January 2022

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Just when I thought that I could report something different than the current state of the ship’s boiler, the main thrust of our attention in this 1st month of 2022 has been – the ship’s boiler!! I am however happy to report that this piece of news is, on the whole, positive. During our extended visit to Cammell Lairds in 2015, the boiler was lifted out of the vessel during hull repairs, and this gave us the opportunity to thoroughly de-scale and clean the outer shell before applying a good coat of heat-proof paint whilst not being inhibited by the rather difficult access when the boiler is in situ. Unfortunately, the paint system employed back then has not stood the test of time so we have had to look to do it all again, but this time with the boiler in its rightful place in the vessel. Having weighed up the logistics of the job, some of the more mature members of the crew suggested that it should be the younger and more supple volunteers who should have the privilege of undertaking the task on this occasion. So with face masts worn and dust and fume extractors positioned our intrepid volunteers armed with scrapers and powered wire brushes set about this filthy job. Whilst we had isolated the area in the vain hope that we could keep the muck from spreading round the rest of the ship our attempts were only partially successful as even the small holes in the wheelhouse floor through which the steering chains pass enabled the dust to blow up into our nice clean wheelhouse. Once the cleaning, scraping and brushing down was complete the whole area of the Boiler Room was vacuumed out prior to repainting. We had carefully chosen Dactherm 800 high temperature paint for the job but due to the solvents contained in the paint vapour masks were necessarily worn and those not involved were kept well away from the working area. As a consequence the rest of the crew were reluctantly forced to seek refuge in the forward Captain’s Cabin around the lovely warm fire whilst painting was in progress. I have in previous reports referred to the need to heat and raise steam slowly in Kerne’s 1936 Admiralty Scotch Boiler due to this type of boiler’s poor circulation when not in full steam. To improve the circulation it was evident that we needed some means of circulating the cold water from the bottom of boiler to the top whilst lighting up and steam-raising. A few years ago Mrs Betty Fitter, a keen supporter of Kerne and friend to a number of the crew, kindly donated to us the Worthingon duplex boiler feed pump from her late husband’s Foden Traction engine. This will do the job nicely and work has started to manufacture a bedplate onto which the pump will be mounted. Sadly, Betty will not see her little pump in action as she passed away on 10th September last year aged 97. A wonderful lady who will be sadly missed.

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