by Guest » February 19, 2018, 7:23 pm
The process that was used to load cement at Alpena when I sailed the Huron boats was anything BUT clean. I don’t know if it has been improved or not as that was 40+ years ago. The system used at the Medusa plant in Charlevoix was much cleaner than Huron cements system.
At Alpena, the loading rig tubes drop into the round hatches and the powder is fed by pressure and gravity. The on watch deckhand would have to raise hatch covers outboard and inboard of the loading hatches and “ sound” the hold with a brick on the end of a heaving line. Well, you can imagine the scene with all that cement dust blowing up out of the open hatch. It was a mess and I always wore a filtered mask. Your clothes were a mess and if you forgot a bandana under your hard hat and around your neck, you ended up with dust all the way down your back to your Jocky shorts. It was Nasty to breathe and deal with. One deckhand I knew forgot to stand behind the hatch when he opened it and was bent over looking down. He got a face full of dust and lost eyesight in his left eye from the lye in the cement.
After loading the deck was full of piles of cement around the loading hatches and the whole ship was covered with dust. That had to be shoveled into the holds and after the hatches were secure, The Whole deck was rinsed and “ broomed”. We took corn whisked brooms and swept the whole deck while the bosun hosed down. Was hard work.
Each season the bosun and deck crew would scrape and paint the deck. Can’t count how many long handle scrapers we went through in a season but it was many,lol. Those hard patches of cement did not come off easy.
So, clean? Nope.. easy? Nope.. but, I always loaded the boat as I stood watch for the hometown guys in Alpena so they could go home for a few hours. My reward was lots of free time in discharge ports to explore and relax off the boat. So, all in all, being in a dust cloud every few days worked for me! Now, hoeing out the holds sometimes? Oh,, too nasty to want to remember. Dry skin was a huge problem. I used good old mazola corn oil after a shower and wiped the excess down well then applied lanolin that my folks mailed me by the case,lol. Worked well.
I loaded and unloaded every type of cargo hauled on the lakes in my 8 years career. I would not call any of them “ clean” by any stretch of the imagination. They are all dusty and nasty and quite honestly not healthy to breathe. Freighters are an industrial work place ,dirty and dangerous and not for the weak or feint of heart.
I had a great foto of all the loading rigs in place just before loading began, and, during the process on the old JB FORD. Misplaced it over the years but if I find it I will post it here.
The process that was used to load cement at Alpena when I sailed the Huron boats was anything BUT clean. I don’t know if it has been improved or not as that was 40+ years ago. The system used at the Medusa plant in Charlevoix was much cleaner than Huron cements system.
At Alpena, the loading rig tubes drop into the round hatches and the powder is fed by pressure and gravity. The on watch deckhand would have to raise hatch covers outboard and inboard of the loading hatches and “ sound” the hold with a brick on the end of a heaving line. Well, you can imagine the scene with all that cement dust blowing up out of the open hatch. It was a mess and I always wore a filtered mask. Your clothes were a mess and if you forgot a bandana under your hard hat and around your neck, you ended up with dust all the way down your back to your Jocky shorts. It was Nasty to breathe and deal with. One deckhand I knew forgot to stand behind the hatch when he opened it and was bent over looking down. He got a face full of dust and lost eyesight in his left eye from the lye in the cement.
After loading the deck was full of piles of cement around the loading hatches and the whole ship was covered with dust. That had to be shoveled into the holds and after the hatches were secure, The Whole deck was rinsed and “ broomed”. We took corn whisked brooms and swept the whole deck while the bosun hosed down. Was hard work.
Each season the bosun and deck crew would scrape and paint the deck. Can’t count how many long handle scrapers we went through in a season but it was many,lol. Those hard patches of cement did not come off easy.
So, clean? Nope.. easy? Nope.. but, I always loaded the boat as I stood watch for the hometown guys in Alpena so they could go home for a few hours. My reward was lots of free time in discharge ports to explore and relax off the boat. So, all in all, being in a dust cloud every few days worked for me! Now, hoeing out the holds sometimes? Oh,, too nasty to want to remember. Dry skin was a huge problem. I used good old mazola corn oil after a shower and wiped the excess down well then applied lanolin that my folks mailed me by the case,lol. Worked well.
I loaded and unloaded every type of cargo hauled on the lakes in my 8 years career. I would not call any of them “ clean” by any stretch of the imagination. They are all dusty and nasty and quite honestly not healthy to breathe. Freighters are an industrial work place ,dirty and dangerous and not for the weak or feint of heart.
I had a great foto of all the loading rigs in place just before loading began, and, during the process on the old JB FORD. Misplaced it over the years but if I find it I will post it here.