Extras

Fire fighting department 

In the case of fire we have different firestations onboard. They are equipped with stuff to

use during firefighting. Surprise? In the fire stations we have fireman's outfit with breathing apparatus. These BA set's are used for smoke diving. There are fire hoses, axes and other stuff. During the drills we have to test the equipment and the equipment is checked so it's always ready for use. We have to attend to a fire fighting course every 5 years at a fire station. Then we smoke dive and we learn how to put out fires (just throw water

Fire station

Foam monitor Fire hose in box on deck

on the fire). We also learn how to maintain the equipment on these courses. On deck we have foam monitors so we can cover the deck with foam in case of fire. There are also hydrants and fire hoses around the ship ready for immediate use. In the engine room CO2 are the most common way to extinguish fires with since they forbid the use of Halon. CO2 take away the oxygen from the engine room. There can't be any fire without oxygen. It's also Fire extinguisher and hose in the accommodation impossible for any living thing to survive CO2 so the engine room

must be evacuated before they release the CO2 in to the engine room.

It very important to go to the MUSTER STATION immediately at an alarm so we can count the crew and see if any crew is missing.
Anyway now this tends to get a little boring. So let's continue with something more exciting.

We are 3 Deck Officers working 4 hours and then we are 8 hours off. As we say on the ship: we are on watch (duty). So there are always someone on watch on the ship. All Officers stand watches at sea. In port they are on watches as well during loading and discharging.
- Chief Officer is responsible for the maintenance of the equipment on deck. He's responsible for cargo handling and equipment. He have to put the AB's to work.
- 2^nd Officer (Navigation officer) is responsible for the navigation equipment. He corrects the charts and keep everything up to date.
- 3^rd Officer (Safety Officer) is responsible for the LSA (Life saving appliance). He check the lifeboats, rafts, lifebuoys and everything concerning the safety equipment.
- Chief Engineer is the head of the fire brigade. So he's in charge of the fire fighting

2nd Officer and AB on watch at the bridge Don't expect the Nobel prize if you could figure out that the guy with the hands in the pockets are the AB

equipment. Chief engineer is also in charge in the engine room. For example if the Chief Officer stands the 8 - 12 watch there is a 2nd Officer relieving him at 12 o'clock. Then at 4 o'clock 3rd Officer comes on watch until 8 o'clock when I get on my watch. On each watch the Officer have an AB. During the night the AB are on the bridge (complaining about the music) helping the duty Officer to keep a look out for other ships.

Day time the AB works on deck, there is always painting, chipping and greasing to do. Maintenance. During loading and discharging the AB is on deck watching for leaks and he tend to the mooring ropes. During discharging the AB is stripping the tanks from deck while duty Officer controls the cargo pump from the CCR. What the AB's doing during the stripping varies with pump type. But mainly it's to open valves for the compressed air and check down the tank to see that it's empty.

On tankers loading crude and other heavy oil the AB is dipping the tank while we strip. He sends down a weight fixed to a rope in the tank. Then he take up the weight and he can see the level in the tank.
- OK, dip the tank, I tell the AB on the radio.
- It's 2 cm. He reply.
If it's liquid we can try to strip a little more. But if it's residues it's not pumpable and we have ROB (rest onboard). With these cargoes we usually have a ROB of 10-30mΒ³ when we are finished with the discharging.

Sometimes you can caught sight of Captain lolling around. Most of the time he's busy watching a video or drinking coffee.

