Anyone ever been on watch...

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JK
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Anyone ever been on watch...

Post by JK »

when something like this occurred?
Usually the first indication is the main engine slowing down, then reving up really high as the mate on watch stands on the telegraphs to get more astern.
For me, it was in the Straits of Bellisle at 0400, just after watch change. The engine slowed down, I was in the spaces doing rounds, I beat it back into the MCR in time to see the propeller pitch go hard astern. I honestly didn't know whether to curl up in the fetal position and suck my thumb or just wait for the bump.
After a bit the pitch went back to full ahead and the phone rang, "I suppose you are wondering what happened."
Some idiot in a fishing boat decided he was going to run across our bow while we were doing 17 knots. At the last minute he turned and went down the side of the hull. The Mate didn't know if he had hit him or not because he lost sight of him behind the bow. Just proves, avoid ships at watch change because you can't be sure what the off-going watch has seen and passed on to the oncoming.
Anyway, marvel at the amazing, er, abilities of ex-Royal Navy officer Roland Wilson. According to the comments he was charged with failing to maintain a proper look out, impeding the passage of the UK-registered tanker, and crossing the channel used by the tanker. There was a temporary exclusion lane set up marked by bouys, and the tanker was escorted by 2 pilot boats.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tUoUxzt9sI
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JollyJack
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Re: Anyone ever been on watch...

Post by JollyJack »

That's why they are called WAFIs. Tanker in the channel going into Fawley refinery on Southampton Water, when a line of yachts came streaming down the port side. One very irate idiot in a sailboat yelled at the bridge as he sailed past "I SAY!! WE'RE HAVING A RACE, GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

Then of course, according to urban legend, there's the oral question in the 2nd Mate's exam. You're on the bridge of a 200,000 tonne tanker doing 15 knots, 7th day of a 14 day voyage. It's 1400, calm but hazy, visibility about a mile, nothing on ARPA at 24 miles range. You look out of the bridge windows all around, go behind the chart table, check the GPS, then manipulate the parallel rule to put the position on the map for 1400. You walk around the front of the chart table, glance out of the forward bridge window and there, dead ahead, about 7 cables, is a sailboat.

What do you do?
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JK
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Re: Anyone ever been on watch...

Post by JK »

WAFI s
Wind Assistated Fg Idiots.
Got to love it. :D
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Re: Anyone ever been on watch...

Post by Bilge_Rat »

Happens frequently on the rivers of America. We have PAFI's... The fishermen consider the Illinois River especially to be theirs and YOU are trespassing. The sheer number of power boats on the Ohio and the Upper Mississippi is mind boggling (don't even ask about a holiday weekend!), and most of the operators have no idea at all of how to behave around heavy shipping. The prevailing attitude of the power boat crowd seems to be, "I paid $x for this boat, I can do whatever I please with it." Amazing that more of them don't get run over.

Oh, BTW, our pilots call jet skis "Heart Attack Scooters"... THEIR heart attack...
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Re: Anyone ever been on watch...

Post by JollyJack »

Radar reflectors are mandatory on fishing vessels, it's in the Collision Regs, but I find that a large number of small fishing vessels don't have them. I suggest to these guys that they spend $27 for a "Hi-Flier", cos one night, when you're snoozing, the freighter that hits ya won't even feel the bump. I tell them the mates on watch depend entirely on the ARPA CPA alarm to warn them of an impending collision, but the ARPA goes by a radar signal. A fibreglass boat doesn't have much of a radar return, so it's almost invisible to radar. No radar return, no alarm.

I suppose the Old Man would wonder where he got the paint scratched when the ship docks next.
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JK
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Re: Anyone ever been on watch...

Post by JK »

If they even noticed a paint scratch.

My next favorite is being given education on specific ship machinery or quirks of the ER, while the plant is running.
You can see the lips moving but have no idea what is being said, even with you both screaming. I don't much miss that stuff.
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Re: Anyone ever been on watch...

