[Ravensfort] Ships Waste Disposal

[David Hoffpauir]

http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1289.htm

 

***Warning Nudity***

 

('Engines' readership statistics spike up by 40%).  Well before you get
too excited, it's a guy's butt on a crapper.  At any rate, I'm off on
one of those tangents that emerge as I go through the 'Engines'
archives.  Today it's "Ship Waste Disposal".  There will be a follow up
episode.

 

Ships are pretty nasty.  They stink.  There is grime, salt, and grease
everywhere, all the time, regardless how much or how often you clean.
I've done time on nine different US aircraft carriers, believe me.
Waste disposal, specifically human waste disposal, is pretty simple
these days.  Pump it to a bilge, stir till liquefied, pressurize, and
laugh like hell if some guy is sunbathing on a sponson aft of the bilge
valve....  

 

(....been there, done that, the t-shirt is at the bottom of the South
China Sea.  That was July, 1982...)

 

Anyway, today's methods are much improved over the historic methods.
Today's 'Engines' episode winds its way through them, kind of century
hopping as it goes, with an unexpected character as the main focus.  His
name is Hans.  You won't know him, most likely.  But you WILL know his
dad.  In circumspect, I guess you could say they worked at the opposite
ends of things.

 

Oh, and when it gets to the part quoting, "No doubt, the earliest
sailors did simply relieve themselves over the rail."*  Heh, well as a
postscript to centuries of naval history, I'll confirm, they still
do.... :-)

 

take a listen,

Regards,

dsd

 

*Engines of Our Ingenuity, episode 1289.

 

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