ssMaritime.net
MV Doulos
“A
Ship Like no Other”
By Reuben Goossens
An American 1914
built ship that sailed 95 Years into History
SS
Medina (1914-1948)
Chapter Seven
--MV Doulos--
1993 Electrical Project
Having
been in
Photograph by & © ships photographer, Susanna Burton
Special thanks: This page would have not been possible without the assistance of Stephen Moore who worked on the Doulos as a volunteer on during the “Electrical Project.” Photographs on this page were taken by 1. Stephen Moore, and please note they are © Copyright. 2. By the ships photographer, © Copyright - Susanna Burton. We are most grateful to both Stephen and Susanna for the use these fine photographs!
At the ripe age of 79, it was realised that the
Doulos needed significant modifications and urgent repairs. Her owners at first
considered scrapping the Doulos and purchasing a suitable second-hand vessel or
even building a new ship. It was soon realised that the costs were too great
and opted for giving the Doulos a massive refit.
The refit would cost between 1 and 1.5
million US dollars, which is a great deal of money for a non-profit
organisation. However, with the provision of a massive volunteer task-force
from around the world, and the help of various generous industries, the Doulos
was saved once again from being scrapped and given a major "Heart
Transplant." OM received the good news that the local harbour authority of
On
It would be only through the wonderful generosity of many suppliers and the volunteer workers, like electricians, carpenters, plumbers and engineers that this massive project was able to be kept at such a low cost.
The Doulos is welcomed to
Photograph by & © ships photographer, Susanna Burton
Doulos seen at the repair wharf
Photograph by & © Stephen Moore
Work commenced with the "Electrical Project," removing some 70 kilometres of old wiring and a hundred plus old DC motors and DC generators. Then, new economical diesel alternator sets were installed, along with a main electrical switchboard, which was designed by the Swiss electrical team. Together with new AC motors, a new efficient and superior air-conditioning plant was installed to replace the tired old one, which had been circulating warm air for some time. Another major task was the removal of the ancient and inefficient oil-fired boiler, which is used to generate hot water on board. Its replacement was a waste heat boiler, which receives its heat from the exhaust gasses emanating from the generators. This system provides a superior supply of hot water whilst re-using energy, which under the old system went straight up and out of the funnel.
Stephen Moore worked mainly in the engine room, but spent his lunchtimes wandering around the ship taking the photographs seen on this page, which provides us with a good idea of what was going on. He also took a series of pictures of the ship whilst in dry dock, which are seen at the bottom of the page.
Photographs
With additional notes by Stephen Moore
The main lounge
Photograph by & © Stephen Moore
The Main Lounge was completely rebuilt during the refit with the floor removed, new steel welded in, concrete poured over that and then new flooring added. The walls and ceiling were also completely renewed. In addition, the Lounge received steel ceiling supports during the refit.
The Main Lounge image above shows many cable drums as the wiring was being spliced together there, as the room provided the space to do this. We would then haul the cables through to whatever the part of the ship they were to be installed in. There were also cable drums on the Port side of Promenade Deck, making the deck a little tricky to traverse. During my time I didn't do much with the cabling, but did work on a generator overhaul with an Australian engineer, and generally helped out with muscle where needed and worked with a group of local out-of-work Africans and scrapped clean the propeller shaft tunnel, as well as polished clean the propeller shaft.
Photograph by & © ships photographer, Susanna Burton
Hauling cables through the ship was hard work and here we see Captain Graeme Bird, on the right, and Dale Richards, on the left, pulling a cable in the Engine Room. Cable movements became for a time one of the most common jobs on the ship, and at times it was a difficult one as it came all the way from the Main Lounge. Below the Captain is seen not working quite as hard, but as always, still smiling!
Captain Graeme Bird on the Bridge having
a joke with the author of ssMaritime on
Photograph by & © Reuben Goossens
Photograph by & © ships photographer, Susanna Burton
Here we see “
Photograph by & © Stephen Moore
As the bridge was fully rewired, it had all its panels removed, and later put back over the new wiring. Note that the formwork holding up the ceiling panels is wooden, just like the ceiling structures throughout the ship at the time.
Photograph by & © Stephen Moore
Above and below: The welding shop on board was much like on land, cluttered, and a very active area vital to the repair work going on aboard the ship. The welding shop was located on Promenade Deck port and starboard aft.
Photograph by & © Stephen Moore
Photograph by & © Stephen Moore
Here we see welding being done at the top of the Engine Room, where a new waste heat boiler was being installed, sending a shower of sparks down to the area I was standing in. Whenever welding happened a fire guard stood close by with a fire extinguisher should anything happen. Safety during the refit was of the very highest of order, as you can well imagine, with so much hot work happening!
