Fresh Water

[j.sabourn]

Our problems here are natural causes though John. The ship shortages were man made. Either through ignorance or the seeking of monetary gain. As regards the idea of overloading a ship is totally against my principles. Once when loading a steel cargo in Chiba Japan for the eastern seaboard of the US. The Head stevedore came up to me and asked how far over the plimsolls I wanted to go. ? He got a reply I won’t repeat, however he informed me the ship he had just completed loading was 6 inches over, she was of course a Greek.No doubt many made money on such methods of bypassing the regulations . Cheers JS

[Louis the fly]

The subject of water is very interesting. We can all live without gold , diamonds , mansions and soon without oil as technology advances in battery power combined with green energy.
We cannot live without water which makes it the most valuable natural resource. If the world weather patterns continue to change countries with borders will begin to dam or divert rivers to prevent them flowing into neighbouring countries. Oil wars will be the past , water wars the future.

I was also on a ship were fresh water tanks were partially pumped out to load more cargo , this was a full cargo of bagged fertilizer bound for Shanghai. It took six weeks to get there.

John when you give your talk make sure the plate is passed round at least twice before the doors are unlocked to let the audience out.

[j.sabourn]

#12... as you say Rob. However what about the plumbing to go with the water. Vector offshore who I think are still in that part of the industry as said in a previous post, I. Brought out the first one, and know that not perfect was closer to the requirements needed. She was a converted supply vessel. Had fresh water showers all over the ship outside and inside , gas detectors also. 2 frcs and the crew amounts as suggested by Lord Cullen what I saw and heard of others there was very little change in attitude before I left the UK. Back to square one I should imagine. As said and repeat these ships were the last one should expect rescue missions conducted from. That was not the job description , their use was to launch a boat to pick up someone falling off the rig. This was purely expected to be their function and not as made out to be rescue vessels themselves. The media once again sticks it’s foot in its mouth. JS

#13... Louis I hope the audience doesn’t turn up. If I was going to pass a plate round it would be a bucket. Maybe with heaving line on it. Would say it was for the Louis the flys benevolent fund. Cheers JS

[Chris Allman]

What an interesting thread - I particularly like Louis's post and the point that no matter what else exists in the world, fresh water is the most valuable natural resource. It scares the life out of you to think that if some terrorist organisations or for that matter a major power took control or interrupted water supplies the world could become a very different world altogether. Water could become the only currency in the world.

[j.sabourn]

What twisted minds go into the discovery of such pollutants. JS.

[j.sabourn]

#12... Rob what I can remember of water consumptions on the average cargoship with say 40 of a crew was about 8 tons a day. Fortuanetley on deep sea vessels drinking water and domestic water were kept in seperate tanks. On the trawlers I was on it was all in one communal tank. If doing a 6 week passage . Would require a minimum of 336 long tons of F.W. And that’s without emergency reserves.which if.you applied the same rule as for fuel plus 30% would mean sailing with say 450 tons of fresh water , plus what you had in the. ER feed tanks. Today with evaporators and distillers the same ships sail with about 20 tons of water , and usually arrive at their destination with more than what they sailed with. So one can assume the. Shipowners made at least 500 tons extra cargo carrying capacity. That must of at least paid a good percentage of the crews wages bill. Taking this further into the scientific realms of the future with unmanned ships , the ships constant was usually about 80 tons this to cover stores and crew , which was also about 2 inches on the plimsolls. So when the robot ships come . They won’t require all these figures which will be surplus to requirements. So there will be at least 600 tons more cargo capacity. All that is required then is to get that 18 ton a day fuel down to more acceptable levels. God knows what the insurance is going to be like though. Cheers JS

[John Arton]

Trading around north Europe on chemical tankers for nigh on 20 years, despite having fresh water generators on board, we still had to purchase fresh potable water from the shore on many occasions and were regularly visited by port health who would test the water quality. We kept a fresh water log book, part of the garbage record book, with all the potable water receipts. The only place I have been where fresh potable water was available in unlimited quantity is when crossing Lake Vannen in Sweden where the water is pure enough to drink without any treatment.
Stanlow was another place where water was cheap but that was down to the meter being goosed.
On the forest product vessels in C.P. we would load phosphate in Jacksonville for discharge in Port Moody B.C. before back loading forest products for Europe. To get max cargo sailing at swdt we had minimum bunkers and fresh water. With Panama being in tropical zone we would bunker in Cristobal, transit the canal and take on fresh water in Panama.
If you rely on fresh water generators for potable water you need to be 15 miles off the coast and have U.V. filters fitted in the system before it is safe to use them to produce potable water. Note I use the term potable when referring to fresh water for drinking and cooking use as opposed to fresh water for use in showers etc.
Rgds
J.A.

[vic mcclymont]

One thing I do notice nowadays compared with my days at sea.
The tap water onboard passenger ships is heavily chlorinated and is in my opinion difficult to drink.
Vic

[happy daze john in oz]

We picked up water in Piareus on the homeward voyage.
It was we were told desalinated water, but what ever it was most of us would not drink it.
Fine in cooking and for coffee and tea, but on it's own yuck comes to mind.

But even today with all the technology cruise ships have in making water they still on many occasions have to take fresh water on board in some ports.

5,000 passengers and crew use a lot of water over the course of a day.

Water as said could well become a currency in future years.
At the current rate of destruction of the planet by man I estimate that within 500 years the only living creatures will be some animals.

[vic mcclymont]

Hi Rob, I remember the Vaal a gap and a reminder bed, cannot remember chlorination an dechlorination.
Getting old lol.
Vic