[Jeroen]

Those of you who have read some of my posts over the years, might recall I started my career a long time ago in the merchant navy. I went to naval college, got a nautical engineering degree and went of to sea. I spend almost 10 years on the merchant navy and offshore industry. I have worked for four different shipping companies, three Dutch and one American one. The first years were spend on all kinds of ships, from general cargo, container to bulk carriers.

But I spend most of my time on oceangoing tugs, Anchor Handling and Supply vessels and a few oil rigs.

I was one of those little boys whom from very early on knew what he wanted to be, either a pilot or a naval engineer. Truth be told, my mum used to claim as a toddler I only wanted to become a garbage truck driver. Anyway, with lousy eye sight, becoming a pilot in those days was not an option. So after secondary school I went to naval college.

When I graduated there was quite a shortage of naval officers. At the diploma ceremony in the main College hall, your name would be called, you would walk forward and you would be handed over your diploma and your engineering license. You would walk back to be congratulated by your family and friends and then you would walk towards the back of the hall. Here representatives of all Dutch shipping companies were present and you would be offered a job on the spot!. Those were the days, it also meant promotions were swift. I became Chief Engineer after less than 6 years.

I “came ashore” as it was known in the late eighties. But I am still interested in anything that floats. I like to visit harbours, read up on ships and so on. My best friend Dennis, I met whilst we were working on an anchor handling tug of the coast of West Africa. Dennis was first mate and I was second engineer. We became very best friends. We quite the sea faring life about the same time, we both got married, both had three kids and all of us moved around the world a lot. Dennis and I would visit harbours and naval events together during all those years

Times change, Dennis passed away some years ago, but the passion for the sea is still there.

Last Friday I was scrolling through Facebook and an invite popped up from the ocean going (museum) tug Elbe to join her for a Saturday of sailing. I signed up immediately.

The next morning I started up my 40 year old Mercedes W123 to drive over to Maassluis, the homebase of the Elbe.

I often come to Maassluis. Everybody that is interested in towage and salvage will do so. It has a very nice tugboat museum, and the harbour is home to various museum ships, mostly tugs!

Also, Maassluis used to be home to the legendary Dutch Towage and Salvage Company Smit.

Here the gorgeous Elbe. She was launched in February 1959, which makes her the same age as me!!



She sailed as Elbe for Smit from 1959 - 1976. She was sold and became a pilot boat in Maryland, USA. Next, she was sold again and she became known as Greenpeace, for eh what else Greenpeace. In 2003 she was bought by the society that still owns her today and who were responsible for her restoration which was completed in 2013.

https://zeesleperelbe.nl/en/



In those days tugs looked like yachts. These days most modern tugs look awful, impressive, but ugly at best.

Just an impression of some of the other (museum) ships in this little harbour.

This is the Hudson, another old Smit tug. It is restored, unfortunately they had to get rid of everything in the engine room. So it still floats and it gets towed around the Netherlands for various maritime events. She is a bit older than the Elbe, 1936. She is tiny compared to the Elbe, still she was an ocean going tug in her days as well!



The next one is the Furie, she is a proper steam tug boat. She was used in the Dutch TV series, Hollands Gloria (Dutch glory), named after the same book by Jan de Hartog. It tells the story of tug boat captain Jan Wandelaar. The Fury is moored at the back of the Tugboat museum and is still fully operational. Just like the Elbe she does tours all over the Netherlands and sometime even further afield, such as Belgium and Germany.



Another tug is the Varnebank. She is also an ex-Smit tug. She and her sister ships were specifically designed to assist the very and ultra large tankers and carriers coming into Rotterdam harbour from the late 70s onward. She was one of the very first harbour tugs fitted with so called Voight Schneider propulsion.



The harbour also has a couple of smaller vessels, most are ex-Smit. Some of these vessel were used in salvage operations.



Another ex-Smit harbour tug, the Varnebank. It is the most recent aquisitio, nice former harbour tug.



These days with pop stars, famous football players, F1-drivers, DJs and influencers it is difficult to image, but there was a time where captains of ocean going tugs were famous and real heroes! The Dutch have always been famous for their towage and salvage capabilities. Smit was for decades, the number one towage and salvage company in the world. If there was a difficult job anywhere in the world, you would call their HQ in Maassluis.

