Interesting!

[Doc Vernon]

Hi ALL
Thought this may be of interest to some here!
Sent to me by one of my old Friend on site Dave.
Thanks mate hope you are keeping well!
Drop in now and then please!
Cheers
Vernon

http://www.chonday.com/Videos/cruishalcut2

[cappy]

thats pretty amazing to watch fred olsen used to run mailboats into the tyne when i was a boy my granda when retired whent firewatching on them happy days many moons ago

[Lou Barron]

A very interesting scene .One thing puzzled me the tugboat that was towing the liner into the dry dock how did it get back out maybe my thick head could not see it get out

[Lou Barron]

Thick head you should look at it propely it just kept on going out of the dry dock

[happy daze john in oz]

It is quite amazing what engineering is capable of nowadays.

[John Arton]

The old Beaveroak was lengthened by about 20 metres back in 71 when she was converted to a cellular container ship.
This was done in a small yard in Rotterdam and it was there biggest job to date.
After the new midships section was put in there was a need for concrete permanent ballast to be fitted for stability reasons as she was going to be carrying deck cargo all the time. To do this the Dutch built shuttering that was exactly the same size of the containers and this was placed on the tank tops. They then informed us that tomorrow they will pour the port side concrete ballast in and the day after they would do the stbd. side. We said to them should they not pour both sides at the same time? to which they replied that they knew what they were doing and we should shut up.
Came the day a great long line of pre-mix cement lorries turned up outside the yard gates blocking all traffic in the small village where the yard was situated and the yard then poured 500 tons of concrete into the port side shuttering, smoothing it of beautifully even though we had a huge list which we pointed out to the Dutch was not very good but again they told us they knew best.
Next day the same procedure was repeated on the stbd side and so at the end of the day she was back upright with 1000 tons of concrete ballast in her.
There you are, said the Dutch, what did we tell you, ship is back upright now!.
It was only when we pointed out that the port side ballast had a slope of around 20-30 degrees and as it was meant to have containers stowed on top of it how was this going to happen, that the red faces appeared. The rapid setting concrete was so hard it took them weeks to chisel it off flat before resurfacing the top layer!!!.
The next faux paux occurred when me (cadet) and the second mate was down the hatch where this concrete had been installed along with the shipyard manager and the 2nd mate "innocently" asked the manager what would happen to all the rain and snow that fell into the hatch whilst we were loading/discharging? The manager in a very disparaging tone told us, silly you pump it out through the bilge system. Yes, says the 2nd Mate, but where are the bilges? again in a disparaging tone, the manager, pointing, says "over there in the aft corners" Red faces again as he realised that they had poured tons of concrete over the bilges without providing a channel for the water to run into them or resiting same bilges so as they were actually in the hatch and not underneath all the concrete. More delays whilst they figured out what to do.
The whole job ran around a month over the allotted time with C.P. jumping up and down as we were meant to have started there new container service in July but it was September before we left the yard.
Another stretching of a ship I saw, which I believe was the first ever, was when Middle Docks in Shields not only lengthened a channel ferry but also heightened it by putting an extra car deck on it, believe it could have been one of the old P and O ones they brought from the Greeks.
rgds
JA