Photograph by & © Stephen Moore
Still in the engine Room, we see Generator 2, which I (Stephen) helped
to overhaul with Peter, an Australian Marine Engineer from
An old DC generator is being removed from the ship early in the refit stage
Photograph by & © ships photographer, Susanna Burton
Photograph by & © Stephen Moore
Deck images. The image above shows steelwork being
renewed up on Boat Deck. There is also some work being done, which may be the
radio room receiving new lower bulkheads. Wooden decking on Boat Deck was in a
bad state in certain places and when removed it was found there were older
rotted layers beneath it. Apparently, her previous owners, the Italian Linea C
(Costa Lines) took the easy road and laid good wood over the bad, rather than
ripping old wood up to lay new wood down. At the time, there was a debate
whether
Lunch time out on deck
Photograph by & © Stephen Moore
The shot above shows volunteers out at lunch. Lunch was eaten out on the open decks, or in the bookshop area if it was raining, which was very seldom. More often than not Stephen ate on one of the bridge wings as he enjoyed the view!
We did manage to obtain one photo of Stephen, seen here taking a short break
He tells me it is the only photo he has of him whilst he was on board
Photograph © Stephen Moore
Photograph © Stephen Moore
Above you see one of the
fleet of buses that took the volunteers to and from the ship each day from the
Waterfront at
Photograph © Stephen Moore
This image above shows the kind of corrosion there was under floors in various places, such as cabin bathrooms. Here, we see corrosion holes going right through the deck. The cabins effected had to be completely stripped, the corroded steel needle gunned (the tool in the foreground.) to clear all corroded metal, and then new steel plating welded into place. The cabin could then be rebuilt, sometimes without its former bathroom, thus, it was then back to the future with facilities down the corridor for the rebuilt cabins. The work here was incredibly noisy, as these needle guns were not very quiet to use!
Photograph by & © Stephen Moore
The Captain’s cabin, as seen above, is representative of the many cabins on board that were pulled apart during the refit. Walls had their old cladding removed and replaced with non-combustible materials.
Fibreglass work being carried out in the Dining Room on parts of the lifeboats, the room usually smelled strongly of polyester resin
Photograph by & © ships photographer, Susanna Burton
Photograph by & © Stephen Moore
Here is a photograph of a thanksgiving lunch, held in the bookshop area, just before we went into dry-dock. It marked the conclusion of most of the rewiring work as well as the majority of the onboard steel renewal work, although a great deal of work remained to be done before the Doulos was ready for the sea again!
Photograph by & © Stephen Moore
Here is a reminder of her Franca C - Linea Costa – days. We used this banner we found to cover the area being used to store parts for the welding shop on Promenade Deck.
Cleaning the Main Lounge after the steel floor had been replaced. The English Gent in the middle was my roommate during my stay
Photograph by & © ships photographer, Susanna Burton
Doulos still at the repair wharf
Photograph by & © Stephen Moore
I also remember working on a clean out of the forward hold area,
which was good fun. The area was on or below the waterline and there was water
constantly entering through small corrosion holes in the hull plating and each
morning the area needed to be pumped dry. I believe the worn plating was
replaced when we went into dry-dock. However, I returned home to
This rather weary looking Maltese flag at her stern would soon be replaced!
Photograph by & © Stephen Moore
Doulos has now moved into the Dry-Dock - soon it will be pumped dry
Photograph by & © Stephen Moore
Doulos’ hull is ready for cleaning and repainting
Photograph by & © Stephen Moore
It is quite obvious that her hull and propeller needs a good cleaning as it is covered in growth!
I took this photograph just after we climbed out of the dry-dock and they used the high pressure water hoses to start removing the marine growth off her hull. It certainly made a big difference. Of course, then there would be the anti-fouling and corrosion work done and the ship repainted. She would end up looking like new!
With her hull cleaned and opened up where required further maintenance work commenced
Photograph by & © ships photographer, Susanna Burton
Photograph by & © ships photographer, Susanna Burton
Above: These are the men that should take a
big bow for a magnificent job done on the Doulos. Rex Churchill the Chief
Electrician & Johannes Thomsen the Project Manager! All the volunteers
worked hard because they believed in the cause, and also the inspiration and
hard work of these men and the wonderful faith that was experienced onboard!
That is what
Starting
a Fresh and an Invigorated Life at Sea for another 17 years with OM
With all structural and mechanical work
completed MV Doulos finally departed
Many further improvements took place in
1995, when a new project commenced to equip the Doulos with a new sprinkler
system. Some 900 nozzles and more than 5 kilometre of piping has
been installed. Smoke detectors had already been fitted to the Doulos at an
earlier date. Additional wall panels were replaced with non-combustible
materials, which sadly saw the loss of several valuable Costa Line murals, such
as the blue mural in the aft stair well up on boat deck. Again, later in
Comments from the Chief Engineer
in 2008.
During my week on board the Doulos,
including sailing from
The MV Doulos has continued to sail the
globe and serve its original calling to serve and help people in all the
countries where they call, and they do so physically and spiritually.
PS:
On
MV Doulos departing
Photograph by Bob Binnell
Go to
Chapter 7 - SOLAS – “Safety Of Life
At Sea” new regulations to commence Oct 2010
Return to the Author’s – MV Doulos “A Ship Like No Other” Main Index
PLEASE NOTE:
Doulos was
decommissioned by OM Ships in December 2009
Read my … “MV Doulos
Preservation Campaign” page for details
on how my campaign saved
her for the future to become the Doulos Phos.
***************************************************
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