Smit tugs were stationed all over the world near known difficult waters. Very often the main marine underwriters would pay Smit to keep a tug at a certain location, just in case.

Back to the Elbe. First I will show you some images from the ship itself and some of the cabins and then we will take to sea! Next, you are invited to come along for a visit to the engine room!

Here we are early Saturday morning, still moored in Maassluis. You can see the anchor winch on the foredeck and the ship’s bell.



The Elbe is fully restored, but it was a difficult journey. Believe it or not, she sank twice during her restoration years. Luckily, both times in harbour and she could be lifted easily. But all these tugs still exist because of a small army of very dedicated volunteers and some very generous financial donors and backers. As you can imagine, a lot of them, former merchant navy sailors and current marine related companies.

There are a few things that are not original anymore and I will point them out subsequently. Here we are on the port wing of the bridge. The captain can manoeuvre the ship with that remote control box. It controls the bow thruster and the rudder. The engine is controlled with the telegraph on the outside of the bridge.



Neither this remote control box or the bow thruster is original. But it makes manoeuvring this tug in close quarters so much easier. Sometimes these oceangoing tugs needed assistance from local harbour tugs for manoeuvring. With only one propellor, one rudder and no thrusters, manoeuvring is difficult.

Here you see the bridge or wheelhouse. Very prominent on ships like this is a massive steering wheel. You would be hard pressed to find a steering wheel on any modern vessel. If they have it, it would the size of a small saucer. The steering wheel console also houses the gyro and the auto pilot. Very simple autopilot, just follows a gyro course.

You can also see the engine room telegraph towards the far port area. This telegraph is duplicated on the starboard side, but also on the outside for easy operation.

The laptop, obviously is not original. It is hooked up to a GPS and an AIS (Automatic Identification System). This ship, old as she is, still needs to comply with all modern rules and regulation, so she needs AIS.

The sort of periscope about the steering wheel is a device to look at the magnetic compass above the bridge.



Typical for the tugs of this era are the many small portholes on the bridge. These days you will find huge open windows all around the bridge. Facing forward and rearwards. On these old tugs, rearview was very limited from the bridge. The portholes/windows needed to be so small, because the glass they used was simply not that strong. Big waves smashing into it can break it.

Right behind the wheelhouse is the chart room.



Behind the wheelhouse and chart room, the captain’s cabin. The roomiest and nicest of all cabins, obviously. Being a captain on a tug means you need to be available 24/7. It would take just a few steps from his bunk (bed) to the bridge!



By now we had gotten underway. We are sailing eastwards, following the “Nieuwe Waterway” to Hook of Holland and the North Sea.



The Elbe offers different kind of trips. Sometimes they will visit a maritime event in the Netherlands or abroad and you can come along. They do a harbour tour, where they sail up the river towards Rotterdam and you will get to see many of the Rotterdam harbours.

Today’s tour would take us out into the Northsea where we would visit one of the anchor location just west of Scheveningen. Scheveningen is a renewed Dutch beach town, adjacent to The Hague. A trip like this costs Euro 64 (INR 5000). Not cheap, but then again, it is full day program!

The old towing winch room has been converted to a little cafe/bar/restaurant. You can get coffee/tea/all kinds of drinks and something to eat.



It is a shame the towing winch has been removed. It is one the interesting features of tugs. They did have a little model of it on display.



Those who have followed my posts over the years, will have seen us cross the English Channel multiple times. Usually via the Hook of Holland Harwich Stena ferry. First time I got to see the Stena terminal and ferries from another vessel.



I have made the crossing to and from Harwich on this ferry (Stena Britanica) dozens and dozens of times and on her sister ship. An old mate of mine from naval college is the local Stena Chief. A few years ago he arranged for me to have a tour of the Stena Britanica. I was shown around by the Chief Engineer around the engine room and bridge. Very interesting. I think I might have posted images of that visit too on the forum?



As you will see from the images and video’s it was absolute gorgeous day. About 14-15oC, but a strong SWS wind, about force 4-5. Which meant the sea was going to be choppy.

Most people spend all their time on deck. Being out in the open is a good way to keep any seasickness away. I will be honest, I do suffer from sea sickness as well. Not badly, but still. So just to be on the safe side I took a couple of anti-sea sickness tablets. Because here is the thing, once you become seasick, your day is ruined. You will awful until your are back on terra firma.



