Comments for Columbia River Ship Report Weblog

Comment on Fisher Poets by nwlimited

nwlimited — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:15:18 +0000

Just found this site through a related link off of my blog.
I’ll be back to look around…

Comment on Question about ship fuel by shipreport

shipreport — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:19:40 +0000

Thanks, Bert, for your comments. What you said about how ship engines are started matches information I’ve learned in interviews with other mariners for the Ship Report. It all adds up to the fact that starting a ship engine is not a fast process – much more time consuming and complex than starting a car, for instance. Another example of how things at sea require planning and specialized knowledge in most cases.

- Joanne

Comment on Question about ship fuel by Bert

Bert — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:46:59 +0000

Ships will take on fuel at a dock or at anchor from a barge generally.The ships I have worked on, it seems, buy fuel for one way plus a set reserve.The chief engineer,captain and the company make these decisions based on the rapidly changing market. Fuel is heavy and increases the draft of the vessel and alot of ports have draft restrictions, so the chief mate will make a load plan before heading to such load ports and included will be the max tons of fuel aboard to still be able to take on all cargo.
As far as starting the engine, I am not an engineer, so I’m sure there is more to it than what I will explain. I work on deisel ships and deisel is fired by compression not spark, what they use is air pressure, in the engine room there are large air compressors that will force the engine pistons to move thus compressing the deisel and causing the exlosion that moves the pistons, the engine can be started locally in the engine room or from the navigation bridge.
Like I said I am not an engineer so I am sure there is much more to the process, but I believe this is the basics of what it takes to get the engine running.

Comment on About by shipreport

shipreport — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:37:51 +0000

Thanks for your questions. I will see what I can do about getting you some answers over the next day or so, which I’ll post here and also talk about on Friday on the Ship Report. I do know that starting a ship is a fairly lengthy process, that is way more than just turning a key. Will get back to you asap!

Joanne

Comment on About by boomer

boomer — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:31:15 +0000

i am curious about ships and refueling, fuel treatment onboard (heating, fuel viscousity etc)? do ships have enough fuel on board for a round trip or just one way? how do they refuel? does a barge come out or does the ship pull up? also how do they start those big engines? do they just turn a key and crank it over like a small boat or is there a process? thanks boomer

Comment on Efforts to reduce ship emissions by shipreport

shipreport — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:14:44 +0000

Thanks for the comments on cold ironing, David — I too didn’t know the origin of that term. And thanks to Marc for solving the mystery…

Joanne

Comment on Efforts to reduce ship emissions by Marc Rubin

Marc Rubin — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:57:06 +0000

From Wikipedia:

‘Cold Ironing is a shipping industry term that first came into use when all ships had coal fired iron clad engines. When a ship would tie up at port there was no need to continue to feed the fire and the iron engines would literally cool down eventually going completely cold, hence the term “cold ironing.”‘

Comment on Efforts to reduce ship emissions by David King

David King — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 03:46:43 +0000

I wonder why it’s called “cold ironing.”

I can invent explanations, but there must be a correct one.

To me, “ironing” has mostly to do with making crisp, flat cotton fabric with a hot, sometimes iron, device.

Always enjoy your Ship Report.

Comment on Fisher Poets by shipreport

shipreport — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 01:00:16 +0000

Hi Bo!

Thanks very much for your comment. The world of commercial shipping is pretty fascinating — I imagine your son has great sea stories to tell. The engineers are the ones who keep everything running. They are also usually the ones who never get seasick – how do they do it! Thanks for listening to the Ship Report.

Joanne

Comment on Fisher Poets by Bo Neill

Bo Neill — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:53:53 +0000

I just discovered your broadcast and blog. My youngest son is a 1st assistant engineer. Though he does not ship out of Portland, your broadcast is a way for me to learn about the world of commercial shipping.
Thank you