But in the war movies, when water comes spurting out of some hidden orifice the crew know exactly which valve will stop it, instantly and without hesitation.

Do you remember a submarine series on the TV years ago called: 'Voyage to Sea the Bottom' (or something like that. :p ) It featured a sub with glass windows in the nose. When they collided with something, which they did with monotonous regularity, the glass never cracked, but water would spurt in from the deckhead.

They spun the wheel on a convenient valve and the water stopped. I too thought at the time that was one very handy valve.

Also when the sub surfaced it literally leapt out of the water and slammed down in a big splash. I thought to myself: I bet that's pleased the lads in the galley !!

:jump:

A wheel key and an 8 inch shifter. After 2 hours the Tailwallah will bring a big mug of tea and a chapatti. These pneupress systems are ever so simple to work on.
Wullie, will you bring us down a hammer and a big stillsons, for f u c k sake.
Jeez me knuckles are all skint. Frig this for a game of cowboys.

Good men! They have done, with due diligence, the "below plates survey"! Every Eng.Officer worth his wage will do it on a new vessel!

As the old adage goes, when things go wrong, you don't have time to trace pipes and mark valves.

I was once passing over oily waste to the "slop tank", prior to arrival in port and safe discharge. The bluddy level never went down! I asked the 2/E and Chief for advice. They suggested that maybe the pig tail pump was knackered. Okay, pump out, strip down, all okay. Replaced the bearings and seals while I was at it "std. Blue Flue procedure". Pump back in, started pumping over the tank, same same!

I decided to go under the plates - Known as "bilge diving", although we had spotless, clean bilges (painted white). There, buried behind a mass of pipes, was a diverter circuit and the "smoking gun" valve. Turns out it was returning the oily waste directly back, instead of over to the slop tank! The C/E was worried that the previous trip 4/E was dumping over the wall and he didn't want problems. Duly marked for posterity and noted in the log. We got down to checking the oily waste logbook just to make sure, while the tank pumped over.

Seeing how I had wasted my entire watch, I decided to stay on and get the job done before we arrived to port. The oily water was at it's limit. I did get a free beer off the 2/E though.........

Rgds.
Dave

Yes Dave, but on a Hollywood (or Twickenham) submarine the water always bursts out of a gap somewhere above where the actors are stood, not from under the plates...

just saying like:wink:

And on the 'Seaview' (the sub in the TV series I mentioned, a queer name because it seems to me the last thing you want to view as a submariner is the 'sea.' :p ) diverter valves weren't in the script.

:big_tongue:

Both points taken! The leak, however, is always in the most inaccessible place!

We had a valve that had to be replaced in the purifier room - Again, a job for me! It involved removing a plate and working "blind", upside down, like an ostrich for most of a "day work" day! Bluddy 2/E kept coming past and saying things like,"Haven't you finished yet!". The worst thing was it was surrounded by steam trace pipes for the fuel oil. 54 degrees in the ER, more in purifier room and even more below the plates with that all pervading HFO smell! I really had to rehydrate in the bar that evening!

Rgds.
Dave

Don't fiddle with things that don't belong to you: .... :eek:

Or things you don't understand! I remember a Cadet cancelling an alarm on Stand By. The C/E asked the Cadet what the alarm was - He couldn't remember! The C/E went ballistic and sent the Cadet to the corner with orders not to move or touch anything for the duration! He certainly learned his lesson!
Rgds.
Dave

I did exactly the same as a Cadet and got a good kick up the arse. Texaco didn't do corners.

I don't know. Doesn't a tangentially fired boiler have corners?

I always said it was a mistake to educate the Marconi Sahib.
We could link-out the PLC's.

Jeez I'm in the company of dinosaurs ... :jester:

(I've always wondered at the use of the word 'dinosaur' to indicate people who haven't moved with the times. Consider that those fellahs were around for nearly 150 million years ... far longer than us naked apes, and it took a big slam dunk to put them down.)

Bremer Vulkan produced a Corner Tube boiler in the '70s. Have no idea why it was so called :really_mad:

Get back into the Shack or I'll hit you with my Ticket. And set Lecky on you. Upstart.

There are still a few 'terrible lizards' knocking about to this day.
So the anthropologists tell us.
Less so in China, they tend to eat them, and anything else that moves come to that.

Scribbled the following during the SARS outbreak:


Our latest predator is SARS
Released from Machiavellian Jars?
Or leaping out of civet meat
And stranger things the Chinese eat.

Having noted FG86's post about ship's names, I got to thinking about such in fact ... and in fiction.

When I worked for CP Ships they had a number of ships named after former CP chairman. Hence you had names like: W. C. Van Horne and E. W. Beatty. Awkward names at best. They also named some after Canadian cities and towns. I did two trips on the Fort Assiniboine, once or twice I was picked up on the name and asked to repeat on the Morse Key.

For me the best ships names came from the pen of Scottish science fiction writer Ian M. Banks (sadly no longer with us.) In his 'Culture' series of books, the ships operated by this Galactic organization are fully sentient AI's that name themselves on construction. They are considerably more intelligent and have much faster thought processes than their builders. They are in fact so advanced as a result of AI evolution that they're not fully understood by mere human beings.

The 'Culture' are not believers in warships as such, (at least so they say.) However my favourite name for a ship comes from what the 'Culture' calls an 'Abominator Class General Offensive Unit.' The name it has given itself is: "Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints." Known to Ian M. Banks fans as FOTNMC.

Is this a warship ? The 'Culture' might deny it, but it's best described as a phenomenally armed, totally psychopathic, completely independent and self-contained attack vessel that does and destroys whatever it pleases.

Hence its name is very suitable.

Somebody made this video, which is a bit on the Flash Gordon side, but does demonstrate the sort of behaviour of FOTNMC.

https://vimeo.com/258709785

Dark Star?

The scene with intelligent bomb discussing theology with its operator.... And let there be light!

A big bang, certainly, but 'the' big bang?

Well not sure what 'the' Big Bang is. Some modern theories suggest there maybe an infinite number of Big Bangs occurring deep into the past and future. I guess this is 'our' Big Bang which according to some other theories, may itself contain a vast number of other Big Bangs.

Of course those other Big Bangs would be somebody else's rather than ours. (You could drive yourself to the drinks cupboard just thinking about this stuff.) :eek::pint:

Since we're musing and thinking here.......
In Scotland we're having an Alba Party.
This should be just the job for the dancing and singing. (Let's not get into politics, I'm just taking the p155):yawn:

Very good of you, Bob. I think I will.

I have less trouble understanding the concept of an infinite number of Universes than I do of politics. :sweat:

Big fleas have little fleas,
on their backs to bite em.
Those little fleas have smaller fleas,
and so ad infinitum.

https://www.spaceweather.com/images2...1/restored.png

Is the Alba tuned into The White Heather Club? Alex and Nicola are the image of Andy Stewart and Moira Whatshername.
What a gay Gordons.