26.

Describe the actions to be taken by the Chief Engineer

during the following conditions:
a) When the vessel is cruising past coastal waters.
b) When the vessel is in Anchorage.

Actions to be taken by the Chief engineer when the vessel is

cruising past coastal waters: -

1. The marine engineer in charge of the engineering watch

shall ensure that all machinery involved with the
manoeuvring of the ship can immediately be placed in the
manual mode of operation when notified that the ship is in
congested waters.

2. The marine engineer in charge of the engineering watch

shall also ensure that an adequate reserve of power is
available for steering and other manoeuvring
requirements.

3. Emergency steering and other auxiliary equipment shall be

ready for immediate operation.

4. Chief engineer ensures that the high sea chest valve is

opened, and low sea chest valve is closed by the engineer
on duty. The low sea chest is generally used while the ship
is in open sea and sailing with a moderate or deep draft.
Using the High Sea Chest in open can cause the Main Sea
Water pressure to drop as lesser water might enter the
 suction line of the pipe owing to rolling. The Low Sea chest
is not used for shallow or confined waters to prevent the
sucking up of mud/plastic etc.

5. Chief engineer ensures that freshwater generator is

stopped by the engineer on duty. Coastal waters are not
used for freshwater production due to pollutants from
shore-based industry contaminating the sea water.
6. Chief engineer must consult with the master regarding
special areas which will be crossed during the voyage and
ensure all engine room personnel know the MARPOL
regulations and they are complied with. Also know all local
regulations for sewage discharge for coastal waters and
they are complied with.

7. Chief engineer must consult with the master regarding the

expected emission control areas the ship will be entering
accordingly the regulations are complied with.

8. Since the traffic density will be more and the vessel will
across thousands of fishing boats, the service air is always
available for ship’s whistle.

Actions to be taken by the Chief engineer when the vessel is in

anchorage: -
 1. At an unsheltered anchorage, the chief engineer shall
consult with the master whether to maintain the same
engineering watch as when underway.

2. At anchor the engineer officer in charge shall ensure that:

 an efficient engineering watch is kept;
 periodic inspection is made of all operating and
stand-by machinery;
 main and auxiliary machinery is maintained in a state
of readiness in accordance with orders from the
bridge;
 measures are taken to protect the environment from
pollution by the ship, and that applicable pollution-
prevention regulations are complied with
 all damage-control and fire-fighting systems are in
readiness.

27. What are the relevant areas of work in a Dry-Dock for a ship
for: i) Hull & Deck machinery ii) Engine Room.

Relevant areas of work in a dry-dock for a ship for Hull and deck
machinery: -

(i) Bottom inspection and corrective action as recommended

by classification society surveyor.
 Bottom inspection is carried out, by Class Surveyor,
Yard attending repair manager, attending
Superintendent, Master, C/E, and C/O as soon as the
 water is pumped out and the dock is dry, with the ships
bottom scraped free of barnacle growth.
 This inspection is usually carried out during daylight
hours especially after daybreak.
 This is a general inspection and any noticeable defects
will be further examined and corrective action taken
accordingly. Normally the defects noticed are of two
types:
(a) Dents which are deep and spread over a small area
are further examined internally to note the extent of
damages to stiffeners fitted internally so that the
damaged portion of the stiffeners /stiffener are
renewed along with the dented shell plating.
(b) Areas of shell plating which have eroded and
wasted badly are to be U.S . gauged and if needed
renewed to the extent required.

(ii) Bottom preparation and painting as per company’s

specifications.
 This job commences on the first day and continues till
almost to the last day in dry dock.
 On the first day the areas requiring grit blasting are
decided by the superintendent in consultation with
the paint supplier’s technical officer and the yard’s
painting department manager.
 The areas where heavy grit blasting is required to be
specified. After cleaning, generally two coats of
primer paint each coat 40 microns thick, followed by
 two coats of finish paint, 40 microns thick, each coat
is applied. Apart from this in under water area, one
coat anti-fouling paint of 40 microns thick is applied.
 During the painting process, the paint suppliers
technical officer checks the coating thickness using a
paint thickness gauge which is a strip of plating about
3 mm thick with markings which whilst scrapping the
half-dried paint indicates the thickness by the
thickness noted on the plate gauge.

(iii) Anchor cables ranging and calibration.

 Both the anchors along with their cables are lowered into
the dock bottom and the chains are ranged to enable the
chains to be calibrated.
 The diameters of the links are checked and noted and
shown to the surveyor.
 Links on any chain length which have wasted are
discarded by renewing the chain length utilising the spare
chain length.
 The ship always carries one spare length as per
regulations. This length is attached to either the port or
starboard anchors.
 It is a good practice to turn the chains end to end at each
dry docking so that the link wear is uniform.

(iv) Cleaning and painting of chain locker.

