200039 Repairs Afloat
Repairs Afloat
Report No. 200039
In 1997 I was in command of 26000grt bulk carrier when it developed a leaky stern tube gland. The Company and myself fearing both claims for oil pollution and damage to the tail end shaft decided to lay her up and carry out repairs afloat. I was requested to submit my requirements prior arrival. I calculated the trim by head of about 8.5m!! (loa=190m) in order to have the lower tip of the propeller out of water by at least one meter.
Two points occupied my mind from the start:
- safe access to vessel during the repairs
- loss of sea water suction from lower sea chest
On the first point, as the angle of the accommodation ladder was well above 55 degrees with the horizontal, the Company Superintendent requested me to use pilot ladder for access. When I refused his bid to have people climb for more than 13m up the pilot ladder he bowed to my request of rigging staircase stages on the side of the vessel. Later on the repair, which was scheduled to last for a day and a half, extended to 9 days due to unforeseen problems and he had to thank me for my refusal of accepting pilot ladder access.
On the second point, my Chief Engineer insisted that we would not loose sea water suction but in practice we lost suction at a draft of 3.0 m aft, we quickly ceased operations, increased the draft and got ourselves a very powerful diesel driven pump to pump water from the sea. We had to connect the pump to the international shore coupling. This served us well for several reasons. First, we had our fire lines pressurised all the time. Secondly, from the fire line we could supply our generators, refrigeration/air/air conditioning and compressors. Therefore we could finish our repairs with ease of mind concerning the safety of vessel and people coming on and off.