Hardest work

[Bill Morrison]

Hi Tony. If I recall correctly it was a Bio-Gest. It was charged with miro-organic "bugs" which feed on waste matter and discharged pure water, said to be fit to drink!! The waste passed through a commutator (mincer) and all work well until idiots flushed non-organic matter into the system and the commutator packed up. The "bugs" couldn't handle large matter. Now for the worst part, stripping it down to repair the commutator and clean out the tank. The smell of human excrement in the E.R. lasted for days. Lucky the E.R. Store Keeper had a strong stomach and did the dirty work. The C/Eng. saw him OK for his effort.
Bill.

[Keith Tindell]

I joined the PALACIO, one of McAndrews on 9th Jan 62, she was a fairly new ship, and had that system installed, the first i had ever heard of it. We were told that only the Dhobi powder sold on the ship could be used for the system , probably a con, but thats what we did. no problem for us on deck, just fire away as the body felt.dont know when this system first came in to use.

[J Gowers]

The most common sewage system was a Hamworthy as described the bugs ate up all the sewage, I was on ships in the 70s and rigs in the 2010s with these systems they normally work great untill some one throws other things rather than **** into the bog pan. One jack up I was on had a vacumn system the same as on aeroplanes and the we had loads of problems as idiots kept throwing tooth picks down the pan which along with toilet paper and blocked the pipe only way to clear the plockage was to cut the pipes remove the blockage and put the pipe back together. One rig I was on toothpicks were banned because of the problems we had.

I will go back on my earlier message blocked **** pipes were worse than scavenge space cleaning.

To pick up a comment from earlier, I was in the MN for 15 years 1974 to 1989 and only ever wore a uniform when going into the officers saloon, to be honest I never really saw the need for it but if I did not put it on I would not have got any meals or have job.

[Keith Tindell]

Slightly off ships systems, i can remember my first visit to Greece , many years ago, and there system was to put the paper in a bin, not nice, i understand their pipe work was only 2inches or so. Brits could not live with that, me included, and put the paper down the toilet.Pipe work was forever being blocked.

[Yachtsman]

Don't go to Mexico Keith, they have the same system. Paper in the bin, not in the toilet.

Bob

[Jim R Christie]

The most common sewage system was a Hamworthy as described the bugs ate up all the sewage, I was on ships in the 70s and rigs in the 2010s with these systems they normally work great untill some one throws other things rather than **** into the bog pan. One jack up I was on had a vacumn system the same as on aeroplanes and the we had loads of problems as idiots kept throwing tooth picks down the pan which along with toilet paper and blocked the pipe only way to clear the plockage was to cut the pipes remove the blockage and put the pipe back together. One rig I was on toothpicks were banned because of the problems we had.

I will go back on my earlier message blocked **** pipes were worse than scavenge space cleaning.

To pick up a comment from earlier, I was in the MN for 15 years 1974 to 1989 and only ever wore a uniform when going into the officers saloon, to be honest I never really saw the need for it but if I did not put it on I would not have got any meals or have job.

Ditto all of the above with regard vacuum systems.
Much worse on passenger ships of course when the Great British public were involved chucking all sorts of stuff down the toilets despite signs everywhere telling them not to, I'm sure that much of the time it was done purely out of badness.
There's a well known video on Youtube of some idiots on a Northlink ferry (Aberdeen-Orkney/Shetland) flushing a shower curtain down the vacuum toilet and thinking it hilarious.
I used to pity the poor Chippy having to break all the pipes for the umpteenth time that trip getting covered in all sorts of awfulness and fishing out wipes, nappys etc. The Chippys job in those ships wasn't a bad one; a lot of varied work, maintenance etc and basically left to his own devices, that's aside from the sewage system of course. Many a good solid, practically inclined AB was put off either applying for or filling in as Chippy simply because they had to look after the toilets and sewage system.

[Jim R Christie]

I joined the PALACIO, one of McAndrews on 9th Jan 62, she was a fairly new ship, and had that system installed, the first i had ever heard of it. We were told that only the Dhobi powder sold on the ship could be used for the system , probably a con, but thats what we did. no problem for us on deck, just fire away as the body felt.dont know when this system first came in to use.

Keith,
McAndrews were of course owned by Andrew Weir and in their ships they operated a company bond where the prices used to work on the premise of wholesale price +10% markup.
They were far from commercially daft!

[Ivan Cloherty]

[QUOTE=J

To pick up a comment from earlier, I was in the MN for 15 years 1974 to 1989 and only ever wore a uniform when going into the officers saloon, to be honest I never really saw the need for it but if I did not put it on I would not have got any meals or have job.[/QUOTE]

Look at it this way, without engineers going into the saloon, it would have meant one less steward was required, so in fact console yourself with the knowledge that with the penalty of wearing a uniform you were creating another job, thus ensuring some poor soul could feed his family, feel better now

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Slightly off ships systems, i can remember my first visit to Greece , many years ago, and there system was to put the paper in a bin, not nice, i understand their pipe work was only 2inches or so. Brits could not live with that, me included, and put the paper down the toilet.Pipe work was forever being blocked.

When staying in a hotel in Greece they had the bin system, no way was that going to happen, so used the normal procedure with paper, but before going in made sure there was a boiled kettle of water, so before flushing poured that down, it macerated everything, normal service and no blocked pipes. Not the best holiday I may add.

[Keith Tindell]

What amazed me as well, was when on their inter island ferries, many of them ex UK and Europe, normal ships fittings i presume, the Greeks still had the bin along side the toilet. Not that i would use them anyway, not the cleanest.

[j.sabourn]

Has anyone mentioned Japan in regards to their sewage system.? In the 50”s their common household sewage system was open drains in the outside their houses for human sewage this was also utilised in their vegetable plots. Although the Japanese had the reputation for being scrupuoulsy clean inside their homes they looked on fertiliser whether human or not , not to be sneezed at. Today most of the world also looks on the same as manna from heaven. JS