Soogey Party

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Lakercapt
Posts: 554
Joined: July 19, 2010, 4:51 pm

Re: Soogey Party

Unread post by Lakercapt »

On my time on deck the bosun used his secret formula to mix up a 45 gallon drum of the stuff.
You then put a little in the bucket an topped it up with fresh water. The tougher the cleaning job the more of the secret mix you would put in. Beware of too much as it played havoc with the skin on your hands.
I believe the secret mix contain caustic soda as well as soft soap and regular soda. Other stuff I never did find out but it worked!!
geysir
Posts: 89
Joined: July 8, 2013, 2:29 pm

Re: Soogey Party

Unread post by geysir »

RTNerd wrote:I sailed as deckhand in 1970 and remember the term "making soogey." It was often done in the rain and when scrubbing overheads, soogey would run down your arm and under the raingear. We must have diluted it more because I don't remember being burned or scarred. In my present enginnering carrer we worked on a repowering project on an old Collingwood boat and was surprised to find an entry in the plan list for a soogey bucket. So the term is ingrained on both side of the border.
I had the same experience. Cleaning overheads was the worst. Hose the overhead, then dip your long-handled brush into the soogey water bucket and then scrub the overhead. Some soogey water would run over my gloves and onto my arm under my rain jacket. Not a fun time. Didn't need to do it too often, just when we picked up a taconite load and a strong wind was blowing the dust everywhere.
Newfie

Re: Soogey Party

Unread post by Newfie »

When I was sailing we started using regular dish liquid for sooging. We started using in the late 80's when the company trying to cut cost sent a cheap - no name- dish liquid for the galley staff to use but the found it useless for dishes ... so it ended up in the deck department. After we used it once we found it worked great for sooging steel and never went back to the old stuff. It was excellent to use as it didn't hurt when it landed on our skin ...even in our eyes and it definitely did no damage to the lake water when it evently ended up.
ML

Re: Soogey Party

Unread post by ML »

I sailed in the 70's and when we did the exterior cabins with soogey we diluted it, We had our rain gear on and of course rubber gloves and googles. Used mops and brushes. The rivets were a beast to clean and if it was windy (when wasn't it), well, chances were soogey was on you somewhere. Throw in a hatch farm job and tarps and a bad feeder it would be a long season.........
Jon Paul

Re: Soogey Party

Unread post by Jon Paul »

We mixed it in varying strengths depending on the job. The stuff we used was an orange granulated substance that turned lime green when mixed with water. If it was mixed strong it did burn on exposed skin. Doing overheads was the worst and the earlier comment brought back memories,ahh, the good old days, lol. You also had to be careful because if it was breezy it could wind up in your face, we usually wore goggles. I'm not sure what I hated more chipping guns or soogeying.
Russ

Re: Soogey Party

Unread post by Russ »

Soogie powder is tri-sodium phosphate (TSP). Without getting bogged down in the actual chemistry, the addition of TSP to a bucket of water creates a lye solution. It is the lye that cuts oil and grease on cabins, decks, and hatch coamings -- and burns the skin. "Soogie parties" were usually done on cloudy and rainy days (when painting was not possible) to facilitate washing off any excess soogie.

Soogie powder is easier and safer to handle and store on board a boat than a large quantity of liquid lye.
RTNerd
Posts: 66
Joined: March 13, 2010, 5:19 pm

Re: Soogey Party

Unread post by RTNerd »

I sailed as deckhand in 1970 and remember the term "making soogey." It was often done in the rain and when scrubbing overheads, soogey would run down your arm and under the raingear. We must have diluted it more because I don't remember being burned or scarred. In my present enginnering carrer we worked on a repowering project on an old Collingwood boat and was surprised to find an entry in the plan list for a soogey bucket. So the term is ingrained on both side of the border.
hayhugh3

Re: Soogey Party

Unread post by hayhugh3 »

Sooge - trisodium phosphate
garbear

Re: Soogey Party

Unread post by garbear »

It was nice once we got the cabins and hatch crane painted because on the new paint the b'sun would only let us use a mild laundry soap. Like I said in an earlier post, I have scars from the burns. I was in my 20's when that first happened. I'm now in my 60's and you can still see them.
Career sailor

Re: Soogey Party

Unread post by Career sailor »

These days the word soogey mostly refers to the act of cleaning outside paintwork, not nessarily using the old soogey compound. On the Badger for example, they use a product called By-Pas for cleaning white painted areas.
Guest II

Re: Soogey Party

Unread post by Guest II »

Always neat when it turned the water green. Nasty stuff though. Always start at the bottom and work up to avoid runs, especially on Cliff's cabins.
Guest

Re: Soogey Party

Unread post by Guest »

As of 2002, myself & other ABs & some deckhands "Soogeyed" the aft section of the boat deck of the Str. Middletown where smoke from the stack had dirtied it. Soogey itself is a very strong solution somewhat like strong oven-cleaner. You always wear thick rubber gloves when using it, if you put your bare hand in it, it removes a few layers of skin. Because of its strength, it is usually used outside, or on greasy engine-room decks. For interior crew spaces, less acidic industrial detergenys are used.
So, yes, ships still have "Soogey Parties". bhale849
CF259

Re: Soogey Party

Unread post by CF259 »

Soogeying is done every night on the Badger to wash off the day's accumulation of coal dust.
garbear

Re: Soogey Party

Unread post by garbear »

Guest wrote:Reading accounts of sailing days during the 1940s and 1950s I have found many references to a Soogey Party which seems to have been a way to srcub and clean a ship's internal spaces. I was wondering if this is still done, or has the practice now been abandoned?
When I sailed in the 70's sougee was just used to clean the exterior of the boat, cabins, hatch crane. Sougee is very harsh and has the tendency to dull paint if not diluted down. Can also cause "burns." I still have scars from my sougee days. My fellow ex-sailors and current sailors can tell you it's not a fun product to work with.
Guest

Soogey Party

Unread post by Guest »

Reading accounts of sailing days during the 1940s and 1950s I have found many references to a Soogey Party which seems to have been a way to srcub and clean a ship's internal spaces. I was wondering if this is still done, or has the practice now been abandoned?
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