Maintenance & Repair

[Capt Bill Davies]

Did we do it any better than elsewhere?

Bill

[John Arton]

Bill
I think it all depended upon which company you were in. I can remember seeing some pretty shabby U.K. registered ships back when I started and some companies did have a bad reputation for maintenance etc.
Again I don't think that this was solely U.K. flagged. I remember some of the Dutch outfits ships always seemed top notch and been woken up at 0600 in Durban by the chipping gangs descaling the hull and decks of a dutch ship just across from us, but tied up astern of this was another dutch registered ship that was in complete contrast it being shabby and well worn.
So did we do it best... I think you cannot put a definite answer to that, i guess you would have do do a massive amount of reasearch into miles travelled/cargo carried against maintenence costs for various countries fleets to actually put a definite answer on the question.
Though having said all the above I do believe that yes we were the best.
rgds
Capt. John Arton (ret'd)

[Russ Kennedy]

Did we do it any better than elsewhere?

Bill

From an engineering point of view, I think we did and still do "do it better than elsewhere", but sometimes we shoot ourselves in the foot!!
Couple of examples/experience as I remember ithem:
Mid 60's dry docking: 1) Docked in South Shields for a 4 year survey. Quite a big work list in the engine room, quality of work done first class, schedule overrun by about 3 to 4 days due to union disagreements with ships engineers e.g. I'm not doing this while you are standing watching me....etc, etc.
2) Dry docked in Hamburg/Bremen (not sure which) again for a 4 year survey, same sort of work list completed on time, no hassle with the manpower. Quality of work, no where near as good as the UK. Once we sailed we had to re do quite a bit of the work, nothing major, but things like leaking glands, flanges, etc more irritating than anything else.
Maybe an up to date example of we do "do it better than elsewhere" is in the UK Car industry, especially Nissan.
Food for thought?
Regards, Russ

[Captain Kong]

In ESSO throughout the 70s we carried Nicos.
There is or was a company in Las Palmas called Nicowerken, They usually put a dozen Spanish Nicos, on board and they stayed for several months.
They were very good, they painted and cleaned out the engine room also chipped and painted on deck and assisted in mooring and cast offs etc,
We only carried six ABs on a VLCC 250k so it would have been a big task to keep the ship maintained.
Cheers
Brian.

[Capt Bill Davies]

I think it all depended upon which company you were in............. (ret'd)

Some of the the most well maintained ships I ever saw were the owner/master Dutch Schoots.

On a more general level I cannot remember any PMS as we would recognise the meaning today being carried out in the 60s. In the china boats you got close to it and that was probably because the Bosun had been in the ship five or more years. Elsewhere it varied. I question the quality of the work done by the dozens of shore people who walked up the gangway with chipping hammer, scraper in places like Hong Kong.
I was on several US owned ships that carried their own grit baster which worked relative well.

Bill

[Tony Wilding]

As has been said some companies took pride, some did not, having regular crew also helped, , i collected my brother from a Turnbull And Scott Ship, the Flowergate, what a disgusting state she was in, , but most i sailed on looked good for docking day, most Dutch Family owned Coasters were kept well, even some Greek Companies kept them looking good, but occasionally you did see a reputeable company ship looking manky,

[happy daze john in oz]

I think most of the regular liners, Cunard, P&O, UCL etc looked after their ships fairly well, and at one time Britisg ship building was some of the best ever. Now I am getting a bit nostalgic,what went wrong????

[robpage]

All the Clan line ships built in the mid sixties had a very good PMS in the Engine room and on Deck , it was the early days of PMS and if anything was over the top , but effective , even if you had to open strainers that had not been used since the last inspection . I think that reflected on the fact that there was a good engineering department ashore working on those sort of things , The time and motion studies they carried out in the late sixties was a bit of a let us see if we can reduce manning exercise , but I tghink that as aimed more at catering than Deck and engine room

[Capt Bill Davies]

The time and motion studies were very much a late 60s thing. It would be interesting to hear your views on whether the PMS enhanced or diminished the C/E role in the engine room. As an example, I seem to recall that the only time that the C/E presented himself in the ER when the Engineers were changing a B/E would be to give his view whether new shells were to be installed or the old ones re-instated (which practice had disastrous results when hours re-commenced a Zero). Not wishing to get into the Oil and Water argument of whether the C/E should have been down doing the job but more interested in whether this important decision was taken from him. In other words after going to all the work of exposing the shells , they should be changed. No decision by C/E.

Bill

[robpage]

With Clan Line I do not remember a Chief Engineer that did not appear in te Engine room regularly , most took a morning pre Breakfast walk around . The planned maintainance , as it does throughout industry , refines itself as it matures . Generators were swapped out , although the company pushed the running hours between swaps further and further until crank failures became a common event on the Rolls Royce D Series . Thgings like a main Bearing , or a bottom end shell , were pretty obvious to see if they would last to the next inspection or not , by most engineers . The deciding factor was often how many spares do we have , and can we sensibly wait until trhe next service period . Shells were not an expensive item , we used to re-metal them at dry dock , I distinctly remember watching the whole process at George Clarke - North East Marine Yard . Quick and cost effective . Shells weer , with the introduction of hydraulic bolts , quite easy to access as well . In Gulf Oil , I dont remember the Chief Engineer leaving his cabin during the whole voyage , Given the oppertunity , to have removed the telephone and welded up the cabin door would have been good not only for moral but for the ship . UCL Chiefs , always took a walk about , again most mornings , often with teh First Engineer , and Sealink , you had so many stand-By operations in a day that you did spend your life in a boiler suit with boots on regardless of rank . I have heard of absent Chief Engineer , but in my experience they were a rare commodity . Like Second mates with a drink problem , they were very rare , but if you got one , you remembered it , you never slept well !!