Marine Engineers

[Stanley]

See THIS for a Wiki article on the Russian aircraft carrier Kusnetsov. What brought it to my attention was the footage of it when it passed through the Channel recently and the more recent footage of it on station in the Mediterranean. In both cases it was putting out excessive amounts of smoke. Far more than one would expect from efficient oil-burning boilers in good condition and well maintained. What does this say about the state of the vessel? If you look at the specification in the Wiki article you'll see that it has oil-fired boilers which surprised me. A fine looking vessel but she is 31 years old and on the evidence of the smoke isn't in tip top condition!

[Tizer]

The smoke has even caused consternation in Russia with commentators saying it makes Russia look bad. Some say the ship's crew are not properly trained, others that it's due to the very dirty, cheap oil they are using, and others again claiming it's a normal thing to clear out soot and is usually done at night by warships. Pluggy might be able to enlighten us! See this Russian web page: LINK and the photos on this China page (but don't bother trying to read it!): LINK

[Invernahaille]

Thomo,
I was with Ellerman Lines, the City of Banarres was a beautiful ship, a twin funneled steamer. Ellermans never built another twin stack ship after that terrible incident. A German Submarine torpedoed it when it was carrying child evacuees to Candada. The innocent victims of war.

[Stanley]

I've had a bit of experience with carbon fuels and smoke.... Coal exhibits exactly the same behaviour if the combustion conditions are wrong. I'll go into it in depth on steam engines instead of writing it twice.....

[Invernahaille]

Talking about exhaust Emissions the link below is to a clip of my last Ship. MV Hebridean Princess.
Twin Crossley 8 Cylinders. Built 1964. No matter how you tuned them, We could never get the emssions right. God I tried.


https://youtu.be/_xX3927EkPo

[Stanley]

Love the clip Robert......

[Stanley]

Thinking about your smoke problems Robert. Were the engines turbocharged? If so you were on a hiding to nothing in the days before computer control to limit fuel supplied to the engine for a sudden demand for power before the turbochargers had time to spool up and supply the necessary air. It certainly looked as though that was the problem in the clip. Turbo lag has always been a problem.

[Invernahaille]

Yes they were Turbo Charged Stanley.

[Stanley]

That was what you might call a slow burner Robert but no less welcome for that. How are you? I'm in good nick but fighting my own design problems with the tiny valve gear on my latest exercise in the shed!



The most important tools are my pipe and a pint of tea......

[Invernahaille]

Lost my password Stanley. Been a hectic last six months have moved to Tennessee. Davy Crockett country.

[Stanley]

Have you bought a coonskin hat? You'll be a bit warmer than us, we are having a last bite at winter.....

[Stanley]

I note from the news this morning that our latest vanity project sets sail from Rosyth this morning for her first sea trials. Lots of questions about this of course, in an interview the captain referred to 'showing the flag' and 'Demonstrating the capability of power' across the oceans of the world. I'd be a lot more impressed if we had some planes to put on it. But even then, is this just one more example of outdated thinking? The overall military budget has been cut as more and more money has been diverted into the carrier programme and Trident. And we are in the process of building a sister ship..... (LINK) I'm sorry, while I love big engineering I am not impressed by what seems to me to be outdated thinking. Isn't it time we admitted the reality that we are no longer a global power?

[Tizer]

We may not be a global power in the old sense of the words but we still need to maintain an effective defence force. Where it tends to go wrong is in the balance of `military assets' - a couple of giant aircraft carriers seems a bit close to putting your eggs all in one basket.

[Stanley]

And becoming so reliant on US technology. As in the avionics of the F35 and the Trident missiles.....

[Tizer]

Our defence minister this morning admitted that the new carrier uses Windows XP, but he says we shouldn't worry because the important thing is how secure the systems are around it. Something makes me think he doesn't really understand what it's all about but someone told him to say that. He probably carries the statement around on a piece of paper to be consulted when necessary.

[Stanley]

I heard him as well Tiz and have commented in Politics Corner. I suppose it's a consequence of the long lead time in design for kit like this that we are using a 17 year old obsolete OS in our most modern asset. A Navy spokesman said it was "less susceptible". What does that mean? Is it good enough? There is also the perennial problem of who controls the code for the systems. Was it sub-contracted out to a US controlled firm? Who maintains it? Are we capable of managing it ourselves or is it, like the Chinooks and Trident, controlled and monitored from the US? All questions we would like to know the answers to but will never be told..... One thing is certain, Fallon won't know. So there is a second question, do his advisers or the navy know with certainty?

[Tizer]

Talking about the new F-35 fighters, this looks like an F-35 Lightning at RNAS Culdrose, Helston, Cornwall. I took the photo while on holiday last month. Of course, it could be the engine-less dummy one they put on the deck of the carrier some time back for a press photo opportunity!

[Stanley]

Lots of rumours flying round that Trump thinks they are too expensive and wants to cancel the programme..... 'False News'?

[BillHowcroft]

My Dad was in the Merchant Navy from about 1941. Torpedoed by the Imperial Japanese Navy off Madagascar (Mundra) on his first ship and bombed by the Luftwaffe off Tunisia and then shipwrecked off Skye on his second (Urlana). Had the job of running his final command up a wrecking beach near Karachi about 1978 when the British merchant marine shrank.

[Stanley]

My mate Daniel went to India and did pics of the beach ship-breaking. Here's one of them.

[BillHowcroft]

I saw the top part of the new carrier from the ferry as we sailed out of Portsmouth. It's big.
However, in my view it's underpowered as are the planes it will carry. They should have fitted a couple of nuclear reactors for cruise and to give an additional steam capacity for catapults for fixed wing aircraft, like the French De Gaulle. The failure of the Harrier to support in hot climates like the Gulf compared to the Falklands should have shown the need for greater lift capacity.

[Stanley]

I think it's a white elephant Bill. Just think what one laser guided bomb could do to it......

[Invernahaille]

To those who go down to the sea in ships.
At the going down of the Sun and on the Morning we will remember them.

[Stanley]

Morning Robert! Still in Tennessee?
And don't forget Kipling's later lines after he lost his son at Loos and became disillusioned about war.
"If they ask you why you died, tell them that your fathers lied". That doesn't get quoted as much on Armistice Day.....

[Tizer]

I read a news item which said that the number of people accessing Flight Radar to track aircraft went up by 10% when Ms Patel was flying home to be sacked by May. They were following the journey made by her aircraft. I've used Flight Radar to identify civil aircraft flying over but the same news item told me that you can do the same for identifying merchant shipping on a web site called Marine Traffic: LINK