Alarms/Emergencies Essentials for Engine Department

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For effective usage of the limited emergency equipment available on board, all personnel must be aware of the location of fire-fighting equipment and life-saving appliances and be trained in their use. They must also be aware of the alarm signals, recognize them, and muster at the muster point in case of any type of emergency.

As you know all the alarms should be well heard in the engine room. It should be remembered that the general alarm will be sounded in the event of fire, collision, grounding, cargo hose burst, major leakage or spillage of oil cargo and some other events. Other alarms could include e ngineer alarm for unmanned machinery spaces, carbon dioxide alarm, fire detector alarms, cargo tank level alarms and refrigerated store alarm

But if your ship's alarms are ringing, often it does not mean that the situation is out of control. Alarms are warnings, which are sounded so that crew onboard take the emergency measures like wearing their life jackets, or gathering at a common point (muster station), depending upon the type of emergency and instructions given to them. There are four emergency teams on a board to handle with any emergency after hearing the certain alarm.

The command center or roving commission is located on bridge. The emergency team 1 is tackling with the emergency. In general the chief officer will lead the team for the emergency on deck while the 2nd engineer will take charge of engine room emergencies. The Support/Standby Team or emergency team 2 is to provide first aid and prepare the lifeboats for lowering. The Technical/Engineer's Team or engine room control (ERC) team maintains the propulsion and maneuvering capability of the ship and auxiliary services.

Engine room flooding and engine room fire are two main emergencies on ships. When engine room floods, the propulsion will stop automatically if left unnoticed. In the unmanned machinery spaces (UMS) it is important that the bilges and all alarm systems must function properly to give warnings when such emergencies happen.

A ship floats on water surrounded by the sea on all sides. The engine room will usually be under the surface of the water, for example, on a ULCC or VLCC ship, the bottom platform of the ER is almost 10 to 15 metres below the water line. The main sea water line covers almost all parts of the engine room. This is a huge diameter pipe running forward and aft of the ship. The engine room is totally restricted from open atmosphere, so no water can go out except the normally designed piping system. It is not possible to throw/pump out anything from engine room as it may violate the Marpol rules and regulations. Thus engine room flooding is so dangerous; it may even hamper the safety of the ship.

Because of the large quantities of fuel in engine rooms there is a risk of quick fire spread over the whole area. Engine room fires can also produce failures of operationally important systems away from the engine room. That can endanger crew even at some distance from the seat of the fire. Except the machinery control room there are in general no permanent fire boundaries within the machinery area.

Exercise 3. Give brief answers to the following questions:

1. What are the reasons to give a general alarm? 2. How many groups are on a board to tackle with ship’s emergency? 3. What are the main emergencies that can happen in the engine room? 4. What does UMS mean? 5. How can any crewmember find out about his emergency duties? 6. Why is it dangerous to neglect the leakages in the engine room? 7. What can you say about the safety rules for the engine department staff? 8. What actions should you carry out after the general alarm? 9. Why is a fire in the ER so dangerous?

Exercise 4. Give equivalents:

· in Russian: flooding, to pump out contaminated seawater, to close the flaps, to spread, to malfunction, collision, to give the alarm, muster station, to take charge of, machinery space, explosion, crude oil carrier, control room, to tackle emergency; to function properly, to lead the team for the emergency on deck, to spread very quickly over the whole area, a pipe running forward and aft of the ship, to hamper the safety of the ship;

· in English: разрыв шланга, место сбора, нештатная ситуация, аварийная партия, штатное расписание, бороться с огнем, откачивать воду, утечка, пробоина, столкновение, посадка на мель, машинное отделение с безвахтенным обслуживанием, резервная парта, очаг огня, распространение огня, отключить оборудование, покидать судно, общесудовая тревога, сигнал тревоги, вспыхивать (об пожаре).

Exercise 5. Read the dialogue and then make up your own one.

A: The fire is in zone nine.

B: Is anyone down there?

A: No, I don’t think so. Take the Fourth engineer and go to zone nine and see what the problem is.

