Why?

[Flossdog]

Sailing in and from Milford Haven, I come into contact (not literally!) with many oil and gas tankers. Can someone please tell me why many tankers leave water sluicing down the hawse pipes and cascading over the anchors - not just for a few hours but for days! Is it for some reason or just due to sloppy deck hands forgetting to turn off the water?

 

[sailorman]

Sailing in and from Milford Haven, I come into contact (not literally!) with many oil and gas tankers. Can someone please tell me why many tankers leave water sluicing down the hawse pipes and cascading over the anchors - not just for a few hours but for days! Is it for some reason or just due to sloppy deck hands forgetting to turn off the water?

Ballast trimming pumps

 

[Uricanejack]

Why?

Not ballast pumps or trimming.

Probably the General Service or Fire pump.

The cable washers on older tankers (I'm not sure about modern ones) were usually run from the fire main.
Common practice is for tankers to keep the fire main charged ready for immediate use. This can be achieved by having a pump on auto start when pressure drops on opening a hydrant.
In cold weather we would often leave a hose running over board or the cable washers on. running water does not freeze.

Or if you want to have a pump running you need to have an overboard discharge to prevent pump over heating. using the cable washer is a one method of achieving this.

 

[tommydortez]

Sailing in and from Milford Haven, I come into contact (not literally!) with many oil and gas tankers. Can someone please tell me why many tankers leave water sluicing down the hawse pipes and cascading over the anchors - not just for a few hours but for days! Is it for some reason or just due to sloppy deck hands forgetting to turn off the water?

I previously worked with Svitzer towage on all 5 of the facilities in Milford. I remember, one of those great mysteries in life... when pulling up under an anchor, the pump always seemed to miraculously switch on!

 

[Homer Simpson's Lovechild]

Uricanejack has it spot on.
It' s being used as a bleed for the fire pumps in order to keep them/ it running. Reasons for fire pump being left running are many. Washing down, small ejector pumps running, etc . Engineers get a bit peed off having to climb out of bilge and run up ten flights of steel stairs to answer the phone for a request for "water on deck" so will just leave it running.

 

[Flossdog]

Thanks guys, I appreciate your replies. Nice to know there is a logical reason

 

[homa]

I used to work on tankers
Can't use anything electrical on deck for obvious reasons
We used water pressure to power things such as ejectors (small pumps) for stripping cargo and ballast tanks, power fans to blow air into tanks for drying.
Anchor wash was at the end of the fire main line and so it was easiest to leave these open so that the fire main did not overpressure and seize the fire pump.

It's not just tankers, we use water powered ejectors to strip water ballast and strip bilges in cargo holds on conventional cargo vessels.

Come to think of it every vessel I've sailed on has used water ejectors for some use or other. They are very simple devices with no moving parts.

Homa

 

[Downsman]

I was only ever in one tanker and I recall something called Butterworth gear that was rigged and lowered down the tank top. It had nozzles on and blasted the tank sides clean with high pressure water. I was a trampship man so it was all a bit beyond me, but I do remember they pumped it all out once we cleared the coast. One trip up the Gulf to Mena-al-Amadi was enough for me,... back to tramping.