16 Sep - Annual Maintenance
RRS Ernest Shackleton Diary
Position at 1200: Wallsend A & P Maintenance Wharf, River Tyne
Conditions: Wind Light;
Fine and clear.
Sunday: We were sad to leave our prime city centre locations at Dundee and Aberdeen. We departed Dundee at 2000 hrs for Wallsend, the A & P company lay up maintenance wharf on the river Tyne, close to Newcastle, to begin our annual maintenance.
Monday: An early arrival (0700) at our berth in Wallsend to commence a busy week of maintenance.
This week I have a welcome contributor to the web page. Robin Kilroy is our Chief Officer who knows and understands all that is going on this week so I hand over to Robin...
Hi there, Robin here. This was a busy week for everyone (except the Radio Officer!) with a number of jobs being carried out on the vessel. Here are a few of the jobs that were going on.
Chris Littlehales, who is
the Bosuns Mate onboard, made good use of the opportunity to complete the
Boot-topping with a coat of antifouling. As the vessel is not going into
drydock this year it was necessary to carry out this job from the ship's
punt.
When it rained Chris began construction of replacement boarding ladders for
the ship's lifeboats. The Manilla side ropes are stretched with a chain block
while the steps are seized in place with marline. The correct step spacing is
obtained by use of a wooden spacer as shown.
Our 50tonne crane received a lot of attention this week. All the main Ram
pins were burnt out and replaced with new. Without this crane the ships
operation would be virtually brought to a standstill in Antarctica as this
crane is required for launching of the cargo tender and to work the greater
part of the cargo we carry.
Here one of the winches on the same crane is removed for inspection and
maintenance.
Here John Macleod puts a final topcoat on number one hatch lid while two of
the port main engine cylinders are craned ashore for maintenance through number
two hatch.
Here the liners for the above mentioned cylinders are landed on a truck.
This shot hopefully gives some scale to the size of the ships main engines,
each of which has six of these cylinders and cylinder liners.
Noel Lynam rejoined as Third Officer this week
and is shown here working on the ships fire fighting sprinkler/foam pump.
There’s only so much you can put in the web page but I hope this gives some idea of what’s been going on aboard the Shackleton this week
Robin Kilroy
Thanks to Robin but don’t believe that Radio Officers do nothing !!!
This weeks Crew Member therefore has to be Robin Kilroy:
As you can see, with Captain Stuart Lawrence in the background,
Robin is a very busy man! Robin is 27 years old and single. He comes from County Kerry in south west Ireland.
There has been a seafarer in Robin's family since 1750 and he is continuing this
tradition. Robin says that on leave his hobbies are sailing
and enjoying the Irish Pub Life and 'craic'.
Contributors this week: Robin Kilroy
North Sea Diary 19 will be written on Sunday September 23 2001 and should be published on Monday September 24 2001.
