|
One thing you can be sure of, life is never dull amongst the engineers. The 05/06 season has presented us with many challenges, and thankfully with my exceptional supporting cast most have been resolved with the minimum amount of fuss or impact upon the Ship’s tasking. That’s not to say there haven’t been some fraught moments, but whether it is as a result of sheer hard work and persistence, skill of hand or keen engineering judgement, nearly all the problems encountered have been within our capability to resolve.
CPO Styles and his Engine Room Crew
The contribution of personnel within the department has not been without reward, as the following personnel have been selected for promotion during our time away: CMEM Pete Morewood, CPOWEA Paul Fegan, MEMs Andrew Moyce and Matt Smith. Also, POWEAs Brian Luke and Ned Needham passed for promotion to Chief Petty Officer. I will be sorry to lose them all, but wish them every success in their new rates. Additionally CPOMEA Nobby Styles was a deserved recipient of an award for his outstanding work in keeping our aged propulsion plant serviceable. My thanks go out to all my team.
Unfortunately every now and again we are presented with a problem that is beyond even our capabilities to deal with straight away. We encountered such a problem in our last Work Period in Antarctica. It was noticed the ship would not steer in a straight line with the wheel amidships, always drifting off to starboard.
Divers investigate the rudder defect
Upon investigation by the Ship’s divers the cause of the problem was found to be a misaligned rudder – cause unknown. Due to the nature of the defect it was not possible for it to be fixed at sea so, having been told by our UK support authorities we would have to put the ship into dry dock for repairs
Dry docking a ship is quite an involved task that requires certain pre-conditions; the dock has to be big enough to take HMS Endurance as we weigh around 6000 Tonnes, the dock needed to be available almost immediately and the port must be as close as possible to prevent further damage to the rudder. Subsequently we were directed to the Argentine naval port of Puerto Belgrano, near the city of Bahia Blanca.
UK Project Team arrive in Puerto Belgrano.
To assist us with the docking and repair a UK project team flew out with representatives of the Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth, Rolls-Royce Marine and the MoD in Bristol.
On arrival, the Dockmaster from Portsmouth and I inspected the dock to ensure it was acceptable. The dock had 3 rows of wooden blocks; one along the centre-line of the ship to take most of the weight and then a row either side of centre to port and starboard which, which while taking some of the weight, are mainly there to stop the ship falling over – fortunately they did their job!!
HMS Endurance in dry dock
Once everything was in place we went into dry dock early morning on the 14th March where, unbeknown to us, we would stay until 4th April. Once in dock the water was quickly pumped out so by early afternoon we were sitting nicely on the blocks and work had already commenced on the rudder. After 3 long and extremely productive days work by the Argentine work force with completion in sight things were bought to a shuddering halt by an unexpected strike in the dockyard.
Argentine welders work on repairing the rudder
10 days later, with some of us having been marooned onboard for the duration, the strike ended and work recommenced. Working long hours over a weekend, once again the Argentine workforce could not be faulted for their commitment and professionalism, the repair was completed within a further 3 days. All that was needed now was to test the rudder movement and integrity to the satisfaction of the Rolls Royce engineer, a representative from our Classification Society, Det Norske Veritas (DNV) and myself. All went well with only a few squeaks that were soon resolved with a squirt of WD40!!
Finished – time to let the water back in.
The following day we undocked and began our many preparations to allow us to return to sea. Due to the requirement for us to be at a certain weight to enter the dock we had to replace some of the weight we had removed prior to docking. This included taking onboard 750 Tonnes of fuel, which took about 36 hours, that’s a lot of ‘Tiger Tokens’! With just enough time to have a reception to thank our new found Argentine friends we sailed on the tide on 6th April. Throughout our period in Puerto Belgrano, the Argentine Navy provided us with tremendous support and assistance. We made many friends amongst them and look forwarding to renewing that friendship in future years.
Only one word for this – winners!
Once back at sea the onus has been on working the ship back up to being able deal with all eventualities. For the engineers this means ensuring the machinery is running correctly after its enforced break, as things can be particularly temperamental after dry-docking, so the careful monitoring of all systems and equipment has been absolutely essential.
The opportunity has been taken to exercise the Ship’s emergency teams so they are able to deal with such things as fires and ‘man overboard’. However the key event since sailing has been the next round of the Captain’s Deployment Cup. Things were pretty close going into the volleyball with the holders of the previous 4 years, the Flight, trailing the Engineers by just one point. After the Engineers’ victories in the Tug O’ War and cake decorating (brawn, brain and sensitivity – you just gotta love us!) the Flight were looking to regain a bit of ground. The final was everything the crew wanted to see, the Holders against the Champions Elect.
A close fought match lacking in skill but overflowing with determination, aggression and just a hint of controversy, the Engineers triumphed by one point. With only 2 rounds to go, the Rowathon and Brighter Cricket, the Engineers hold a 2-point lead; the ultimate prize is in our grasp.
With best wishes to all our families, friends and readers – Matt Liddell, Lt RN - EO
|
