Colin Williamson

Last week we had a visit from Andrew Lanxon and his colleague Ritchie for a tour of the ship and to take photos and video. Below is a link to the YouTube of the video they produced.  It is rather good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsHzNP5Jto4

The article above appeared in a magazine Called “Engineering.  An illustrated weekly journal” published  October 12th 1956.

Below is a link to the SS Explorer conservation plan commissioned from Wessex Archaeology.  SS Explorer Conservation Plan

This is a question we are often, well sometimes asked. Well. It’s a heat engine  However, I hand you over to AI which is probably better than my RS  (Real stupidity) Triple expansion engines cannot run efficiently on compressed air for several reasons:   1. **Energy Density**: Steam contains much more energy per unit volume

The Royal Yacht Britannia is closed this week to do preparatory work for the forthcoming partial demolition of Ocean Terminal. Taking advantage of the quiet, today I installed the donation sign for the pitch which Britannia kindly offered us. A contactless pay point is ready to be installed and only requires a power supply  Also

This photo shows Explorer in one of her near death experiences. This is her in the breakers yard formerly known as T.W. Ward in Inverkeithing Bay and having hopefully her final close run thing.. Many famous ships met their demise here including Mauritania and a number of notable warships such as HMS Nelson.

Many of you may remember the halcyon days of taking a plip plop at Her Majesty’s convenience. The end of this evolution was of course completing the necessary paperwork without which no job is complete.  For reasons unknown, the paper supplied to government establishments in 1950s and 60s and pictured below was fittingly excremental. This

Last Saturday (6/01/24) as we were short handed and the day was calm, Adrian and I talked ourselves into tending the moorings.  During the course of our tender ministrations this chafed chap was observed. So, this morning (Tuesday Jan 9th 2023) Bosun Howlin’dog and his band of motley unable seamen set about replacing and rerouting

https://vimeo.com/video/358931591 Produced by the Citadel Arts Club in the Leith Docker’s Club, the play was written by Jim Brown and directed by Mark Kidd. The cast are: Sean Docherty, Charlie West, Wullie Gardner, David Magowan, Tommy Keir, Charles Donnelly, Hamish Munro, Chris Alexander, Aaron Presley and Gregor Davidson.   Video by Calum Gundry  The play

A wee quiz with no prize and at the moment no answers. On the SS Explorer sometimes things turn up and sometimes they disappear. The brass devices pictured recently appeared. I don’t know where from and having been volunteering on the ship for ten years and been over every inch of her I should have

n July 1995, the picturesque port of Leith played host to a magnificent fleet of tall ships that brought a sense of wonder and admiration to all who witnessed their majestic presence. This gathering of graceful vessels from around the world created an atmosphere of excitement as sailors, tourists, and locals eagerly flocked to the waterfront to witness this extraordinary spectacle.

In the world of navigation technology, the system stands as a pioneering system that revolutionized air and marine navigation. Developed in the early 1940s, the it provided accurate positional information, enabling pilots and sailors to navigate with precision.

The boatswain’s call, also known as a bosun’s whistle, is a nautical instrument used by boatswains or bosuns aboard ships. It is a small pipe-shaped whistle with a metal mouthpiece and a hollow cylindrical body. The boatswain’s call is traditionally made of brass or nickel-plated brass.

In another dalliance with artificial intelligence I asked for a blog based on this sign.  Now if I had created the blog it would have been brief and factual.  It would have been along the lines of:  “In port, to keep the scotch boiler hot whilst shut down and in order to avoid the lengthy

https://www.royalyachtbritannia.co.uk/ The SS Explorer is always on a financial precipice. Today we have stepped back a few paces from that cliff edge due to the generosity of our rather more handsome Port of Leith resident, The Royal Yacht Britannia.   We have had a donation today of £5000 from the The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust.  We

I put the following text from a brass label on Explorer’s anchor windlass which I hadn’t previously noticed into an AI app to see what it would make of it. I have to say I’m impressed. This is the result,  Everything after this is a Robert, or Bob as not the Nine O’ Clock News

A few days ago I received an email from Tracey Joyce offering to donate a printed copy of a program for the Elliot Hydroplot computer which was on board.  I received it today. It was written by Tracey’s Uncle, the late Michael Mowat who was a marine lab scientist. The tome was sent to Tracey

Some of the spare gear and tools supplied to Explorer by the builder

The lathe its now fully operational with a tool rack installed. Now all we need is something to do with it.

