Fresh Water

[j.sabourn]

People. Always ask questions about the romantic parts of a seaman’s life and never question the many down sides to the same. For example they see the likes of John in Ozs pictures and think how could anyone knock a life like that back. They are never. Told that the most precious commodity to life is water. Not too long back it was rationed out if necessary And that was just fresh or potable water., it was the one commodity that most didn’t waste.On the average tramp ship with 40 plus men on board and in a ballast condition there was plenty of tank space usually to carry plenty of water, but even then old habits die hard and most carried on with the same convictions as if short of. In a loaded condition if you carried 200 tons of fresh water for domestic uses , that was 200 tons of less cargo you could carry. This was again in the days before domestic evaporators and distillers for making fresh water. Usually if shortages did crop up it was because once again some landsman ashore negotiating the terms of a charity party , did not make the allowances. For water adequately and probably shrugged his shoulders and said they can ration it. My first 20 years at sea fresh water was always a sore point at sea and still would be but for the advent of evaporators and distillers. Put this as mark 1 to a shipowners greed.
Jumping forward to 1988 on the unfortuanetle disaster in the North Sea , nothing to my knowledge was ever said about fresh water. On a small craft which was certicated to carry up to 300 survivors , although 300 chairs, 300 hot water bottles, 300 blankets were carried, the most important item alone was never mentioned.Water. It was needed to wash off oil coated persons among many others. These stand by boats could not even survive themselves on the water they carried and had to bum off the rig in drums for domestic purposes such as tea or coffeee, forget any ablutions. I advocated using old supply boats as stand by boats which had ample tank space for carrying, and it had to have a disaster to prove it. Not that it was made public , no that might upset our lawmakers and administrators in the shipping world. So Rob who has made a study of the before and afters of such, when thinking on your ideas of Safety , this one of the biggest ones should be born in mind.
As I am giving a talk probably next week to mainly shore persons I will try and get it around to water and shock them into realising that life or lack of it is not a bed of roses. Cheers JS

[Shaun Gander]

We had a reasonable sized tank on my last boat and an RO system that made I think about 120 gallons a day so for a maximum of about 12 on board was adequate for everything including multiple showers and head flushing. It'd get low at times but usually recover overnight.

One trip with a particularly hopeless Mate and maybe only 7 aboard we were losing water despite the RO running 24/7. I had my suspicions but didn't say anything. We were making the most of the good weather, obviously being at sea the boat earned much more than being alongside. He was always moaning about being offshore with no phone or Internet.

My suspicions were confirmed when I made a check on his cabin whilst he was on watch - the sink tap was turned on, running enough to use water but not enough to be obvious. He was trying to force us back to port knowing the charterers would not accept being at sea without freshwater.

My current company the policy is to fill the tanks at the beginning of the day. The bigger boats we fill to around 200 gallons for the day. Works for the ,oat part but there have been occasions where crew have forgotten or just not bothered and they've run out of water. There are no facilities on the island to take water so it's a nightmare of no flushing and water bottles for hand washing, etc. The other problem is when the tank goes dry the pump runs dry and burns out if no one realizes - the engineers get mad as they cost around $600!

SDG

[j.sabourn]

That was one of rhe worse crimes that could be committed at sea was tol leave a tap running. I was on quite a few smaller craft but can’t remember all their particulars. It was either the Silver Pit or the one before it that I found out when at sea that the two toilets on board were fllushed from the fore peak fresh water tank. So locked up one toilet and shut of the flushing system and replaced with a bucket and heaving line.can you imagine having an extra 37 persons on board bringing to a total of 45. Would have been a total on board of 236 if things had gone down better. One toilet, one bucket, and one heaving line, roll up roll up all the fun of the fair. Cheers JS.

[Shaun Gander]

Drifting off thread but I learned the hard way that the only place you get water with a bucket underway is from the stern...

Also always amazes me that our crossing time is about 70 minutes yet all the passenger want to use the heads before disembarking when we're trying to turn the boat around and load another 300+

SDG

[j.sabourn]

Bet you go through a lot of toilet rolls then ? A lot taking them home as Well? Using a bucket overside at a maximum speed of 5 knots, and usually a lot less wasn’t too bad. Cheers JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John.
Having been on three ships that ran out of water; in the days before they could make it I know what you mean. We were four days out of Cape Town on one trip and despite rationing we ran out, so it was saltwater showers and I think even the cook used it, but I suppose that was what happened in those days, the less water the more cargo.
Cheers Des

[j.sabourn]

Des the TPI of the average 10,000 ton tramp was about 45 , that meant for every 45 tons there was an increase of one inch on the plimsolls . You might get away with a 1 inch over with a harbour swell , but depending on your surveyor could also go the other way and sail an inch under. This was for deadweight cargos only so was in the lap of the gods sometimes. The charter party was the main controlling value as stipulated the amount or the least amount of cargo that had to be loaded. JS

[Shaun Gander]

Bet you go through a lot of toilet rolls then ? A lot taking them home as Well? Using a bucket overside at a maximum speed of 5 knots, and usually a lot less wasn’t too bad. Cheers JS

Indeed, the catamarans with the high passenger numbers - up to 350- even have the double roll dispensers fitted where a new roll drops when the bottom one is used up, this despite the deck crew are supposed to check them on their rounds.

My first bucket experience was probably at 10 - 12 kts as a Gren 15 year old!

SDG

[j.sabourn]

You’ll know that song very well then “ There’s a hole in my Bucket Dear Lisa Dear Lisa”. Cheers JS.

[happy daze john in oz]

On the Paparoa across the Indian Ocean on two pints of fresh water per man per day. Problems somewhere with the fresh water supply on board, a story that some had been pumped over the side by mistake, we never found out but it was tough going for three weeks.

But very few consider water shortage ashore, here in Oz we know all about it.
Water rationing is not unusual here but despite the call that Oz is the driest nation that is not true.
We get rain, lots of it in some parts but do nothing about harvesting it, not enough politic will on this one.

There are many desalination plants around the nation but water from that is not always the best, can be a bit flat at times.

Other countries suffer similar situations, last year Cape Town was almost out of water and back in the 70's there was a period when UK was almost in a similar situation.