FUEL OIL CONGEALS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 114, 16 May 1934, Page 11

FUEL OIL CONGEALS

FREIGHTER BROUGHT BACK

TROJAN STAR'S TROUBLE

Through the fuel oil in her bunkers congealing and setting so hard that her boilers were scarcely being fed, the Blue Star Line- cargo steamer Trojan Star, 9002 tons, was obliged to put back to port after having been nearly a week on her outward journey from Auckland to London, via Panama. The ship left Auckland at. midnight last Tuesday with a very large cargo of primary produce .for. the. English market. On Saturday last-a wireless communication1 was received •by the Blue Star Lines-head office in Wellington from Captain D. H. Mills, master of the ship, stating that owing to fuel trouble ho was turning back to Wellington. At that time the ship was travelling at a speed of about 7$ knots instead of the.usual 13, or more at which she travels under ordinary circumstances. The Trojan Star had reported yesterday that she expected to arrive in port at S p.m., but at the request of the line's head office her arrival was delayed until daylight today. -She reached port at 7.45 a.m. and anchored in the- stream, where officials of the line and marine engineers of the- Union Steam Ship Company went on board to niako an investigation. ! • Shortly after noon : the ship was headed to the Mirainar Wharf, where she was assisted in berthing by the Union Company's tug;Terawhiti.

Tho first indication that all was not well with the, engines, a "Post?' reporter was informed ' this afternoon, was that pressure in tho boilers began to fall. For hours on end the engineers toiled at the task of freeing tho oil, but at length it was decided to return to New Zealand. It was thought that the oil bunkers had been affected by the proximity of the refrigerating apparatus on the ship, but ' until expert investigation had .been made in Wellington no definite decision could be made as to the cause of the trouble. . .

■The reason for the ship putting back to this port instead of to Auckland, from which she sailed over a. week ago, was that there are no available fuel-oil supplies at Auckland. It is not known how the congealed oil will be freed in the bunkers or how it can.be made less viscid so that it can be pumped out, but every effort will be' made to cpmplete the task as soon as possible,' as the Trojan Star carries important consignments of New Zealand goods for the English markets. ... The Trojan Star has her boilers so fitted that they can burn'either coal or oil. : The ship bunkered .at • a British port and came to New Zealand in ballast before she eommeheedloading, her furnaces being changed o.ver for oilburning at Auckland for the passage to London. '

Ordinarily fuel-oil is heated'to make it sufficiently liquid to be-pumped into the furnaces, but in the case of the Trojan Star it has been found impossible to liquify tho thick mass of oil. It is not known when the Trojan Star will leave Wellington, but she will probably be delayed in port for several days yet.