No Way, I Did Not Just See That!

On me…just got on the boat and headed to sea. Now first thing I usually have to do onboard. Is visit the head and reacquaint myself. Off going chief had closed all intakes on ventilation system to engine room and I didn’t know it. The HATCHES not just the fans. I always run them full blast when under way. I turned them on. Well after a little bit the pressure inside the tug has to equalize as engines are sucking air with no replacement air. Only opening into the tug is through the MSD system. Somebody opened the galley door into the engine room door. Tug vented through the toilet with me on it. I laugh now. I wasn’t then. Lesson learned…ALWAYS look at those intake covers

This was on a romanian built ferry that the company had bought for a cheap price, and to be honest, you get what you pay for.

I am working on a ferry as an “Engineer apprentice” as they shoved me under, I am more like a glorified engine cadet or oiler even. It was 23rd of december and it was cold as hell on the fjord, and the wind was blowing enough to make one of the mates be knocked off duty because he became sea-sick (He’s still ashamed of that).
We were on the last tour to one of the islands, and I tell ye’ fokes’ the fog was thick as clay, and even the second-duty captain said he’d never set sail in this weather, but this other captain on duty did so.
I was in the engine-room painting the engine and getting geeked on the vapour from the painting, since the officers called me a whimp when I said I got high on it and it wasn’t good, but this painting did not make any vapour…(I was later redeemed for that, after I was painting the other vessel’s engine room and the C/E strolled down, grabbed me and hauled me up the ladder and on deck and told the captain to get real, it stung his eyes when he went down there).
So I was sitting on the exhaust pipe, singing and painting the overhead when we struck reef.
I was tossed off and got painting all over me, but soon enough got up and charged in to the workshop, took the VHF there and went control round,from the thruster-room, storage, cabins, control-room and engine-room. I reported to the C/E I saw nothing at all, and mid-sentence I step out from the control-room and I hear a dreadful sound below my feet. I recollect I scream in to the VHF we are taking in water as I throw myself at the air-driven drill and started to open the hatch.

Now the C/E comes running down as I get the hatch open and he grabs a flashlight and we stare down in to water. We told the mates to get ready to abandon ship and evac the passengers aboard as we dove in to the depths of the ship. We found the puncture-hole and in ankle-high of water cealed it shut by welding it in a horrible manner, but it held. We finished the route and when we docked, a crew was to inspect the damage. 50 square meters of metal had to be replaced, ithad punctured hole in both FW tank and FO tank, so we got off quite lucky there.

Perhaps add in that we struck the reef on the portside, a rogue wind that made us drive straight in to the reef. Man,the captain wasn’t happy at all, and I was called to the bridge afterwards…And…I fear that captain…He has the nickname of Captain expressionless…I swear to Odin all-father, this is the Captain happy >:| this is the captain angry >:| and this is when the captain laughs >:þ, fortunately it wasn’t anything bad except a good job, now get back to painting

I was an engine cadet on a pos jones act steam tanker run by a cheap company. The ventilation was provided to my quarters via a a cutout folgers can duct-taped to a hole in the overhead. The cockroaches liked to visit my room through a little opening in the bulkhead shared with the common shower. The bilges were magically dry every night after the 1 a/e knocked off. The starboard boiler needed to be re-tubed but the company kept putting it off. It seemed like every other week we had to shut it down to plug tubes. After one repair we were about 50 psi short of putting the boiler online when I noticed that the fires had cut-out. I quickly rushed to close the fuel ball valve because we had the Leslie valves pinned. When the low water level siren started ringing the second came running into the boiler room with a panicked look on his face. He told me to run up one level and make sure the superheater valves were wide open. By the time i got up the ladder steam started shooting out of the air intake on the forced draft fan and the burner front. Suddenly the boiler room became so hot that it felt like my skin was melting and I ran out of there. When the steam dissipated I re-entered the space and saw a wall of water flowing out of the bottom of the boiler. It looked like someone had cut the liner on an above ground swimming pool. If I remember correctly a down comer had let go and taken out a couple of smaller tubes surrounding it. We then limped over to an anchorage spot in Beaumont and dropped the hook in a swamp. Several days of repairs ensued with gangs of welding crews working around the clock. We jokingly floated a request past the captain to go swimming. Surprisingly he said yes and we quickly ran down the gangway and jumped in. We swam around the ship and sat on the bulbous bow. Afterwards we got the chief mate to take pictures of my sea partner and I climbing the anchor chain 30+ feet and crawling through the hawsepipe.