ANNUAL OVERHAUL

Evening Star, Issue 21722, 17 May 1934, Page 1

ANNUAL OVERHAUL

SPRING CLEANING A LINER All the best vessels, such as the crack Atlantic liners, undergo an annual overhaul in the same way as a house, though the resulting bills are somewhat different, writes Commander Frank Worsley, in the ‘ Daily Mail.’ For a ship the size of the Berengaria the hire of a dry dock costs about £2,000. An army of workmen is necessary to get the dock ready, blocks being laid along the bottom for the keel of the vessel eventually to rest on. The ship, having discharged her passengers and cargo on her last run before spring cleaning, lias then to lie got into the dock, and this matter alone is one of considerable difficulty and expense. When the dock is ready for the reception of the ship it is filled with water, and tugs manoeuvre the great bulk of the ship inside—a very delicate operation. She has to come to rest and be moored within an inch or two of the position arranged for her, so that’ she can settle down quietly and firmly on the blocks beneath the keel. Then the water is pumped out of the dock, balks of timber lie in g arranged in tiers against the ship’s sides to prevent her from heeling over. Accidents in dry docks are rare, but it lias happened that these “ shores ” have slipped, and when a ship goes over in dry dock the business of getting her straight again is stupendous. Getting a ship into dock is expensive. Apart from labourers’ wages, the fees for use of the tug may amount to £2OO. About the only thing that is free in the business of spring cleaning a ship is the water. 'This runs into' the dock without expense, hut it costs money to pump it out. As the water sinks away from the ship’s bottom men get to work scraping her to rid her of the marine animals which have accumulated. An excessive accumulation of barnacles can have a very marked effect on a ship’s speed. Following the cleaners comes an army of painters; they treat the hull with compounds to prevent corrosion and fouling by weeds. This item alone, with labour, may cost as much as £1,200. Machinery, propellers, rudders, and all parts of the hull are next carefully examined. Meanwhile work is going on inboard. An. army of carpenters is busy at cabin fittings effecting repairs, and very likely carrying out extensive alterations. To bring the ship a little more up to date, for instance, her owners may decide to build a palm court or put in a swimming pool. Larger and more luxurious state cabins may bo required. Although a minor stock-taking; is carried out n ( t end -.of-evesy spring cleaning time A ig made the portunity for a general overhaul of cutlery, linen, and so on. A large liner carries nearly 200,000 pieces of linen, a fair proportion of which is lost or destroyed on every voyage. Such a vessel carries about 15,000 knives, 10,000 forks, and 280,000 pieces of crockery and glass, and the breakages are not inconsiderable. At spring cleaning time owners learn something about the amounts that have to be written off as the year’s losses. At last the work is ended; the workmen go ashore for the last time, and the officers return to the bridge for the delicate job of getting the ship out of dock. ‘Bright and clean, ‘ she slides gently out. In a few hours’ time she is alongside the quay taking aboard passengers and cargo.