Unusual cargo

[Ivan Cloherty]

Bulkers were usually designed with hopper wing tanks and and hopper double bottoms with high hatch coamings so became self trimming on passage, only the slack hold had to have a bagged surface, normally 6 - 10 bags deep, depending on the length and breadth of the slack hold in relation to the loa of the vessel. Most masters/mates tried to ensure that #1 was the slack hold, depending upon arrival trim and stability restrictions of the vessel, #1 on most vessels being the smallest it meant less bags. I refer to grains. The only bulk cement product I have carried in bulk was cement clinker, it didn't flow easily and its angle of repose wasn't a problem, but it did generate a lot of heat and could self combust quite easily, and very difficult for cleaning holds for the next cargo. With bagged cement cargoes I have handled/purchased/negotiated nearly 2 million tonnes and you would be surprised how their quality varies even though manufactured worldwide to the same specifications, that is a whole new ball game.

For instance upon arrival and upon completion of discharge of Japanese cement you got 0.25/0.5 % breakages, with Romanian cement you could get 5% breakages, at the time Japanese was $3 a tonne more than Romanian so big bucks were involved. All cement came in 5 ply bags, to a BSI standard, no matter country of origin, the difference was in the method of filling, Japanese cement filled with cement which had been cooled, Romanian cement was not cooled prior filling, so eventuallty transferred the heat to the bag making the paper brittle.

We had to buy were it was available, as a lot of cement was going to Nigeria at the time, so couldn't always get what you wanted for Dubai.

We bought cement from UK (very expensive) Greece, Romania, Pakistan, Korea, Japan, Philippines. In Dubai you could not use broken bags of cement, any contractor who did, could end up in jail. Nor were you allowed to throw your tea dregs in the cement being mixed, again jailable offence, as one cup of sugar can ruin a tonne of cement, especially true of SRC (Sulphate Resisting Cement) used in Dam and quay wall construction, Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos drank very sweet tea. The Greek cement and bags was good quality, but still got 1 to 2% breakages.

But I digressed.

[cappy]

Cappy did someone beat you to the Degaussing gear? lol.

that went before we left shields

[Lewis McColl]

Digress again Ivan , that was an interesting read , i just thought cement was just that cement. The only other one I ever heard of was the ones that ended up failing in bridges and some building High Alluiminum? Oh and Ferrocrete was it? they used it during the war for D Day docking pontoons.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Ferrocrete, still used today in places, is just normal Portland Cement with a high mix of large aggregate and SRB (steel reinforcing bars), it was a trade name and is used almost everywhere to describe it, much like Hoover when talking about vacuum cleaners. Again Portland cement is basically a specification and used worldwide although the name on the bag may be different.

[Lewis McColl]

There is a village not far from me Magheramourne , there used to be a quarry there and a Blue Circle cement works, been clsed for a few years now. Not sure if it was worked out or just no longer economical to keep open. They still have a sailing club there called The Blue Circle sailing club assume it was formed as part of the works social club.old-blue-circle-cement.jpg.
There is still a lot of Limestone quarrying goes on around here. This village I live in was basically a major hub for Limestone quarrying. Right at the back of my house is the old miniature railway line that ran from the quarry to the little port here , along the coast Glenarm was the same little harbours , not unlike the likes of Par or Fowey in Cornwall. They still quarry limestone up the Glen at Glenarm but it is taken by lorry now and shipped or used elsewhere now.

[j.sabourn]

That was carried to offshore installations in a slightly differerent manner Ivan. It was carried in bulk in cement tanks the same as other chemicals and transferred by hose to similar tanks on the installation in it’s dry form.the tank being pressureized and transferred and pumped up to its sister tank on the rig. JS

[Louis the fly]

In many ships information was not shared with the crew. We would not have access to the loading manifest so whatever the cargo was remains a mystery. It could not have been any of those mentioned in the posts because there was no dust flying about, the granules were hard and solid. Also it could not have been harmful to health because we went from Townsville to Fiji to load a full cargo of sugar without cleaning any of the hatches.

[j.sabourn]

Was that bagged or in bulk Louis JS.

[Louis the fly]

Some people will find this hard to believe John. We took Fijian crew boys with us from Suva and they carried bagged sugar onto the ship and emptied them down the hatch. They put the string from the bags around their necks and were paid by how many strings they had.

[Tony Taylor]

That was carried to offshore installations in a slightly differerent manner Ivan. It was carried in bulk in cement tanks the same as other chemicals and transferred by hose to similar tanks on the installation in it’s dry form.the tank being pressureized and transferred and pumped up to its sister tank on the rig. JS

Yes John, blown up the pipes with compressed air, it could be quite a juggling act keeping it flowing. We also carried mud as well, potable water, and fuel, my last job was the biggest fuel carrier in the Gulf at that time and of course deck cargo.