lack of maintenance in the engine room department which resulted in the fuel being injected into the cylinders in a stream rather than a 'mist'. As a result, not all the fuel was burned, so the residue collected in the scavenge trunk, which I believe ran the length of the engine, until it eventually caught fire. The resultant fireworks from the funnel were quite spectacular, especially at night - this event happened on more than one occasion.
The problems came to a head after bunkering in Russia (Nakhodka) with some rough fuel. At the time we were on a charter carrying sugar from Cuba to Japan, returning with rice and lard from China to Cuba. Following a serious fire in the north Pacific, we limped in to Honolulu to clean out the trunk and do the necessary to get the ship running again. Needless to say the American authorities were not happy with our presence and put an armed guard around the ship. They gave us 48 hours to do the job and get out, ready or not.
The engineers did what they could in the time and we left for Panama. We didn't quite make it, with more fires, and eventually put into Acapulco (!) then on to the navy base at Manzanillo to carry out more repairs. By this time the engineers had been busy (as I recall it) polishing the injectors so that they delivered the fuel better. It should be mentioned that by this time we had a proper Chief Engineer, and a good bunch of engineer officers. Their efforts proved successful, and there were no further problems. In any event the ship was sold to Greek owners on our next trip to Japan and we all signed off.
Apologies for any inaccuracies in this account from an engineer's point of view.
Just to complete the experience, as were taking off to leave leave Japan for the UK, smoke was seen coming out of one of the lights in the aircraft's cabin, but it was ok as one of the crew turned it off...

[robpage]

that just about sums it up Michael but some well maintained ones suffered too ,

[Michael Jobson]

Thanks very much for your post Rob. Stories from that ship (and probably most others too) could fill a chapter, if not exactly a book, but I'm no typist.
My first 6 years were with British India, Then J & C Harrison (London) then O Gross. Covered 1960 -69.
With best wishes,
Mike
R732092

[Ray Blackley]

I was 4th on SS&A ship Cretic off the NZ South Islands Kaikoura coast and I ended up with three scavenge fires all at one time on one engine. She was twin 6 cylinder Doxfords. Notified the Chief shut off the fuel and increased the lub to the effected units. After a period of time things settled down again. Doxfords appeared to have their fare share of scavenge fires.

The next day approaching Lyttelton I got double rings astern two hours from pilot. But that's another story

[Colin McClelland]

I spent 32 years in the MN, ON Doxfords, sulzers, polar, emds. I in that time i was on 12 different ships with Doxford main engines.
In the whole 32 years I never seen a scavenge fire. I can only assume that a lot of lack of maintenance was the cause of these fires.

[James Curry]

Is it just me or has this thread been duplicated and the newer thread been lost? there were a lot more posts than this and the most recent posts , yesterday and today, Prior to that the other posts date from 2018.

Only ever had 1 scavenge on a Doxford but had more than my fair share on H&W single acting opposed engines and the B&W K series engs with the rocker valve gear, these were also prone to cracked liners.

[Robert George Young]

Ray, tell me more about Cretic
Dad was on her

[Doc Vernon]

Have marked the other as Scavenge Fires 2 James!
Cheers