Fresh Water

[j.sabourn]

#36... Tony you could get in a lather just thinking about what you had left behind in the last port. Ask Cappy how he missed his Emu. Cheers JS

[happy daze john in oz]

That was not an Emu, just a transvestite Lyer Bird. You know they can imitate anything.

Washed with salt water soap on the Paparoa, did little to clean you up.
Most of the clothing we wore went over the side by the time we reached Melbourne.
So much salt from sweating that even blues looked like whites at times.

[Chris Allman]

When we travelled up the Amazon, we often loaded fresh water from the River Negro.

[Shaun Gander]

Lucky you're still here Shaun, quickest way to get dragged over the stern ! Only safe way was on the lee side, start swinging the bucket in an arc of 180 degrees, when the bucket is for'd of you, let it drop in the sea, draw in the line as it comes towards you and draw it up as it comes beneath you, you are then only lifting bucket and water and not fighting to drag the bucket in. This was the method we used on trawler (built 1914) to the Arctic, as FW tank for tea making only, we even cooked with salt water, washed with it (when we washed, too bluddy cold!), we used this method every day for general purposes. Trawler owners didn't believe in providing luxuries

The idea was the water at the stern was 'stationary' and didn't drag the bucket away. Always seemed to work. That was my first boat job at 15 years old, charter fishing boat Nikaria - a 33 ft Lochin.

SDG

[Ken Norton]

We used to dhobi our dungarees on the wooden deck with sea water, dhobi dust and a deck broom. After scrubbing with the deck broom would hang them over the stern with a handline, looped through the loops and made fast to the hand rail. It had a double purpose to smash the dirt and fade the dye, a bit like stonewshing these days I guess. Would then rinse with fresh water. Remember hanging over my run ashore Levis and forgetting for half an hour, there was nothing left bar the loops and the pockets lol. Didn't do that one again.

[Ivan Cloherty]

The idea was the water at the stern was 'stationary' and didn't drag the bucket away. Always seemed to work. That was my first boat job at 15 years old, charter fishing boat Nikaria - a 33 ft Lochin.

SDG

Probably a little different to pulling a bucket in from the poop of an 8 - 10,000 dwt cargo ship going ahead at 10 - 15 knots, even pulling the log line in was a task at those speeds, streaming it was easy! I was 13 on my first Arctic trawler trip about 6 stone wringing wet so the 180 degree method suited me. We also used the 180 degree method on ocean passages on trampers when utilising the canvas bucket for sea temperatures for weather reports, just make sure you were for'd of any ER discharge pipes.

[Chris Allman]

Funny really - I read in a book about lads on their first trip - It may have been ' Sail Ho ' by Sir James Bisset - where either an Apprentice or the Galley Boy threw the bucket over for water and of course it got pulled off the rope and all he was left with was the handle. Its stated that he told the Mate or Bosun and they said ' Its OK just put a chalk mark on the bulwark where you threw it over and we will pick it up when we come back " - must have been pretty decent people, I sailed with Mates and Bosuns who would cheerfully have thrown you after the bucket or at least taken the price of the bucket out of your pay.

[Peter F Chard]

Northern Star was built with the first of a new generation of Flash Evaporator -- it made perfect water, less than 1 ppm. of salt and very soft indeed. Built by Weirs, it was an 11 stage evaporative machine, could make up to 550 tons per day. We used to give a sample of the water to the Ships doctor each day for analysis and he advised what and how much of a secret recipe of herbs and spices we should inject into the product as it came out of the machine to give it a bit of taste and body. On one trip the ship's carpenter managed to contaminate every fresh water tank on board with sea water when connecting the ship to the shoreside fire hydrant system, this was in Sydney so we just wound up the unit and made perfectly potable drinking water from harbour water. The regulations ( BOT ) stated that the machine should not be operated within 50 miles of any coastline, bur what the Hell, it was an emergency !! Cheers, Peter in NZ.

[happy daze john in oz]

Very few people think about water, turn on the tap and there it is.
That is unless you live in the outback where bore water is often pumped up from way down in the earth, then you come to understand how precious it can be.
Droughts, and we are in the middle of a big one now puts a new perspective on it.
Who would think that in the 21st century water rationing ashore could ever occur?

We take water, like so many other aspects of our daily life for granted, but here in Oz there are many parts where that is never so.
But we are not alone in this, there are many countries where water is almost as valuable as gold. So next time you turn on the tap just think about it.

[Tony Taylor]

Northern Star was built with the first of a new generation of Flash Evaporator -- it made perfect water, less than 1 ppm. of salt and very soft indeed. Built by Weirs, it was an 11 stage evaporative machine, could make up to 550 tons per day. We used to give a sample of the water to the Ships doctor each day for analysis and he advised what and how much of a secret recipe of herbs and spices we should inject into the product as it came out of the machine to give it a bit of taste and body. On one trip the ship's carpenter managed to contaminate every fresh water tank on board with sea water when connecting the ship to the shoreside fire hydrant system, this was in Sydney so we just wound up the unit and made perfectly potable drinking water from harbour water. The regulations ( BOT ) stated that the machine should not be operated within 50 miles of any coastline, bur what the Hell, it was an emergency !! Cheers, Peter in NZ.

It would require that purity of the water for the boilers, anything over 2-3ppm we would dump into the domestic tanks, if it went over 9-10 it would be dumped to bilges.