Dry Dock at Hong Kong United Dockyards @ Tsing Yi, Hong Kong – May 5-15, 2004

M/V Ever Renown

Prepared by Ralph V. Flores C.

According to International Regulations & Company’s procedures, every ship should go to dry dock every certain period of time (usually every 2 or 2.5 years), mainly for checking and giving maintenance to the entire hull, the propeller, the rudder, the sea chests, the bow thruster, and all the parts that have been submerged under water for such a time.  This time, the M/V Ever Renown went to a Floating Dry Dock owned by HUD (Hong Kong United Dockyards).  This floating dock was totally flooded in its inner water ballast tanks made for this purpose in order for the ship to enter smoothly.  Off course, some ship stability requirements were arranged in advance, so Master coordinated with Chief Officer to prepare the ballast tanks of our ship to comply with the stability requirements for docking, which mainly regard with the trimming of the ship (2 – 3 m by the stern) and the displacement.  After the ship entered in the floating dock aided by 4 tug boats and the dock towing wires, there were some divers under water checking if the position of the ship was correct.  Once this was completed, the ship was made fast to the dock by its own mooring ropes.  Then, the water in the inner compartments of the dock was pumped out, so that’s why the dock can emerge from the water and float, bringing the ship up.  When the ship was docked, we started to take power supply from the shore and also fresh, water, so that our generators were not used during the 10 days that the dry docking lasted.  Personally, I can tell that this was an experience were I had the opportunity to learn a lot about ship’s maintenance  & deck work itself, plus having some time ashore after our working ours was something I did enjoyed a lot.

The picture of the left is the ship with no cargo, entering to the floating dock, tug assisting, the one of the right is the ship already resting in the dock.

Some of the most outstanding works that were done by the shipyard working team, on the items regarding to deck include:

Ø      Hydro blasting & sandblasting the entire hull & washing with fresh water, then painting with Chugoku Marie Paint.  This included the load lines markings with all the draft marks plus the Evergreen logo.

Ø      Renewing distorted hull steel plates, by cutting and welding. (Panama Canal effects).

Ø      Cleaning and polishing the propeller thoroughly.

Ø      Surveying the Water Ballast Tanks & Void Spaces, by first checking the air inside the tanks for safety before dockyard’s personnel enter to carry out the surveys.

Ø      Washing & painting the superstructure (accommodation). (De-rusted some areas first).

Ø      Chipping and painting inside the over rusted cargo holds.

Ø      Washing thoroughly and painting both anchors and anchor chains, and placing shackle marks accordingly.

Ø      Tested all Foam Extinguishers onboard, among many other items.

The role of the Deck Officers during dry-docking is very important, because they are the link between the dockyard team and the rest of the deck crew.  They must keep cooperation and communication with both parts in order to perform a good teamwork.  Mainly, the most heavy workload falls over the Chief Officer (during those days Chief Officer and friend, Mr. Kung Jau Sheng), since he is charged of the ship’s maintenance, for this reason, he should have prepared on time a list of all the items (besides the common ones) to be checked, repaired or replaced, and present this list to the Master for his approval so he can after forward this list to Company for its revision and direct coordination with the shipyard at Hong Kong, so they can prepare all the materials for the works to be done.  Regarding to Second Deck Officer and Third Deck Officer, they are just Chief Mate’s assistants in this matter, so they should be totally aware of what is going on so that they can work effectively.  Some of the works done by Deck Officers on dry-dock include:

Ø      Preparation of Ship’s plan since them will be often required by the dockyard working team.

Ø      Keeping good communication with the deck ratings so they can assist effectively as per Chief Mate’s instructions and not putting into danger their lives by going into any place were working is unsafe due to some other works taking place by shipyard’s personnel.

Ø      Serve as a guide to the ship for all dockyard personnel, answering to all their requests to have some job done.

Ø      Checking each of the works done by the dockyard after finished.

Ø      Keeping daily record of the dockyard’s work and crew’s work also.

Ø      Second Deck Officer and Third Deck Officer have to take turns daily for day watch and for staying on night watch.  Chief Officer is always standing by at daytime.

The deck rating job is also an important element for this great teamwork to function properly.  They mainly have to follow Chief Officer’s instructions for any come up.  The main works performed by me and the rest of ratings were:

Ø      Opening assigned manholes (water ballast tanks & void spaces), for inspection.

Ø      Sweeping assigned cargo holds (lots of sacs of dust, soil & dirt).

Ø      Cleaning the cargo hold bilge wells, by first pumping out rainwater to ballast tank nearby, by hand.  Once the bilge was empty, one man should enter and clean thoroughly inside.

Ø      Before undocking, the manholes were properly secured (Very important!).

Ø      Generally, stand by for Chief Officer’s instructions if any situation came up and it was not possible to work somewhere due to any danger, like for example, people welding on top of us.

For sailing, once more some ship’s stability requirements were complied, so the dockyard supplied water to the assigned water ballast tanks to achieve with these requirements and start the journey of sailing.

Besides the outer part of the ship looked better after all the works were finished, ship’s full speed increased, due to Main Engine Maintenance, hull, rudder & propeller cleanness, plus the performance of all the items in which the dockyard team worked,  improved considerably.

 Up:  This is me inside one of the empty cargo holds, and the picture below is me in the bow thruster. 

 Left: Ship's Bow Thruster, Right, Ship's Propeller Maintenance works in progress.

Final Condition after 10 days:

This was the final condition of the ship after 10 days of Dry Dock in Hong Kong.  10 Days in which shipyard workers worked day and night.  This was absolutely one great team job.

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