28th March 2009, 07:37
Did you ever sail on a ship carrying grain? Do you remember the shifting boards and having to restore them after the cargo had been discharged? And do you remember that No.3 hold carried water ballast when the ship was light? Do you remember hundreds of nuts and bolts holding the great lid of the deep tank that had to be tightened and untightened. And that when you arrived at the next port the ballast had to be pumped out from the engine room.
Do you also recall that when ballast was nearly all out and the only water left was in the bilges and that the rose box, through which the water was strained, was continually becoming blocked by grains of wheat or whatever?
Were you the member of the deck crowd with the longest arm and did you have to lie on your belly with your nose half-an-inch from the stinking water while reaching down to clear the rose box.
I was.. Too often
28th March 2009, 07:52
can smell it now Arthur,thank you
28th March 2009, 08:56
The deep tank, as I remember and held 1000 plus tons of water when full. Vever sailed with grain or wheat but have heard about some shifting. Read a paper today about a ship loading iron sand in NZ. Water is unvolved with the loading. One by accounts lifted and reached a close to the stage of rolling over. She had to sail into to Nelson where they bought diggers on by helicopter to dig them over until they had her level and stable again.
28th March 2009, 09:51
Over 50 years ago since I last loaded bulk grain. Angle of repose about 50 degrees and 8% settlement on passage. I made a point of covering all limber boards with burlap- hessian battened and nailed in position, this prevented grain entering bilges ,I also caulked in way of frames. I can't remember any problems with strums or rose box in deep tank ,No 3,. Shifting boards rigged in lower hold and tween deck bins all fed with feeders containing the 8% of compartment they fed to allow for settlement. I can't remember the washplate arrangement in No3 -deeptank but can remember taking the ullage when filling. To day I've seen on the TV ships loading bulk grain without any of these arrangements , just pouring the grain in to a open hold. Owners tried many ploys to circumvent the BOT grain regs and the expense of fitting out for bulk grain. The sad loss of Pamir in 1956? was caused by an experimental stow of bulk grain. The Pamir 's stow was to load bulk grain, trim it level, and then overstow with 8 tiers of bagged grain. This stow was conceived ashore in a laboratory to save money, unfortunately the laboratory was not The Western Ocean
28th March 2009, 12:28
yes all the limber boards were filled with oakham and covered with burlap but you nearly always ended up with grain in the bilgles,even after the cleaners in japan had more or less hand picked every grain up,loaded grain in Basrah and had to count the trimmers as they came out of the hatch
28th March 2009, 12:48
I have carried thousands of tons/tonnes of grain iin coasters, from the Grain regs as I remember them was to saucer some of the grain and overstow with bags. Another part of the regs advised to Make a dummy bulkhead with grain to takes up any void, this was the method I preferred and never had any problems. Before I retired the newer ships holds were such that the gairn was poured in to the top of the coamings and levelled of, we also had portable bulkheads. I always insisted the strum boxes we covered with burlap.
28th March 2009, 14:33
I well remember in the 1950s, the laborious and sometimes precarious task of erecting shifting boards while on passage across the Atlantic to be ready to load on arrival in one of the US Gulf ports. The weather was seldom ideal for straddling the tweendeck and main deck beams in order to bolt the uprights for the shifting boards and feeders to the beams, the uprights swinging around on the end of a runner while the ship is rolling. The task of fitting the boards in the lower holds, the feeders and bins was comparatively safe. Then after discharge in Japan, all the smashed boards had to be retrieved and the uprights dismantled and stowed in the tween decks in readiness for loading timber in Vancouver, this often performed in equally inclement weather, especially in winter .
28th March 2009, 14:55
The only time I carried grain deep sea was in 1951 on the La Cordillera. The shifting boards and feeders were fitted by shore labour in Sydney.
28th March 2009, 16:09
Altho in the galley I watched the loading of grain on the Catalina star 1960 in seattle and was amazed at how much tar paper was used to line the hold before the grain was pumped in, they would line about 6 feet and then load just below, then line again and so on.On top they stowed canned pineapple and orange juice,never ate and drank so much fruit in my life. Tony Allen