[BITList] Chakdara engine 1967

Sat Oct 4 09:11:21 BST 2008

Fred, Colin,

Why was Chakdara's engine rebuilt in 1967?  From my archive I offer 3 messages on that topic, but before that I'd like to place on record that, when I left Chakdara in Dundee on 1st November 1957, the engine was OK apart from wear and tear.

Hugh.
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10 July 2002, from Fred.
Salaams,
This is what I remember being told of the explosion by Harry 
Fowler. 
Just after the watch change and the 8 to 12 had left for their 
customary biscuits and hot chocolate before bed the 12 to 4 took up 
position aft of the condenser under the fan ducts to wake up. A short 
time later a bottom end bolt on the scavenge pump sheared and if 
memory serves correctly the bottom end lifted the controls and threw 
them into the switchboard and the ship blacked out. On a return 
stroke the bottom end came out the port side striking the Lube Oil 
cooler, a small fire ensued which Harry by now down below put out 
with a hand held extinguisher. Harry always used to wait for the 
eight to twelve to come up to join them for a noggin before retiring, 
in Harry's case his favourite tipple at that time of night was Port 
as I was to discover later on my first trip as Fourth.
Sandy, I joined in the January of 67 just as they were assembling the 
Doxford and completed the coastal and the round trip to East Africa 
before proceeding on leave on arrival back in the U.K. I can't 
remember who the second was but if he was slightly built and sported 
a beard then it may have been Bill Davidson, I have a photo somewhere 
taken in East Africa of the second and others when Harry had us 
diving for shells on one of our periods of relaxation between keep 
leads and other mind blowing occupational therapy. I do remember that 
the Third was Gavin Haggart last seen in 76/77 as Chief sailing out 
of Felixstowe for Town/Thor. Sparkie was a short squat bloke who also 
features in the photo's, he was colour blind and liked a drop or 
three and on one occasion I found him screaming blue murder in his 
cabin yelling for the creatures which no-one else could see to leave 
him alone, put me off beer for all of a minute.
 IF indeed you were onboard and on the 8 to 12 then you might also 
remember that the ship was awash with shaving cream ect that the 
wharfies had broken into and dispersed throughout the ship and did we 
carry beer in large quantities in number four hold for the Army R and 
R in East Africa, ah! I remember that! I don't remember Ted doing the 
coastal but we were pretty busy down below trying to get all the 
rusted gear to function, what a bloody mess she was, by the time she 
returned to the U.K. she was back up to the usual B.I. standard. Were 
the engineer's forced to line up whilst the old man did his ball 
striking or was it limited to those up top,I'm sure I would have 
painful memories if we were?
I do indeed remember making a key for the galley so that we could  
forage for whatever was available including curry, was it such a bad 
feeder or were we always hungry?

And another, from Gordon McWilliam

13 July 2002
Fred   -   I woz there.  Incident occured on May 15 1966 shortly after midnight.  Harry Fowler
is too modest, he was the hero.  Without his timely efforts it could have been very nasty. One
thing the clock on the board was still going after the event.  I think  Harry's Mum got it home
in Hull afterwards.  You mention Harry having a drink. Myself & Gerry Trott set him off on the
downward path.  He was TT before that, but always generous to a fault. A lovely man. Does
anyone know if he is still with us?  I still have the newspaper cuttings regarding the explosion
collected by Memsahib at the time.

And another, from Derek Ings.  It had been established that there was nowt in BI News, so Tony
Gates suggested another avenue.

14 July 2002
Tony Gates suggestion was a good one but there is no mention of either
"CHAKDARA" or "CHINKOA" in Arthur Robertson's account of the
responsibilities of the P&I Department in BI News no. 53 dated October 1967.
However, there is a picture of "two fractured scavenge pump bottom bolts
which put a vessel out of commission for 8 months and led to expenditure of
approximately £160,000"!

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