Marine Engineers

[Stanley]

Some interesting old ships at Whitehaven in 1986.

[Tripps]

With all these pictures - you're really forcing me to get the Para Handy book and DVD out.

[Stanley]

That's the idea David. I once saw a steam engine in the middle of a field at a sawmill near Troon and was told it was the original engine from the 'Vital Spark' taken out when it was converted to diesel.



Another puffer at Whitehaven in 1986.

[Stanley]

Whitehaven harbour in 1986 was like a boat museum. Is this fishing boat a schooner?
I had a look on the web and found this in an article on conservation by John Kearon of the Merseyside Maritime Museum.
"The situation is not helped by projects that for many reasons do not succeed or meet the optimistic claims originally presented. Recently I surveyed the Emily Barratt, the last surviving example of a Lancashire type schooner. The ship has been through several attempts by different groups to restore her. After a considerable amount of money being spent over the past 15 years, she now lies derelict with little prospect of being saved, simply because of enthusiasm blinding reality among those attempting to save her. Indeed, the reality is that much of what has been done to her has hastened her demise. Perhaps it would be better to concentrate what funds there are, or may be, on the more deserving of the ships already being preserved, many of which desperately need long term financing. I am not saying that we should not continue to save special ships, but we certainly should think very carefully about what we save and why. However, the task is a difficult one as each project to save a vessel will be committed to their ship alone, while we who urge caution are accused of 'having ours and not wanting anyone else to have one'."

[Invernahaille]

Great stuff . Keep it coming. Yes Stanley you are right about the preservation
Look what happened to the Manxman!

[Invernahaille]

Hi posters great stuff keep it coming

[Stanley]

Another view of the three steamers at Whitehaven in 1986.

[Stanley]

Isle of Man ferry Mona's Queen coming into Fleetwood in summer 1977.

[Stanley]

River Steamboat at Dordrecht in 1991

[Stanley]

The Queen Mary in retirement at Long Beach California in 1982. Sorry about the quality, I was shooting free film for a local college to use in setting up a new processing facility and they got it wrong!

[Stanley]

One of the bars on the Queen Mary at Long Beach. The thing that struck me was the quality of the veneers used on internal surfaces and the fact that there were no sharp corners anywhere in the public areas.

[Invernahaille]

Monas Queen,
Crossed over to the IOM a few times on the old Lady. She was of the Ben My Chree Class, along with Monas Isle. They where phased out because the IOMSPco viewed them as obsolete because they where side loaders.

[Stanley]

Weren't they lovely looking ships when compared with modern ferries...



I found this pic in a second-hand book. It's the General Mellinet of Nantes. See this link for the original posting on this on the old site. (LINK)

[Stanley]

A 'Landing Craft Minor' leaving General Gas Appliances at Audenshaw near Manchester in 1943. It was built there and launched on the Manchester Ship canal at Salford.

[Stanley]

Father steering LCM7006 on trials on the Manchester Ship Canal on the way to Ellesmere Port. The bearded naval officer on the stern is Charlie Warren who later entered the ministry and finished up as Suffragan Bishop of Tasmania. This would be in 1944. Hundreds of these craft were built by engineering firms all over the country in readiness for D Day.

[Stanley]

The Cutty Sark at Greenwich in 1976.

[Stanley]

On the Cutty Sark in 1977. The old bloke was the chair of the preservation group and the big bloke with the cap is the Norwegian who was in charge of maintaining the rigging.

[Stanley]

Have a look at this LINK for what is claimed to be the biggest marine diesel in the world. I seem to remember we covered it in the original topic. The crankshaft alone weighs 300 tons! Amazing!

[Stanley]

Calmac MV Pioneer docking at Mallaig in 1991.

[Stanley]

One of my favourite firms is Smit Tak who will take on just about any task at sea. Here's one of their cranes salvaging the car carrier that sank in the Channel after a collision. They sawed it up underwater with abrasive cables and lifted the bite-sized chunks weighing about 3000 tons each on to the barge for transport to the breaker's yard. I rang Smit up and asked one of their engineers what their biggest crane could lift and he told me they didn't really know but one had just completed a series of lifts in an Asian port lifting in sections of a dock that weighed 8000 tons and it had been no problem.... The abrasive cable sawing technique was used again to salvage the Kursk, the Russian submarine that blew up underwater in the Barents Sea. (LINK)

[Stanley]

I think this comes under the heading of marine matters.... Left to right, Murdo Grant who owned the harbour at Arisaig, Norman ? his oppo and Mary on a lovely wooden boat called I think the Ervarne which had been donated to the Outward Bound Trust but never used and Murdo was considering buying it.



The yacht at the quay at Arisaig. There's a story behind all this. Mary and I used to go to Eigg in March and October and so very often met the equinoctial gales. Calmac had cancelled all the ferries for two days because they were expecting Force 11 gales so I rang Murdo to see whether he was going across to Eigg. It turned out he was popping across in a window of calmer weather to deliver some building materials needed by a mate on the Isle. He said he'd take me and Mary for £50. When we got to the harbour in the morning the first thing I had to do was clear a blockage in the bilge pump while Norman and Murdo loaded the cargo. We set off into the sound using the engine and the top pic is when Norman, (Reputedly the youngest submarine captain in WW2), decided we needed to raise the mainsail to steady us because we were sailing parallel to the swell and rolling fit to pull the mast out of her. Murdo didn't like sail but let Norman have his way and we were a lot steadier. Funny thing is Mary could be sick on the ferry any time but was OK on what was a very rough crossing.

Murdo never did buy the yacht. They got back to Arisaig OK but that night it blew a hurricane, 156mph in the Cairngorms and over 120mph on Eigg. The forecast had been right. Ten days later the ferries were cancelled again so we sprung another £50 and Murdo came over for us in a lull. I asked one of the local fishermen how hazardous it was to ignore the forecast and he said that you could usually trust these lulls between the gales but he said Murdo had been cutting it a bit fine! Glad we did it. The closest I ever got to foul weather on a small boat. The yacht was evidently a very famous design and was beautifully built with lashings of teak, mahogany and brass fittings. Definitely a trip to remember!

[Stanley]

Not a particularly exciting picture but the wind was blowing hurricane force in the Sound of Sleat, so strongly that the waves couldn't get up, they were blown flat. This was taken from the shelter of Kildonnan and I wouldn't have liked to be out there on this day!

[Invernahaille]

Yes
The sea can be very cruel sometimes, but if you give it respect it will give it back. The true force of nature.

[Stanley]

The trip when we had the 120mph wind was an interesting week on Eigg. By the way, I'm not guessing at the wind speed. When we got home I rang the coastguard at Tyree and he told me that their anemometer stuck on the maximum, 120mph, for long periods so it was definitely at least that. At one point Mary and I stood in the doorway of the mill where we were staying watching the action. We were protected by a basalt cliff to the West of the mill but every now and again the wind dipped down over the cliff and lifted all the water out of the shallow bay in front of us and blew it over the headland at Kildonnan. The bay was over six feet deep. Impressive!



Here's the mill on the right and the basalt cliff which protected us. The bay in front is what was emptied.

[Stanley]

Found on Wikipedia. A triple expansion engine used in Liberty Ships during WW2. Weight is 140 tons.