Professional English in Navigation. Учебное пособие для СПО

4.What is the best way of communication during towing?

5.What does the rule 24 say about towing?

3. Read the explanation of the ColReg № 24 and give a brief summary of the

Rule.

The Collision Regulations specify the lights required for towing with a length of tow under 200 m (an additional steaming light and yellow stern light on the towing vessel) — but for most yachts towing 31 another yacht, this won’t be practical. The rules go on to say that if a vessel not ordinarily engaged in towing, is towing another vessel in distress or need of assistance then ‘all possible measures shall be taken to light the vessel being towed or at least to indicate the presence of such vessel’. A powerful torch, used to illuminate your tow in addition to your standard navigation lights, should suffice.

Vessels and their tows are not regarded as restricted in their ability to maneuver unless the operation severely restricts their ability to deviate from their course. This means that tows in most circumstances must comply with the Collision Regulations as if they were an ordinary vessel.

Sound signals in fog for vessels under tow are the same as for those under sail, fishing, constrained by draught, and not under command – i.e. one long followed by two short blasts every two minutes.

Part 2

Practical exercises

1. Orders in towing. Learn these commands.

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Communication during towing operations

When towing, a means of communicating between the towing ship and the Tow is essential. The best way of communicating is usually by radio or electric powered megaphones (bull horns). When radio or bull horns are not available, or practical, alternate means of communication are needed.

A fast means of communications is by sound signals, which also may be used to supplement any of the other means operations.

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Dialogues

1. Read the dialogue again and answer the following questions.

1.What did the Captain require a tug for?

2.Who was to order that tug-boat?

3.What arrangements was the agent to make with the tug company?

4.When was the Captain going to leave port?

5.Could he give the agent the exact hour of departure?

6.how many tugs did the agent advise the Captain to order and why?

7.Did the Captain take his advice?

Dialogue 1

Captain: I shall require a tug tomorrow to take my ship to another berth. Agent: At what time are you going to shift?

Captain: We’ll be ready to start at about 5 p.m. Agent: Shall I order the tug for 5 p.m.?

Captain: Yes, that’s what I was going to ask you. So, please order the tug to be here by 5 p.m. tomorrow.

Agent: Well, the time is fixed then. Shall I also order the tug beforehand to take you out of the port?

Captain: Yes, kindly make preliminary arrangements with the tug company for Friday this week. I am leaving your port on that day.

Agent: What hour shall I order the tug for?

Captain: I cannot tell you the exact hour as yet. I think I’ll let you know the exact time on Wednesday.

Agent: Good, that’s settled then. I would advise you to order two tugs, because there is a very strong current in the entrance and the port tugs are not very powerful. Captain: How much do they charge for the towage?

Agent: The charge is £15 for each tug to take the ship out of port.

Captain: All right. I’ll take your advice. Thank you. So, please order two tugs for Friday.

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Dialogue 2

Captain: Look over there, what’s the matter with that ship? They have hoisted the code flag. Evidently they are going to signal something for us. (To the signalman): Hoist the answering pendant!

Pilot: Oh, it’s rather too far away. I can’t see so far as that. Let me take my binoculars. Well, now I see the ship quite clearly. Yes, you are right, they have hoisted the International Code Flag. If I am not mistaken, that’s a Norwegian ship, and the ship is evidently aground. Captain: How do you know that the ship is aground?

Pilot: There is a small shoal in that vicinity and they must have run aground. Yes, that’s it. Do you see three black balls one over the other?

Captain: Oh, yes, now I see the balls too. You are right. But how on earth could they have run against that shoal! So far as I remember the chart, there’s but one shoal in that area, and it is well off the usual track.

Pilot: I think we’ll soon learn about it. See, they hoisted two other flags below the Code Flag. Captain: I can see the flags but I can’t distinguish them. I am afraid I must take my binoculars too.

Pilot: To my mind, that’s a two letter signal “CB2”.

Captain: Yes, there is no doubt about that anymore. I can clearly see the flags now. These are the flags C and Band pennant 2. Let me see the code book. Oh, here you are. These group means: “I am aground. I require immediate assistance”.

Pilot: So they ask you to help them. What are you going to do about that? Captain: Well, I think we must to help them. Romanian seamen are always

ready to help anyone in trouble. “A friend in need, is a friend indeed” as the saying goes. Where’s that code book? Oh, here it is. Thank you.

Pilot: What are you going to signal to that ship?

