QE2 1 - 3 April 1974 -- three boilers contaminated with oil

[Twynkle]

QE2's early years seem to be a time of interesting events.

Please - Is there any more information regarding 1st April 1974, and the transfer of 1654 passengers at sea, to the Norwegian cruise ship Sea Venture?

And on 5th April 1974, QE2 was taken in tow by Joan Moran & Elizabeth Moran to Hamilton where damage was repaired, it would be interesting to know more about this, too!


Do you know whether there were other times when passengers needed to be transferred, (other than off Martha's Vineyard/ Cuttyhunk Island (1992)?

[Beardy Rich]

I've looked on the www but cannot find any more on this.
Someone, somewhere must know some more on this story.

[Twynkle]

Hi Beardy Rich,

Thank you very much for looking.
Could it have been be absolutely 'anything' that could have caused the machinery to shut down?
I wonder - did this happen in "your day"(!) as well!?
Maybe it happened when she was powered by the MAN engines too?

This, together with other 'events' is from the ocean-liners site:
'By 1974 the cruising business had expanded and the QE2 was operating profitably. On 1 April that year, whilst on a cruise from New York to San Juan, a technical fault caused the propulsion machinery to shut down. The ship was disabled and it was not until 3 April that the Sea Venture, a Flagship Cruises vessel, arrived to assist. The passengers were transferred and tugs were hired to tow the QE2 back to Bermuda. Subsequent repairs meant that the Easter cruise had to be cancelled.'

http://www.ocean-liners.com/ships/qetwo.asp
There'll be more in the Cunard Archive in Liverpool, unfortunately the link that the site refers to is now unavailable.
Cheers,
Rosie

[Beardy Rich]

I found this late last night...

QE2 lost the use of all three boilers after the feed water became contaminated with fuel oil, attempts to rectify the problem were unsuccessful. Without the boilers producing steam, there was no steam to power the turbines.

Thirty-six hours after the problem arose, it was decided to transfer the passengers to another ship.

The Sea Venture was sent out from Bermuda after her own passengers were unceremoniously hustled ashore. She arrived on the scene at 03:00hrs on 4, April and stood off at 1000 yards until daybreak. That was when the actual evacuation began. Using the QE2s lifeboats was not possible as the ships emergency generators could not produce sufficient power to recover them. Because of this, the task fell to four of the Sea Ventures tenders, each with a capacity of 70 persons. Each tender had to make six round trips in an operation which literally took all day long.

[ship pro]

The fault was caused after a fuel oil pump was overhauled.
The fuel pump casing had a steam jacket with a drain connection, right next to that was a pressure connection from the oil side.
both connections had the same thread, anyway the connections were reassembled in the wrong position, consequently the oil entered the condensate system and contaminated the feed water with 30 tonnes of fuel oil which entered the boilers which caused the tubes to overheat and blow!

[Twynkle]

Thanks to you for this, and to Beardy Rich for staying up late!

Sounds as if it was very messy, aggravating, time-consuming, labour intensive and certainly not cheap!
Cleaning the oil out must have been one heck of a task...

I have learned from a friend that QE2's double-bottom was found to be full of thick old oil in 1992.
It sounded as if this had been there for several years.
Purely out of interest, do you think there might have been any connection between the two events?

Later - 'PS' - How and where (on earth!) did you begin, in getting at the oil to get rid of it?
'Specially if the tanks and pipes were sealed?
Cleaning the oven/ drain pipe's bad enough,
Isn't it quite a toxic business?
(btw - there's no need to answer this question, specially if it's 'off limits',
it's just that curiosity is working over-time this evening!)

[CAP]

I understand that the initial repairs commenced whilst she was at anchorage in Bermuda.  The result being QE2 could make the trip to New York although at reduced speed. 

On arrival in New York she spent several days in dry-dock before departing on 16 April for Southampton.  Whilst in dock a number of the boiler tubes were replaced.  Her eastbound crossing was with a compliment of passengers but the voyage was made with only two boilers working. 

