Vibration problem..

[Aplmac]

The call came around 4, one afternoon in the mid-1980's.

 

At that time I was Underwater Photographer for a local Dive Co.

working out of the Bridgetown Port.

We used to do inspections of piers,pilings,underside of ships' hulls.. (real 'glam' stuff!) :cool:

checking for corrosion,etc.

My part was simply to photograph whatever was pointed out to me

by the accompanying Inspecting Diver who knew what to look for.

 

In those days there was no digital photography whatsoever

certainly not on a small Caribbean island...it was all 35mm. film.

I used a Nikonos camera with a 15 mm. f 2.8 wiiide-angle lens

and things got lit by a Vivitar 283 strobe in an Ikelite housing.

 

So the call came -get down to the Port NOW!

There's a cruise ship on her way in

experiencing vibration associated with the props? or shafts?

and we're needed to go down on her, and see what!

 

Half an hour later I'm at the Port and she's just about done docking up

so we give her another 10 or 15 to allow for turbidity and any residual swirling to settle down

before going in.

 

 

HUGE three-blade props!

Each big bronze blade about as tall as he and I were!

Then there's the central bit where the shaft's connected,

and then two other blades popping out the other side.

Probably 15-18 ft. dia. tip to tip -and that's just the one prop.

There's another just like it, over on the other side!

 

Anyway to cut a long story short, we had a good look around

carefully going over every inch of all six bronze blades

paying particular attn. to the edges

where something may have struck a rotating prop and broken out a chunk

thus sending it out of balance at whatever-hundred RPM such things spin.

 

Found nothing remarkable,other than the usual tiny nicks and chips which one would suspect

...nothing wrapped around either shaft(probably 2 ft. dia.?)

so we came up and gave a verbal report

followed a few hrs. later by my color prints to show what we'd described earlier!

 

.........................

 

Not your average afternoon's work, for sure

and very few people can claim to have dived on the butt end of a cruise ship

at the request of her Capt. and/or Chief Engineer

but it's all part of a life's experience that I thought I'd share with you.

 

Don't ask the name of the ship - I'd love to know now..

..now that I'm into cruising, but now it's 20-25 yrs. later,

there's been too much "water under my bridge" to remember that!

[NYCRUISR]

Interesting story.

[TheRoff]

Interesting story. I would be interested to know what the vizablity was like down there? I dove once in a harbor in Key West and you could only see a few feet.

[Aplmac]

Interesting story.

I would be interested to know what the visibility was like down there?

I dove once in a harbor in Key West and you could only see a few feet.

I think it wasn't that bad....around 4-6 ft.?

As a commercial diver working in a Port situation, that's a good day,dude.

Given the fact she had just docked, there would have been turbulence/swirling due to props,etc.

plus the ship had her butt into a 90 degree corner of the harbour, maybe 15-20ft. away

thus making the turbulence situation no better!.

 

It wasn't that bad as I recall, but again..we're talking 20-25 yrs. ago and memories fade.

 

I've been making enquiries re. contacting the guy I worked with

to see if maybe he kept a log book, and might just still have copies of those prints

(slim chance though it may be!).