Boatnerd Discussion Forum

The biggest factor in the decks not being as clean as they used to be is not budget, or crew size. It is the much more confined areas where dry cargo residue can be discharged.

On the Clarke we went into the North Dock at the South Works in S. Chicago a lot. They had bridge rig unloaders with clam shell buckets. A lot of grease and oil from the pulleys and cables, so most trips after we left there we'd be walking around the forward cabins with rags and paint thinner to remove the grease and oil spots. After that we'd scrub forward and aft cabins with laundry soap with usually a little ammonia mixed in. Of course the hatch covers would be spotted from the grease and oil, so that was tackled with paint thinner in a bucket using a mop. After that it would be the laundry soap/ammonia mixture for the hatch covers. Of course the paint thinner would be hosed over the side into Lake Michigan.

Back in day the captain would even have the crew use spic and span after putting the hoses on to clean the deck. Have the windows squeegee cleaned. And always scraping and painting, scraping and painting without a care in the world of that lead based paint eating away at your lungs or being hosed off the side of the deck. In the galley we always kept everything to a high spit and polish. Squeaky clean you could eat off the floor. And always the smell of ammonia cleaners intermixing with the smell of dinner cooking and cigarette smoke. Of course now in the galley we would have lava soap on hand for the men to clean up extra good. And the captain hated a crew that smelled bad so taking a regular shower and washing your clothes was always necessary. And boy did he hate bird crap on the pilot house. He'd have men out there cleaning that up 24/7 and in high seas if he saw it. Didn't matter.

Nowadays must boats are run with smaller crews and with minimal upkeep budgets. Run them till they rust and then cut her up into a barge or sell for scrap.

Guest wrote:

ds wrote:

Old Man wrote:DS - Was the subject from South Range, Wisc?

I don't recall whether I knew the subject's home town back then or, if so, what it was but his initials were BS.

Were you per chance on USS/GLF's Benjamin F. Fairless? I know initials bs who was the old man on her. First name was Ben?

No. I worked for Columbia most of my sailing career.

Guest wrote:

ds wrote:

Old Man wrote:DS - Was the subject from South Range, Wisc?

I don't recall whether I knew the subject's home town back then or, if so, what it was but his initials were BS.

Were you per chance on USS/GLF's Benjamin F. Fairless? I know initials bs who was the old man on her. First name was Ben?

Ben came to the Clarke after the Fairless. Remember his side business of selling radios and TVs? To his credit, when we got to the Soo he always went to the Post Office himself and instead of the 1 deckhand going with the Mate, there were always 2 of us, each with a two wheeled cart to haul all of his packages.

ds wrote:

Old Man wrote:DS - Was the subject from South Range, Wisc?

I don't recall whether I knew the subject's home town back then or, if so, what it was but his initials were BS.

Were you per chance on USS/GLF's Benjamin F. Fairless? I know initials bs who was the old man on her. First name was Ben?

[quote][/quote]I don't recall whether I knew the subject's home town back then or, if so, what it was but his initials were BS.

Well, that clears the "Roaring Swede". He was HA. - or HO. I never could spell last names.

Old Man wrote:DS - Was the subject from South Range, Wisc?

I don't recall whether I knew the subject's home town back then or, if so, what it was but his initials were BS.

DS - Was the subject from South Range, Wisc?

When I was sailing during the 70s, on one of the ships on which I was a crew member, the captain issued strict instructions whether in the rivers or out on the lakes to always hose everything off of the side of the vessel closest to Canada. Of course, these instructions didn't apply when on Lake Michigan. Doing the hosing in this manner required extra time, as everything on the port side needed to go over the starboard side or vice versa. This particular captain was not well liked by unlicensed crew members fleet wide, and many of the loading and unloading rigs and docks around the lakes displayed graffiti highly unflattering of him (both images and slogans). One day I personally was instructed by him to use a deck hose to blast away a very large image of him with captions made in chalk on a prominent part of the cement structure/chute portion of the Marquette ore dock. Interestingly, the original artist was not the only contributor to this "art work", as others had later added their own sentiments and opinions in differing printing and colored chalk.

Smaller crews, everybody's just getting ready for the next dock aside from general maintenance and some painting, but a lot is left for the shipyard.

I remember 'way back then' when the salties all looked liken rust buckets and the Lakers all looked like new. The ball is in the other court now. Are the captains and crews forbidden or somehow discouraged from doing the regular clean up and maintenance or are the companies too tight to finance the work?

standuffer wrote:The days of hosing down the deck right after departing the dock seems to be over. I know MI has very stringent regulations about hosing the decks. It's just another example of the "good 'ol days" being LONG Gone.

I've posted this before, but when I was on the Clarke in the 70s we'd start hosing the deck as we were backing out of the D.M. & I.R. ore docks in Duluth, hose down until we got out by the Coast Guard station, wave at the tourist at Canal Park, and start hosing again as we cleared the piers. If the deck wasn't too dirty, we'd sometimes be done before the Coast Guard station. Two hoses going.

The days of hosing down the deck right after departing the dock seems to be over. I know MI has very stringent regulations about hosing the decks. It's just another example of the "good 'ol days" being LONG Gone.

Limestone dust.

What is the white stuff on the deck of the KEB in that excellent picture shown today?