Sea Life Chapter 10

Eagle Tucson

28^th July 2004 to 19^th March 2005

I join this vessel as Second Engineer, Kenneth was there to guide me on most of the paperwork require. My batch mate James had been sailing on various vessels and writing operation manual for all the same type of vessels, it had become a very useful project for the whole fleet.

This vessel had a few issues with the generators, one of the design failure is the lub oil purification inlet and outlet were position side by side which cause a short circuit that reduce the efficiency of the purification process. This was later resolve by modification of the piping system by shift the inlet away from the outlet at another location near to the flywheel.

Another issue is there are no water washing arrangement for the turbo charger, and we have to remove the newly design scoop type turbine blade for cleaning every month. This issue was resolved later when the maker install the modified water washing arrangement.

The last issue is the Exhaust Valve Spindle Stem Seal was not design to withstand high temperature, so failure of the stem seal cause large amount of lub oil going into the combustion chamber and cause a lot of carbon deposit. This worsen the situation for the turbo charger with the previous two issues, but this was resolve earlier with new spare which is able to withstand high temperature.

I once ask the Indian Fourth Engineer to ease up all the vent flap in the engine room during one Saturday as we are doing our Saturday Routine, he told me that he had already completed the job by morning tea break. I saw the condition were mostly rusted and seize in open position, I am not sure if he is so strong that he is able to ease up all of them within two hours.

I went around and check on the job and found that most of it were not done, some of the pull chain were also damage and require some repair. So the Electrician was surprise that I as an Senior Officer had to carry out the job myself when he saw me in the engine room going around with hammer, pliers and grease gun to repair and ease up all the vent flap. Electrician respect me a lot for that, but I am more concern about the safety of the vessel as it is critical for us to isolate the ventilation in case of fire.

I heard that my batch mate Chung Hun also do the EGE (Exhaust Gas Economizer) Washing himself when he sail with Chief Engineer Ahmad when he was Second Engineer. This is the Leadership by Example that I had learn during my army training, and I don't think this mentality will be able to pass down after we quit sailing.

We are not concern whether the job is difficult or hard, the more we do the more experience we gain. We have seen a lot of young engineer only concern about their pay, welfare and promotion, they are not interested in improving their knowledge and experience. The company culture had make us more competent as compare to other, and we are able to adapt to various situation with ease.

I remember when I am sailing on one of the ship as third engineer, the chief engineer was surprised that I am able to carry out Generator Overhaul alone as it is using hydraulic jack to loosen and tighten the nuts. Usually for those using Torque Wench would require at least two person.