Today on a sunny but sometimes chilly Leith Links we set out our stall at the Leith Festival stall extravaganza. Amongst other stalls were  Greenpeace who gave up rather early, extinction rebellion (believe it or not) and many local organisations and charities.  We had a reasonable footfall with a few people showing a healthy interest. 

We discovered some 60 year old chalk graffiti behind a bulkhead in the bosun’s cabin. I wonder if Andy Scott still lives in Bingham Place

I presume the people accessing the log in page of my website are hackers. No idea what they hope to gain but my password is not Password. Good luck with wasting your time and driving up my views. Thank you. I’m so proud. 

I recently came into possession of this Myford lathe. It is on loan to the SS Explorer.  It came with a DC motor which is unfortunate as we don’t want to be running the harbour generator to use it.  I have therefore invested in a VFD motor and controller which I fitted today and successfully

As well as volunteering on the SS Explorer, I also volunteer as an engineer on the Royal Yacht Britannia. As a result I have been gifted this lathe. It is a Myford ML7-R. The Royal Yacht  disposed of it because it was surplus to requirements as another better lathe is on board and also the

The ship’s log. What is it?  There are a few logs on a ship. A navigation log on the bridge would record the ship’s position, weather, sea temperature among other things.  In the engine room, temperatures, pressures and machinery status would be recorded.  A movement log would be kept on the bridge and in the

It is with a heavy heart that I have to pass on the following message from David Darling, Derek’s Stepson.  He has contacted me to say that Derek has passed away. “Can you please pass on to the members that Derek Learmont, passed away on 11th Feb due to cancer.There will be a service held

Seafarers have long been able to determine their latitude (that is the angle in degrees, minutes and seconds north or south of the equator. This is called declination) by measuring the angle between stars and the horizon. The easiest example of this is  the pole star, Polaris which is  located less than one degree from

Continuing the blog on an electrical theme, ladies and gentlemen I give you the main switchboard.  It is a live front switchboard with live knife type breakers.  Dinnae touch them. Explorer is (was) powered by three diesel powered dynamos. Two 80kw units and one 24kw harbour dynamo. The centre circuit breaker is the harbour dynamo’s

Continuing on the geekery of electrical test instruments, Pictured here is the Megger. So named because it measures megohms.  Ohms is the unit of electrical resistance. If one volt is applied to a one ohm resistor a current of one amp will flow and one watt of heat will be generated The Megger can measure

One of our members donated this device to Explorer. It consists of a frame attached to a Venturi containing an impeller connected to two worm drives.  The worm drive is attached what presumably was a recording device. A bourdon tube is attached for reasons yet to be gleaned.  It seems to have a depth limit

Avometer The Explorer didn’t carry a dedicated electrician.  The ship’s engineers and radio officer would have been responsible for electrical maintenance and repairs. A multimeter is an essential tool for diagnosing electrical faults. Nowadays multimeters tend to be small digital devices. In Explorer’s service days, the rather bulky Avometer would have been used.   The

What is ice strengthening? People sometimes ask what is meant by an ice strengthened hull and how is it achieved.  Ice strengthening allows the ship to operate in light ice known as nilas which is less than 10cm thick. Typically this would be designed into ships likely to operate in polar waters  such as cruise

An unusual guide The SS Explorer gets a couple of pages in this fine publication with lots of other fascinating stuff in and around Edinburgh.

I’ve had the website in the workshop for a few days up on ramps to try and squeeze some more speed out of it.  The graphic below shows the readings before tune up. Before So after stiffening up the suspension and shaving the cylinder heads to up the compression ratio, fitting low profile alloys and

SS Explorer AGM Dear Volunteers, Members and Supporters We hope you are well and staying safe during these difficult times. In a change to our usual AGM arrangements due to the challenges of social distancing, our 2020 AGM will be held as a Zoom meeting on Saturday 26 September at 12.00 when we will carry

It would appear that Alexander Hall & Co. Ltd planned to install two lavatories on the starboard side of the ship next to the officer’s pantry. What they don’t appear to have taken account of is the rather relevant fact that the outlet from these shunkies is about three feet below the waterline.  A fact

Following the loosening of CV restrictions, work continues of maintenance of the Explorer.  Today we finished the base framing of the monkey island deck.  We also loose laid one sheet of plywood mainly to develop a safe way of transporting the wood up to the top deck.

We are delighted to announce that SS Explorer has been selected as Flagship of the year for Scotland East 2020.

Due to the current epidemic many ships are laid up in Leith including SS Explorer’s great granddaughter the Scotia which is now sharing the Edinburgh Dock.

