Interesting Log Entries

[studentforever]

Poor bloke

[pommystuart]

Sorry to say but he was told not to fall overboard.
(a) D. Warrelman, Chief Boatswain's Mate, saw him between four and five o'clock P.M., lying drunk on port side of forecastle with one leg hanging over the rail.
He moved him inboard and told him to look out and not fall overboard.

[Michael]

[Matteo]

USRC Thetis 20 September 1900, in one of the countless watches spent repairing and upgrading ship we can read something that just gave me the creeps

...
Plumbers lining dressers in galley, fitting galley range, lining after end and top of galley with asbestos [asbestus in log] and galvanized iron, etc.
...

I know it was used a lot before its dangerous effects were clear, yet it's terrible to read them placing it so easily in the galley, while trying to get the ship up to date

[Michael]

It's understandable that we can't learn from the future, but it is devastating that we don't often learn from the past.

[Randi]

That sounded familiar. I went beck to the old forum and found: https://forum.oldweather.org/index.php? ... 3#msg65483

I decided to start listing words I looked up while doing the log for Thetis. They may be useful, but they are probably not important enough to put in OWpedia or Sail and Wind Powered Sailing Terms (I may add some later).

---

---

---

pipe lagger
Many insulators were employed on ships. Steam boilers found on oceangoing vessels and discharge pressurized gas at high temperatures. Because the piping must be able to withstand extremely high pressures and fluctuations without deforming, it is typically made from metal. Exterior surfaces often became hot enough to present an extreme physical injury hazard and a fire risk. As a result, ship pipes were insulated.
For most of the 20th century, shipyard lagging, or insulation, that was applied to pipes was made of heat-resistant asbestos. Easily manufactured in sheets and mats, the low-cost microscopic fibers were ideal for creating insulation that could be wrapped around pipes. Additionally, asbestos was commonly used in tape and adhesives that were used to secure the insulation. - http://www.asbestos.com/occupations/insulators.php

[studentforever]

When I was a kid I can remember my mother being proud of her new ironing board which had an asbestos pad to hold the hot iron as you changed or repositioned items to be ironed. Asbestos was the 'new' material for this purpose. As I recall it got a bit 'frayed' before being replaced. Neither parent developed lung disease and so far I too am free of it. Fingers crossed, especially when I think of the other chemicals I came into contact with but I remind myself that the risks are statistical rather than definitive so some people would be unaffected. Asbestos was also used in construction and pressed asbestos sheets used to insulate attic water tanks in houses (my house included - it was built in the 1950s I understand). Has now been removed I hasten to add.

[Morgan]

For three years I sat in the same seat in our chemistry/ science lab, next to the chemicals cabinet - which smelled a little funny. I do recall there was a bottle of Carbontetrachloride. The reason I specifically remember that is because the bottle was in a larger canister filled with vermiculite to insulate it from shock. Wonder which was a greater risk?

[studentforever]

We had a large ICI plant where I grew up (about half the employed people in the district worked for ICI) and my mother was on the first polythene plant in the world during the war. She wandered around in the blackout with all sorts of chemicals taking 'gas tests' on the ethylene at different points in the plant. It worked at high pressures to produce an exothermic reaction. This was war, so control of the reaction was achieved by a girl sitting at a control panel adjusting the system with a wheel control. Get it wrong one way and it blew the the safety valve (gas release lifted the hinged roof and sent vibrations and bangs round the district), the other way stopped the reaction, either way the reaction vessel had to be hand cleaned and the girl was very unpopular - there is a war on you know and that polythene is needed for the radar systems. The plant was in use into the early 60's and locals used to reassure visitors startled by bangs and shudders 'Don't worry, it's just the polythene gone off'.

[pommystuart]

I did my apprenticeship (1965-70) at ICI Thornton Cleveleys, Lancs.
On my site (Plastics) they produced amongst other things PVC which was both an Endothermic and Exothermic reaction.
If the vessel reaction got out of control and blew the safety disk, it covered the site and also some cars with a milky residue.
(The operator was also not popular.)
The other side of the site (Chemicals) they produced phosgene gas, chlorine, carbide and a range of other nasties.

I then joined the Merch navy in an asbestos pipe lagged engine room. Fortunately they were well painted over.

Later in AU I visited an asbestos/cement pipe making factory with fibers floating around in the air.
Fortunately I seem to have missed the end results of exposure to those products, though I have developed a slight persistent cough.

[Morgan]

It is really amazing OW exist!

[Michael]

My grandfather worked at the ICI plant in Billingham-on-Tees before, during and after WWII. My uncle also worked for ICI after he graduated from university. He read chemistry. We went to England for four months in the summer of 1956. Who knows, maybe we crossed paths in the park in Billingham that had swings and a round-about!

[studentforever]

Fraid not. Dad (Mum gave up work after the war when I was born) worked at Wallerscote in Cheshire, used to be Brunner Mond till ICI was formed. The lab building where Polythene was discovered is still there although ICI have pulled out, I'm not sure if the building which housed the plant is still there, it probably is if they haven't pulled it down because it was pretty robust to cope with the pressure surges till the roof lifted (hinged in the middle and pretty heavy). Dad did visit Billingham a time or two in the 1960s doing noise testing but not when you were there.

[studentforever]

I chuckled at the exclamation mark
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/247055604?objectPage=42

[Michael]

[pommystuart]

To much typing for me to do on that page.

[pommystuart]

Kearsarge Sept 30th 1890, Colon panama.
2345hrs.
A water spout formed making NNE from ship and close in shore.
At first it formed a (thick ???) vertical column rapidly changing direction in from ????
The sea was considerably disturbed and then noise being plainly heard on the ship.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorag ... 6_0158.JPG

[Michael]

??? is in from the sea.

Very cool! Too bad they weren't allowed smart phones. A video would have been great!

[pommystuart]

I took it as The sea being the start of the next sentence as the T looks like a capital.

Looking again at "Thick" not sure if that is right.

[Michael]

It's hard to say, but looking at it, I think it makes more sense to have the sentence start with The sea. Maybe he forgot to add the direction from.