In Southampton work was then undertaken to clean and restore boiler number 3.  I'm not sure if this was done in dry-dock or alongside.  This final actvitiy lasted around 3 days

[Rod]

I still have my "Recall to QE2 immediate telegram"

Yes they still did telegrams in those days.

[Twynkle]

She was originally the Sea venture, which came and took the passengers off QE2 when she broke down off Bermuda, with oil in the boiler feed water, April 1st 1974. QE2 was without main power for approx 2 weeks and was towed to Bermuda.

Two weeks - that's a Very long time!!
Hope you'll forgive more naive questions
May I ask what actually happened on board from a technical perspective when she was dead in the water
Was there enough emergency power for steering?
If there'd been a gale (or worse, perhaps  - given the whereabouts of that area) was there any way of keeping her from getting 'caught by the wind' - or wouldn't it have mattered?
Please - Any chance you/ anyone else on board could let us know what it was like during those two weeks...
Thanks so much
Rosie

[ship pro]

QE2 was always short of emergency power 700KW from 2 diesel gen sets on 2 deck aft.
just enough for emergency lighting and essential pumps to get the plant up and running.

The situation was very hot and smelly with fuel oil being scraped and flushed from the feed water system.
 working hours for engineers was 4 hours on 4 hours off very tiring in the heat and you never have a decent sleep.

most people slept on deck and lived on cold food and a few cold beers, however Richard Kenworthy the second engineer did have a stew pot on the go in the workshop

first step was to find the cause which took about 3 days after disconnecting lots of pipes.

then each boiler was manually chemically cleaned and then each tube had to have a wire brush run up and down to get every drop of oil out of each tube.

The feed water system was also chemically cleaned.

The starboard boiler was the first to go back on line, as that had been shut down before the other two boilers started popping. For several months we lived with tubes blowing on all boilers due to over heating, became routine to have a boiler repair squad on board replacing tubes.

The ship just drifted, the ship has to be doing at least 5 knots to get any steerage. so no need for rudder. If there had been a storm we would have had to ride it out.

[StuM]

I was working with the Cruise Staff on Sea Venture during the "rescue". We indeed put essentially all of our passengers ashore into Bermuda hotels to clear space the much larger QE2 crowd. Flagship (SV's owners) quickly made a deal with Cunard the she sailed out to meet QE2. Tenders and LB's from both ships made the transfers, in fair seas. I recall only one or two minor foot/ankle type injuries. The SV returned to Hamilton and discharged the QE2 passengers and regained her own crowd. It was a fairly quick trip.
The QE2 was rounded up by Moran tugs and towed back to Bermuda for temporary repairs and boiler tube/feedwater system cleaning, at anchor. It seems the QE2's contaminated feedwater drain tank system failed to work and stop the overflow of contaminating fuel into the system. Seems similar to her problems during her initial work-up out of the Clyde. I've only seen this type of problem occur one other time; on a U.S. tanker....same result and same "rescue" by tugs.
StuM

[digriffin]

My brother Keith Darvill was one of the waiting staff, later Captains Tiger.  He recalled being offered extra money to stay on board and bail out the ship using buckets.  He said it was the hardest work he's ever done and it was sweltering.

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Hello Di, and welcome in the Forum!

This must have been a dramatic event for your brother, and his account must have impressed you greatly. I cannot imagine what it would have been like, bailing out QE2 with buckets... seems extraordinary!

[Alan Snelson]

Hello Di and a warm welcome to the forum. My mothers maiden name was Griffin and she hailed from Leamington Spa.

Thanks for your story about your brother bailing out the QE2, I hope he had a big bucket. It certainly sounds like hard work. Do you know how long he stayed working on board, and does he have any more stories to tell?

Look forward to hearing more from you.

[Adam Hodson]

Interesting story about the boilers being contaminated. Great information about how they went about solving the problem too. Thanks for posting!