B: Yes, Sir. Take the Fourth and go to zone nine and see what the problem is.

A: Chief Engineer to Bridge.

C: Bridge, Captain.

A: We’ve got fire in the E.R. We have shut down all the ventilation fans and we are closing the ventilation flaps and stopping the engine.

B: Understood, Chief. Keep us informed?

A: How large is the fire?

B: It’s difficult to say. There’s a lot of smoke but there are no flames.

C: Fire in zone nine, believed to be in workshop. This is a genuine emergency.

D: The Second Engineer will lead the fire party. The fire party mustered.

C: Bridge to Mate, fire party mustered. The muster is now completed.

B: Second to Bridge. I will inspect the fire.

D: I will advise you when the party leaves the muster station.

Notes:

…believed – предполагается

Exercise 6. Match the term with its definition.

term	definition
1. Fire Alarm	a. The machinery space is fitted with CO2 fixed with fire extinguishing system whose audible and visual alarm is entirely different from machinery space alarm and other alarm for easy reorganization. In case of CO2 alarm, leave the Engine Room immediately.
2. Machinery space Alarm	b. All Ship Engineers Should assemble in the Engine Control Room.
3. Engine Room Flooding	c. The machinery in the engine room has various safety devices and alarms fitted for safe operation. If any one of these malfunctions, a common engine room alarm is operated and the problem can be seen in the engine control room control panel which will display the alarm.
4. Engineers Call	d. In this case Chief Engineer should be called immediately and general alarm should be raised. Immediate action should be taken in preventing more sea water to enter the engine room and emergency pumping out from the Engine Room should be established in accordance with the Chief Engineer.
5. Machinery Space CO2 Alarm	e.This alarm is sounded as continuous ringing of ship’s electrical bell or continuous sounding of ship’s horn.

Exercise 7. Choose the right variant.

1. Do not _____ your own life attempting to combat a fire or rescue a casualty yourself.	a) save	c) endanger
b) effect	d) affect
2. Emergency team fights fires using appropriate ____ system.	a) flexible	c) new
b) fixed	d) available
3. Before entering UMS you should ensure reporting and communication procedures are clearly _____.	a) written	c) shown
b) fixed	d) understood
4. Correct flashing up procedures must be followed to avoid risk of ____.	a) explosion	c) spark
b) blowback.	d) flame
5. Hot work is any operation which produced sufficient heat to ignite _____ products.	a) flammable	c) dry
b) liquid	d) powder
6. Post warning signs and protect other personnel from ____, fumes and electric arose.	a) stacks	c) sparks
b) cracks	d) defects
7. If a common engine room alarm is operated, the problem can ____in the control panel that displays the alarm.	a) be seen	c) be stored
b) be fulfilled	d) be expected
8. To prevent more sea water _____ the engine room some immediate actions should be taken.	a) feeding	c) pumping out
b) entering	d) taking off
9. Collision of the ship with other ship or with berths in the way of engine room may cause _____.	a) grounding	c) gearing
b) mooring	d) flooding
10. The emergency duties of any crewmember are stated in his individual/personal master card according to Muster __.	a) list	c) figure
b) number	d) station

Exercise 8. Read the texts and answer the following questions.

· What is the main problem of the former/later text?

· What are the main reasons of the emergency described in the former/later text?

· What are the actions of the crew in case of the emergency mentioned in the former/later text?

Engine Room Fires

Special regulations regarding structural fire protection apply to fuel-transporting systems. There is a fixed fire fighting installation. In part-time unmanned engine rooms there are fixed fire alarm systems. Every fire in the machinery area brings with it the risk of expansion into a large fire. It is essential to order immediate closing-down of the area and interruption of the fuel supply, provided the navigational situation permits this. All valves of oil tanks and fire dampers in engine room may be shut off from the control box for emergency shut in ER. To fight the fire the fixed fire fighting installations are used.

