Ibn Tufail
Ibn Tufail of United Arab Shipping Co
Manufactured in Govan, Scotland.
This ship had a swimming pool.
Ex officer talk here
Current company information
Formerly Kuwait Shipping Co, UASC is owned by various Gulf countries.
This proved interesting during the Iraq - Iran War when ships
became prime targets.
I left UASC before torpedoes started coming though engine rooms.
More luck than good judgement.
Al Mansouriah ( Russian Class )
Tour of Duty so to speak
Kuwait
Jeddah
Bahrain
Qatar
Abu Dhabi
Dubai
Muscat
Singapore
Japan - Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe.
Also Kyoto inland.
My memory is a bit hazy on this (which ship I think Al Mansouriah) this is a new generator crankshaft ( below) flown out.
The ship required two electrical diesel generators out of three for main engine operation in warm waters.
We only had one going so were adrift in the Indian Ocean for a week or two.
Junior Engineering duties included night watches in port.
Assistant to the Senior Engineer at sea.
Four hours on eight hours off around the clock.
One Chief Engineer played golf so we (me and him) would be out in the day playing golf then
a night shift.
Responsible for purifying oil and fuel. Controlling temps for main engine. ( no computers)
Making sure the tunnel well was kept empty otherwise Bridge would ring up to ask why the front of the ship was coming out of the water lol
One dodgy job was tightening up the seal where the prop shaft
went out of the rear ( aft ) ( tunnel well ).
Cold sea water would be coming through the slack seal. You would be standing on the large adjustment nuts with a rather large spanner. The propeller shaft turning around at a 100 rpm.
A ten foot drop into the watery bilge.
Life would be made more interesting by the boat going up and down in 20 foot waves whilst you are getting soaked by the leaking water
Modern seals I think are altered hydraulically and remotely with computers
In port tasks given including learning how all the machinery worked, what all the valves did and where all the pipes went. The 2nd Engineer who was in charge of engine room would ask for pipe diagrams of systems. this would involve lifting floor plates.
Work was usually 2 days work for one day off paid. So you worked 6 months continuously then got 3 months off with pay in theory.
Second trip I did 9 months straight as there was no one to replace me when we got back to UK.
Was not a happy bunny.....
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