Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Oilskin
I am looking for some information regarding the number of cranes in use for offloading of coal to Battersea Power Station.
Any other information from collier men regarding the trips to Battersea would be appreciated.
BW
OO  :cool |
During the early 60's in one of a few spells on the coast I served on flat-irons running to Battersea, I only ever remember only two cranes and hoppers, they were very efficient and fast, as didn't have to be too careful, as the flatties had extra strong tank tops and coamings being built for a trade where-in they were likely to sustain grab damage and the hopper target area was quite large. So over two thousand tonnes discharged from one high tide to another, in on one tide and out on the other, arriving late Saturday tide was okay, as no discharging allowed on a Sunday
My flattie was steam vessel with tall funnel so had to be on standby all the time aft to lower and raise the funnel for the bridges, mainmast was telescopic, but foremast wasn't so crew on duty fore and aft on transits, not too bad on daylight transits as both mainmast and foremast could be left down, but on night transits had to be raised and lowered for navigation light purposes. If you had bolshie engineers you were slow in raising the funnel as they reaped the benefits of the smoke, as of course we did aft when the funnel lowered.
Navigating when in ballast both in river and at sea a pain in the butt, as from the wheelhouse midships you could not see the traffic ahead too easily as being down by the stern all you saw was the foc'le head, so it was always a bridge wing job come rain or shine, loaded in bad weather they were like submarines, but accommodation and food was always good, they had a good service speed of 11 - 12 knots so navigating tide races not too bad, where-as the Yellow Perils only good for about 8 knots on a good day, so made navigation much more difficult, some times crabbing down the Channel, when wind and tide against you. but happy days, the food and accomm on the Yellow Perils also okay