N. Sea Collision

[j.sabourn]

#89 The only QMs I sailed with were on Indian Cargo ships , they carried 4 , they were bridge duties and gangways duties only plus of course flags. It was a prestigious job for them and they were mainly advanced in years or should say not too well suited to hard labour. Their name in Hindi was/is secunny. Apart from secunnys you had winch wallahs and were the ones who drove the winches, then the seamen themselves were called Kallasi one and two to differentiate their grading. At the head of the mob was the Serang or bosun, the Tindle or bosuns mate , the Cassab the store keeper. Rank was very important to them . The poor old Topaz was at the bottom of the pile and was the cleaner upperer , and was the lowest of the low. Most that I sailed with were illiterate and when had to sign for anything it was ink pad and thumb print. Indian officers were just the opposite and was a good example on how the caste system worked . Money and background ! JS
PS the bottle in the noggin could have been taking a sample for the mate to measure the Specific Gravity or Density of the water for whatever reason , doubt if it was for tonnage measurement if a passenger vessel ,but you never know. Or maybe the mate was drunk and was still sending weather reports in and was for a sea temperature. There are many guesses for that one. Maybe today they have to put the sailing drafts in the OLB as per salt water another option for the guesses Cheers JS

[Des Jenkins]

Hi Two Johns
There could be another explanation, with all the new regulations in ports these days he could have been sampling the water for sewer discharges.
Example, There was an Italian passenger boat in Sydney when I was working on a big ferry there, and they had discharged their sewer tank at night, I had to check that it wasn't ours, can't remember what they where fined but would have been substantial.
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Yes DEs, similar here in Melbounre.
Daily readings taken of the water looking for any signs of corruption in the waters.

[John Arton]

Johnny
Perhaps they were a weather reporting vessel. When at sea I was on a number of ships that were weather reporting vessels and on passage every 6 hours we would take a sample of sea water by lowering a rubber bucket from the bridge wing to gather a sample of sea water in order to take and record the sea temperature for the weather report. This was done to get an accurate sea water temperature rather than asking the engine room to give us there sea water temperature from their thermometer in the engine room. That rubber bucket came with a thermometer especially supplied with it from the met. office.
The only other reason I can think for taking a sample of sea water whilst in port was to check it's relative density in order to calculate the dock water allowance to ensure the vessel is not overloaded when moving from from dock water to sea water.
Rgds
J.A

[John Arton]

Back to the Stena immaculate. The remaining cargo is going to be transhipped onto another tanker where it will then be discharged at killingholme. The Stena immaculate will then come to the Tyne for further inspection before going to an unknown repair facility.
Rgds
J.A

[Tony Taylor]

Back to the Stena immaculate. The remaining cargo is going to be transhipped onto another tanker where it will then be discharged at killingholme. The Stena immaculate will then come to the Tyne for further inspection before going to an unknown repair facility.
Rgds
J.A

I see the MV RUBY is still in A&P Jarrow.

[John Arton]

Tony
Seen that the Ruby is still in the big dock at A&P, been there for yonks. The transhipment is now underway into the fiure vyl?. Don't know if the Stena immaculate will actually dock for repairs, though that drydock could accommodate her, it only says that she will be in the Tyne for further investigation to be undertaken.
Rgds
JA.

[Johnny Kieran]

Just seen in the news today, that the initial report into the collision, indicates that there were no lookouts on the two vessels that collided.
I find it strange that a ship at anchor needed a lookout, or could collide with other vessels, (unless of course it dragged it's hook).
I remember being on watch whilst at anchor, but not actually being on lookout. It was usually checking things and standing by generally. Things like ringing the bells in fog, or blowing the hooter, and checking things on the forecastle were OK.
The only ship that collided, was the one that was under way when it collided with a ship at anchor.
If my car is parked up outside, and another car runs into it, has my car collided with another? Yes, there's been a collision, but one car collided with a parked car.
All round observation was a bit of a saying for watchkeepers, but not actual lookout whilst at anchor.
I can just imagine being on lookout at anchor, seeing another ship heading our way, then getting the chippy and the engineers up to weigh anchor in case the other ship runs into us.
Or, have things changed these days?

[Johnny Kieran]

Another thing in the news. The container boat was doing 16 knots in what was described as "patchy weather", plus it was daylight hours. The skipper was reportedly alone on the bridge.

[James Curry]

Ship was probably only had Master & Mate reduced manning to save costs, if so that went well
I see the owners of the container ship have filed an action against the Owners of the Stena Immaculate in the Admirality court today.