Well, let's take the oppertunity to learn a little about anchors, anchoring and moorings when we

are out here on deck looking. There is plenty equipment for anchor and mooring handeling. On the foc'sle, that's forward of the ship, there is mooring winches that we use when we secure the ship to the jetty. We send ashore mooring ropes and the boatmen put the ropes on bollard ashore. Then we keep our ropes tight while we are along side. On the forecastle we have our anchor winches as well. We are dropping our anchor while waiting for our jetty and shore readiness etc. When we are waiting at the anchorage we have to be on anchor watch on the bridge. Keep a look out so we hold our position. It have happen that the ship is dragging the anchor in bad weather. Then we have to start up the engine and move so we don't hit other ship or end up on land. On the poop, thats the aft part of the ship, there is also mooring winches. Depending on the size of the ship and the weather we use 4 - 6 ropes

Forecastle with mooring/ anchor winches Poop deck with mooring winches

forward and aft. On the big VLCC's we used 10 - 12 mooring ropes. So we have to wake up extra crew from the other watches at arrival and departure to help out with the mooring.

2 AB's working with the ropes during departure Chief Officer taking photos and screaming In the winter it's always bad weather in Europe. Then it's better to stay home. Well, you get used to it.

So if they need they call us 2 hours before watch and 2 hours after watch. Sometimes all crew is required for mooring.After departure we have to make the ship ready. Ship shape. If it's bad weather we need to secure everything onboard. 2nd Officer and AB secure everything on the forecastle

Chief Officer is allways required at arrival for paper work and to positioning the ship so we can connect the cargo arm on our manifold.

A ship have 2 anchors forward and sometimes there is 1 anchor on the poop deck aft. I'm going to TRY to tell you all a little something about the anchor. I will try to illuminate the territory for

Old style Stock anchor

you, so hang on! Hmm, I hope I can do better than my drawing of a anchor. The anchor is attached to a ship or boat by a cable or chain and lowered to the bottom to hold the vessel in position by means of a fluke that digs into the sea bottom. Way back they used large stones, basket and sacks filled with stones

and sand and all sorts of things, use your imagination, these held the vessel merely by their weight and by friction along the bottom.

Those anchors worked fine with small boats but as ships became larger, they required a more effective device to hold them. They came up with hooks that dug into the sea bottom and when they made iron anchors they could put flukes on the anchor to help the hooks dig into the bottom.

Another major improvement was when they put a stock, see my nice drawing, on the anchor. The stock is in a right angel to the arms. Hmm, my drawing skills lefts more than a little to wish for,

Stockless anchor Picture from prospero

but looking at the anchor from above it should look like an X. The stock makes the anchor to lay vertically on the bottom, and thus one fluke will dig itself in, providing maximum holding power. Stock anchors were used for a long time but 1821 the stockless anchor was patented in England. This anchor was easy to handle and to stow, as you can see on the picture on the left the anchor is flat. The flukes are long and heavy and as more force is applyed on the chain, the shoulders force the flukes down into the bottom. Stockless anchors are now the most common anchor on large ships today. But there are other kind of anchors in use, e.g. the mushroom anchor. Well, you don't win a trip to Bahamas if you figure out that the anchor is

shaped like an mushroom. Well, it's an upside-down mushroom, but still shaped like an mushroom.

Stud link chain

It's used as a permanent mooring for lightships etc. Yeah, let's have some fun. And what's more fun than taking a quik peek on how a anchor chain looks like. Well, we use a chain called stud-link chain on ships. On a stud-link chain every links has a stud across its inside width. These studs add weight, keep the chain from fouling or kinking, and help prevent deformation. Anchor chain That's about it in the matter of the anchor and the anchor chain.

Now lets see how we are using the anchor. I made a video and now it's time to see if the video

works. My lack of talent make me doubtfull, but lets see if we can get the video going. We lower the anchor to the seabed and we must keep track on how much anchor chain we have dropped. The chain is marked in shackles, usually it's by paint or a hose clamp I learned a good knack from an old AB. Tie a piece of rope or lanyard, about 40-50cm in length on eachshackel. Then it's easy to see when the shackle comes up from the chain box. Mostly the paint on the shackles is gone and when dropping the anchor the

chain pass very quick, so it's hard to see the small hose clamps. You can see a shackle marked with a hose clamp on the video.

