A Junior Engineer – March 1965 – May 1966

My apprenticeship came to an abrupt end when I joined RFA Tidereach in refit at Birkenhead. The original Tide boats (Reach, Flow, Surge and Austral) were very much ships designed by a committee, just like a camel is a horse designed by a committee. The committee, I’m sure, had the best of intensions of incorporating war gained experience into the overall design and overcoming the limitations of technology available in the early 1950’s when they were designed.

I had earlier spent about three months on the Tidespring which was altogether a much newer (1962) and perhaps a more commercial design which went on to be developed into the “Super Tide” design in the even bigger, better and later (1965) “O” boats (Olna, Olwen and Olmeda). This short time on the Tidespring in no way prepared me for what I was to find in the Tidereach.

I joined Tidereach in late March 1966 when the ship had just started a much needed refit in Cammel Lairds’ dockyard at Birkenhead on the Mersey. A whole group of us joined on the same day and we could only find reasonable digs in the MN Officers Hotel (Plimsol House) across the water in Liverpool. No problem, it was a nice walk to the underground station to catch the train under the water to Hamilton Square station in Birkenhead and a short walk to the docks.

In the ship we were allocated cabins (proper cabins with steel bulkheads and rivets between each one not like current construction using MDF or chipboard between cabins) but we couldn’t move in readily with all the chipping and painting going on inside and outside the accommodation, new cables being run etc.

The ship was in a dreadful state and had just returned from 14 months in the far-east. Although just over 10 years old seemed to have suffered a tremendous amount of problems and defects. Some of these were electrical and the importance of correcting them we did not appreciate at the time.

To summarise, there had been major boiler tube problems with soot blockage and tube fouling due to defective soot blowers. The main gear box bearings were running hot (160 degrees f+). Problems with the tubes inside the giant de-superheater in the boiler room and just about everything else required attention. No problem, out it all came onto the dockside and into the workshops for repair/overhaul and we could see there would be great improvements in our lot when we sailed in several weeks time –how wrong could we be, it was now mid April and most of the kit was ashore.

We became aware of a grave problem, a National Seaman’s strike, was being proposed for sometime towards the end of the month of April, (the official strike actually started 16^th May and lasted until 1st July).

The National Union of Seamen wanted a reduction in the working week from 56 to 40 hours for ratings and PO’s (note – not including Officers who worked 56 hrs on just watch-keeping duties alone) but the collective ship owners turned this down flat. The MOD was determined not to have Tidereach trapped in dock with no crew for the foreseeable future at the end of its refit.

Everything that had gone ashore to be repaired was returned to the ship as was, defects and all, and reinstalled whence it came. Any engineer will tell you that disturbed machinery is likely to be a worse performer because of the disturbance than it was before –even in its defective state – and so it was.

The main boilers were in the process of some partial re-tubing and de-scaling and this continued day and night until complete with scant regard to the rubbish that fell into the bilges from the hundreds of manhole door joints that had to be removed and then replaced after removing and expanding the tubes. Preparations were made to flash up the boilers to refloat the safety valves in the presence of the Lloyds insurance surveyor after a successful water pressure test to one and a half times the working pressure of 450 psi. Feed water was taken on from shore and small tipped oil sprayers made ready for the initial start up.

This picture shows the boiler room crew about to flash up No 2 boiler while his colleagues look on pensively

The main gear box bearings had been removed to investigate the overheating problems and it was decided to re-machine the bearings in a most extraordinary way and convert them into “Cammella” bearings with the bearing metal bored eccentrically in 3 different planes, 120 degrees apart, along its axis. This would increase the oil flow, and hence cooling, whilst holding the shaft in the same relative position as before.

The majority of the electric motors were reunited with their pumps and fans but in some cases would only work in slow or the slowest, speed.

Problems had been experienced with the stern gland and the propeller was removed, the tail shaft drawn inboard and the lignum vitae wooden strips replaced, the prop shaft was then “bedded in” on to the lignum vitae, inspected again, and on completion pushed out again. The stern gland was repacked and the propeller reinstalled. A new bearing was fitted to the bottom of the rudder stock, new zinc sacrificial anodes were welded to the hull, new antifouling paint applied and off we went.

