News from On Board

Happy New Year to all. A change of month and year, a few bright days that allowed further wheelhouse painting but otherwise little change in the main job in hand – boiler cleaning. This year the task has become more protracted than usual, which is down to the quality (or lack of quality) of the coal we have burned this summer. Prior to the forced change in coal supply due to events in Ukraine, the end of the steaming season required the sweeping of the tubes with a rag and the cleaning of the furnaces and combustion chambers with a light brush followed by the vacuum cleaner. Not so now. The residue left by the bituminous Columbian coal requires the tubes to be attacked with a hard-bristle tube brush and the furnaces and combustion chambers to be scraped and wire brushed. So, what used to be a light job over a couple of sessions now runs into several very dirty and labour-intensive weeks, but we are getting there. Moving to the aft cabin, a somewhat alarming discovery was made in the af...

As the nights draw in and the mercury drops it is time to concentrate on the engineer’s favourite job – Boiler cleaning! The first job in the cleaning process is to empty the boiler of water following which the block and tackles are out, the smokebox doors are hoisted up to reveal the consequences of now having to burn much inferior Columbian coal – soot, lots and lots of soot. Previously, the Russian Deep Mined coal we burnt produced very little smoke, and importantly, very little soot. This used to mean that tubes were swept using a light brush and rag, now it is the heavy brush and a lot of heaving to push the shoot through to the combustion chambers and down onto the fire bars. Then some poor so-and-so has to crawl along the furnaces to remove the fire bars. These are pulled out through the firehole doors and passed to a colleague perched at the top of the Boiler Room ladder who passes the bars out through the sky light to a further volunteer who then passes them to (surprisingly o...

It was an early start on the first morning of September with steam raising for our trip across the Mersey to Birkenhead which had been our home for several years in the 1970’s. We bade farewell to our berth by the Pumphouse pub in Canning Dock on the Monday morning at high tide to clear the gate from Canning out into the river on what was a somewhat warm but damp and dismal day. The crew and Society Friends wasted little time in getting into the tea and biscuits, with the trip to the Galley being was met with the enticing aroma of a large pan of Scouse bubbling gently on the range, gratefully provided by Matthew’s partner Christine. When Kerne left Vittoria Wharf, East Float for Liverpool over 40 years ago, Birkenhead was a thriving port, with many vessels on show and plenty of movements to keep observers interested. Sadly, most of the infrastructure has gone to be replaced by modern office developments and high-rise dwellings - in fact, on arrival, we were the only operational vessel...

Kerne spent the month on display in Canning Dock berthed alongside the Pumphouse Pub, thereby ensuring a large public audience was able to view the vessel whilst enjoying a beer on the quayside. Despite the obvious attraction of our location, the volunteer crew were not distracted from the ‘Outstanding Jobs’ list and continued with the boiler re-lagging. Whilst only partially completed, the benefits became obvious during our period in steam for the boiler inspection, and our short cruise to Canning. In the absence of lagging, the boiler pressure drops away markedly once firing ceases, but with lagging the day following sees pressure still registering. Also it is now possible to leisurely lean against the boiler casing for long periods without getting you backside cooked! Better weather also allowed deck painting to continue and a start was made in the long overdue repainting of the Engine Room. Not all news is good however as after twelve months of successful and trouble-free operatio...

The disappointment of our aborted steaming in June was quickly put behind us. The boiler was allowed to cool and the contents discharged to a level below the offending injector check valve enabling the internal components to be removed for inspection. The valve itself had not positioned correctly onto its seat, so the valve was duly repaired, re-machined and refitted. However is if valve failure was contagious, when testing the main deck hydrant valve, the spindle sheared, so we had to buy and fit a replacement valve unit. It does however demonstrate the importance of regular checks to equipment and fittings on vessels the age of Kerne. The boiler was refilled and fires lit again and steam raised slowly to working pressure and this time the valve behaved itself. More importantly, we were able to invite the Boiler Inspector to examine the boiler under full pressure and witness the safety valves lifting at the requisite pressure. He pronounced the boiler fit for service and signed the a...

To steal a phrase from Robert Burns –‘The best laid plans of mice and men’ can readily be applied to the month of June. There was plenty of action aboard the vessel as we prepared for the annual ‘Live Steam’ visit from the Boiler Inspector ahead of our planned River Mersey Sailing and re-location to Canning Dock for the summer. Significant progress had been made with the boiler lagging in very difficult conditions, but it became apparent that we could not finish the job before we sailed, so we collected the numerous boxes of lagging material from our storage container and stacked them down into the Forward Cabin, with a view to continuing the job in Canning. The first trip out always requires certain preparations, which include checking of life jackets, the hiring and installation of inflatable life rafts and the general checking of on-board equipment. Down below, the Engine Room Pressure Gauges which had been removed to facilitate the manufacture of new replica faces (as the originals...

The April Showers, or dare I say ‘deluge’ has slowed progress on the deck painting, but there has been plenty of action down below as following the replacement of the top and bottom boiler manhole doors, and the closing of the smokebox doors we have filled the boiler as we progress towards this years live steam test. So, reversing the process of removing the fire bars (as described in last month’s News) all the bars are now back in place. All this has been happening in tandem with the installation of the boiler lagging and as if that isn’t difficult enough, it necessitated the removal of several pipes from the boiler which now have to be refitted for the steam test which we hope will take place towards the end of June. Returning to the issue of the boiler lagging, whilst this may seem a relatively simple task, it has proved anything but. The crinolines which will hold the lagging blankets in place are required to be fitted with spacing pieces, welded to the straps which have the twin f...