Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

[Michael Zbrozek]

Hello All-

Difficult to believe that its been 35 years since the Exxon Valdez went aground.

March 24, 1989. I remember that day because I was working for Exxon. My ship was in Norfolk

at a ship yard having some work done to this two house ship. They pulled me off that ship and I

flew from Norfolk to Seattle, then onward to Anchorage Ak...then on to Valdez Ak to take over on

the Exxon Benicia and sail her to San Francisco. They pulled the REO off the Benicia to work on the

oil spill. When I made it to San Fran then I went home on vacation. I worked for Exxon from 1986 -

89.. I went ARA after that, ....been many years and I dont miss the sea, bad food, nasty Captains.

Miss only the travel and $$$. Was an interesting life.....now there is less than 200 US Flag ships not counting MSC.

I can only imagine all the troubles US ships have had since we left.....any interesting stories out there?

73

Mike K8XF

[Jeff Woods]

Oh, ya want stories?  

I"m still out here, sailing ARA on MSC contract ships.  My last ship was the source of more sea stories than any one RO should have to endure.  There's the cook who used Google to look up all the recipes.  The 15 ton forklift that belonged to the Stevedores and wouldn't start on the last day of off-load, so we took it with us.  Two engine cylinders, at different times, destroyed by valves dropping into them.  The stern ramp that dropped bearing pieces onto the deck - Can we pick it up again? An overly frugal shoreside supply manager, notorious for cutting orders in half, who delayed repair of one of the engines because she refused to requisition 60 litres of liquid oxygen for a bearing replacement that required 60 - 30 litres is enough to get the bearing halfway into the casting, where it expands and lodges itself, requiring it to be cut out.  We did this twice. 

On the day before Labor Day, MARAD unilaterally shut off the crew Wi-Fi. No warning, no reason.  "Figure it out, guys"

There were allegedly several engine room fires, all unreported.  

Not a day went by on that ship where I did not, at least once, utter the phrase "Are you F**ing kidding me?"

The list goes on, and includes the death of a dear crewmate.  You have to buy me drinks to get that one.  Erich, you are always missed

Today, I find myself happily attached to a well-sorted, 25 year old MSC LMSR.  Sure, we have our problems, but nothing like the tub before.  Bad voyages make good stories.

-Jeff, 

W0ODS

USNS Redacted

Somewhere in 7th Fleet

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[Michael Zbrozek]

Tnx Jeff -

U are the first guy to reply to my msg. What you have described tells me a lot about the ship you were on.

I notice that MSC is always looking for electronics people aboard their ships. That says something...

Glad to be retired from the high seas...

73

Mike K8XF

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[Jeff Woods]

Mike,

The turd in the punchbowl was a MARAD ship.  The Gov't Owned/Contractor Operated (GOCO) vessels I'm on now are pretty stout and well maintained.  MSC has a VERY thorough maintenance program for these vessels that can be exhausting at times.  As Electronics Officers, we're maintaining an Aviation Certified helicopter deck and the 225-400 radios for that purpose.  Also on my work list:

--A 2.5MW Caterpillar Diesel generator that has a problem coming up and locking to speed.  It's a control issue and I run what amounts to the "scan tool" to watch motor and generator parameters.  Often, I'm out in the engine room repairing a wiring harness on one of these.  

--Tank Level Indicators: These are 4-20 mA sensors that monitor the fuel, ballast, FF Foam and other large fluid tanks.  The controllers have curve tables built in to account for the nonlinear nature of the signal caused by the geometry of each individual tank.  

--Fire Detection system:  One sensor lit off a trouble code about 36 hours ago at random.  Probably needs to be taken down and have its contacts cleaned and covered in dielectric grease.  Two other sensors are just plain bad and need to be replaced.  Fortunately they're on B and C deck, where our cargo load is such that a ladder can probably get to the bad sensor.  One of them is a heat detector shorted in a string of 70 others just like it.  They're all run in parallel. It's like finding the bad Christmas tree light in a string.  Fortunately, I'm paid by the hour.

--Internal TV/Radio antenna distribution system.  Same thing that's been on ships for decades.  Almost all the "entertainment" is now fed through a WiFi network.  Sometimes, it's nice to be able to pick up local FM and radio when we're in port.  And I just brought on board a CATV modulator that takes HDMI input, so we can feed the "movie night" feature throughout the ship.  

Last week was the annual COMSEC audit.  In June we have ABS and Radio annual inspections.  The GMDSS console radios are working great  - We have a 250 watt HF unit, It pinged the Charleville Australia coast station for a DSC test call yesterday just fine.  There's a CW key on the back, too.  When we're out to sea or at a US port, I try to check in to KPH regularly,  If you hear NZIX, that'd be me.  

It's not everybody's cup of tea to be sure.  As an EO, I get more involved with the engineering crew than I ever did as an RO and that sense of camaraderie really feels good,  We're a happy bunch on this ship, by and large.  I sailed as an RO and a much younger man in the early 90s.  Going to sea was something I always missed during the 25 years ashore doing RF engineering.  The urge to sail never went away.  At 52, I quit my job designing factories that built military L-band kilowatt amplifiers and returned to sea.  No regrets.  

-Jeff

Somewhere in the Pacific 

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[Michael Zbrozek]

Hello Jeff -

I worked for MSC from 1980-83 and thats where I got my six months sea svc endorsement for my Telegraph license.

I was a US Govt employee then and the vacation was lousy. 6 Months on and 1 month paid vacation. I trust  things are

much better in 2024. I left MSC in Aug 1983 and went to Sun Oil and it was 2 months on and 2 mos off vacation.

Things changed with Sun Oil (Ships tied up), and I went to Arco Marine, then Exxon, and then to ARA....my career was from 1980-1996.

Do you still send tfc on your ship or does the OM send tfc via SatComm?

The stuff you do on ships are more like a Engineer with that Department. I hope the food and OT and the Capt treats you well.

MSC cant afford to lose people...they are the biggest employer in todays US Flag fleet.

73

Mike K8XF

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