Well not quite.

The engine room crew was made up of a mixture of hard men from Liverpool and Newcastle, who realising that a strike was imminent had decided to ship out rather than wait for the strike to be settled (the official strike lasted six weeks and unofficial action several weeks before and after that). Most of the men were very good with the odd one who liked a drink. They were mostly non-RFA contract (i.e. from the MN shipping pool in Liverpool) and had not been on an RFA ship before. The following picture shows me and two of the greasers amid some of the chaos on deck.

Me and two of the “hard men” greasers who became good friends over the next 14 months

After a good deal of coaxing we started the diesels, cast off the shore electricity supply and then fired up the scotch boiler which took 24 hours to warm through. We still lived ashore and did 12hrs on and 24hrs off as the cabins still were not ready. The next day we flashed up the No 1 main boiler and the first Indications of the problems ahead began to manifest themselves. There were 8 engine and boiler room ventilation supply fans, but only one fan in the boiler room and one in the engine room would run at full speed, two each in each place would only run at slow speed and one in each place would not run at all. As the pressure went up in the boiler, so did the temperature in the boiler room. The de-superheater, a pressure vessel 3ft diameter and 12 ft long was completely un-insulated as the long stranded glass fibre insulation had been removed to get at its innards. The Pipes and the steam/steam generators had insulation missing etc., etc. The temperature got up to 130 degrees F (50 degrees C) at the boiler fronts on a cold day in March in the UK with frost and snow on the deck.

The boiler steam safety valves were floated by the ship yard staff and witnessed by the Lloyds man but this must have woken everybody for miles and the muck and dust in the boiler room were indescribable. This had to be repeated twice more for the two other main boilers as they were water tested and then flashed up.

Valve glands leaked, steam rose from strange places but eventually the boilers were connected to the steam range and steam admitted gingerly to the engine room. A few more leaks and drains were found left open but we could then run the main turbo generators, well one anyway as the other one was nearly complete after re-jointing the HP inlet manifold.

In amongst all these problems we managed to sign on in front of the shipping master on the 27^th April with a full crew of seamen, stewards, firemen and greasers.

By this time, leaks and draining steam lines etc. had caused the bilges to rise in the boiler room so it was decided to start the steam bilge pump in the engine room (better suction then a rotary pump) but it was found that the strum boxes became blocked almost immediately. I can remember lifting the floor plates over the strum box wells and sitting on the tank tops up to my armpits in warm dirty water with my feet dangling into the wells removing the square and oval hand hole door joints discarded from the boiler fronts, fibre glass insulation and all the other detritus of a refit before we could pump out the bilge (through the oily water separator naturally!).

We had to sail before the end of April as once we had signed on and sailed the crew were thought to be exempt from participating in the strike.

The photo shows one of the Fourths having a blow after a mind and body building exercise of opening the feed and main steam valves (and the auxiliaries and double isolators of each) on No 1 boiler.

Eventually some semblance of order was achieved, proper watches set and preparations made to sail to Devonport to take on fuel and stores. Although everyone had been to sea before on steam ships it took some quiet watches before we sailed to trace pipes and valves, controls and whatnot to ensure that we could operate safely and securely.

We sailed before the end of the month and found our first major problem, No 1 & 2 boiler forced draft fans were satisfactory and ran up to full speed as we got “full away” but No 3 fan kept tripping off the electrical switch board when full fan speed was asked for. As we could still manage 17 knots on two and a half boilers it was not critical but an unwanted problem.

We docked at Yonderbury and loaded FFO, Diesel, Mogas, and some Avcat, water, drummed and bulk lubricating oil of various types and then across to the dockyard to load everything else from food to cordage, engine spares to fridge gas, clothes to cocoa powder, beer to brasso etc, etc.

Most ships in this state then proceeded to Portland for a work up with the nice gentlemen from FOST culminating in the traditional Thursday war. I don’t remember there being much of a work up and I’m sure it was limited to just one RAS with Blue (or Black) Ranger from each RAS rig to prove it worked and train the new seamen and off we went to the Azores area for work up – anywhere but away from the UK.

