"This Joyousness and dispersion of thought before a task of some importance seems to prove that this world of ours is not such a serious affair after all." -Joseph conrad

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Draco Dwarf ii


Once George made his way back  aft he quickly noticed the massive amounts of seawater pouring into the engine room from the port shaft seal. Through his experience as an engineer onboard numerous freighters George knew that inflating the emergency shaft seal was the best solution to this dilemma. White valve on the aft bulkhead over the shaft cooling water, he recalled as he made his way across the deckplates. Reaching up and grabbing the valve handle firmly with his left hand, he quickly opened the air valve to inflate the emergency port shaft seal.

“Oh shit, oh shit!” He cursed as he looked back and realized that the port engine was still running and the reduction gear still engaged in turning the propeller shaft.

Quickly closing the valve, his hand was still holding onto, he glanced down at the wreckage of the emergency shaft seal.

What the hell am I supposed to do now, this is not good. This is no good at all, he thought.

George managed to close the white air inlet valve, but the emergency seal had already been torn to pieces by the rolling shaft as it was inflating. Water was now literally pouring in from the port shaft at an incredible rate and the bilges were quickly filling with water.

“Listen, you need to get the crew up! There’s water in the engine room,” he shouted into the phone.

“What do you mean?” replied the confused bridge watch-stander.

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