brianhumber
Well-Known Member
Re: Why do big boats engines stop? Steam and Motor Ships
The Mk2 VLCC steam ships from Mitsubishi were very good and reliable. This coupled with their normal boring runs of Gulf-NW Europe meant I tried to avoid them except when needing hours for my steam tickets. In the seventies the older steam ships were used more like oil tramps and you saw far more of the world even if it was steam a bit stop a lot progress.
Even better were the small 16 and 19,000t product carriers. Still had problems and lots of long hours but you went anywhere from Baltic, to Black Sea, Africa to Brazil.
Some of the runs ashore in Portugese Africa for example I will never forget.
Some larger motor ships in those days in my company were squeezed into engine rooms designed for steam turbines. We had one famous one where a cylinder had to be knocked off to get the engine in. She retained her boilers and all the rest of the steam plant for cargo pumping so you had the worst of both worlds. She was one to avoid at all costs.
Ships were growing in those days and mistakes were made. Company had steam ships which if you ran at full power the case hardening on the gearbox teeth would only last till Cape Town. They never were fixed but ran around at 4 - 8kts until scrapping.
Ship that sank was on its last voyage before scrapping in fact she had been destored once until last minute cargo came up. If I remember correctly chaps could not get the condenser overboard valve shut in time after the pipe ( about 5 foot diameter) fell to bits, before it went underwater - she took about 7 days to go under as the water tight bulkheads held up very well.
It was a young single mans game but overall it was a great life and you learnt a lot about life people countries rapidly if you grasped the oppertunities of getting ashor all you could,.
The Mk2 VLCC steam ships from Mitsubishi were very good and reliable. This coupled with their normal boring runs of Gulf-NW Europe meant I tried to avoid them except when needing hours for my steam tickets. In the seventies the older steam ships were used more like oil tramps and you saw far more of the world even if it was steam a bit stop a lot progress.
Even better were the small 16 and 19,000t product carriers. Still had problems and lots of long hours but you went anywhere from Baltic, to Black Sea, Africa to Brazil.
Some of the runs ashore in Portugese Africa for example I will never forget.
Some larger motor ships in those days in my company were squeezed into engine rooms designed for steam turbines. We had one famous one where a cylinder had to be knocked off to get the engine in. She retained her boilers and all the rest of the steam plant for cargo pumping so you had the worst of both worlds. She was one to avoid at all costs.
Ships were growing in those days and mistakes were made. Company had steam ships which if you ran at full power the case hardening on the gearbox teeth would only last till Cape Town. They never were fixed but ran around at 4 - 8kts until scrapping.
Ship that sank was on its last voyage before scrapping in fact she had been destored once until last minute cargo came up. If I remember correctly chaps could not get the condenser overboard valve shut in time after the pipe ( about 5 foot diameter) fell to bits, before it went underwater - she took about 7 days to go under as the water tight bulkheads held up very well.
It was a young single mans game but overall it was a great life and you learnt a lot about life people countries rapidly if you grasped the oppertunities of getting ashor all you could,.