The auto tension winches were tested and worked reasonably but lots of work had to be done on all the other winches (about 25) by the Day-work third, the 3 day-work Juniors, the three Engine room Apprentices and the Second Engineer on packing glands, scraping and refitting the white-metal bearings .

It was believed that sometime after construction of the early Tides that some (I say “some”) thought was given to nuclear fallout and contamination and how to shut down for NBCD issues in the event of an atomic war. The simple way out was to extend all important valve spindles by rods and gears into a special hot steel “wardrobe” called the engine control centre built into the bulkhead between the engine and boiler room in the hottest place on the ship and lock the engineers in. It was an impossible dream, it was hot enough to kill you as no air could be used to cool the room in case it was contaminated and the valve rod drives would have given hernias to one and all – cooked first and strained after.

The photo above shows the Second and Daywork Third Engineers discovering the wonders of the auto tension winch. The state of the deck should also be noted as most ships received lick of grey and green paint before leaving refit, but not Tidereach due to the rush. The triple expansion steam reciprocating engine driving the auto tension winch is under the square cover to the right of the engineers and some of the five steam winches surrounding each of the five RAS stations can be seen. The blue painted end covers behind the engineers are filters for diesel or avcat fuel prior to delivery to other ships.

The deck crew had a similar galling time renewing much of the standing and running rigging on each RAS position and then trying to train the deck crew into RAS procedures. There were no enclosed winch control rooms, just dirty, noisy, open steam winches controlled by a man on each for the three troughs that supported the hoses and the topping winch to lower the RAS rig outboard and one for the hose retrieval.

Painting ship came along way down the priority list but I’m sure it broke the Chief Officers heart to see the ship in such a state.

This picture is looking aft and amongst other things shows the small swimming pool bolted on deck.

The ship was dispatched to the Azores area to work up on the edge of a major fleet exercise giving the minimalist work up ever. After a few days progress was made in all things RASing and we made for Gibraltar and moored to the detached mole to prevent any absconders jumping ship. The idea was that we should then make for Aden (missing Malta) and there undertake an assisted self maintenance period to bring us up to scratch!!!!!!

We set off through the Mediterranean for Port Said, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. It got hotter every day with more and more complaints of lack of air conditioning and air flow generally both amidships and aft. As one of the watch keeping Juniors I was given the additional task of investigation the problems with the A/C in my time off watch.

On the face of it the system seemed to indicate it was working well. There was a refrigeration compressor on the after side of the mid-ship’s accommodation that seemed to be taking the correct amperage, making the correct noises (loudly) and indicated the correct pressures. The fans had drive belts and were taking the correct amps. Where next?

I found in the stores an old manometer that would indicate air pressure when filled with water and I started at the furthest end to find any air pressure within the A/C trunking. I was looking for dropped fire dampers etc. but the results were to say the least, disappointing. The air pressure was rising slowly as we approached the fans. We eventually got to the fans themselves which also incorporated the cooling coil from the refrigeration compressor. One side the air pressure was about 1 inch water gauge, the other side it was more than 24 inches and it blew all the water out of the manometer. The problem was blocked and dirty refrigeration coil/fins. At sometime in the dim distant past a fibreglass/paper filter bag had burst and the pieces had blocked the majority of the airflow through the cooling coil fins. We spent many hours cleaning out the pieces and soon achieved full cooling everywhere midships with good airflow.

I had been helped by the daywork greaser who then asked that we should look at the similar system in the aft accommodation. We duly went straight to the plant room with the fan in and found exactly the same problem. We were able to clean the cooling coils in a reasonably short time and push some chilled air round the after accommodation where it was badly needed due to the heat coming up through the deck from the Engine and Boiler rooms. A greaser fried an egg on the deck of his cabin, in front of the Captain, during Saturday Rounds to indicate the heat, cut down oil drums were poking out of the ports in each cabin aft, hardly suitable in NBC condition one.

Both A/C systems ran for some months before we got to Singapore and were able to fit new filters and have the coil system steam cleaned for even better results. We even got free beer for a few days.