If a fire is found on board it must be extinguished immediately with the available equipment, and the fire alarm must be given. When the alarm sounds the ship’s officers and crew should immediately follow the standing instructions laid down in the ship’s fire plan.

Engine Room Flooding

The engine room flooding can take place due to mainly two reasons such as leakage from equipment or system and crack or hole in the ship’s hull because of the collision, for example.

Leakage in the engine room space from machinery or sea/fresh water system can be caused by the failure or cracks in a sea water pump. Sometimes water comes from sea water or fresh water cooler and from boiler feed water system.

Speaking about a ctions to be taken in such situations it should be mentioned that the sooner fault will be found, the better the crew will tackle with an emergency. The defected equipment is to be isolated and other circulating system has to be started. Then the engineer on watch informs chief engineer regarding the leak and follows the instruction from him.

If the engine room flooding arises due to crack in the hull or small hole in the hull, the engine room staff should perform the following actions. At first the size of the leakage should be detected. By all means, the leakage has to be minimized and finally stopped. If the leak is not big enough, then cement box is to be put in place of the leak and repairs are to be done accordingly. Otherwise, the captain has to decide whether the ship is safe place to stay or not and decision for abandoning the ship has to be made. In case of abandon ship signal being announced, the engine room staff should muster to their respective lifeboat and abandon ship operation should be carried out.

1.	regarding	относительно, по отношению к
2.	closing-down	закрытие; прекращение работы
3.	to permit	разрешать
4.	damper	демпфер; гаситель ( колебаний )
5.	control box	блок управления
6.	standing instructions	постоянно действующие инструкции
7.	to lay down	размещать
8.	feed water	питательная вода
9.	to arise	возникать, появляться

Exercise 9. Translate the sentences into Russian.

1. Leakage of any ballast water tank in the double bottom of the engine room, leakage from manhole, or crack in the water tank can also lead to engine room flooding.

2. Grounding of ship in shallow areas may cause buckling (искривление, повреждение) in the engine room area where sea water starts to enter the engine room directly or indirectly, it may happen when hull gets ruptured in the way of bilge tank or any other tank causing it to overflow.

3. Collision of the ship with other ship or with berths/jetty in the way of engine room may cause flooding.

4. If the sounding pipe is not of self-closing or the cap is left open, and that particular tank gets filled up and left unnoticed, may lead to flooding of engine room.

5. All members of the technical staff must know all the ship emergency codes in detail, Mr. Skylight, Mr. Mob, Code Blue, and Oscar are some of the ship emergency codes followed by mariners.

6. While ER flooding at sea, it may require shutting down the plant, stopping engines and start emergency generator, shutting the main sea suction valve, to carry out repair works.

7. All members of the crew should receive appropriate training in accordance with their role at the time of emergency.

8. The emergency duties of any crewmember are stated in his individual/personal muster card according to Muster number.

sounding pipe - измерительная трубка (в цистерне)

Exercise 10. Translate the sentences into English.

1. Главный (старший) механик при общесудовой тревоге отвечает за ходовую вахту в машинном отделении и проверяет аварийное оборудование.

2. Второй механик при общесудовой тревоге управляет аварийной партией (группой) машинного отделения и несет ответственность за ее подготовку к борьбе за живучесть судна (damage control).

3. Третий механик при общесудовой тревоге является вахтенным механиком, обеспечивает работу главных и вспомогательных механизмов, пожарных и осушительных насосов.

4. Если на судне нет электромеханика, то при общесудовой тревоге третий механик выполняет их обязанности.

5. Существует пять основных нештатных ситуаций: пожар или взрыв, столкновение, посадка на мель, утечка и человек за бортом.

6. Пожар/Взрыв может возникнуть из-за неверного использования оборудования, самовозгорания (spontaneous combustion), неосторожностью с открытым огнем или курения.

7. Столкновение или посадка на мель происходит из-за отказа механизмов или руля, халатностью при несении вахты или навигационных ошибок.

8. Течь возникает при повреждении корпуса, палубы или люковых закрытий.

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