After spending about 15 days in hospital, I was discharged from the hospital. I was still weak. I stayed back at home for about 1 month before reporting to office in Bombay. They had posted me on a tanker, “M.V.Homi Bhabha”. The ship was off Bombay coast, since it was a dedicated lighterage ship and had double-banked with a VLCC, loading crude oil from that ship. I went to the ship in a supply vessel and it took about 3 hrs to reach the ship. Upon reaching the ship, I was lifted along with my baggage with the crane. I was surprised to see a batch mate of mine there. I quickly took my baggage to my cabin, changed and met the chief officer. After the initial exchange of pleasantries, I went on deck to get myself familiarised with the ship and the operation of loading which was in progress.
As I earlier said, since this was a dedicated lighterage ship, she had three big and two small fenders which could be lowered by pneumatically operated davits. The ship used to double bank with VLCCs off Bombay port, which cannot enter the ports due to their deep draft, load crude oil from them and discharge the same at oil terminals inside the port. This operation (lighterage) used to take about 15 to 18 hrs. The sailing to Bombay port was for about 3 hours and then the discharging used to take about 20 hours. It was non- stop work for us during these times.
When we were not doing these lighterage operations, we used to load in Bombay and discharge in Cochin. This was much better for us since we used to get the sailing of about two days.
This tanker had a capacity about 45000 tons which could be loaded in 9 tanks. We could load at the rate of 3000 cubic metres per hour. We had a separate pump room, where the pumps (rated capacity of one pump is 1000 cu m/hr) used for discharging, along with hundreds of valves were located. Apart from this we had many valves on the deck, which were used during loading/discharging. Since crude oil is highly flammable, there were many safety measures on board to prevent the oil from catching fire. Also since the tanks are pressurised/de-pressurised during loading/discharging, there are means of preventing the tanks from getting stressed during the operations. Inert gas (a mixture of nitrogen and several other gases) in used to maintain the pressure of the tanks, within limits and also to avoid the crude oil from getting in contact with the atmosphere.
My job during loading was primarily to set up the line for loading and to monitor the level in the tanks. Extreme care has to be taken to avoid any overflow, which may cause fire and pollute the sea. We maintain a very strict watch on the level of oil during the final stages so that we could stop at the desired level of oil. During discharging, I have to set up the line and then follow the duty officer’s instructions. Initial discharging is easy, but when the level comes down, we will have to keep a close watch on the pump and open/close the valves as necessary for optimum discharge. Once the bulk discharging is finished, we use another pump, for pumping out the little quantity left in the tanks. This operation is known as stripping. We take in ballast (sea water) /pump out ballast in/from designated tanks to maintain the stability of the ship. This process of taking in/pumping out sea water also uses pumps and lot of valves. This is done simultaneously with the loading/discharging. This level of sea water has to be monitored as well, which again has to be done by us.
We had to clean the tanks as well before going to dry dock. Cleaning of cargo oil tanks is a very complex process and took lot of time. We were working round the clock for 36 hours without sleep to complete the tank cleaning. We wash the tanks using the oil itself by special pumps which can be fixed permanently or portable. The machines are programmable and have different stages of wash cycles just like washing machines. Once the washing by oil is completed, we transfer this oil to special tanks. Then we use hot water to wash the tanks using the same machines and then pump out this water to the special tanks, which are called slop tanks. After this is done, we ventilate the tanks using blowers, which are driven by water. On a tanker’s deck no electrically operated machineries are allowed to be operated. All machineries are pneumatically operated, water or steam driven. This is to reduce the fire hazard.
The blowers run in exhaust mode as well as supply mode to reduce the hydrocarbon content inside the tank. We use instruments like explosimeter, multi gas detector and oxygen analyser to measure the level of various gases present inside the tank. For man entry, the level of oxygen has to be 21% and other gas has to be nil. After checking the gas content at various levels, we open the tank domes (openings on deck, which are gas tight and water tight, used for man entry). Prior to the dry-dock, we had to gas free all the tanks. My batch mate and myself had to measure length of pipelines, which had to be renewed and then draw the sketches, along with the measurements(thanks to engineering drawing and machine drawing, I could draw the diagrams easily), for the shipyard personnel to fabricate the pipelines and keep them ready. There were many valves, which were not closing/opening properly. We had to mark those valves for easy identification during the repairs.
The chief officer who was earlier on board, signed off due to some personal problems and the ship couldn’t do without a chief officer. Somehow, the office managed to send a chief officer, when the ship was in Cochin and the person who they sent was from Cochin Port Trust and was there as a pilot. He had no prior experience in tanker operations, which made things difficult for us. We had to do the loading and discharging operations, with the chief officer being a mere spectator. My batch mate and myself, along with the 3rd officer, had to prepare the entire repair specifications for dry-dock. It was a very nice learning experience for us.
The ship was in Cochin dry-dock for about 45 days. There were major jobs like ship side painting, checking of anchor cables, and checking of all cargo tanks and ballast tanks. Lots of sludge deposits were there in the cargo tanks and some of it was removed, manually by labourers. We had to check how much they had removed, since this involved lot of money. Like, the previous dry-dock, we had to keep a check on the paint drums- received and issued. We had to show them the pipelines which had to be renewed and the valves which had to be repaired.
We were working everyday from morning 5 am to about 7 pm in the night. We used to go out to have some good food and see tamil movies in the evening. I managed to come home for a couple of days from Cochin.
Life on board this ship was very hectic, but quite enjoyable because of the very short voyages. The crew on board were of good nature and helpful. This made life easier. Since this ship was doing coastal run, we did not experience extreme bad weather.
The ship went to Karachi and to Fujairah (Persian Gulf). The port of Karachi was very good, but they did not allow us Indians, to disembark from the ship. There where security guards standing on the dock, to ensure that none of us disembarked the ship. When the ship went to Fujairah, she was double banked to a VLCC. Many officers and crew went out, but we could not go, due to the cargo operations.
This was my last ship as a TNO. When the ship docked in Bombay Oil terminal, I got the message for my sign off. I packed my things and left the ship, with a heavy heart, as I got attached to the ship after spending about 8 months on board.
TOTAL TIME SPENT ON BOARD: 7 months and 24 days
PORTS VISITED: IN INDIA- Bombay, Cochin, Vadinar, Sikka
FOREIGN: Karachi(Pakistan), Fujayrah(U.A.E)
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