Transvaal Castle/ S.A.Vaal

[John Arton]

Rolls Royce Marine are not manufacturers but are design consultants. As said they have produced a novel design for offshore vessels. They were also heavily involved in the design and development of the concept of autonomous vessels and design of diesel electric propulsion systems. If my memory serves me right they were the design consultants for my last company's series of new builds and bleddy ugly looking ships they are!. RR Marine was a Norwegian company, nowt to do with the cars, which are part of BMW
Rgds
J.A.

[Euan Davidson]

Vic/Rob and all other responses, many thanks for the input, I will check out the B&C staff register site again, I had looked previously but couldn't find any reference to manning levels, maybe I just didn't dig deeply enough.
It's correct there were 3 x Foster Wheeler ESD boilers, operating @ 600psi/900deg.F.
I think 4 electricians on the Transvaal/Vaal was correct as there was a big domestic workload for them from the pax accommodation + hotel services.
440v/60 cycles was correct and 4 x 1500kwTurbo-alternators was also correct, with 3 x 170kw Rolls Royce Petbow emergency diesels.
The Transvaal/Vaal was the only one of the pax vsls not to include some diesel alternator capacity within the engine room.
If I remember correctly the start up sequence from black-out incorporated a timed/phased check sequence to ensure no overloading of the emerency switchboard during starting of boiler FD/ID fans, or Main circulating pumps etc.
As it happens I also sailed as 2nd Engineer on the Clan Robertson, which was fitted with 4 x 1800rpm rolls royce diesel alternators arranged in line fore and aft behind a removable sound screening panel on main engine cylinder head level.
As commented these were prone to throwing exhaust valves into piston crowns, resulting in smashed cylinder heads, and connecting rods out of crankcases etc.
Part of the problem was associated with the sensitivity of the governors, which was resolved by fitting the correct size and number of elastic bands to the governor linkage for damping purposes, and carring out planned maintenance for exchange of the bands after so many running hours ! Elastic bands were also added to the spares list as essential items !
The main problem however was associated with the automatic controls for the S.W. cooling ring main located below the floor plates in the engine room and the location of the diesel alternators at cylinder head level, particularly during manoeuvring. Automatic operation opening/closing of the S.W. ring main regulating valves as the main engine load increased/decreased, resulted in a momentary pressure drop/rise to the auxiliary diesels S.W. cooling supply, and one thing a rolls royce operating at full load and 1800rpm doesn't like is interruption to the cooling supply. !!
If anyone can provide any additional info ref the machinery installation on the Transvaal/Vaal, particularly the refrigeration plant I would be most grateful.

Regards to all, Euan Davidson.

[Chris Isaac]

If you look on the crew lists on the Staff Register you will see that SA Vaal carried a Chief, 2nd 3rd and a Junior Electrician. I can find instances when Windsor carried two juniors.
The others carried Chief 2nd and 3rd.

[robpage]

To the best of my memory it was the only one with alternating current certainly the pendennis with DC and I believe the Windsor was as well as were all the older ones

I think the evaporator was also quite memorable if I remember correctly it did something like a 400 ton a day capacity It came with a remineralizing plant to enable the water to actually have some level of taste .

As far as a fridge plant I haven't got a clue but I would suspect that it was J and E Hall

[vic mcclymont]

