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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