Astern Dammit!!

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JK
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Astern Dammit!!

Post by JK »

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Ship+c ... story.html

We escorted a tanker into Cornerbrook many years ago through the ice and broke the dock out while the tanker waited off. I think it was the Irving Nordic. We then moved off and waited for her to dock. I had just come off watch and was on the after deck with the 2nd chatting while we watched the other ship going in. After I few minutes, conversation was forgotten as we watched in anticipation.
The tanker was light enough we could see the prop blade tips. The Master was putting the hammer to her to push through the ice track.
"Astern, astern, astern", we urged from the distance, finally the prop slowed then went astern.
Too Late and he couldn't get the bow swung with the ice pressure. Straight into the berth he went. In slow motion we watched the linesmen running for their life, huge timbers thrown into the air and the ship coming to a dead stop with the bow buried in the dock. She end up holing the forepeak above the waterline and sailed the next day like that after discharging the gasoline cargo.
I don't think I will ever forget that sight.
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JollyJack
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Re: Astern Dammit!!

Post by JollyJack »

Sure it wasn 't the Aimee Goodrowe? Captain Crunch, a friend of KC's, hit every jetty on the coast of Newfoundland sooner or later.
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JK
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Re: Astern Dammit!!

Post by JK »

The Amie Goodrow would have probably went whoomp. I don't remember seeing any indication of inert gas on her.
No, it was the Nordic or one of the sister ships.
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JollyJack
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Re: Astern Dammit!!

Post by JollyJack »

No IG on the Nordic, either, I was 2nd on her, but not for either of the crankcase explosions
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JK
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Re: Astern Dammit!!

Post by JK »

Really? No IG..I never realized that.

The one that Irving really got his pound of flesh out of was the Irvingstream. That old girl went everywhere on the East Coast.
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Re: Astern Dammit!!

Post by carbob »

JK, I thought it was the Irving Ours Polaire that took out the dock in Curling???

I worked on the Nordic a few times when she was the Wellington Kent. There were no more crankcase explosions while I was there, but more than a few times you would find a fuel pump with its holding down bolts sheared off, merrily dancing away on the entablature until one of the fuel lines broke and sprayed fuel oil everywhere. Or one of the bolts broken on an exhaust valve cage, and that popping up and down as the engine was running. Or blacking out when on the shaft generator. A great many cracks in the entablature where the liners sat were repaired with metalock. Great fun, though!!

I was on a few of the Irving ships and none of them were fitted with an IG plant. I believe there was one stored somewhere in Saint John, but it wasn't on the Arctic or Eskimo while I was there. I wasn't on the Ocean or Canada, so I can't say definitively about those, but I don't think there was one fitted there either.
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Re: Astern Dammit!!

Post by JollyJack »

I was 2nd on the Ocean and Nordic, there was an IG plant on the Ocean. We had to regulate the boiler exhaust oxygen content with pieces of cardboard on the fan suction grid, which led to one or 2 (or more) incidents of generating a thick smog in the vicinity of the berth!
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