  The chain wells are cleaned of mud and accumulated
water and painted with a slow drying chlorinated rubber-
based paint.
(v) Building up the Hawse pipe cast steel collars at both ends.
 Due to the frequent rubbing of the chain links on the
collars during anchor dropping and heaving up the
anchors, the collars get heavily grooved and if neglected
can cause damage to the hawse pipes.
(vi) Echosounders transducers cleaning and checking of
watertight terminal boxes
 The echo sounders are serviced, and the cables are
checked for continuity and earth after cleaning the
connections in the terminal box. The transducer plates are
cleaned, and a coat of fish oil applied on the transducers.

(vii) SAL log or Doppler speed log

 The ship may be fitted with a Doppler speed log or a Sal
log in the case of older ships. These equipments are to be
serviced and calibrated.

(viii) Sacrificial Zinc anodes or Impressed current system

 All zinc sacrificial anodes are to be renewed. The number
of zinc anodes should not be reduced as they are
calculated as a total quantity of zinc to be distributed all
over the hull surface especially on the bilge keels, the
stern portion and on the rudder.
  The total mass of zinc used is proportional to wetted
surface area of the ship and the mass of the propeller.
 If the ship is fitted with an impressed current system then
it must be serviced and calibrated.

(ix) Sea chests cleaning and painting

 All ships are fitted with at least three sea chests in the
machinery space area. They are high sea suction, the
low sea suction and the emergency fire pump sea
suction.
 Their suction grids are to be dismantled and cleaned.
 The internal surfaces of the chests must be scraped
clean of all growth. In case of doubt, the casing plate
have to be gauged for thickness and renewed as
necessary.
 After cleaning they are to be painted in accordance to
the ships hull painting specification.
 Zinc anodes in the sea chests are to be renewed.
(x) Renewal of damaged portions of Bilge keels.
 Any portion of the bilge keels which are found
damaged will be suitably renewed.

(xi) Maintenance on Propeller – Inspection, cleaning and

polishing.
(xii) Maintenance on Rudder – Calibration of rudder pintle
clearance, jumping clearance, any repair and hydraulic
testing.

 The rudder bottom plug is opened out in dry dock. If

accumulated water comes out, it indicates the rudder
plating is cracked and hence sea water has found its
way into the rudder making it heavy causing the
rudder movement sluggish. Hence the location of the
damage must be found out and then suitably repaired.
For this the rudder top plug is opened, the bottom
plug refitted, and rudder filled up with water through
top plug. The location of the damage will be found out
by water seen leaking out from the hole/crack.
Suitable repairs can now be carried out and finally an
hydrostatic test can be carried out by filling water into
the rudder through a flexible rubber tube fitted at the
top plug and a funnel at the end of the rubber pipe,
with the funnel held at the summer load line level.
This test proves the tightness of the repair when the
rudder internally is subjected to head of water up to
summer load line.
 The internal surface of the rudder is now painted by a
process of paint displacing the water, whereby the
paint resting on the water surface spreads all around
 internally whilst the water level is being lowered
through the bottom plug. This method is called float
coat method using a rubber-based paint of lower
density and slower drying rate. All paint
manufacturers supplying ship’s paints make this kind
of paint.
 The pintle bush clearance for top and bottom pintles
are to be measured using long feeler gauges. The
allowable pintle bush clearance is 1.5 mm for pintle
dia up to 200 mm.
 For diameter exceeding 200 mm the clearance is
proportionately increased. If the clearances are
excessive the bushes are to be renewed after
dismantling the rudder. The clearances are taken at
port, starboard, forward and aft and the maximum of
these is the clearance.
 The rudder drop is measured using the rudder
trammel gauge, but many ships are not checking the
rudder drop since the verification of jumping
clearance gives the same information.
 The verification of jumping clearance is carried out by
comparing the clearance at the jumping bar under the
rudder skeg with the clearance at the steering gear X-
head. The clearance at the X-head should be more
 than the jumping clearance to prevent the X- head
interfering with the Rams and damaging the Rams.
 Jumping clearance can increase by wear of the rudder
pedestal bearings or by the jumping bar falling off the
rudder if the welding holding the bar has given way. If
the pedestal bearing has worn off the rudder is to be
jacked up and the pedestal bearing halves dismantled,
the bearings built up by welding and suitably
machined

(xiii) Maintenance on stern tube – Calibration of clearances.

(xiv) Marking of draft marks on port stern, stbd stern, port

midship, stbd midship, port fwd and stbd fwd locations.

Relevant areas of work in a dry-dock for a ship for Engine

Room: -

(xv) Sea suction and discharge valves overhaul and survey.

 All sea suction and discharge valves are to be
overhauled at every dry docking. Every alternate dry
docking they are surveyed.
 The air and/or steam connections to the suction boxes
must be checked and any defects also attended.
 Many shipping companies also overhaul the main
intermediate valves and attached mud filters.
(xvi) Sanitary storm valves overhaul and their survey.
 All storm valves flaps will be dismantled, their leather
washers renewed and defective hinge pins renewed.
 The soil pipes will be inspected for any signs of
excessive corrosion, cracks and necessary renewals
carried out.

(xvii)Crankshaft deflection of ME measured.

28. What is the modern replacement of the ER logbook. Why is

such a provision necessary?

The modern replacement of the ER logbook is E-logbook.

