[BITList] palin qe2

[HUGH MCINTYRE]

Monday morning,

Colin, et al,

It's a fresh morning, clear and calm.  The sky is sort of illuminated white - no cloud, so a very high haze.  I  can see the hills across the river through a narrow gap in the houses opposite  On a really clear day I can see the tops of three peaks far away and very close together - that's our view.  It used to be much wider when the little single storey prefabs opposite were there, before they removed them and built the poured concrete terraced houses that presently face us.

The stuff we hear from the satirists about Ms Palin is based to a great extent on her actual words.  It's getting to the stage where she's impossible to satirise.

The QE2 drydocking I alluded to was in Inchgreen Drydock, Greenock - the dock had hardly had time to open. If I recall aright, much of the work done there had to do with the at-the-time mysterious troubles she'd had.  She was open to the public a lot, probably to take people's minds off the technical bits that occupied the papers.  The story at the time was that fuel oil had got into the steam system and caused turbine blading problems.  Much later a rival story had it that the turbine blading problems had been intrinsic to the turbines.  It may have been a bit of both, for a chap joined Scotts Engine DO where I was working at the time, and he was with John Broon's when the QE2 was on the go there.  He claimed to have partly caused the fuel oil contamination by ballsing up the isolating valve arrangement on the boiler fronts, so that fuel oil leaked back into the steam purging lines.  I had no hesitation in believing Jim.  I went in terror of being offered a lift home from him - he lived not far from us. Sat in his car, a typical scenario would be : Jim turns the key - strange noises come from the engine - "Bugger, it's the starter again.  You don't happen to have a small spanner on you?"  I recall more than once lying under the car applying a small spanner (I learned to bring tools with me) to a square on the starter motor while Jim shouted encouragement.  Only once did I accept a lift to work in the morning.  I turned up on time - it was pretty frosty and everything was white, including Jim's car.  There seemed no sign of life in the house.  I rang the bell - no response, so I banged the door.  Eventually an upstairs window opened and woman's head came out, looked down at me, said something incomprehensible, withdrew and shut the window.  Then I heard raised voices.  After 5 minutes the door opened and Jim in a dressing gown handed me out a kettle of hot water.  I gathered I was to defrost the car, so I poured the water over likely bits and waited.  Last I heard, Jim had gone to the States, no doubt to work for Northrop Grumman Avondale Shipyards.

There are at least two reasons for owners and/or owners' reps to go to town about perceived faults in a new build.  One is that the job really is below standard, and the other is that relatively trivial complaints are being used as a delaying tactic, either to delay paying for it, or another reason.  I have never experienced the first reason, or the delaying tactic to avoid paying, but I have experienced the "another reason".  This was when Lithgows built the BP British Spirit, engined by Kincaids.  All of a sudden BP staff were rejecting things all over the place on the run up to commissioning.  One thread too many sticking through a nut was a favourite. So an impasse was reached.  They had been on the spot for long enough for us to get to know them, and informal discussions took place.  A system of trading was introduced - do this and we'll forget about that, etc.  Eventually the reason for it all emerged - they believed there were to be BP staff cuts when she was delivered.

The New Orleans job may well be below standard, from here I can't say, but it would accord with what I hear of the dire state of shipbuilding at the white collar end.  However, that's a whole new subject.  I haven't mentioned BI once, but BP is pretty close.

Hugh.
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