Combating the nightmare

Fire onboard ship has to be one of a seaman’s biggest fears, so it is surprising how little attention some seafarers take to the condition of their engines rooms and surrounding spaces. Three recent detentions through Port State Control (PSC) inspections in the UK in March 2011 highlight the problem.

The Cien Porciento, a general cargo ship was detained in Lowestoft because the main fire pump was inoperative and there was no alternative fire pump outside the machinery space. Another general cargo ship, Most Sky was detained in Birkenhead because the engine room was very dirty, there were fuel oil leaks and a major non-conformity was identified with respect to the lack of maintenance of the ship and equipment.

The tug Comarco Osprey was detained in Tyne for 12 days because the engine room deckhead and bulkhead were corroded through in several places into accommodation spaces, and there was open cable penetration in the engine room. In addition there was no fire extinguishing system available in the engine room.

What makes these lapses in maintenance even more shocking is that oil leakage hitting hot spots on engines is the most common cause of engine room fires on board ships. According to DNV casualty statistics, more than 60% of all engine room fires are initiated by a hot spot. DNV also believes that fires caused by oil leakage/hot spots are,in general, more serious than fires caused by other factors. Most lubrication, hydraulic and fuel oils have an auto-ignition point above 250°C. If a liquid hits a surface hotter than its auto-ignition temperature, the liquid may ignite spontaneously. Any such hot spot represents an immediate hazard in the case of oil leakage.

In an effort to reduce fuel leaks Giro Engineering has specialised in the design and manufacture of single skinned and double skinned, Duoline high pressure fuel injection pipes. The company, which provides bespoke sheathed and unsheathed fuel pipe ‘systems’ for a range of diesel engines, has recently added an additional Quick Turn Nexus II 200-II MSY multi-spindle turning centre to complement its existing machining capabilities. The new machine has a number of advanced features, including integral motors on both main and second spindles to give high-speed, high-accuracy machining. The spindle is capable of indexing in 0.0001° increments or contouring using the ‘C’ axis. It also has a non-lift 12-station turret with rotary tools that can be mounted on all 12 positions to achieve highly efficient machining and a ‘Y’ axis to enable off-centre drilling and production of flats.

Should a leak occur in the fuel system, or in the hot water or steam systems, then PSP Marine Tapes has launched a new tape, which it calls Spray Stop, which has been designed to prevent spray of fuel, hot water or steam from burst pipes, pipe joints, flanges, boilers, exhaust manifolds, silencers and engine installations. Spray Stop tape, which can be use to help comply with SOLAS Regulation 11-2/15.2.11, is a low cost multi-layer aluminium and glass cloth, coated with a high performance, heat resistant silicon adhesive. The tape is said to be easy to apply and quickly able to prevent leakage and splashing from hot, dangerous flammable liquids or steam. 

While fire onboard ship is perhaps the seafarer’s biggest nightmare, the problem is increased a thousand fold when it comes to cruise ships. And cruise ships have had their fair share of fires over recent years. While not all of these have started in the engine room, there are a number that have done so.

In November 2010, a fire was detected in the engine room of the Carnival Splendor and in May of the same year a fire broke out in the engine room of Peter Deilmann Cruises’ Deutschland. While crew stayed onboard to help battle the fire, over 600 passengers had to be evacuated. In June 2009 an engine room fire broke out aboard the Royal Princess causing extensive damage. Even the UK’s Royal Navy is not immune. Its aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal suffered an engine room fire just hours after setting sail for the first time following a £12 million refit in September 2009.

Passenger ship problems

“The basic problem with passenger ships is that they are getting larger,” says Ornulf Jan Rodesth, research director of Marintek. “The new Oasis of the Seas can have five or six thousand passengers onboard which makes handling difficult incidents and emergencies a big challenge.”

This challenge is being met with Flagship-ISEMS (integrated safety and emergency management system), which enhances the onboard ability to handle emergencies while also making full use of real-time communication between the ship and onshore facilities. “We have come from the fire detection side of this industry and have delivered a fire detection system with a top level presentation system for many years,” says Flagship-ISEMS sub-project leader Per Norman Oma, section manager, software, at Autronica Fire and Security. “The Flagship-ISEMS project team has developed new concepts to enable such ship to shore co-operation, mainly based on a new and innovative electronic plotting table and associated applications. The results have been well received and elements have already been implemented on board ships in service.

“For a number of years we have used computers in the engine control room and other places such as the safety office and the hotel manager’s office, to provide all the officers onboard with a good overview of what is going on in the system,” explains Oma. “We have added more and more functionality and introduced sensors for picking up information not only for fire detection and alarms, but also to have both monitoring and control of fire doors, part of the ventilation, location of lightening, and also connection to the CCTV cameras. We are passing all kinds of information to other systems connected to the information system to interchange data.

“All the RCCL fleet have our system on board, says Oma, “and is on the Allure of the Seas we have the ship shore communication. The cruise industry is the primary customer for this type of system.”

This type of presentation system is also being sold to smaller ships because there is quite a high focus on passenger ship safety. “Passenger ferries are also part of the market for this presentation system and it is also flowing into other types of ships, such as supply ships.” Marintek’s research director confides: “I know that similar systems have been delivered to the Color Line cruises between Oslo and Kiel, because they are closer to cruise ships than ferries. Color Line has an earlier version of the system but I think the system will be taken up by those in the ferry industry that see the benefit of having a cruise line type experience for the passengers. They have become very dependent on trust and the ships are very expensive.”

Further development

When it comes to further development Rodesth says: “The project is finished, but big parts of the vessels have already been included in the systems developed and delivered. There are some additional functionalities which have to undergo additional tests before they are included in the project portfolio. Most or even all of it is going to be commercialised.”

Oma agrees saying: “It definitely will be further developed. We have been in the market for this kind of system for over 15 years since we delivered the first graphical presentation system on top of the fire detection and have been more or less continually developing.”

He confides: “There are still more ideas for new functionality that could be integrated to give an even better overview. We have both ideas and plans and we will see demands from the customer to continue the development.”

On the question of whether the system will be imposed on the cruse ship industry through legislation Rodesth says: “I am not sure if you will get legislation, but there is a very high interest in safety systems by the owners’ organisations. On the other side, you do have new safe return to port legislation for passenger ships, and this depends very much on having adequate systems for reducing the consequences of any incident and also to help the ship when something happens. The ISEMS that was delivered on the ships is also designed to handle the safe return to port. This is fully redundant system and can operate in separate parts of the ship if necessary.”

Flagship–ISEMS was led by Autronica of Norway. The project was supported, delivered and trialled in conjunction with Lodic and Marintek, both also of Norway; Minoan Lines of Greece, BMT in the UK and Consar in Italy.