E-log books
It is an IMO specification that log records should be properly
maintained and kept safely for reference at any time. E
logbooks have revolutionized the way data is stored and
maintained. Let’s look at the special features of these logbooks.
Disadvantages of paper logbook: -
 Life on ship is so busy that even an easy but tedious job of
filling a simple logbook may seem like a big and boring
task. This has always left engineers with improper filling of
logbooks.
  Engineer’s hands are often oily when filling a logbook. This
makes the logbook untidy and the readings unreadable.

 Logbooks are often filled up in haste, which has always led

to filling of parameters in wrong columns and shabbiness
due to over writing.

 Also, due to speedy writing, handwritings are always poor

and difficult to understand.

 Mishandling of logbooks results in loosening of its pages

and eventually missing a few.

Due to the above-mentioned reasons, electronic logbooks

are recommended.

Advantages
 It is a one-time investment that reduces the workload
drastically.
 As manual documentation is cumbersome, it reduces the
time required in data collection and report making.
 It makes the whole process more efficient with accurate
and correct readings.
 In case the records are to be sent to ship owners, E
logbooks helps in making and compiling reports is a much
speedier manner without any delay.
  The user-friendly interface facilitates easy retrieval of data
whenever necessary.

29.What is “Just-in-time” management, and why has it become

a necessity in modern day practice?

(a) Just-in-time Management

Just in Time inventory management methodology

 Also known as the Toyota Production System, JIT is
a common inventory management technique, designed to
increase efficiency, cut costs and decrease waste by
receiving goods and labour (to be used in manufacturing)
only as they are needed.

 JIT is a manufacturing management process. It was first

developed and applied in the Toyota manufacturing plants
in order to meet consumer demands with minimum
delays.
 The companies, which are opted for JIT, invest in
preventive maintenance; when a part/equipment breaks
down, the entire production process stops.
 The prime objective of JIT is to increase the inventory
turnover and reduce the holding and all connected cost.
Thus, the Just-In-Time approach eliminates the
requirement to carry voluminous inventories and incur
 heavy carrying other related costs to the manufacturer.

JIT has become a necessity in modern day practice due to

following reasons: -

 As this approach works on a demand-pull basis, all goods

produced would be sold, and thus it includes changes in
demand with unanticipated ease. This makes JIT appealing
today, where the market demand is fickle and somewhat
volatile.
 Just-in-time approach keeps stock holding costs to a
minimum level. The reduced inventory holding results in
better utilization of space and bears a favourable impact
on the insurance premiums and rent that would otherwise
be needed to be made.
 Improved cash flow – without the need to store large
volumes of inventory always, capital expenditure is
reduced, and cash can be invested elsewhere.
 Less dead stock – because inventory levels rely on
customer demand, there’s less risk of unwanted stock left
sitting in your warehouse.
 The just-in-time approach helps to eliminate waste.
Chances of expired or out of date products; do not arise at
all.
 Due to the above-mentioned low level of stocks held, the
ROI (Return On Investment) of the organizations be high in
general.
  By following JIT greater efficiency and High-quality
products can be derived.
 Higher customer satisfaction due to continuous
communication with the customer.
 Just-In-Time adoption result in the elimination of
overproduction.

30.Write short notes on hazardous characteristics of Gas cargo.

Different cargo grades have different hazards associated with

them. Liquefied gases relate to the following hazards asphyxia,
toxicity, low temperature and flammability.

Exposure

 Contact with liquid, or even cold vapour, will result in cold

burns that, if extensive, could prove fatal. The symptoms
of ‘cold burns’ are like ‘hot burns’, there is extreme pain in
the affected area with attendant confusion, agitation and
possibly fainting of the victim. If the area of the burn is
large, shock will inevitably develop.
 If liquid or cold vapour meets the skin, the patient should
be treated urgently, but with great care, and the affected
area immersed in tepid water until it is defrosted.
 Methane has a Threshold Limit Value (TLV) of 1,000 ppm.
Above this level, it acts as an anaesthetic to an increasing
extent as the exposure increases. Since methane has an
anaesthetic effect, a person exposed to an excessive
amount of vapour will become uncoordinated and not
necessarily realise the dangers.
Toxicity

 Some cargoes are toxic and can cause a temporary or

permanent health hazard, such as irritation, tissue damage
or impairment of faculties. Such hazards may result from
skin or open-wound contact, inhalation or ingestion.

Asphyxia

 Asphyxia occurs when the blood cannot take enough

supply of oxygen to the brain. A person affected may
experience headache, dizziness and inability to
concentrate, followed by loss of consciousness. In enough
concentrations any vapour may cause asphyxiation,
whether toxic or not.
Anaesthesia

 Inhaling certain vapours (e.g. ethylene oxide) may cause

loss of consciousness due to effects upon the nervous
system. The unconscious person may react to sensory
stimuli but can only be roused with great difficulty.
Frostbite


Many cargoes are either shipped at low temperatures or

are at low temperatures during some stage of cargo
operations. Direct contact with cold liquid or vapour or
uninsulated pipes and equipment can cause cold burns or
frostbite. Inhalation of cold vapour can permanently
damage certain organs (e.g. lungs).