I don’t want to give the impression that everything was doom and gloom but it was hard work for those first few months. The assisted maintenance period in Aden passed very quickly and we only had limited assistance from ashore for some of the electrical rewinds that were found to be absolutely necessary, i.e. the ventilation fans and the fire and bilge pump motor and starter. I think Aden was chosen to stop for a refit as nobody in their right mind would jump ship there to join the strike back in the UK.

We had about 2 weeks in Aden and set off to meet the ARK. Ark Royal was the far-east carrier that year and had about four escorts most of the time.

Bum boats in Aden sold everything electrical

RAS with Ark Royal in the Gulf of Aden

Pump-over and beer/spares exchange with the homeward bound Tidesurge

Drummed (or dammed) lube oil being transferred

Tidesurge’s dog “George” being transferred to the Tidereach in the Gulf

“George” in the arms of a seaman and safely on Tidereach

Top up pumpover with Pearleaf

The following are high or low lights taken from letters home which I found my mother had kept when she moved house, not comprehensive (would not write it all home anyway) but indicative of our trip.

The engineering problems continued without let up. I noted stern gland failed, had to transfer cargo for’d to get pressure off prop shaft and allow us to attempt to repack stern gland. Evaporator cooling pump seized, found black and yellow sea snake wrapped round impellor – sea inlet strainer had dissolved.

Soot blowing became a major issue with leaking soot blowers and defective seals around the boiler fronts. The junior of the watch used to blow tubes and had to find any protective sacking or rags to cover face and hands whilst blowing tubes. Some soot blowers were located in the hottest part of the boiler room (160 degrees) and when it was finished I used to stagger out into the crews accommodation for a blow on deck for a few minutes. I can still taste the sulphur all these years after. The soot blowers became so ineffective either due to defects or less than diligent operation that the superheaters became blocked and the steam temperature fell causing very inefficient working of the main engine and turbo generators and cargo pumps. Fuel consumption increased alarmingly. FOSS fuel treatment was tried by adding it down the sounding tube in the air-conditioning flat above the bunker tanks. This additional task was undertaken for the rest of the trip. The 25ltr drums of thick white liquid were bulk loaded to us in Singapore.

In Hong-Kong an emergency was declared as following a serious accident there was not enough blood in the blood bank. The Australian Red Cross in Hong-Kong were tasked with getting blood out of us stones and did so by sending around all the ships in the harbour the most stunning tall girls you could wish to see with the added inducement of a bottle of beer for each pint of blood donated. It didn’t take long for us to realise that no real check was been taken of who had given blood and had beer, so round we went again, pint for pint. Straight to the head it went. I had been given the task of freeing off the internals of the ships siren (the rotating innards had seized) – I’m sure it was tested more than it should have been and I’ve still got two stickers for my blood donors card issued on the same day

During our time off Borneo I was on day work and had just rebuilt one of the ships lifeboat engines and it was decided that we needed to test it and run it in. Several cases of beer were obtained and four of us juniors and apprentices took the boat away to a local island for a banyan and drink. We reached the shore and decided we would all run up this little hill and play whose the king of the castle (really) which we did until we found the hill was a hornets’ nest and we were chased back to the boat by angry hornets. One of the other juniors was stung quite badly as we set off back to the ship. He felt it would be better if he went for a swim. He duly dived in to the sea – straight into the biggest pale purple jelly fish you could think of and as it was the size of a dustbin he went right into it and out the other side adding even more stings to his body. We got back to the ship very quickly and he was hospitalised by the doctor who arranged a helicopter from Victorious to get him back to Singapore hospital and eventually back to the UK.

During our time on the Far East station problems were encountered with a type of fungus that seemed to grow on the air/liquid interface in the avcat tanks. It was thought to have been the cause of several Buccaneers either crashing or nearly so. It was thought that the growth was in our tanks so special filter packs were shipped out to us and we then proceeded to change all of our avcat filters. Each filter was about 10 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter and had thousands of filter packs inside, all of which had to be changed for a much finer grade of filter which slowed down the throughput greatly.