David N. MacLennan It is with great sadness that we report the passing, at the age of 80 years, of David MacLennan, one of the great pioneers of fisheries acoustics.  He succumbed to a stroke earlier this week, which is particularly sad given his recent promising recovery from preliminary cancer treatment.  This indomitable spirit was a

Today we had a membership application from Andrzej Orwolski.  Andrezj served on the Explorer in 1974 where he was schooled in the science of fishery research by Mr Craig, Mr Forbes and Bill Dickson.  He has kindly given us permission to use his photographs on the website and they are fantastic.  But I am going

The Marine Laboratory in Torry has gifted us some hat tallys from Explorer’s time in service. We will need to obtain a couple of sailor caps to fit them to. Hello Sailor!

A lady who is publishing a bit about Explorer in a book (Secret Edinburgh. An Unusual Guide), asked for a photograph of what she rather charmingly called the “Talking Funnel”. So she got one. Here is the talking funnel!

Today we finished putting a coat of primer on our corroded deck. Next step is an interim measure to keep the boat dry by sealing the perforations with this.—->

Check out the status board Captain. In my days at sea the blackboard was king. It never crashed, and as long as it was updated, never by WiFi it worked fine. Anyway here’s the mysterious thing. I have an O level in marine engineering and I can decode quite a lot of this, but…… Everything

Today’s geekery involves the Stream-line lubricating oil filter. It filtered the oil from the two main generators. Manufactured by Stream-line Filters LTD. Hele-Shaw Works Ingate Place, London, SW8

On the first of November, five Explorer volunteers visited the Scottish Marine Laboratory in Aberdeen. The marine lab scheduled the science that Explorer was tasked with. John Dunn, ex-chief scientist on Explorer gave us a tour. The net shop is the last remaining in Aberdeen. Here, rolls of net are assembled into a trawl net.

The Explorer has two Kent screens (or clear view screens) in the wheelhouse. The Kent screen is a device where the glass is rotated at high speed to force water of by centrifugal force. Other manufacturers are about but the Kent was much used in UK ships.

In February 2017 we installed zinc sacrificial anodes on steel wire to help protect the hull against corrosion. These work because oxidants, which corrode metals, will oxidize the zinc anode rather than the protected metal structure, thus preventing the structure from being corroded. Every now and again we have to land the anodes to remove

Today we needle gunned and soda blasted a small area of the monkey island. We then applied marine primer. It obviously won’t fix the leaks, but we are hoping it will provide a corrosion barrier before we do plug the leaks.

Todays bit of of geekery is the High Frequency Direction Finder, abbreviated HFDF and often referred to as the hufffduff. It’s function was to determine the bearing of a radio transmitter on the high frequency band which is in the range of 3 to 30 megahertz. This is the range that ship’s medium and long

……..to Scott Crearie for his very generous donation of £10,000 to the societies coffers. This is by far the biggest donation since the original purchase of Explorer by the society. Thank You Scott.

Another bit of historical geekery, the Megger. In these days of practically anything and everything being “Mega”, the Megger was eponymously named as it’s purpose was to measure electrical resistance in the range of “megohms”, a megohm being one million ohms, which is a lot. It was often used as a practical joke device whereby

Today’s geekfest is the Avometer. Although this one was donated by our late friend Brian Murdoch, it is a racing certainty that a similar instrument would have been used by the engineers and radio officer on board the Explorer. The AVO in the name stands for Amps, Volts and Ohms which is precisely the electrical

The thrust meter measures the thrust at the thrust block using a hydraulic ram to get a pressure reading.

A ship’s telegraph was used to transmit engine orders from the wheelhouse to the machinery spaces. Unfortunately the wheelhouse and engine room telegraphs on the Explorer have been purloined leaving only the stokehold instrument. The wheelhouse would use a handle to position the telegraph to order the desired speed. A bell would ring in the

We were visited by these guys today. They took a coach up from North Shields and had a cuppa and a tour of the boat. Michael Smith, one of their number, presented us with a fabulous sketch of the Explorer in action. Thanks for visiting.

…….. hard labour on the monkey island today saw the remnants of the wooden decking removed. The big top it turns out makes an excellent greenhouse and all the troops were sweating like a glassblowers bum. We are now ready for phase 3, when we have worked out what phase three is.

Six months after starting this project we have hit milestone number two. The wooden decking is removed (bar a few details). A couple of big holes in the deck above the radio officer’s cabinet which has been badly affected by water. Now we can see why. Next stage is to remove all the corrosion before

Another ex crew member visited today. Alex Maine came to share some of his memories of his time on the Explorer.

Today we were visited by Donald Ballance, a scientist on Explorer between 1966 and 1974. Here is a photo of him then and a photo of him now. His tour was more informative for the volunteer conducting it that for him.

