Preparing Engine Room Before the Arrival-For Engineers

This article will be useful for the engineers, when they are getting the engine room ready for the arrival on the port. Getting engine ready for the arrival is discussed here, with some tips and experience of the fellow engineers.

Every ship has a checklist, which is used by the duty engineer to prepare the engine for arrival and departure. But there are certain things that you need to see which are not in the checklist. The whole idea is that, you follow the checklist by heart, with some more things as per your experience.

Generally you get a 1 hours notice. The duty engineer officer will be called by the duty deck officer, just before the pilot time. Also called as the 1 hour notice or stand by notice, before the pilot comes onboard. Your stay in the engine room will depend on the duration of maneuvering. If it is the in the working hours like 8 to 5, then there will be others for your help. But when it happens outside the working hours, then duty engineer and chief engineer will only be there. Since this article is only for the arrival, we will focus on two things here.

FIRST is the pre arrival period, and post arrival, means you have arrived on port.

So let’s discuss each of them.

Preparing Engine Room Before Arrival Of the Ship

1) A quick round of the engine room is always advised.
Check the compressors for oil. And make sure that are put in correct priority. You will need lot of air for the maneuvering.
See that generators in perfect condition like Racks are properly lubricated. Sump oil is checked.

4) Follow the checklist of the ship.
Senior engineer (Chief Engineer, mostly) needs to be called down.
Keep an eye on the cooling water for the engine.
Adjust the lubrication for the engine.

8) If you Waste heat recovery system, then you need to fire the oil fired boiler as well and shut of the damper to the exhaust gas boiler. Follow the steps as per the ship.

9) Fresh water generator should be stopped.

10)Just before the pilot comes onboard, start another generator.

Note: During the maneuvering period, it is wise to take the rounds of important machineries of the engine room like generators, main engines, compressors etc. This helps you to identify a problem in advance. Since chief engineer will be there in the engine control room, duty engineer can be there in the engine room to check for machineries.

Keep an eye on the trends of the starting air, lubrication of the engine, HT system. If necessary you can open the steam for it.

If you have stopped waste heat recovery system, then feed valves to steams drums needs to be kept closed, till the time, the pressure inside the drums have stabilized. Otherwise the water level in the drums will increase considerably.

Preparing Engine Room After the Arrival To The Port

1) Open the heat for the main engine. Generally ideal temperature to maintain is above 81 degrees.
Sea chest needs to be changed.
Starting air valve needs to be closed.
Indicator cocks to be opened.
In some ships, they will drain the control air as well.
Turbocharger drains to be opened.
Extra generator can be stopped.
Turning Gear needs to be engaged.
If required, adjust the current level for the cathodic protection.

Note: If you have the Waste heat recovery system, then you need to keep running the circulating pumps. And you can keep the steams valve open or close as per wish of the chief engineer. Make sure that, you have adequate water in the distilled water tank.

So this was all from this article. There might be others things to look after. If you think that there is something missing in this, then please comment below. This was all from this article on Preparing Engine Room Before the Arrival-For Engineers.