Doxford Marine Diesel Memories

Borderland said:
Not many pubs left down, as you say mostly new apartment blocks but there is still a good chippy and the fish key is always popular.
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We took the ferry over last year and had a walk along to the fish quay and had a bit of a pub crawl on the way back still some cracking old boozers 🍻
 
Queen Mary being cheered by a large crowd of workers at William Doxford & Sons shipyard on 15th June 1917.
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Borderland said:
There was one called the Chain Locker but most pups in that area were rough
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As a posh sounding Southerner, it was suggested by a couple of pub landlords very politely that it might be an idea to drink somewhere else a bit later....... having said that, was made very welcome almost everywhere
 
chrisgreen said:
www.zmescience.com

This is what 109,000 horse power looks like - meet the biggest engine in the world

This jaw dropper is the Wärtsilä RT-flex96C, the world’s largest and most powerful diesel engine in the world today.
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Very interesting talking to the engine manufacturers. - until recently I sat on the CIMAC lubes working group and it was fascinating listening to the Engine manufacturer representatives and all the stuff about dual fuel (residual and LNG) engines
 
PeteH said:
What was the Boozer, the first one when you got off the Ferry at North Shields?. Bloody Rough Dive?.

Some bright spark though it would be a good idea to go over one night?.
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It was The Jungle, used by dock workers, British seamen and foreign seamen. Never got in but I know it was rough a my Dad was the manager in there for a short while in the late fifties and I got told the tales.

There was a pub called the Chain Locker on North Shields Quayside but there was also a Chain Locker in the centre of Newcastle. I was brought up in pubs and visited a lot of pubs with my parents so knew my way around them all through my life.

I went to Charles Trevelyan Tech in Newcastle starting 1971 at 16 and started going round the pubs in Newcastle the same year with the lads from College. Now while most of the lads were new to pubs they were old hat to me EXCEPT for the Newcastle Chain Locker that was like no pub I'd ever been in before. Imagine a cellar with one set of stair and a bar set up in the corner, then imagine it packed shoulder to shoulder with drunk Geordies on a Sat night. There was nearly as much blood on the floor as beer. Around bonfire night it got more interesting when lit fireworks were thrown around !!
 
Nomadian said:
I was grey funnel line and mainly steam turbine apart from sweepers, the diesels we had were back up generators in case the turbo generator(steam) went down which was often? the diesels were 12 cylinder paxman ventura.
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me too. I started and kept watch on this actual gennie back in the 70's

 
Sandancers said:
It was The Jungle, used by dock workers, British seamen and foreign seamen. Never got in but I know it was rough a my Dad was the manager in there for a short while in the late fifties and I got told the tales.

There was a pub called the Chain Locker on North Shields Quayside but there was also a Chain Locker in the centre of Newcastle. I was brought up in pubs and visited a lot of pubs with my parents so knew my way around them all through my life.

I went to Charles Trevelyan Tech in Newcastle starting 1971 at 16 and started going round the pubs in Newcastle the same year with the lads from College. Now while most of the lads were new to pubs they were old hat to me EXCEPT for the Newcastle Chain Locker that was like no pub I'd ever been in before. Imagine a cellar with one set of stair and a bar set up in the corner, then imagine it packed shoulder to shoulder with drunk Geordies on a Sat night. There was nearly as much blood on the floor as beer. Around bonfire night it got more interesting when lit fireworks were thrown around !!
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Could well have been?. We had a drink in it anyway, and the juke box had "Ernie" (the fastest milkman in the west) which our Junior R/O decided he liked!. To say the choice was not too popular would be an understatement!.:LOL:.

I have a "presence" on here https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/ BTW. Lots of chain blocks and Lamp swinging

I think I have served on/with most of the Doxfords up to the "J" fitted in Registan Circa 73(ish), when we brought her out of Redheads on Trials. ( I really will have to look out my Dis-A and check dates sometime, problem might be finding it!).

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This is my last account of actually driving a Doxford and will probably only appeal to those patient readers who can relate to the world of fuel valves etc, however it was an experience that I will never forget. In my previous post I tried to convey something of the air of excited apprehension that preceded the starting of the engine after a spell along side. Normally all would go as planned but I would like to relate to you a time when it all went spectacularly wrong.

We had been alongside in Mombasa for a few days enjoying the many pleasures of the East African beaches and the “Sunshine Day and Night Club” in particular. The Chief Engineer (aka God) had decreed that some routine maintenance was to take place, namely the changing of the fuel valves on four of the engines six cylinders. Please try and stick with the techno guff that follows as without it the tale will not have any meaning. While in port for short periods the fuel system is not shut down and the common fuel rail remains hot and live. In order to remove fuel valves they are first isolated at a common distribution block thus enabling the valve removal without scalding hot fuel oil spreading everywhere (stick with it I'm nearly there). In addition to the fuel valves there is another component fitted alongside them that a “normal” diesel engine does not have, namely the high pressure relief valve. These are there in case the cylinder pressure exceeds safe limits which can sometimes occur when the engine is being started and the compressed starting air is left on too long, and play a vital role in the mayhem that is to follow.

