Unidentified

M ELEY · 12th September 2018, 08:02 PM

Wow, David! That sounds both exciting and extremely terrifying! I didn't realize you were an 'old salt'! So without trying to stray away from this interesting ax, where where you at (what ocean or sea) when that ship broke down?

CutlassCollector · 13th September 2018, 12:41 PM

It is a bit off topic, but:
Big storms are not uncommon so every ocean going seafarer will have had their share of hurricanes and typhoons and normally ships avoid or stay as far away as possible and ride them out. A few days of uncomfortable heavy weather is usually the only consequence.
Many decades ago I was a junior engineer on a tanker built in the 1950’s – a steam turbine ship (sorry Mark no sails!). It was a hard working ship but on a good run - round trips taking fuel oil from Singapore or Brunei up to various ports in Japan. Good run ashore at each end!

We were slow steaming to stay behind a typhoon north of us and heading towards Japan. Unusually it turned back on itself and we became much deeper in than we expected. Wasn't a problem......until the main generator failed - no power, no steering - after a very scary time and a lot of sweary words we got everything running again.

12th September 2018, 08:02 PM	#1
M ELEY Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: NC, U.S.A. Posts: 2,141	Wow, David! That sounds both exciting and extremely terrifying! I didn't realize you were an 'old salt'! So without trying to stray away from this interesting ax, where where you at (what ocean or sea) when that ship broke down?

13th September 2018, 12:41 PM	#2
CutlassCollector Member Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Scotland Posts: 343	It is a bit off topic, but: Big storms are not uncommon so every ocean going seafarer will have had their share of hurricanes and typhoons and normally ships avoid or stay as far away as possible and ride them out. A few days of uncomfortable heavy weather is usually the only consequence. Many decades ago I was a junior engineer on a tanker built in the 1950’s – a steam turbine ship (sorry Mark no sails!). It was a hard working ship but on a good run - round trips taking fuel oil from Singapore or Brunei up to various ports in Japan. Good run ashore at each end! We were slow steaming to stay behind a typhoon north of us and heading towards Japan. Unusually it turned back on itself and we became much deeper in than we expected. Wasn't a problem......until the main generator failed - no power, no steering - after a very scary time and a lot of sweary words we got everything running again.