Once we cleared the Hook of Holland breakwaters, the Elbe turned north and followed the Dutch coastline. We stayed about 2-3 miles from shore. Here we are in front of Scheveningen. You can just about make out the huge ferris wheel on the pier of Scheveningen.



A couple of the ships at anchor.





Some more wheelhouse features. This is right above the inside Steering Wheel. Because these tugs had such poor rearwards visibility from the wheel house their are several Steering Wheels mounted on different decks outside. You also see the main magnetic compass in front of the Steering Wheel.



Can you imagine being out here in the middle of a dark and stormy night on an ocean trying to get a towline across to another vessel whilst manoeuvring in 8-12 meter waves?

Tugs always carry a huge array of antennas, radars and so on. Of course, the Elbe still has all the original antennas and a few more modern ones as well. E.g. GPS, AIS, Satcom



Which brings us to the radio room. On any ship an important place, manned by the Radio officer or Sparks as we used to call them. In those days there was no satellite communication, no Internet. So communication was all done on relative low radio wave and with morse code.



A good Sparks on a tug was absolutely critical. It is a real skill to be able to listen to radio signals in morse on these radio bands and be able to pick up a distress signal!! That is usually how these tugs were called. In those days there was simply nothing else. Sparks spend 24/7 in their radio room. Whilst on station, they used to work, sleep eat and drink there. They left the receiver on when they went to sleep. They were so well trained that they would pick up an SOS morse code in their sleep and wake up!

As soon as the Spark raced to the captain the whole ship companion got exited. Because if you are a real tug man/woman there is nothing more exiting than going out on a salvage job!! Dutch tugs stationed around the world had a special status code that they would radio signal to their head office to let them know they were ready for the next job. PERK which stands for Paraat en start klaver. Standby and ready to go!! PERK was easier in morse of course.

Here you see two morse keys!



By now we were on our way back home to Maassluis again. Absolutely fantastic day. I met and spoke to many of the volunteers. We had some stories to share, found a guy who sailed on one of the same vessels as I had. The very large/thick sort of white rope is called a “stretcher”. It is an essential part of a towing connection. A towing connection is made up of steel wire and sometimes bit of chain as well. The stretcher will be attached somewhere in the middle. It allows for some “stretching” of the towing connection. It needs to sit in the middle as it will be underwater. The continuous stretching back and forth will generate heat, but being in the seawater allows it to stay cool and it will last longer.



A little impression of the Elbe at sea near the Scheveningen anchor location. The north sea is an extremely busy waterway. There are strict rules and designated channels ships must follow. Also, you can only anchor as these designated spots. Ships tend to anchor out here as they might have to wait for their berth to be readied.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFhYMdq88v8

The complete ship is open to all the passengers. You can go anywhere, with the exception of the crews cabins down below. But anywhere else you can go at your leisure, including what for me was the main attraction the engine room!!

[Jeroen]

The heart of any ship and certainly of a tug is the engine room.

Tugs, even modern ocean-going tugs are relatively small in size and tonnage. But they tend to pack a big punch! The Elbe has an overall length of just under 60 meters, Just over 11 meters wide and a draught of almost 5 meters.

She has two main engines, 2000HP each, Smit MAN RB666. The two main engine drive, through a gearbox one propellor with a diameter of 3,60 meter. To put that is some perspective. The largest tugs I sailed on had 22000HP. But for the first couple of years after she was launched the Elbe was the world’s strongest ocean going tug!

She has three auxiliary engines, all caterpillar 3406. These are not the original auxiliary engines. At some point these were replaced. Two of these auxiliary engines provide electrical power. One auxiliary engine is dedicated to provide (electrical) power for the bow thruster.

Elbe could cruise at about 12 knots, very few tugs are fast. they tend to be powerful. During our cruise they also shut down one engine during cruise to save on fuel. We cruised at about 8 knots.

When I arrived in Maassluis around 09.15 I was allowed to board immediately. The engine room crew had both engine running at idle already, warming up all the systems. So this was the very first thing I filmed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4lPB9Ve0vQ

Here you see the main walkway between the two engines. A very typical set up on tugs like this. The engineers need access to the top of the engine. During watch keeping they will read the various temperature gauges, check the oiling of the valves and rockers and so on. Along the port and starboard just above each engine you can see a lot of spare complete inlet and outlet valve assemblies.



Each cylinder has its own fuel pump.



