Years ago it was quite common. Sea water was added while fuel remained in
the tank. The fuel floated on top and was still usable. Environmental
concerns has about ended the practice, however.

Scout wrote:
I probably should have mentioned that he said they sometimes put the
water in their fuel (bunker C or #6) tanks. At least I believe that's
what he said.
Scout

"Scott Vernon" wrote in message
...
AFAIK most, if not all, freighters use water for ballast.
I loaded a box weighing 110K lbs. , onto a small ship in Balt. They
used the 2 ship cranes to pick it. The ship heeled over when they
tried to lift. Had to wait what , seemed like an hour, to fill the
starboard side ballast tank.

Scotty


"Scout" wrote in message
...
Doug,
I had a friend who told me they use sea water as ballast on bigger
ships in the navy, possibly CG. Of course, he's since gone mad and
I can't confirm. Scout

"DSK" wrote in message
...


otnmbrd wrote:

Only on Navy combatants .... otherwise there'd better NOT be any
sal****er in those main storage tanks .... water, maybe some
(from the fuel) but not sal****er.

On the big ships I did contract work on, more than a few (maybe
half?) had service or ready tanks and transferred fuel daily. The
really big diesels are apparently capable of gulping in a few
gallons of seawater now & then. The steamships aren't any problem
at all unless it is a big enough slug of water to put all the
burners out at once. Of course it's pretty bad for the machinery,
but why complain when we were making so much money fixing it?

A good thing, too. The wipers are *supposed* to check the
seperator bowls at least hourly, but I used to put notes on the
seperators in big letters
"Bring
Me
This
Note Immediately Upon Finding... $5 Reward" and had the whole
watch go by.



Main reason on larger vessels is to clean and for heavy fuel, to
get to right temp.

Just this past weekend, I was explaining to a guy with a big
motorsailer what a "cleavage manifold" was. That's always been one
of my favorite terms!

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

--
jlrogers±³©
Never date a woman you can hear ticking. - Mark Patinkin

Eschew Obfuscation.