The scene was a familiar one. Everything was ready for departure and I was pacing up and down in front of the control panel waiting for the first movement on the telegraph which would see us on our way to Singapore. Dead slow ahead was rung down and duly answered, and I grabbed the control levers to set the beast in motion as I had done many times before. The engine started but it was accompanied with repeated LOUD explosions as the pressure relief valves opened one after another belching choking exhaust gases into the engine room. The engine was running way below its minimum speed and I had to increase fuel pressure dramatically to keep it running, and all the time the explosions continued making verbal communications impossible. In addition to this the gauges in front of me were going haywire and making no sense at all. Through the smoke I could see that two of the exhaust gas temperature gauges were off the clock and the other four were not even registering. Absolute panic was ensuing around me with people screaming their opinions as to what was going on and all the time visibility was getting worse and worse amid the cacophony.

For some reason it was at this time that I experienced a moment of absolute clarity; the engine was running on two cylinders because after the fuel valves had been changed on the other four cylinders someone had forgotten to open up the fuel to them on the afore mentioned distribution block. I grabbed the Junior Engineer and by screaming into his ear from an inch away told him to go and rectify the situation, in fact I can remember exactly what I said,

“Get your f***ing arse up to the bl**dy distribution block and open up the f***ing valves that that stupid **** of a fitter left closed”.

He duly carried out my succinct instructions and the effect was instant; the explosions ceased and the engine, now running on all six cylinders, tried to accelerate from dead slow ahead to full ahead due to the fact that I had so much fuel dialled in to keep her running on two. The effect of the surge of acceleration also caused the bridge officers to simultaneously mess their pants as several thousand tons of RFA fast replenishment oiler proceeded to leave Mombasa harbour looking to all intents and purposes that they were going water skiing.


Happy days,


Mr Tinca
 
Somewhere in this room (a private museum owned by my last company's agents in Turkey who used to be shipbreaker) are a few bits belonging to one of the "stan" Common Brothers ships that was scrapped in the 70's as well as a couple of bits from an RN frigate. everything you see, including the chairs etc., are from scrapped ships. Wasn't bothered about the sextants but really, really wanted a chronometer.
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All th F C Strick vessels where named after parts of th old Persian Empire. Hence all of those too, ended in "Istan" I only recently found out that the first one which my family accompanied me on The MV Karaghistan. Had sunk off Greece. Back in the 80's having been sold by P&O to Greek owners. She had accommodation for 14 passengers, so officers families often got to use the passengers cabins as by then a lot of the old expats where flying back an forth. The acomodation was beautifully finished in polished oak paneling and teak.
 
PeteH said:
All th F C Strick vessels where named after parts of th old Persian Empire. Hence all of those too, ended in "Istan" I only recently found out that the first one which my family accompanied me on The MV Karaghistan. Had sunk off Greece. Back in the 80's having been sold by P&O to Greek owners. She had accommodation for 14 passengers, so officers families often got to use the passengers cabins as by then a lot of the old expats where flying back an forth. The acomodation was beautifully finished in polished oak paneling and teak.
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Yep..... I had forgotten that was how Commons named some of their ore carriers as well. One old fashioned ship of mine was the Maloja, 19000 DWT midships product tanker. Wood panelling everywhere and creaked when rolling. Ex Orient line as far as I can remember before consolidated into P&O Bulk shipping division in about 1972.

seen here with the good old Trident Tankers toasting cork on the funnel. Used the stern discharge pipe quite a bit in Malta Photo credit to photographer


proper ship - all the engineers were berth at the back end. :imoutahere:

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PeteH said:
If you are ever in San-Francisco The last remaining seaworthy Liberty Ship is Berthed there, If I can find it I have (I think) some footage taken aboard in 2004. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Jeremiah_O'Brien

As For the Upper Coolant hoses on the earlier Doxfords. Trying to shut the cock to stop the water was an "experience" to say the least to avoid getting flailed by a hose flapping about and spraying scalding water!.

A few Memories?.

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Still Have the "library"
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From "Southerns"
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Above:- Sample of Indicator card Taken Mid 70`s. If you look carefully you can just make out the pressure outline in the dots
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More From "Southerns"
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Adventurer, Owned by T&J Harrison, She had a 300ton Lift Stulcan Derrick. We loaded the Locmotive(s) Owned by the Artist David Sheppard, and brought them back to the UK from South Africa as deck cargo.
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Blimey...... what memories, the books bring it back..... I was a cadet at Southampton in 1970, had a fantastic start, worked for Fyffes stayed finished my apprenticeship then did another 4yrs before packing it all in for the love of my life, but, what an education, can recall coming ashore and chatting some of the lads I worked with about what we did and where we went..... they thought I was telling porkies. After 40+ yrs ashore, still often go back to those times.
By the way, I was on M.A.N. most of my time.
 
Doxfords! What a blast from the past, my elder brother worked there as a rivet catcher in the 1950s, probably from 14 years old. Got hit on the head by a big flying red hot rivet, taken to the doctors and had to walk home and be at work the next day.
 
Ed Scratcher said:
Doxfords! What a blast from the past, my elder brother worked there as a rivet catcher in the 1950s, probably from 14 years old. Got hit on the head by a big flying red hot rivet, taken to the doctors and had to walk home and be at work the next day.
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'Rivet Catcher'. Nowadays catching Rivets would be classed as a Notifiable Disease! :groan:
 
Borderland said:
Anyone have any pictures of the ships built on the Wear.
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Any particular era or build? Here is an SD14 in about 1975. Where the ship is being fitted out is now all cleared, nice walks, university grounds and the glass centre.

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