One for the Tanker men

[John Swan]

In the 50,s when I were a lad, apprentice with Common Bros. Newcastle. we regularly let the slops tank run down to almost empty. We would open the sea valve, amble down to the stern and watch till you spotted any crude coming to the surface then amble back and shut off the valve. When we went down the tanks to de sludge we had a special wooden Shute contraption which fitted through the rails to tip the buckets of sludge direct overboard, an awful job but used to get a tot of rum off the Mate when finished and we were only 16+. Remember selling a defunct Butterworth machine in Las Palmas to pay for a trip ashore, the guy must have thought Christmas had come as they were all solid brass, think I only got the price of a few beers and a bunk up for the night. Happy days.

[John Arton]

John
In 1967 as first trip cadet, after scrubbing out the wheelhouse and polishing brass work, my first real task was tank cleaning, humping those heavy Butterworth machines and attached hoses around with the deck crowd. After all the tanks had been washed it was then down into the tanks with plastic shovels and buckets to sweep up any remaining crude oil sludge. Clambering over pipelines and framing to get into each section of the tank bottom. The buckets of sludge were winched up to on deck by an air driven hoist and their contents dumped directly to sea. Stinking hot down the tank as by the time tank washing was completed we were in the tropics. Only ventilation being a water driven fan on deck which could have been described as giving a gentle breeze at the bottom of the tank. Shoveling up the sludge released all sorts of stinky gases which you inhaled to such an extent that by the time smoko came around you had lost all senses of smell and taste.
Elf and safety, your having a joke eh!!!!.
Rgds
J.A

[Colin McClelland]

Crude wash got rid of all that sludge and left the tanks quite clean.

[Des Jenkins]

John
You should have volunteered to do the steering, I used to be there fore 8 hours quite happy to let others do the tank cleaning, though on most of the tankers I was on I did my share of sludge cleaning.
Des

[Tony Taylor]

Crude wash got rid of all that sludge and left the tanks quite clean.

I vaguely recall that originally the refineries did not want to be lumbered with all that sludge, but when the oil prices were rising they suddenly realised that the sludge was 95% oil and that it was their sludge and they wanted it.

[John Arton]

Tony
Never sailed with crude oil washing as by it's introduction I was on clean oil and chemical tankers.
I know that when it was introduced port stays extended considerably, indeed on a C.P vlcc discharging in Rotterdam half the ships officers had a overnight jolly back to hull on the ferry from hook of Holland to hull.
I wonder how effective crude oil washing was on those tankers with all those internal structures inside the cargo tanks, longitudinals, web frames etc.
The statutory introduction of double hulled tankers I think would lead to an almost no sludge remaining after discharge and is crude oil washing still carried out on double hulled tankers?.
Rgds
J.A

[James Curry]

On a Vela tanker, Volans she big bugger at just under 1200' x 195' dead weight 362,118 tons. She was Swedish built in 1975. She was renamed London Trader in 1985. Always remember rafting in the tanks doing repairs on the cargo valve hydraulics.
She had sluice Gate valves on the tank bulk heads, might have been great when new but if you loaded a split cargo like light crude and heavy crude by the time you arrived at LOOP in Louisiana it could well be described as Med Crude.
I was put on her as deck engineer (glorified Pumpman) who cared what they called me I was on a German Contract and in the 1980's 10,000 deutsche marks.
The crew were Filipino poor buggers helping me when rafting usually they would end up sea sick.Not easy trying to stand in a dingy in the gas space cutting out a piece of hydraulic pipie and put a section in with compression couplings.
Doing tank bottom inspections looking for pitting on the tank bottoms etc!!Got the mate down to have a look at a crack on a tank bulkhead. With the movement the split would open a bit and a jet of water sprayed in from the ballasted tank. She had a history of cracks but as she was an old lady perhaps time to get the professionals involved. We were slow steaming back to the gulf so we anchored off Durban I think it was and a team arrived onboard with Ultra sonic crack detection gear. We started slow steaming again heading for the gulf, with the shore gang still onboard. We worked our way through the cargo tanks ballasting as required. Instead of going to load we went to Dubai Dry Docks for repairs. They cut out something like 300 frames/scantlings were cracks were found ranging from Longitudinals and Verticals. They would cut out a metre either side of the crack and weld in a new section.
I think that was 1984 I was on her. Lovely ship great accommodation great gym and being swedish a cracking Sauna and swimming pool. Enjoyed my time on her. I did 2 trips on her and heading back to the gulf she was sold and her new owner was going to have her converted to an FPSO?. I was offered a job with the new owners but the salary I thought they were havinf a laugh, so I declined. Stayed with VELA for 3years but I was on a German Contract. There were a lot of Brits who did nothing but moan about what the Germans were paying us, we were earning at least 25% more. Eventually a bean counter got involved and everyone lost out. Time to say good bye to VELA but kept my job with the Germans as they had Chemical tankers as well.
Been trying to remember the name of the company. It was Transocean Ship management Hamburg, the Chemical tankers were owned by Essbergers. Nice ships but not for me I prefer Blue water sailing not freezing my nuts off in Finland or Russia, one trip did me there.

