Great Eastern

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

The apprentice had to go and remove the wedge!

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Richard

Thank you for reminding me about one of life's little pleasures.

Little has changed as far as apprentices are concerned, being sent for a bucket of steam or a box of sparks for the grinder.

Over 25 years ago I helped the tradition when a young apprentice was sent to my office, the poor kid was terrified as he walked through the site office complex and explained to my secretary why he had to see the project director.

We were having a meeting so when he entered the office he was confronted by twenty odd members of the site senior staff.

He was trembling when he mumbled about being sent for a long stand, everyone in the room tried not to smile as I asked him to wait outside with the secretary.

After an hour the meeting finished and the apprentice had to suffer even more as the staff went past him saying 'still here' and getting a hug from the huge ground works manager.

I called the lad in and explained how the 'long stand' joke worked and told him to go back to the team that sent him on this mission and tell them that I was very grateful for being reminded about the long stand and had given the unfortunate apprentice a £50 bonus for being so helpful.

The lad, Billy, went out of the office with the cash in his hand and a huge smile on his face.

Happy memories.

Paul

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Thank you Paul

I like the winch idea, any pictures?

With a winch, why have an incline?

Bob

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

There were quite a few apprentice traditions which I think went across a lot of industries. The bag of bolt holes and putting steam on the handrails can be added to the above list from Paul. The long stand was always the best as it was so credible.

I was caught out once by being asked to do a float test on a used air filter. Not having a clue as to what I was being asked to do I went around everyone in the engineering department, where each one of course directed me onto the next. The final one was the Second Engineer who was doing some welding on the aft mooring deck. I asked him what I had to do for a float test on the filter that I had by this time carrying around the whole dam ship with me for around a half an hour. The Second Engineer took the filter off me, tossed it casually over the side then leaned over after it.

"Yup, that one failed as well"

Another good one was on my first trip to sea when we had a really nervous Chief. He was paranoid about everything, from his daily figures to everything to do with fuel and a lovely guy to boot but ripe for a joke. One day the electrician came across a resistor bank in his workshop which was basically a long casing about the size and shape of a 6 gang electrical extension but it had a row of four knobs with a scale marked on the face of the box. The electrician placed this box on the main console and ran a cable inside the cabinet. When the chief came in at midday he asked what the new bank of knobs was. The electrician explained that it was a fine tuning system for engine revs. You could vary the engine revs by a fraction of a rev by simply turning the knobs up or down. He was initially sceptical and went to touch the unit but the genuine panic from everyone in the control room stopped him. For days afterwards he wasn't sure but he would not touch the box just in case! When I took the noon counter and worked out the daily revs I would always adjust one of the knobs by one increment just to keep it up.

And finally for tonight, on another ship we were having problems with the bridge complaining that the engine room were allowing the chlorine levels of the potable water wander outside the allowed range, which they could see on a paper trace on the bridge. As it happens a new regulation was introduced that stated that we had to have an audible alarm on the bridge to bring the bridges attention to any out of range chlorine levels. The Chief Electrician went down the stores and found the biggest klaxon he could find, a reel of cable and the largest flashing orange light he could get his hands on and went on the bridge with his goodies and a tool bag. As he made preparations to start to 'fit' the new alarms word very quickly went around the ever indignant bridge officers that this was an invasion of their space, it would disrupt their concentration, provide a distraction etc..etc.. After explaining that the regulations were very clear and had to be adhered to the levels of indignation increased to the point where the Staff Captain was called to the bridge. The Staff Captain took one look at the collection of gear, smiled and said to the Chief Electrician, "This is a joke isn't it", to which he replied "Of course!"

Good night.

 

Edited By Richard Simpson on 30/07/2021 22:51:48

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Posted by Bob Abell on 30/07/2021 17:36:56:

Thank you Paul

I like the winch idea, any pictures?

With a winch, why have an incline?

Bob

Because you need a much smaller winch!

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Thank you Richard

But surely having a load of 11000 tons on level ground, must be safer than an incline?

The launch must nave been at the back of Brunel`s mind, 24 hours per day. 7 days a week for several months!