I noted in my diary the following incident which would only happen somewhere like the Beira Patrol – miles from anywhere:-

All the pipes that went across the tank deck (air, steam, condensate, fire main, pre wetting, etc.etc) were collected at the forward port side of the boiler room and rose vertically in a trunking to the deck where they turned 90 degrees in a housing about 6ft sq and 10 feet long. A watertight door was provided, which, when opened allowed the hot fumes from the boiler room to escape.

The junior on watch reported zero fire main pressure and the recip. pump going mad as there seemed to be no resistance. The fourth came running into the engine room to inform the third that we must have struck an iceberg (seen too many Titanic films) as water was pouring in from behind No 1 boiler. It transpired that the 6” fire main had ruptured either in the pipe trunking or in the housing on deck and was cascading into the boiler room.

Well, all hands turned to and the first job was to rig a temporary connection from the firemain in the engine room, up through the accommodation and out to a connection on deck using rubber RAS hoses. The deck storekeeper was asked for flange connections to fit the threads on the hoses, which he did although the flanges themselves had to be drilled out to a different PCD. This system worked but it was a little untidy as engine room access doors and accommodation doors had to be left open.

It was decided to strip out the defective pipe in the trunking and replace it with a shorter length of rubber RAS hose so making the job much neater.

The Tidereach, like all other ships of her time (before computer assisted designs) was built on the “Olympic” system. The fastest pipe fitter who ran from the dock gate to the job put his pipe in straight, the rest had to bend their pipes round the first one. That is just what we found when we tried to take out the defective pipe, it was like a snakes wedding in the trunking. It took over a week just to get the pipe out (no gas cutting gear or welding sets). The day workers split into two shifts doing 6 hrs on, 6 hrs off with the watch keepers providing 2 hrs assistance either before the start of their watch or for 2 hrs after their watch and the greasers and firemen did likewise.

The pipe was duly trimmed back to a suitable flange in the boiler room and the RAS hoses inserted in the trunking and up to the deck where it left the housing via the watertight door (with a suitable hole chain drilled into it to take the hose and coupling) out onto the deck and reconnected to the existing fire main using only 3 lengths of hose as against 7 or 8 for the temporary hose previously rigged.

The engineers celebrated after the completion of the fire main replacement by having a yard of ale drinking contest for the day workers “on the house” so to speak using Tiger beer which was nice and gassy. We all seemed to do quite well although some were more messy drinking the yard than others.

During the various stints in on the Beira patrol beer and spirits ran short and consequently minds turned to other ways of obtaining alcohol. The Engine Room storekeeper seemed to have the simplest idea to produce “White Lightning” rather than the complex operation of home brewing using rice or currents that was being carried on. All it took was a loaf of bread and a couple of dozen tins of shoe polish (where they came from nobody ever knew). The polish was melted and poured through the loaf of bread that had had the ends cut off. The bread filtered out the black colour and imparted some yeast into the colourless liquid. It had the qualities of raw vodka and never left the PO’s bar. It was only for serious drinkers and I only partook of a small glass once.

I think it was on this last Beira patrol that we were asked to come up with ideas for a ships crest. It seems strange to think that Tidereach was 10 years old and had no crest (unsure whether other old Tides had them or not, Tidepool and Tidespring did). All sorts of drawings were proposed but the engineers came up with the rolling dice motif as it was a gamble if we would get home or not given the state of the kit. As the engineers outnumbered everyone else their view on life prevailed and the rolling dice became the motif of the crest for Tidereach.

The ship eventually arrived back in Devonport in May 1966. Most of the ships company paid off but some engineers who had only recently joined had to stay on. The Tidereach would normally have a 3 week commercial refit each year but remained in the dockyard at Devonport over the next three months and underwent a major refit where a lot of the pipework was replaced and the soot blowers sorted at last as well as the electrics. Tidereach went on to serve until the mid 70’s and was laid up in the mid 1970’s before disposal in 1979, the last of the UK Tide Boats. Tide Austral went on till 1985 following a 15 month refit in the late 1970’s

I went on leave with a heaviness of heart in-case I was posted to another old Tide, but there was a God and I was posted to the good ship OLNA (O Lord, Never Again) which is another story for another time.