alaskan steel men question

[Wedg1e]

Right, Daring is on her way back from a round the world cruise (OK, flag-waving at the Arabs and helping out in the Philippines included) and is due back over the weekend.

I was talking to a guy 'high up' in the yard infrastructure management and when I mentioned a bent shaft his face went a bit Wallace & Gromit for a few moments, then he smiled wryly and said he hadn't heard that. The boat is due for a 3 month DD session though later in the spring.

 

[daleyd]

Do you work for the yard wedg1e? I've heard it's changed a bit since I left (about 12 years ago). It used to be a fairly busy place, with the carriers , 42 s and half the 23s based there.

 

[rory1]

Not ship building but a similar job with a running water repair.

i was involved in a job in a saltwater pumping station on a dock, 60" pipe work that was fitted in the 1890's and had quite a few pinholes to say the least, UT testing showed where the material was thinnest and this was overplated, the whole system was below sea level and couldn't be drained, so in order to repair the pinholes we rolled our 1/2 plates to suit then cut a hole in the centre of the plate and welded in a 3" pipe socket, we lined this socket up over the pinhole so the water didn't seep/squirt out between the plates and welded the plate up. After it was welded we fitted a 3"plug to the socket.

 

[Wedg1e]

Do you work for the yard wedg1e? I've heard it's changed a bit since I left (about 12 years ago). It used to be a fairly busy place, with the carriers , 42 s and half the 23s based there.

No, just a contractor (and a very reluctant one at that)... we keep getting dragged in to jobs that aren't in our field using staff who aren't skilled (me) or inclined to do the job (me) and who would rather be in Cheshire this evening at a dinner party with the girlfriend instead of stuck in a bloody Ibis 300 miles from home (that'll be me as well).
Meeting people in the yard and hearing of the c**k-ups that go on is about the best part of it
That said it's been a nice day for working outside...

There's not much here these days: T45s, Lusty, the University training boats, Border Force's 'Protector' was mooching about the place today... a few semi-derelict hulks in 3 Basin (T42 Gloucester is among them I think)... some gunboat for the Omani Navy that is about a decade overdue... not sure if it was that one or one of the others in the batch that went out for sea trials and the foredeck gun was test-fired it went bang - and not the way they wanted it to
Apparently it was a BAE mount but a Yank cannon...

 

[madkayaker]

no doubt loads of the trusted to deliver bunch walking around as well (thats who i work for)

 

[Wedg1e]

Not ship building but a similar job with a running water repair.

i was involved in a job in a saltwater pumping station on a dock, 60" pipe work that was fitted in the 1890's and had quite a few pinholes to say the least, UT testing showed where the material was thinnest and this was overplated, the whole system was below sea level and couldn't be drained, so in order to repair the pinholes we rolled our 1/2 plates to suit then cut a hole in the centre of the plate and welded in a 3" pipe socket, we lined this socket up over the pinhole so the water didn't seep/squirt out between the plates and welded the plate up. After it was welded we fitted a 3"plug to the socket.

We did a job a couple of years ago in the service tunnels that run under the drydocks: the drydocks are about 45 feet deep, the floor's another 12 feet and the Victorian-era brick tunnels are below that. The shafts are 4 feet square and have various pipes and cables running through them to reach the 'islands' between the docks.
The brickwork is cracked (partly from ships being bounced off the dock walls) so seawater is constantly spraying in. Due to various things decaying down there the air is unsafe so access is down the shafts being winched on a cable as the ladders have rotted away; full breathing apparatus, 1-piece waterproof suit, throat mike, head torch, escape BA, gas alarm, squeezing down between rusty iron pipes and crumbling brickwork, 65 feet to the tunnel floor with a freezing cold shower running permanently... and then you need the bog
Did I mention I'm a bank clerk?

 

[Wedg1e]

no doubt loads of the trusted to deliver bunch walking around as well (thats who i work for)

Start safe, work safe, home safe?

 

[daleyd]

I've just been looking at some recent pics a friend had posted Facebook of Plymouth and Portsmouth, both have changed a lot in the last 15 years or so.

Things going bang when they are not supposed to is not the best - my job was engineer on the 4.5 inch/ 30mm gun section. Luckily I managed to get away with it for 9 years