Ballast

[John Cassels]

Anyone remember taking advantage of inclement weather to :swill wash " DB tanks ?.

[John Arton]

John
I was mate on a terrible obo that the Norwegian previous owners had used every available space to load crude oil into, including the topside wing ballast tanks. Took it over in drydock in Japan and to clean those topside tanks we were given barrels of seaclean chemical to pour in, then half fill with sea water and to let it slosh around for a couple of days whilst we were on our way to port hedland to load iron ore and then pump it out before arrival, direct to sea. Questioned about why we were breaking MARPOL as no oil discharge monitor fitted in ballast line discharge system but told to just get on with it.
Later, working for another outfit, they gave us some silicone liquid to add to ballast tanks and then part fill them, allow it to slosh around for a while and then pump it out. Worked a treat.
As mate on cape sized bulkers, always used to change ballast tank water during the ballast voyage as discharging in the likes of Rotterdam, le Havre and even Antwerp, had to take on ballast early on in the discharge to stay under the gantry cranes so we were sitting close to the harbour bottom and muddy and silty water would be taken into the ballast tanks.
Despite changing ballast there was still a fair amount of mud build up which meant we had to go in and hose it out during the loaded passage.
Rgds
J.A

[John Cassels]

Thanks yours John . I was also mate on a terrible OBO but that nightmare is for another day.
Must say that I just got into the habit of swill washing to stir up the mud even when we had taken clean ballast , anything just to try keep those
tanks mud free.

[Des Jenkins]

Hi John
When I think now about how we used to pump just about everything over the side on tankers, and I was only on about twelve, I shudder to think of what sort of prison term one would get today, But it's not only seamen who are doing it today, last night on TV they where showing Mutton Birds on Great Barrier Island with their stomachs full of plastic, they laid one down and squeezed its stomach and you could hear the crackling inside.
Des
Australia only processes a third of it's plastics, the rest goes into landfill

[Mike Hutchins]

Lots of spent caustic would've gone over the side through the years too....wonder what happens to it nowadays?
Mike.