Here you see the manoeuvring stand. It faces rearwards, so on the left you see the starboard main engine and on the right the port main engine. Notice the huge inlet filter of the turbo!





Elbe has two main engines that drive through a gearbox one propellor. Each engine is connected to the gearbox by means of a hydro pneumatic clutch. The clutches can be operated with the propellor stopped and the respective engine running at idle, which means about 90rpm or thereabouts.

Both engines are reversible. Which mean they can run in either direction. Many (larger) marine engine do, because it allows the propellor to run forward and in reverse. So these engines get started in forward or reverse.

During manoeuvring the crew would have one engine running forward and one engine running in reverse. They would use the clutches of the respective engine to respond to the bridge calling for forward or reverse on the telegraph.



Here you see the gearbox, from the port side



On the left you can just see the port main engine and in the middle the outgoing shaft to the propellor.



Here you see the propellor shaft in some more detail. This gearbox also includes the thrust bearing. That is where the thrust from the propellor is actually put into the ships structure. Notice some more spare parts bolted to the ships hull.



Each engine has its own controls as well, part of redundancy if you like. Normally manoeuvring is done from behind the manoeuvring stand. Also visible the cilinder oil lubricator. Each cilinder gets individual lubrication from this little machine. Its all mechanical, ratchet driven by the main engine.



On every ship you will find these sort of diagrams. This one depicts the layout of the different tanks. The engineers will note the quantities, when filled etc. There are tanks for fuel for the main engine, auxiliary engines, clean fuel day tanks, ballast tanks, potable water and sludge.



Sludge is basically any used and or contaminated oil, be it fuel or any other oil.
Ships have so called centrifuges for cleaning their fuel and lubrication oil. It is in essence, literally a centrifuge, in which either fuel or oil is continuously fed. Both water and all heavy contaminents get thrown out.

Here you see the engine oil separator on the port side. Oil tends to be heated when the engines are switched off. Very often the oil seperators are kept running so also the warm oil keeps circulating through the various systems. The big red spanners are for the separator. They need to be opened up and cleaned regularly.



Here the auxialiary engines and the main switch board in front of them. We are facing forwards here. Here the generators can be synced and switched onto the board net.





These sort of engine have cilinder liners. Each liner can be individually pulled from the engine. I have done it many times, also on these very large slow speed two stroke engines. I have done it a couple of times in the middle of the ocean, which makes it very tricky as you have several tonnes of steel swinging from a cable.

Liners tend to get replaced due to normal wear, or due to developing cracks and or leaks. Behind the liner a spare piston. In the video of the main engines running you can actually see the cylinder liner and somebody is standing nearby, gives you a feel for the size!



Several gauges for different tanks. The stairs lead up to the superstructure.




Every engine room will have something like this too:

[Jeroen]

Some more spare parts, bolted to various bits of the engine room.

A spare cylinder head



Spare starting valves



Spare injectors



Every engine room will have a well equipped workshop. A ship needs to carry all spare parts and all tools to be completely self sufficient. Which also means that as an engineer you need to be able to fix and repair just about anything.



One day you might be doing routine maintenance on a main engine. The next day the electric razor of the captain stopped working, or the oven in the galley. or you will find yourself climbing into the mast to fix some lights, or working on the bridge on the radar. You would be working on hydraulic system, pneumatic system, electronic, a crane, a winch, a pump, air conditioning etc.

Being an engineer on a ship is a hugely versatile job. You really need to be a jack of all trades! Being an engineer on a tug or anchor handling vessel usually adds even more tasks and responsibility. On most tugs and AHT it will be one of the engineer that operates the towing and anchor handling winches. And you will yourself working on deck battling it out with towing ropes, anchor chain etc. Tug and AHT have small crews and everybody needs to be able to step into any job!

I also found manoeuvring interesting and I was lucky to sail with one captain who showed me the ropes. I have quite a number of hours manoeuvring a tug underneath an oil rig in very dicey conditions!

The engineers also take care of all the normal facilities onboard. Electricity, heating, air conditions, all equipment in the galley, the dryer and the washing machine and warm/cold running water.

Here you see the potable water hydrofoor. It is a pressurised tank. The water is pumped into this tank against air pressure. Which means the complete water system across the ship is pressurised.