Been there myself , many times and it can get very unpleasant

No doubt, you have too?

Bob

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

The size of any force required to drag the ship across a horizontal slip would be absolutely huge. Using a slight incline greatly reduces the need for such large forces however there has to be some form of control. Without control the ship would simply travel faster and faster and have significant momentum when it hit the water. Most launches seem to use large chains nowadays, attached to the hull to create a drag that increases as the ship goes down the slip and more chain is pulled out.

Having said that it is still far from an exact science and things frequently go wrong. Nowadays there is a move towards large ships being built under cover which has the significant advantages of the build not being affected by weather and the quality of the end product being far more consistent. This also allows the ship to be built in a dry dock that can then be simply flooded to float the ship out. Far more controllable and much less stressful!

I have seen a sideways launch on a Dutch canal and the thing that struck me more than anything about the whole process was how uncontrolled it all was. Only a coaster but could still do a good deal of damage if it hit something.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

I just wonder how many ships are built on traditional slipways these days. Current practice appears to be more of an assembly process, often using sections manufactured off site and usually under cover. They don't always need a dry dock either. The new RN Frigates are built/assembled under cover and then rolled out on wheels (lots of wheels!) and on to a barge which is then submerged to allow the ship to float free.

**LINK**

Colin

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Most ships, certainly larger ones, are now built as 'Block' modules simultaneously around the yard and even sometimes in different yards. Blocks are constantly being moved around the yard and being brought into the assembly building. The last ship I was on consisted of 62 blocks. The blocks are then assembled incredibly quickly in the dock with the ship taking well less then two years from first block to finish. Finally the dock is cleared and flooded and the ship is pulled out into the basin.

Some yards are big enough to have two ships on the go simultaneously and some yards have more than one assembly shed. The yard pictured here can be building three cruise ships at the same time.

Points of interest, picture number one, note the figure by the carrier, which by the way can be operated by radio from a hand held console, picture number three you can clearly see the five engines arranged into the two engine rooms and picture number five the steps you can see are the tiers for the seats in the small theatre.  The ship behind is also being constructed.

Edited By Richard Simpson on 31/07/2021 16:47:32

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Very interesting Richard

The US Liberty Ships were similarly constructed, during WW2, but were of an all welded construction

The early ships had a few failures, by breaking in the middle at sea!

I believe they could build a finished ship in 6 weeks!……..Can"t really believe it myself

There are not many Liberty Ships left now

What about the famous one, near Southend……..Full of explosives from WW2, like a ticking Time Bomb now!

Bob

[Tim RoweParticipant @timrowe83142]

I served my apprenticeship with Appledore Shipyard in North Devon. It was twinned with Sunderland Shipbuilder and both were owned by Court Line who had travel and airline interests. Both yards were unique in the UK at the time because the ships were 95% completed under cover in a dry dock. Another first were the buildings that were built by Condor of Winchester and were the largest single span covered buildings in the UK.

At Appledore the high tidal range o the Bristol Channel allowed the ships to by floated out. The capacity at Appledore was up to 10,000 GT and slightly larger at Sunderland. Construction was completely modular.

There were up to 6 ships under construction at any one time in various stages:
Planning
Stocking
Cutting
Fabrication
Assembly
Fit-Out

The whole operation was geared to the Lunar cycle (tides) and on average we launched a ship every 8 weeks.

No operation in the UK could get anywhere close to that.

I came out as a fully qualified shipwright 1973 50 1977

Tim R

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

I’m very impressed by our shipbuilding skills, Tim

And your coming out qualifications too

Six ships sounds very pleasing!

Bob from the Machine Tool Trade…..( Craven Bros )

Bob

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Just for Bob link

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Thank you, Paul

I worked at Craven Brothers when most of those machines were being built

The chap demonstrating the machines, with his slicked down Denis Compton haircut was my pal Brian Lees

A real gentleman

Happy days, but not all of them

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Just for personal interest, here are a few of the chaps from the Drawing Office

We had 90 draffies

Brother Geoff and myself are the twin set at the top left

Bob

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