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Thread: Memories

  1. #41
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    Default Re: Memories

    John, The problem with MacGregors was they where prone to jumping of the coaming while the chains where heaved open jacking up the wheels well greased I remember one lid coming adrift after fully opening by the chains which was common as I am sure many witnessed it was a very dangerous situation and I remember on one occasion while on a Palm boat this happened and a crewe boy diving underneath with a shackled wire rope fastening it to a ring bolt on the lid to pull the hatch cover back on track which I would have never done, The lid shifted and jumped of both coamings squashed him to death. It was a very sad day at sea that day moral to the story never trust the ships ring bolts they where to prone to rust and I never regarded them safe. And never used them to make myself secure aloft for the same reason. Another day another dollar Regards Terry.
    {terry scouse}

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  3. #42
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    On the NZ coast we used to drop the first lid then put a spike in the first wheel and run alongside letting them run, dropping the wheel just before they hit the stop. In Fiji two of us, both married men, the others all single on the piss ashore, clewed up the four hatches and stowed the derricks aloft in around I think about two hours, made the most overtime on that ship the Kawerau than any other, as my mate and I used to do all the night time stand by when loading or discharging.
    Des

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  5. #43
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    This has to be one of the most informative posts about cargo handling. I'm going to print off the picture and read all the info' again. Thanks.
    I've skipped the bits about bars etc. ....
    regards
    Brenda

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  7. #44
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    Default Re: Memories

    The forest product ships in C.P. were fitted with 3 traveling Munck gantry cranes. Each hold had 3 slab hatch covers port and stbd and on the centre line were fitted permanent flat mushroom shaped stands such that when all the hatch covers were closed you had a completely flat surface for the deck cargo to be loaded on. On the port side you had a raised walkway running all the way from aft to forad under which ran the power cables for each of the cranes. On the stand. Side there were all the mechanical vents for the holds and outboard of the rails the gantry cranes ran on was a narrow walkway at deck level between the rail and the bulwark.
    The hatch slabs were the same length as the length of the gantry cranes and to open them you hooked up the lifting sling permanently attached to the slab with the crane, lifted it clear of its neigbour and stowed it on top of its neighbour, you could stack two slabs on top of the third to give an almost open hold or just open one slab and park the gantry over it to provide cover from the weather. The cranes were actually fitted with rain curtains fore and aft to give complete protection to the open section. The slabs, when closed sat in cut outs in the coaming rail and to open the hatches you first had to jack up each slab using portable hydraulic hand jack's, lock the jacked up section of coaming in place and then move onto the next jacking point, 4 per slab. There was a continuous chain driven by an electric motor situated at the aft end of each hatch running the length of each hold, 4 per hold. These could be attached to the stowed slabs to move them into any position on the hold to allow cargo access. Opening and closing hatches was a nightmare with heavy slabs swaying around as they traveled into their stowing position.

    I managed to test the heel of my left foot open one night closing up in Vancouver by getting it trapped between a ventilator and the crane I was hitching a lift on as we were moving slabs from the stowed position to there close position. This resulted in me be payed off, spending 10 days in hospital ( there's another story all about that) and been flown home on crutches.
    Rgds
    J.A.

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  9. #45
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    Default Re: Memories

    Quote Originally Posted by Colin Wood View Post
    Pretty modern. The ship has electric winches.
    My first ship MV ORARI NZSCo built 1931 had electric winches, a sight that stayed in my memory is a railway engine being lowered
    as deck cargo, and seeing sections of the Auckland harbour bridge being unloaded in 56/57, it was painted orange with the section
    part numbers stencilled on in white paint, it was always interesting to watch the dockers at work.

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    Hi John.
    That reminded me of loading a train in Tilbury, they used the giant floating crane. When we arrived in Freemantle we had to rig the Jumbo Derrick to discharge it as they didn't have a crane strong enough, what a great job that was, the topping lift wires were already rigged with the massive blocks covered in Canvas to protect them from the weather, but we had to set up the preventer wires and the guy wires and blocks. I remember the ship heeling right over as the train was carried out over the wharf and put on the rails.
    Cheers Des

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    The very first container I ever saw was when cadet on the Beaverfir. We were due to load one in Rotterdam that supposedly weighed 25 tons so we rigged the 30 ton jumbo. On booking up and starting to lift she took a huge list towards the quay and the container never left the ground. Eventually a shore crane was engaged to load it and it too failed to be able to lift it. Along came a bigger shore crane and it eventually got it on board when it was found the actual weight was in excess of 35 tons, requiring the deck to be fitted with extra dunnage to spread the load and extra securing fixings to be welded on. That was in 69 so even back then you never really knew the true weight of containers put forward for shipping.
    Rgds
    J.A.

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    Default Re: Memories

    Quote Originally Posted by Des Taff Jenkins View Post
    Hi John.
    That reminded me of loading a train in Tilbury, they used the giant floating crane. When we arrived in Freemantle we had to rig the Jumbo Derrick to discharge it as they didn't have a crane strong enough, what a great job that was, the topping lift wires were already rigged with the massive blocks covered in Canvas to protect them from the weather, but we had to set up the preventer wires and the guy wires and blocks. I remember the ship heeling right over as the train was carried out over the wharf and put on the rails.
    Cheers Des
    Hi Des, that was very interesting to read, the floating crane at London was a great sight to see coming through the docks with it's load,
    the floating crane at London was called "Mammoth", you can see pictures of it on Google, cheers. John F

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    Default Re: Memories

    A few years ago I saw a Chinese ship going past on it's way down to Tilbury, it was carrying three massive container cranes they were
    towering over the ship and made it look small, for me it defied logic that the ship could stay upright and not turn turtle in stormy seas,
    it was amazing to see, I can only suppose the ship was designed specifically for this this type of cargo, the cranes are now working on
    Tilbury's London Gateway waterfront that is designed to serve the worlds largest container ships , cheers

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    We had been having a great time in the bars along the waterfront at Genoa when on our last day there one of the American fleets turned up
    the first thing I saw was the tower of their aircraft carrier high above the sheds, money was already getting low but we went ashore for our
    last night in the bars before sailing, the place was swarming with yanks and the prices for beer had tripled, realising we were outpriced we
    found a dingey little dockside bar with an Italian speaking TV and an unsociable barkeep, so we we had a couple of bottles of plonk and was
    glad to get back to the ship

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