Post by jimmys »

I was senior second engineer on a substantial Texaco tanker and we were running up the East River NY. I was in the engine room on stand by 12/4 at night. I was on the wheels. We were running full stand by speed. The telegraph moved off full for a second or two and returned to full, I rose put my hands on the wheels and looked at the telegraph and it moved double ring full astern. A steam ship quick to manoeuvre and I gave it wellie. Another double ring full astern meant damage acceptable. A number of collisions the first a real bad one . The telegraph was like a windscreen wiper. I ordered fill the plummer blocks, air ejectors full pressure, cargo condenser water crossed to main condenser, fire main pressurised, 3/engineer boiler room, Leckie switchboard maintain power,5/engineer movements book. I could hear the steering gears squeal and the rubble driving over the bottom. Good job I had brown underwear on. We sounded engineers call alarms and Chief engineer came down. Sparky was on bridge phone we had hit a large unmanned barge, no lights. We were a product carrier and we could smell the product in the engine room. We could not get the Old Man, Mate was ford 2nd mate aft and Chief and our men went up to help. The Old man said later he thought we had had it and it was only when he saw the engine room gang with the Chief, rubber buckets full of tools and sniffers, we might make it.
The leaks came from tank lids that sprung with impact and some cargo leak which flushed away. Damage was ford of collision bulkhead. No fires. We had hit a bridge as well. We had men on the barge as well, it was deserted.
It was a long night.
The Old Man came on the phone, the engine room squad were looking for "kye" could we power up the galley, I said no more of that you can have the galley. Kye is cocoa with tins of sweet condensed milk in it. The Yanks would not touch it, no taste.
I said to the Old Man what made you tweek the telegraph, he said I just saw something I don't know what, I said it just saved the day. A very experienced Master.

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JK
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Re: Anyone ever been on watch...

Post by JK »

A steam ship quick to manoeuvre and I gave it wellie
Hmm, would that be "give it the boots" over here?
I think I understood the rest, courtesy of working foreign going with some Irish, Scots, Welsh, and English fellows.....but it was a near thing!

That is scarey stuff. You had them on the hop, a lot of stuff to deal with in a quick time.

I've had the double ring on the steam plant, nothing like that though, we were merely in danger of going aground. We could snap the engines astern and drain the boilers dry if we weren't careful, no worry of lifting the safeties. That ship swung two fairly substantial props so there was plenty of bite.
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Re: Anyone ever been on watch...

Post by D Winsor »

I had a similar incident when the control system actuator for the OD Box on a CP Propeller locked in the Full Pitch Astern position and we were flying backwards towards another dock being pushed by a 4 to 6 knot current. The only indication that there was a problem was a panicked double Full Ahead on the Telegraph, a rarity on a Bridge Control ship, and shout over the radio & the P/A system "Drop the anchors drop the anchors!" We didn't get the "Wrong Way" alarm because with the engines on bridge control and the telegraph on "Stand-By" the wrong way alarm is bypassed as it is normally set during Port arrivals and departures, river transits and canaling in order to avoid nuisance alarms.

We immediately switched the engines back to engine room control, engaged all 4 main engine clutches with the engine room control stand and using the mechanical override for the actuator forced the prop into the Ahead direction. Fortunately the mechanical override was in the control room but because of the pressures on the system it took a very strong 2 hand pull to force the system and I was praying that one of the 1/8" the cables connecting the override lever to the actuator didn't break under the strain.

The Captain told me afterwards that when we got the pitch going ahead we were a few feet off the dock that was behind us, a rock pile at the end of the dock and we were throwing water up on the dock from the prop.

The Captain also quickly learned that he couldn't do fast full astern to full ahead maneuvers without stopping in the middle on old worn out equipment.
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JK
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Re: Anyone ever been on watch...

Post by JK »

Why didn't they hit the emergency declutch?
I have seen something similar happen only we snapped lines and the old CE took the Mate on watch by the hand and showed him the big button on the console. I was just happy not to be in the MCR as I had been given a 10 minute relief.
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Re: Anyone ever been on watch...

Post by D Winsor »

There was no emergency de-clutch button in the wheelhouse and if there was and it was used we would have slammed into the dock stern first or ended up on the rocks.

The system was 100% pneumatic in the engine room with an ancient push pull amplifier providing a signal to an e-p transmitter to provide an air signal to the pitch control and the governors. A set of mico-switches on the stick in the wheelhouse sent signals to sequentially start the engines and engage the clutches through relay air and shuttle valves leaving the 4 clutch control valves in the control room the only means to disengage the clutches.

Keeping all the clutches engaged with engines at full speed was the only way we could manually push the propeller to full pitch ahead, which was demanded, without stalling the engines.
Troubleshooting 101 "Don't over think it - K.I.S.S. it"
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JK
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Re: Anyone ever been on watch...

Post by JK »

Thanks for the description. Just shows every situation has it's secific isssues that lead to the decisions made.
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