You can see the two pumps sitting to the left of it. These are known as SiHi Pumps, often mistaken for centrifugal pumps. They are not, they are positive displacement pumps, but with water acting as pistons due to the shape of the pump housing. The duty engineer needs to ensure the correct pressure is maintained and a sufficient amount of pressurised air remains on top of the water. You will notice that some of the flanges and valve handles are painted blue. Which means this is a potable water system. Brown handles means fuel, yellow means oil, green means sea water etc. Very simple very effective!



Just thought I showed you this. Because the water system is pressurised you have these special valves to flush the toilets. You push them down to flush and they are supposed to close slowly. But they always wear and start closing with a big bang. Very detrimental to the system and the pipes, so as an engineer you found yourself replacing the seals of these valves endlessly. Usually a job for the apprentice engineer.



Here another piece of ancillary machinery, the boiler. Obviously, this is not the original one. It is a modern boiler, diesel furled, fully automatic. The boiler is used to heat the accommodation, but also used to heat for instance the lubrication oil and or fuel when applicable.



On the starboard side the fuel separator. Notice the brown (=fuel) handles on the valves!
On ships fuel is never fed into the engines directly from the tank. There is always a separate day tank. That tends to be filled by means of the fuel separator so you are ensured of clean fuel to the engines.



On the port side two compressors. These engines are started by letting high pressure air into the cylinder, by means of a special starter valve. Pressure could be up to 45-50 bars, although on the Elbe it was a bit lower. The compressors run automatically.

As I mentioned the Elbe manoevres by reversing one engine and using the clutch. But on many ships that is not possible. In order to reverse you need to stop the engine and start in reverse, then back to forward etc. So you need to really watch how much air and at what pressure you are left with. Too many starts too quickly and you might have to wait a few minutes before the compressors have filled the air tanks sufficiently. You don’t want that during manoeuvring ever!!



Here you see one of the engineers doing some checks on the starboard air vessels;



This is the turning gear of the port main engine. You need to be able to turn the engine over for maintenance. But also prior the first start after standing still for some time, these huge diesels get turned over fully twice, with their indicator valves open. If there has been any leakage of cooling water or fuel that will spill out the indicator valve. If you did not turn the engine prior to starting and if there had been a leak, you would have very severe engine damage right away due to water slap.



This turning gear was electrically operated with a e-motor. But I have seen them driven by pneumatic motors as well.

Engine rooms are full of pumps. This is a pare of general purpose pumps. Which means they can be used to various purposes. E.g. ballasting, or fire fighting.



A final shot of the starboard side of the engine room. We are looking aft with the main starboard engine on the left. On the right the various pumps, valve and air tanks we saw earlier.



Being an engineer on a tug also means you need to very agile. This is a small engine room but crammed to capacity with machinery, pipes, valves, switches, parts etc. You need to duck and weave to avoid banging into things all the time,

I must admit, I had an absolutely great day. I really enjoyed being out at sea, on a proper tug. A bit dated compared to the ones I sailed on, but everything was still very familiar to me.

If you are ever in the Netherlands and are interested in tugs, do go and visit Maassluis. The harbour is always open, there are always a number of museum ships moored and there is the Tug boat museum too. Maassluis itself is also quite a nice little town.

I hope you enjoyed reading up on my first love. I certainly enjoyed the renewed acquaintance and writing about my old experiences.

Any questions, please let me know. I know we have several very experienced and seasoned sailors on the forum too. Would be great to be hearing from them as well.

Jeroen

[GTO]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

Going to our homepage tomorrow

[V.Narayan]

Thank you Jeroen for writing this thread and for the effort to take and share all these exciting photos.

Ships, engine rooms and bridges really get me excited. If you walk through a ship, it is easy to grasp why sailors consider her a living being and not just a piece of metal and ropes. Unlike an aircraft or a railway engine a ship is a piece of machinery that the crew actually live inside often in the space left in between the machineries! The photo of the head {commode} reminded me of my father's warships where a photo of Indian and Pakistani ships was pasted on the inside of the door. So, while you did your job you read the details and saw the silhouette of these ships hopefully to memorize them!

It is wonderful that these preservation efforts are being taken in Europe and the funds for this are available. Here we simply cannot gather the funds for preservation of an old ship not even for national icons such as the old INS Vikrant.