[Tony Taylor]

Tony
Never sailed with crude oil washing as by it's introduction I was on clean oil and chemical tankers.
I know that when it was introduced port stays extended considerably, indeed on a C.P vlcc discharging in Rotterdam half the ships officers had a overnight jolly back to hull on the ferry from hook of Holland to hull.
I wonder how effective crude oil washing was on those tankers with all those internal structures inside the cargo tanks, longitudinals, web frames etc.
The statutory introduction of double hulled tankers I think would lead to an almost no sludge remaining after discharge and is crude oil washing still carried out on double hulled tankers?.
Rgds
J.A

Well, I believe it was quite efficient as the best medium to shift oily sludge is oil. I was on a VLCC alongside in Europoort when we did some early trials in 72 and indeed spent more time alongside, but not much benefit to us as theres b-gger all to do there apart from a quick run up the road to either the mission or a small pub we used. No such thing as time off in my mob. Next job after that was running fuel oil around the Carribean and Central America for banana boats; much more to my liking

[Peter Gill]

THree VLCCS all went up within three weeks of each other. Mactra and Marpessa (Shell) and King Haakon . Mactra was commanded by "Pedlar" Palmer (From Somerset I recall). I sailed with him twice after the explosion and there was hardly a day that he did not refer to it in some way or other. After the explosion, he turned the ship stern to the wind to enable the crew to get out onto the deck and put the fire out - the only one who saved a ship of this size at that time. There were two fatalities, one was a wife sunbathing on the Monkey Island, never seen again. Pedlar had a very low opinion of the Legal folk who interogated him at the subsequent Inquiry. His language was, to put it mildly, fruity and belligerent. He was put on the spot as regards the hours that the mate had spent on deck and suggested that the mate was getting his second wind after 48 hours straight."Not like you soft lazy money grabbing bastards!" In truth, he should have been retired gracefully, but suffered from flashbacks regularly. Was this PTSD? I suspect so. He then got cancer of the tongue - I was second Mate who had the job of describing to him what ot looked like on a daily basis for more than a month until he could be relieved. He had it operated on and had to learn to speak properly again. It was these losses that prompted introduction of Inert Gas systems which had been suggested by BP (and opposed by Shell). Ah- some call the mthe good old days - but only those with defective memories.

[Des Jenkins]

On the British Captain in 1952 we went up the Mississippi to Baton Rouge for a cargo of spirits foe Antwerp, when we got there people came aboard to check the tanks, they said we would have to go back out to the Gulf and clean tanks again, I remember great consternation among the mates and Skipper at the length of time it would take just to go back down the Mississippi and out into the Gulf and back., then the shore staff came back and said it was OK they would fix it with a slightly different mix or something . When we got to Antwerp only one wing tank was considered contaminated.
Des