Vic/Rob and all other responses, many thanks for the input, I will check out the B&C staff register site again, I had looked previously but couldn't find any reference to manning levels, maybe I just didn't dig deeply enough.
It's correct there were 3 x Foster Wheeler ESD boilers, operating @ 600psi/900deg.F.
I think 4 electricians on the Transvaal/Vaal was correct as there was a big domestic workload for them from the pax accommodation + hotel services.
440v/60 cycles was correct and 4 x 1500kwTurbo-alternators was also correct, with 3 x 170kw Rolls Royce Petbow emergency diesels.
The Transvaal/Vaal was the only one of the pax vsls not to include some diesel alternator capacity within the engine room.
If I remember correctly the start up sequence from black-out incorporated a timed/phased check sequence to ensure no overloading of the emerency switchboard during starting of boiler FD/ID fans, or Main circulating pumps etc.
As it happens I also sailed as 2nd Engineer on the Clan Robertson, which was fitted with 4 x 1800rpm rolls royce diesel alternators arranged in line fore and aft behind a removable sound screening panel on main engine cylinder head level.
As commented these were prone to throwing exhaust valves into piston crowns, resulting in smashed cylinder heads, and connecting rods out of crankcases etc.
Part of the problem was associated with the sensitivity of the governors, which was resolved by fitting the correct size and number of elastic bands to the governor linkage for damping purposes, and carring out planned maintenance for exchange of the bands after so many running hours ! Elastic bands were also added to the spares list as essential items !
The main problem however was associated with the automatic controls for the S.W. cooling ring main located below the floor plates in the engine room and the location of the diesel alternators at cylinder head level, particularly during manoeuvring. Automatic operation opening/closing of the S.W. ring main regulating valves as the main engine load increased/decreased, resulted in a momentary pressure drop/rise to the auxiliary diesels S.W. cooling supply, and one thing a rolls royce operating at full load and 1800rpm doesn't like is interruption to the cooling supply. !!
If anyone can provide any additional info ref the machinery installation on the Transvaal/Vaal, particularly the refrigeration plant I would be most grateful.

Regards to all, Euan Davidson.

Hi Euan, as confirmed by other the VAAL carried four Leckies. I started as Fourth ended up as second.
Normal start up procedure, Wednesday before departure fire up the emergency alternators. supply power to boiler room emergency busbars.
The boiler room switchboard, had two sets of busbars, normal and emergency. There was a no load switch connecting, each item of plant between the two services.

After about six hours, ship would be running on main alternator power, diesels shutdown.

From memory there were either six or eight J & E. Hall Fridge compressors.

After her refit for cruising she had a Westinghouse water cooled chiller installed in the lower deck of number four hold.

Clan R's, don't remember trouble with the water ring main, or diesel governor problems.
Biggest problem was the centrifugal switch, overhung exciters and catching fire and generally stopping without warning.

Towards the end the cold water header tank on the later models was Serc and the entwined RR removed.
During the seventies refit for UMS a Minerva Fire Alarm was installed.
Zone 4 (can remember it to this day) if it and Zone 4 lit up as it often did, you could place your bet that there was gennie either on fire or smoking badly.
Ah the god old days.

Vic

[robpage]

The governors were too sensitive and had 4 adjusting knobs on the front , handy for fiddlers to show their knowledge by twiddling , very complex to set up , the rubber bands slowed the response , I don't remember anyone going on a Woodward course . set up correctly the voltage was stable throughout load changes .

[happy daze john in oz]

To the best of my memory it was the only one with alternating current certainly the pendennis with DC and I believe the Windsor was as well as were all the older ones

I think the evaporator was also quite memorable if I remember correctly it did something like a 400 ton a day capacity It came with a remineralizing plant to enable the water to actually have some level of taste .

As far as a fridge plant I haven't got a clue but I would suspect that it was J and E Hall

Windsor was all DC, if you wanted to use the system for a record player or tape recorder it needed a converter.
many of us had one and they were big heavy items to carry on board

[Euan Davidson]

Chris, many thanks I finallly found the crew list access on the BandC site, yes there were 4 electricians.

[Euan Davidson]

Rob, Many thanks for your input, I had forgotten Transvaal was the only AC vessel. I also sailed as extra 2nd Engineer on the Edinburgh Castle and she was DC. Yes the evaporator was a 3 stage Maxim Flash unit producing 250 tons/day (Note - proper tons !) and we babied it all the time as it was a lifesaver. There was also a 60 ton/day Permutit Mixed Bed Demineraliser unit for boiler feed water. J&E Hall rings a bell for the reefer plant but I just can't find any detailed info.

[Euan Davidson]

Vic, many thanks, good memory for some bad memories of what I believe were the Halcyon days !! Thanks for the J&E Hall reefer input.