MOTOR SHIP FROM TAMPICO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22751, 11 December 1935, Page 15

MOTOR SHIP FROM TAMPICO

KING MALCOLM IN PORT INTRICATE MACHINERY REPAIRS The British motor ship King Malcolm arrived at Dunedin yesterday morning from Timaru, after the completion of a major repair job at Wellington. The vessel's original port of departure was Tampico (Gulf of Mexico), where she loaded a cargo of asphalt for the main New Zealand ports. She arrived at Auckland on October 26, and subsequently visited Gisborne, Napier, Wellington, and New Plymouth. While the King Malcolm was discharging at New Plymouth, a serious mishap occurred to one of the ship's Diesel engine electric generating sets, of which she has three to provide current for lighting and driving the ship's winches and other auxiliaries. Each generator of 65 k.w. is driven by a directcoupled two-cylinder Diesel oil engine of about 100 horse-power l running at 300 revolutions a minute. While one of the sets was working, the bottom-end bolt of one of the connecting rods of the engine broke, and before the engine could be stopped the rod, threshing ''wildly, smashed the crank-case' and engine-casing, damaged the piston and broke a large piece out of the cylinder liiier. Other damage was also done to the engine, a number of fittings being smashed. The King Malcolm was brought back to Wellington from New Plymouth for repairs. Finished to requirements of extreme accuracy, a new piston and a new liner were made by William Cable and Co., Ltd., at their Kaiwarra works. The piston has a diameter of about 13 inches, the interior diameter of the liner, of course, being practically the same. At the same time there was the difficult job of straightening and truing-up the damaged connecting rod of the engine, as well as repairs to a number of pipes and other fittings. Another interesting section of the repairs was the making of a large "patch" for the broken crank-case. This involved the cutting and shaping of a steel plate. §in in thickness, and measuring about 6ft by 4ft 6in. The plate had to be bent two ways about halfway down to the shape of the original casing, as well as having a wide flange made along its bottom edge to fit it to the bed-plate of the engine. Then, a circular inspectiondoor had to be pressed out of the plate to give the engineers access to the crankshaft and other parts of the engine. In addition, strengthening brackets had to be welded to the plate at the bends and also along the flange. Holes were drilled in the plate and along the flange and also in the original casing and bed-plate to which the plate was secured by numerous bolts. The plate was also drilled for a number of pipes. An inspection of the completed repairs before the King Malcolm left Wellington showed a very neat piece of work which was similar in many respects to, but even more intricate than, the repairs to the air-compressor of the Norwegian tanker Bint carried out by William Cable and Co., Ltd., at Wellington some months ago. _^