Winter 2003

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4 Yesterdays Mr. Hans-Jürgen Wolf, Technical Director in our Hamburg office, takes us back to his time onboard M.V. Klaus Oldendorff When I talk about the yesterdays I mean the 1960's, the days when I myself was enticed and drawn by the sea. It was in early 1968 when I joined as chief engineer on the 9.981 GRT / 14.675 tdw Bulkcarrier "Klaus Oldendorff" of Reederei Egon Oldendorff, the company owned by the father of the late Mr. Klaus E. Oldendorff. Yes! there was a ship named Klaus Oldendorff which carried the Oldendorff name to many places around the world. The "Klaus Oldendorff" was no small ship considering that at that time the large Bulkcarrier like today's Panamaxes were not in existence. The "Klaus Oldendorff" of the 60's traded mainly with coal from Chesapeake-Bay to the Continent or with iron ore for Bethlehem, Steel from Puerto Ordaz on the Orinoco River to Wilmington, Delaware. She also made some trips with Petro-Coke from Norfolk to Japan. When she was built in 1958 for Leonhardt & Blumberg at Rickmers Werft in Bremerhaven, she was named "Walter Leonhardt", she was a very modern vessel fitted with one Radar unit and Gyro Compass combined with automatic steering. The hatch covers where the MacGregor wire pull system. She had one single-acting two-stroke engine of 5.400 BHP made by MAN in Augsburg, Germany. Two MAN G6V 23,5/33 diesel engines of 275 BHP at 500 min-1 connected to an AEG generator of 180kVA - 281/400 V. On 10.10.1960 the vessel was sold to Egon Oldendorff and renamed "Klaus Oldendorff" and traded for them for 14 years. In 1974 she was resold to New Star Shipping Monrovia and sailed under her new name "Okay". On 28.2.1983 she ended her career in San Esteban de Pravia where she was demolished. All together there have been 3 vessels which have carried the name of the founder of Reederei NORD Klaus E. Oldendorff. The first "Klaus Oldendorff" was a cargo steamship of 1.101 GRT/1530 tdw of 71,37m length and propelled by a 400 BHP triple- NORD NEWS Winter 2003 expansion engine. She was built in 1893 and sold to Egon Oldendorff on 12.06.1936. On 24.11.1942 she struck a mine and sank on the 25th at 04:55 hrs in the Bay of Bothnia when on a voyage from Reval to Helsingfors. The second "Klaus Oldendorff" was a cargo steamship of 3.651GRT / 6.276 tdw, 109,69m length and propelled by a triple-expansion engine of 1.250 BHP. She was built in 1920 and sold to Egon Oldendorff in June 1950. On 30.09.1960 she was sold again and sent for demolition to La Spezia on 10.01.1961. But back to the third "Klaus Oldendorff". Down in the cellar turned an 8 cylinder single acting two-stroke MAN built engine, of the type K 8 Z 70/120 capable of delivering 5.400 HP of which usually released not more than 4.900 HP. Sometimes it delivered nothing at all! Then there is a piston seizure or a fire in the under-piston space. Unfortunately this happens almost always at night or just in front of the port where the piston was due for overhauling. Pulling out pistons for maintenance was due every 2000 hrs. Anyway, when the horses were in the mood we made a good speed of 14 knots and the healthy noise of the engine makes every engineer smile. There were no hydraulic tools available as the engine design at that time was outlined to use slacking wrenches and a 20 kg sledge hammer. Prior to pulling a piston 12 nuts with a wrench opening of 180 mm had to be disconnected. This was not an easy job when standing on a slippery cylinder-cover and swinging a 20 kg hammer and
thrashing on a spanner. The time taken to loosen the 12 nuts normally took around 4 hours; we had the same difficulties with the 4 nuts of the pistonrod-foot mounted on the crosshead. To undertake the work we had 3 different slacking wrenches, straight, 30° and 60°. The 4 nuts of the pistonrod-foot were the most difficult to loosen and the work was quite complicated as every few millimeters a differently curved spanner had to be used and all work had to be done within a hot and oily crankcase, whilst doing this type of work accidents happened regularly. After completion of this work of course the piston had to be replaced which was very precise work as the parts had to be aligned exactly in order to avoid seizing. Let me also mention that for lifting the cylinder cover and drawing the piston, muscle power was required as electrically operated overhead trolleys in the engine room did not exist at that time, we only had a hand operated chain hoist. Now you will understand why at that time on deep-sea going ships an engine department had a crew of up to 15 skilled men who were guided and trained by 4 engineers. The feature at that time of MAN engines was the loop scavenging air system which has made the exhaust valve redundant - no exhaust turbocharger was available for changing the charge of engine. Valve cases with incorporated suction and delivery valves are fitted to the piston underside, which acts as scavenge air pumps operating in parallel with a large double acting piston pump attached to the motor. This principle has thermodynamic advantages, which are particularly important with respect to a higher degree of charging air on large bore engines. This is naturally a fine thing, apart from the fact that some 130 so-called Hoerbiger valves had to be maintained and ground in on a monthly basis. Two-part cylinder liners were The K 8 Z 70/120 main engine of the third “Klaus Oldendorff” inserted into the individually cast cylinder blocks. The cylinder liner containing the scavenge air and exhaust ports required for the change of the charge. The lower part of the cylinder liner is flanged to the cylinder block and serves to guide the piston with its extremely long piston skirt. The piston consists of three parts, i.e. the piston top, the piston crown (carrying the ring grooves) and the long piston skirt. The long piston skirt was required to keep the exhaust- and scavenge ports closed in top dead center position. These two liners, upper and lower, did not make changing of liner easier. The cylinder cover had a horizontally split cylinder cover. The bottom part encloses the combustion chamber and extends very far down so that the joint between the cover and the liner is not in the hottest area. The single fuel injection valve is arranged in the centre of the cylinder cover. For maintaining the piston with its 1.200 mm long piston skirt had to be turned upside down at least once whilst crossing the North Atlantic from Hampton Roads to the Continent - remember all with muscle power. However, finally I would like to say, I would not forget one single hour from the yesterdays. Data of the MAN KZ 70/120 which you may want to compare with those of the main engine installed on your vessel: Number of pistons 8 Output 5.336 Bhp (3.926 kW) Output cylinder 667 Bhp (401 kW) Revolution 125 min-1 Cylinder diameter 700 mm Stroke 1.200 mm Mean piston speed 5,0 m/sec Mean effective pressure 5,2 kg/cm2 Length of engine 12.770 mm Height of engine 7.960 mm Weight of engine 354 mt Mr. Hans-Jürgen Wolf Technical Director, Hamburg office NORD NEWS Winter 2003 5
Page 1 and 2: Winter 2003 NORD NEWS
Page 3: Dear Seafarers and Readers! When a
Page 7 and 8: ISM Code. 'Ships would cease to ope
Page 9 and 10: NORDGULF’s hull is ready for coat
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Page 13 and 14: the office for the last working day
Page 15 and 16: much you can see in Abu Simbel, exc
Page 17 and 18: Lightering NORDISLE - NORDPOWER Moo
Page 19 and 20: NORD watches for 5 years’ service

Winter 2003

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