December 2024

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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 aftermath of Storm Darragh in the form of a flooded bilge. It is not entirely unusual for a small amount of water, mostly from minor dripping of the propellor shaft stern gland, to be present. To counter this some years ago we installed a float activated 24volt bilge pump, which discharges into a scupper on the port side. This particular type of pump does not feature a non-return valve; indeed, the installation instructions specifically say NOT to include a non-return valve in any part of the installation. Accordingly, we included a shut-off valve so that, when underway, this can be shut the to prevent any sea water that runs up the scupper in rough conditions running back into the bilge. The storm conditions resulted in volumes of water running up the scupper so guess where it ended up! Unfortunately, the pump had failed and despite removal, cleaning and testing it could not be coaxed into action. It may well be that it was simply life-expired or the storm conditions had resulted in water lapping up onto the electrical connections which shorted and blew the pump. After bailing out, and satisfying ourselves that there was not a more serious issue for water accumulation, we purchased a replacement modern unit (with integral non-return valve!) and water-resistant electrical junction box. All is now back in good order. On the issue of bilges, coal dust and ash unsurprisingly finds its way into the Boiler Room bilges. It is evident that a large amount of this accumulates in the area where the bilge discharge pipe goes through the gap in the floor plates into the strum box. To reduce this a heavy-duty cover of welded construction has been fabricated and fitted over the area in question. When I refer to this as ‘heavy-duty’ it is no exaggeration to say that it could easily be mistaken for a safe quite capable of housing the crew’s entire life savings. Good job us Engineers all wear toe-tector boots!!

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