Download - Royal Australian Navy

64 NAVY ENGINEERING BULLETIN MARCH 2003
LCDR VAUGHN THOMPSETT
Orange Overalls
I recently had the opportunity of sea-riding on a merchant vessel
operated as a joint venture between BHP T&L and Teekay Shipping (a
large Canadian based shipping company). The, Pacific Triangle, is a
211,000 tonne (full load displacement), Lloyds registered, bulk carrier
operating on a triangular route: iron ore from Port Hedland to Port
Kembla, coal from Australia’s East Coast to Japan, ballast return to Port
Hedland.
The reason for this secondment,
apart from training, was to
compare ideas and
methodologies ie: what do the
Merchant Navy do better than us
and can we adopt or adapt it?
One subject that always surfaces
when discussing the Merchant
Navy is rates of pay, so lets get
this out of the way before
continuing. Yes ladies and
gentlemen, your fellow
engineering counterparts who, in
BHP’s case, get to wear trendy
orange overalls, do get paid a
whole lot more than you do and,
on first impressions, appear to
work under much better
conditions of service. A question
to ponder though: which one of
you is worried that their next trip
could be their last, only to be
THE AUTHOR (SECOND FROM LEFT) WITH THE ENTIRE PACIFIC TRIANGLE ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT
fired and replaced with a
Ukrainian or Philipino crew?
Note that the Pacific Triangle
(operated by “The Big Australian”)
is Liberian flagged, requiring the
mainly Australian crew to hold
The first thing that strikes
you about the two year old
Pacific Triangle, is its size.
It’s massive.
Liberian qualifications. I also
found that our total “seagoing”
salary package was not all that
far behind our civilian
counterparts in a strictly dollars
sense ie: ignoring their roughly six
week on, six week off routine.
Now for the finer details:
I joined Pacific Triangle on a
Sunday in Port Headland. The
ship’s agent met me at the
airport for the trip into town and,
within a few minutes of arriving at
the town jetty, a workboat arrived
to ferry me to the ship, which was
still loading two grades of iron ore
bound for the smelters at Port
Kembla. The CO (Old Man) and
Chief Engineer were waiting at the
top of the accommodation ladder
to greet me and I was shown to a
spacious cabin with double bed
and ensuite. So far, so good.
The CO showed me around the
accommodation and upper deck
and, after having me sign the
Ship’s Articles and relieving me of
my passport, gave me a Safety
Induction leaflet and BHP
Shipboard Health, Safety and
Environment Pocket Guide. I was
then given a tour and safety brief
of the machinery spaces by the
Chief Engineer.
The Ship
The first thing that strikes you
about the two year old Pacific
Triangle, is its size. It’s massive.
It can lift almost 190,000tonnes
of cargo, in nine holds, and the
only reason it wasn’t loading to
capacity at Port Hedland was that
it’s full load draft of over 17m is
too deep for Port Kembla. It is
300m long, 50m wide, and is
powered by a single, six cylinder,
Samsung-MAN-B&W slow speed
two stroke reversible diesel
engine, rated at 21,100BHP at
83.7 RPM, driving a single fixed
pitch propeller. Normal transit
output is approximately
19,000BHP at 83 RPM, giving
between 11-15 knots, weather
dependant. The engine is
optimised to minimise NOX
emissions and the whole vessel
has been designed to be as
environmentally friendly as
possible. For the yachties
amongst us: from “Full Away”
(transit speed) to stop, it takes
2.6 miles with the main engine
going Full Astern, so I suggest you
don’t try to enforce right-of-way.
Electrical power is provided by
three, six cylinder 700kw
Hyundai-MAN-B&W medium
speed diesels, only one of which
is required under normal cruising
conditions. There are no shaft
alternators.