After some appalling weather, both wind and rain, the big top seems to be doing its job. There is dampness due to blowing rain and slight leaks but nothing is penetrating to the interior. More progress made today and we now have around a third of the deck up. It’s a slog. And rain and

Our newly painted main deck passage which Jim Duff has been beavering away at for a week or three.

Today, after fettling the Big Top we began assessing a repair strategy for the deck of the monkey island which has been leaking rainwater, damaging the internal fabric of the ship. We began by developing a method of removing the planking without damaging the aluminium structure. Some of the wood is rotten and crumbles but

Port and Starboard Diesel Tanks Both these tanks were inspected visually through the manhole doors on 260119.  The starboard tank is in relatively good condition and the port tank has light surface corrosion.  The port tank is not currently considered suitable for fuel storage.

The big top pretty much complete except at the aft end. Will have to consider if we have enough Monarflex to do the remaining unshielded parts. Should keep most of the water off the deck and out of the accommodation. Turns out it consumed many more man hours than I had imagined. Hoping to start

A family visit to the Explorer today.

A bit of a windy one today and testing the mettle of the Big Top. It is standing up so far but requires tweaking and maintenance. Also we have still to shield the forward and after ends, but we are awaiting delivery of further anchors and clamps. When we had run out of tent tweaks,

Starting to get some shelter for the monkey island now.  Another day or two hard labour should see this finished.

One step forward…….. Started covering the tent poles today. Unfortunately due to a rookies error, the poles are too far apart. The blue reinforcing pads should be aligned with the poles. Doh! So we have lowered the main stay ready to saw some pipe on Tuesday. ?

Rigging for a tent over the Monkey Island taking shape.  When complete it will allow us to repair the leaking deck over the winter.

Today, Andy carried out a long overdue oil change and filter clean on the harbour generator. Around 20 litres of oil and 2 litres of water sludge were drained and the sump cleaned with rags. Fresh oil added snd the save all cleaned.

A message from the Chairman of the SS Explorer Preservation Society  Brian Murdoch It is with a very heavy heart that I must let you know that our good friend, Brian Murdoch has died. Following a period where he struggled against a form of blood cancer he succumbed to an infection he was unable to

The main deck starboard side has been a slip and trip hazard for a very long time due to deterioration of the wood and is very slippery in the wet. Today we had donated some nice wooden planks which we have laid down the deck and covered with mesh to make a nice safe walkway.

Today, we are delighted to welcome on board our newest volunteers, Halina Pasiecznik and Steve Ball. Welcome to the view from your window Halina and Steve.

When Explorer was under construction in Halls shipyard in 1955, another  vessel was under construction in Hall Russel at the same time.  This ship was to be the Sir William Hardy, a fishery research vessel commissioned by the the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.  Unlike Explorer, she was a diesel electric vessel and suffered

Work continues on making the fishroom into a workshop with the installation of power and lighting, and the purchase of a £50 air compressor from Lidl.  

…….fishroom deck painted. May god bless her and all those who walk on her.

After much searching we believe that water leakage into the mess room and engine room is largely originating from the corroded base of this ventilator. So in accordance with merchant navy tradition it will be repaired temporarily with a cement box. Photographed is Jim’s shutter joinery skills.

A couple of DC lights in our rapidly improving saloon were not working so fuses found blown along with a couple of lamps. One dark lamp remaining to fix. One of the pieces of Explorer’s history which we thought we lacked photos of were the lay-up years in the Cromarty Firth. Today we noticed this

A drawing of the proposed replacement of the FRV Explorer surfaced on board the old girl today.

A modest turn out for the society’s Annual General Meeting. Attending were: front row left to right Charlie Blyth, Bob Harley, Andy Marjoribanks, Colin Williamson, Derek Learmont. Back row, Alan Hush, Jim Duff, Cron Mackay, Simon Sawers, Brian Murdoch, Alastair Goodman, Emma Fraser and Bill Fallon.

The Society had a presence at both these events over two weekends raising the profile and a wee bit of money.

A busy day on the Explorer.  Ingress from the storm last week had brought the bilge levels up.   So two of our pumps were rigged in series to take the bilge water to a slop tank. Charlie made progress on the mate’s cabin deck light.     And a major leak was attended to

Our thanks to Technip and the crew of the MV Orelia. Orelia is currently de-equipping in Leith prior to her last voyage to be dismantled. The Company and the Chief Engineer have been kind enough to allow the SS Explorer to repurpose and recycle some of their stores. Among other things, our engine room will