[rpunwani]

Jeroen, thanks for sharing these lovely pictures & write up

Brought back lovely memories of my days at sea. I joined sea as a 5th Engineer in Feb 1983 and sailed on Container Ships, Tankers & Bulk Carriers. Gave up sea life in March 1991 after being a Chief Engineer for 2 years.

Was in the offshore shipping industry for a decade 1999 - 2009.

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

as an engineer you need to be able to fix and repair just anything - routine maintenance, next day oven in the galley, climbing into the mast to fix some lights, on the bridge on the radar, hydraulic system, pneumatic system, electronic, a crane, a winch, a pump, air conditioning etc.

You need to very agile. This is a small engine room but crammed to capacity with machinery, pipes, valves, switches, parts etc. You need to duck and weave to avoid banging into things all the time

Excellent thread, Sir, detailing everything on board the vessel. And, as you rightly said, the engineer(s) have to know to fix everything, from a bulb to a W123 .

I was just wondering - aren't hard hats mandatory in operating locations on board?

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

It is wonderful that these preservation efforts are being taken in Europe and the funds for this are available. Here we simply cannot gather the funds for preservation of an old ship not even for national icons such as the old INS Vikrant.

Yes, preserving one’s heritage is never cheap. Whether it is buildings, cars, planes, ships, etc. These kind museum ships tend to be set up as a society. Which means they are a non profit organisation, sometimes exempt from VAT as well. They get their funding from sponsors, companies and private persons. And of course they make money with these trips. They also do company outings.

When it comes to preserving these old ships, it is not so much the initial purchasing cost that is the problem, but the operational ongoing cost.

A few years ago, some old colleagues looked into brining one of our former Anchor Handling and Supply vessels back to Maassluis. The SmitLLoyd 118. I sailed on her once as second engineer. Have a look here https://www.varenderfgoed.nl/nieuwezee/eidefighter.html

She had been sold several times and was laid up in Norway as Eide Fighter. I was in touch with the broker. All certificates were still in order, asking price was Euro 375000. To put that is some perspective. 375kEuro will hardly get you a small terraced house, 2-3 bedrooms in the Netherlands.

But the operational cost, even as a museum ship, are huge. The Elbe still sails under her original registration and certification. Which means every so many years she needs to dry-docked and inspected and pass certification by a surveyor, in this case Lloyds. Maintenance and insurance are expensive and the council Maassluis still asks for mooring fees as well.

The trick to setting up such a society is to have a couple of people involved and or on your board who have a really good network in the maritime world. It is not just money from companies, but products and services you need, preferably free of charge. Providing free products/service is very attractive for both parties!

Originally Posted by rpunwani

Brought back lovely memories of my days at sea. I joined sea as a 5th Engineer in Feb 1983 and sailed on Container Ships, Tankers & Bulk Carriers. Gave up sea life in March 1991 after being a Chief Engineer for 2 years.

Was in the offshore shipping industry for a decade 1999 - 2009.

Very happy to have you on board Chief!

Originally Posted by vigsom

I was just wondering - aren't hard hats mandatory in operating locations on board?

It depends a bit. If this was a tug doing in commercial operation you would most likely see everybody wearing hard hats on deck and even in the engine room. Not required as such on the Elbe. You might have noticed the ear protectors on the engineer in the engine room. All passengers when entering the engine room were encouraged to put on ear protectors too. They had about a dozen or so of them for the passengers.

In my merchant days, safety was quite more relaxed than it is today. We would work on deck under an oil rig, with no safety gear, other than safety (rig) boots and gloves. In those days, some oil companies made it mandatory for all staff on board rigs and boats to wear safety hats. Which meant we had to wear safety hats on deck whilst near the rig too. But in those days it was the exception rather than the norm.

Safety has come a long way since. I am all for it. Mind you, I have seen some horrific accidents and to be honest, no amount of personal safety equipment would have helped. (e.g. a container slipping from its hoist and falling on a dockworker. Towing rope parted and wiped out two men of the deck, couple of very nasty fires and so on.

Of course, all of these accidents could have been avoided, not so much by wearing personal safety equipment, but by better equipment, working instructions, training etc.

Safety is very much about attitude and being able to recognise potential problems and acting accordingly.

I actually left the offshore industry over a safety issue. I was working for a foreign AHT company at the time. They had a huge fleet, all registered under cheap flag as it was/is known. They had a couple of experienced officers that tended to get assigned to ships that were dealing with very important or difficult jobs.

