Weather Steel Decks.

[j.sabourn]

How many sailed on ships where the outside weather steel decks never saw a lick of paint. The maintainance on these decks were the same as normal re chipping scraping and wirebrushing. Then we’re coated with boiled oil instead of red lead. When the oil dried out it formed a protective coat on the steel protecting it from the salt and air the main components of rust. Then oil was employed but using an ordinary household mop. When rust did again show its head as nothing will stop it on the shipboard environment and was a constant uninvited companion of every seaman , all the old sludge oil from the engine room was collected and again mopped onto the decks to try and lift it , and long handled scrapers to lift all the scale, before cleaning off and again applying boiled oil as a coating. I used to think and maybe was right or wrong that the owners were too tight to buy at that time all the specialised paints coming onto the market. If Cappy can remember the Avonmoor was such a vessel , I spent 2.5 years on her and never saw a drop of paint used on a steel deck , she was built in 1944 on the lines of an Empire Boat but was always called Avonmoor and not Empire something or other a 3 cylinder Doxford . To round off my belief at the time of the tightness of the Owner , she always seemed incomplete as a ship as had no topmasts . Such is the way of older seamen , the owner always got blamed for everything whether true or false , there is always someone to carry the can, and who better. JS

[James Curry]

I was contracted for a spell over the years to a Danish Roro company Marcandia line? think they are owned by Maersk line now. They ran down through the Caribbean. They were medium speed diesels and I did in service maintenance on the main engines and generator plant. Rarely painted was the top deck as the lashing chains for securing the wagons would have the paint away sharpish.
When they did get a bit of down time they had a chain flailing machine that looked like a lawn mower. The racket and dust that thing made was something else. It was either that or a hydro blaster. A quick blow dry and on with a primer and top coat. I did a few dry dockings with them and often they would simply cut out the worst of the deck and replate.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

I did some of that John, oil on the deck, which then got a sort of dry coat on it, that could be scrapped off with a long handled scrapper, I can't remember which ship it was: I sailed on some crappy old things. I also remember the flailing hammer, fore runner probably of the electric chipping hammer. Later BTC provided spray painters to paint the mess of pipes under the flying bridge.
Des

[Keith Tindell]

How many hours i have spent with a sore ar** sat on an old rope fender, a pair of goggles and a chipping hammer, chipping and scraping by hand. A never ending job, but the best bit was it was in a lot of cases overtime. As i understand it now, with new paints, very little painting is done at sea, done every couple of years in dry dock. McAndrews shipping with their all white hulls and superstructure were a gift for overtime. If the tugs tyres left a mark on the hull, it was a stage over the side and soogy off immediately.

[j.sabourn]

#4 you could have sat on Cappys blow up doll if had been on the same ship Keith. JS

[cappy]

#4 you could have sat on cappys blow up doll if had been on the same ship keith. Js

you still havnt sent it back ...you said it was punctured ....and the elastoplast kept falling off .....and no you cannot get crabs of her ....r683532

[John Arton]

On my first ship in 67, a new built Japanese tanker, whilst chipping the main deck , embedded in the steel plates were small areas of brass and copper left from when the steel had been manufactured. Later on on a vlcc we had a water driven lawn mower type scaling machine.
Who can remember those chipping gangs you could hire in Durban? We were on a lay-by berth in Durban on a tanker, this was when I was third mate and the tanker was actually my first ever ship but later on, we were carrying out major engine overhaul and pipe work renewal in the pump Room. Opposite us was a Dutch East India shipping company general cargo ship and they were having the hull, main deck and hatch covers hand chipped and painted by gangs, they started at 06:00 and went at it non stop until about 15:00 when the painters would take over. The noise was horrendous , akin to standing next door to a hundred jack hammers.
At that time C.P were going through a cost cutting exercise so there had been a painting ban on for around a year and our hull was looking pretty rough, the boss of the chipping gangs offered to have his guys do the onshore hull side for some ridiculous low price, think something like $1500, but our superintendent knocked him back.
We were there for 10 days or so whilst globe engineering stripped the sulzer main engine down and refurbished all the cylinder liners, piston, bottom ends and cylinder heads plus renewal of 20 inch pipe sections in the pump Room, bends, elbows and straight sections.
We were able nightly to enjoy the bars and clubs life in Durban getting pizzed nightly only to be woken up at 06:00 daily when the chipping gangs started their racket.
Rgds
J.A
N

[j.sabourn]

#6 Who said it was a her ? What about the one of Michael you had, just tie a knot in his appendage and that would do .JS

[vic mcclymont]

B&C in the early seventies decided that the decks would be shot blasted at sea.
The deck crew on the Ranald shot blasted one steel plate, it was nice and shiny when they knocked off for the day. Next morning it was covered in a layer of rust, mate wasn't to pleased, it to be done all over again.
From then on, any shot blasted plates were painted before the crew knocked off.
Vic

[James Curry]

Seem to remember it was also a practice to just spot chip the plates were they were rusty and prime and paint those areas. Certainly saved a lot of money on paint. But surely it was better to get layers of paint down early days in a ships life and apart from a freshen up in heavy traffic areas must have cut down on fabric maintenance.