A shackle is 27 meters long. Mostly we dropp 5 - 6 shackles and that is about 160 meter of chain. It's better to have a little extra chain if the weather turns bad.

A stockless anchor. Here you can see the anchor at the bottom of a drydock

Chain mark, shackle is red and 1 white link on each side means 1 shackle (27m)

Chain mark, shackle is red and 2 white link on each side means 2 shackles (54m)

Pictures taken 20th of June 2004 when Bro Jupiter was in dry dock.

Yoo, have this video making made me going or what? I managed to make another junky video. So

Jetty with bollard and fender. The fender is used to protect the jetty when ships are berthing and when they stay alongside. The fender also protects the ships paintwork when the ship is alongside.

lets have a look at our moorings as well. Yeah-yeah, hang on! At arrival there are boatmen waiting on the jetty. Boatmen are the guys taking ashore our mooring lines. We are using a line with a weight at the end to get ashore our mooring lines. We make fast the heaving line in our mooring line and throw it ashore. The boatmen take the heaving line and pull it ashore with our mooring line. We must use a heaving line because the mooring line is very heavy and it's not possible to throw it. OK, I have heard of a Chief Officer that could throw the mooring line ashore, but this is not a regular thing.

Sometimes they come out with small boats to pick up the mooring lines. Then it's just to drop

Bollard.

down the mooring lines in the mooring boat. On the jetty there is bollards so the boatmen can make fast the mooring lines. On most of the oil terminals the jetty is not long enough to use for mooring. We can use the jetty for our spring lines but for

head and stern lines there are Dolphins, it's like small islands with a bollard on top of them. When it's time to leave the jetty we slack on our mooring lines and the boatmen can let go the lines. We only have to winch them back onboard again and we're off for new exciting destinations. Well, I think that's about it concerning mooring and anchoring. Below you can see how the mooring looks and my beautiful and

pedagogical drawing on how the winches are placed on the ship. Of course there are many variations, but this is the basic.

Here is a ship with 2 head lines and 1 brest line. We can not see the spring line.

 

A typical mooring arrangement, on big ships we use at least double mooring lines.

 

Accommodation

Now let’s have a look on how the sailors live on the ship. Well, hardly time for anything else than work onboard. But we need some place to sleep. We have our own cabin with shower. Back in the days they could live many people in 1 cabin.

There is a kitchen and a Cook making food 3 times a day. We eat in the mess room. There are also a day room with TV and video. Today there is TV in most of the cabins so the day room is almost empty all the time. There is a laundry room so we can wash our cloths and a gymnasium (I have no time to spend there). Today there is just as much people on the ship as they need so it's work and sleep. Mess room The only time you have a chance to meet all the crew is at the meals. If you want to eat diet powder you have to do it in your cabin or on the bridge.

The superstructure Kitchen

We get new video films every month. There are books onboard. They change the books when you call the Swedish Seaman's Church. You can find the Swedish church in the big ports like Rotterdam, Antwerp, London and Liverpool etc. I use to call the Swedish Seaman's Church in Singapore when we passed there. So the Agent or Ship chandler brought the Swedish newspaper to the ship. Very good service. On most of the ship it's possible to send and receive e-mail. But then you don't know who reads them so I prefer to use my own computer and mobile phone. But then you need to be close to shore and a network. My cabin

Day room with TV, video and DVD Day room

In my cabin I have my own bathroom with shower. There is a sleeping cabin and a day room. I can sit in my sofa and work with my computer.

Laundry room

Gymnasium

In the gymnasium there usually are a ping pong table and weights. A bicycle and stuff for exercise. Washing machines is a must. At least 2, 1 for working cloths and 1 for other cloths. Even if you haven't became a salty sailor at least now you know a little about the ship and the crew. Yes yes I know you are jumping up and down in excitement to see the bridge. Now it's time, so make sure you have your hands in your pocket and don't touch any buttons or pull any levers. Click