So I found myself in Singapore overseeing a major dry dock and refit of their largest AHT. Half way into it, they signed a contract and it meant we had to cut short the dry dock work and refit. We managed to get her back in the water and ready to sail in a few days. We were still moored, with the main engines running, ready to depart, but we were waiting for the pilot. I was running around the engine room and across various other compartment making last minute checks. I suddenly noticed we had no fire extinguishers onboard, not a single one. The original ones had been taken off, to be checked, we were given some replacement. But somehow the replacement extinguishers ended up being taken off, without the original ones being put back on. So I raced up to the bridge and told the captain we could not depart until we had our extinguishers back on board. Just that moment the pilot stepped onboard as well. The captain phoned HQ and was told in no uncertain times he had to depart no matter what. I told him, he would need to depart without his Chief Engineer. So I had two minutes to pack my things and hop off. The company did fly me home, but also told me this was my last trip working for them.

No regrets!

Jeroen

Jeroen

[behaln]

Thanks for the wonderful thread once again. You bought back my memories of the sailing days.
I joined sea in 2001, got my command in 2011 and came ashore in 2021. Attached is the picture of my last vessel.
Infact many of my ship mates are members here in team-bhp.
Most of the time our discussion during tea breaks or long pilotage will be cars and modifications.

[chandrda]

Thanks for these wonderful pictures. Have always been fascinated by large ships but have little knowledge of them.

Its good to read and improve the knowledge

Regards

[offroad]

That is a wonderful write up Jeroen. A very good read, i was reading your article, while in the middle of a meeting happening over zoom . Many of my cousins, friends are in the Navy, merchant Navy working on mega ships. I hardly get to meet them as they are mostly on sea and when we meet, it's story time. We get to listen to some of the wonderful adventures from the sea. Now i can correlate to the various aspects of the ships my cousins tell looking at your pictures.

Sailing was a dream for me and in 2006 i got an opportunity to sail on a Chinese made tug boat at kakinada port in Andhra Pradesh, India. All the instructions on the boat were in Chinese, but the operators knew all the procedures. So the language did not matter much to them, but for us it was quite different and difficult too. It was a memorable experience watching a small boat pulling in a huge ship into the port. Also visited a Russian cargo ship docked at the port. The captain was very eager to show us around. Every thing was in Russian language including the coke bottle . Will go through your other articles soon.

[Joscyriac]

Nice write up and photos, Jeroen. Saw the engine room poster with the "What happens in engine room, remains in the engine room" cardinal rule. As a deck officer i have observed this rule religiously followed on every ship I've sailed on. Happenings on deck are galley news by noon. Engine room might as well be on another planet. Even in matters of safety things are kept a secret or hidden from those above.

[Sa!lor]

Amazing write up Jeroen sir, reading the article from on-board Chemical parcel tanker pitching and rolling heavily in bad weather near Korea unable to sleep thought of opening teambhp and turned out to be a good decision finding your article, I am sailing as Third Engineer and it was a great experience reading this article while actually being on ship. As they say once a sailor always a sailor.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Joscyriac

Nice write up and photos, Jeroen. Saw the engine room poster with the "What happens in engine room, remains in the engine room" cardinal rule. As a deck officer i have observed this rule religiously followed on every ship I've sailed on. Happenings on deck are galley news by noon. Engine room might as well be on another planet. Even in matters of safety things are kept a secret or hidden from those above.

There is always some tension between the deck/bridge and engine room crew. Often it can be just some good natured banter, but it can sometimes be really acrimonious. It is one of the reasons I preferred working on Tugs and AHT. Much smaller crews, less formalities, one messroom,for all, one bar/recreation area for all, no uniform, just everybody working together. Whatever needs doing everybody will step in.

Jeroen

[alpha1]

Wow, the internals of the ship engine reminds me of my days in oil refinery!
Almost the similar look and feel, of course with obvious differences, but the plant area used to be much more extensive with piping and equipment. Man I almost miss the smell of oil and H2S/mercaptans (even though I used to hate it that time)!
I am sure, ship's engine room must also reek of oil.

And yes, safety helmets all the time! I am surprised that helmet rule is not applicable on ships engine area.

By the way, how clean are the toilets on these ships?
I mean we are so used to clean toilets in the office and definitely clean toilets at home/hotel.