M.v. Derbyshire

[Ken Atkinson]

Finally the cause was established as a sheared air vent allowing water ingress on the Derbyshire. This I could well understand as while I was third engineer on watch during heavy weather I tried the settling tank drain valve to find a lot of water so I wedged a piece of wood so it kept draining while I tried the adjacent service tank drain and found the same problem. I then went to the purifier and found it was acting as a transfer pump for water. Meanwhile the duty alternator running on heavy oil failed followed by the main engine and with several alarms going off I pressed the engineer's alarm for assistance. Tanks were drained of water, bunker tank changed, purifiers re-instated, fuel lines drained of water and engines re-started. It was found that the port wing bunker tank air vent had been sheared by a sea along the deck. This busy watch is one of several incidents I have experienced requiring intervention from onboard engineers which would preclude autonomous ships.

[James Curry]

The Penlee Lifeboat/Union Star disaster was caused because of water contamination to the fuel tanks , that and stupidity by the Union Stars master.

I was on the Union sister ship and on completion of Discharge we were ordered to Acorn shipyard in Rochester . I had voiced concerns about were the bunker tanks vents were positioned. They were placed forward of the of the break water, and not as designed as per drawings.

[Ralph Knowles]

Glen Nicholas. Dream on matie, but please don't inveigle this site into your phantasies on a serious occurrence which some of us have a direct connection with and find your writings a bit unpleasant and ignorant of the basic manning and running of a large ship at sea. Dream on!