Captain: We’ll hoist now the group “DN” meaning: “I am coming to your assistance”.

Pilot: Shall we alter the course right away?

Captain: Yes, certainly. (To the helmsman): Port 5°! Steer for that ship on our port bow. Better port! Steady so!

2. Read the dialogue again and answer the following questions.

1.What did the Captain notice on the other ship?

2.What did he order the signalman to do?

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3.What did the pilot think about that ship?

4.Was he right in thinking that she was aground?

5.What do there black balls one over the other mean?

6.Were there many shoals in that area?

7.Was that shoal near the usual track?

8.What two-letter signal did the ship hoist?

9.What was the meaning of that signal?

10.Was the Captain going to help that ship?

11.What signal did he order to hoist?

12.How many degrees did the ship alter her course?

Dialogue 3

Captain: Unfortunately, I cannot understand them. Evidently they are speaking Norwegian. You told me you know the Norwegian language, didn’t you? Now, can you act as an interpreter?

Pilot: I’ll try to.

Captain: Take this megaphone. Ask them, what’s the matter with their ship? Pilot: The Captain says that their engine was disabled and they were drifted to

that shoal.

Captain: I see. Ask them, please, what they want us to do?

Pilot: They ask you to tow them off the ground and then to tow them to Rotterdam. They say they are not very deep in the ground and the hull is not damaged.

Captain: All right, tell them we’ll manoeuvre our ship now so as to come as close as possible with our stern to their ship. It will take us about an hour or so before we rig the bridle from our ship’s quarter.

Pilot: Well, I’ve told them as you said. The Captain says that meanwhile they are preparing the towing hawser at their stern. The Captain wonders how you are going to pick the towing line up.

Captain: Tell him that we’ll try to pass a heaving line from our stern. In case the distance won’t allow us to do so, they will have to lower the boat to run the hawser to our stern.

Pilot: The Norwegian Captain thanks you for your arrangements. He wants to know also in what manner you will signal him while towing off.

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Captain: We’ll use single-letter signals in the usual way that is either by flags or by sounding on the ship’s whistle. Pilot: The Captain says it’s all right and wants me to tell you that they will give us a tow-line from the port quarter.

Captain: Well, everything is fixed then, and I begin to manoeuvre.

3. Read the dialogue again and answer the following questions:

1.What language did they speak on the ship in distress?

2.Whom did the Captain ask to act as a interpreter?

3.What was the matter with the Norwegian ship?

4.What did the Norwegians ask the Captain to do for them?

5.How far did they ask him to tow their vessel?

6.How was the Captain going to approach that ship?

7.How long would it take the ship to rig the bridle?

8.Where were the Norwegians preparing the towing hawser?

9.Whose boat was to run the hawser to the ship’s stern?

10.Was the Norwegian Captain satisfied with the arrangements?

Supplementary reading

1. Pre-reading task. Study the following words and word combinations.

•Anxiously — страстно желающий

•Vanish — исчезать

•Trace — различить, выследить

•Frustration — расстройство планов, крушение надежд

•Fall off — не слушаться руля

•Alert — поднять тревогу

•Presume — предполагать

•Grim — страшный

•Pick up — снять

•To shed light — пролить свет

•Belated — запоздалый

•Shipping lanes — морская трасса

•Haunted — часто посещаемый, упорно возвращаться, привидения

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2. Read and translate the text.

Mystery at sea

More mysterious than the disappearance of the ship is the way it was kept secret for more than a month.

Ten families across India are anxiously waiting for news of tug vessel Jupiter 6, which just vanished off the South African coast six weeks ago with an Indian crew of 10 and three Ukrainian sailors.

“Had there been an American sailor on board, the ship would have definitely been traced by now,” Anil Kumar Sharma couldn’t hide his anger and frustration.

It was only on Tuesday that he had learnt that the ship — with his younger brother Sunil on board as second engineer — had been missing at sea since September 5.

Jupiter 6 — registered in Kingston, Jamaica, but believed to be owned by an Indian family — was towing bulk carrier Sat sang from Namibia to the Align shipbreaking yard in Gujarat.

It had sailed from Cuba two months ago and reached the Namibian port of Walvis Bay, from where it was scheduled to reach Align via Mauritius. The Indian crew spoke to their families from Namibia in the last week of August.

On August 28, the ship left Walvis Bay but stayed in touch with its Mumbaibased manning agent, Pelican Marine. Till September 5, when it seems to have fallen off the edge of the earth. Sat sang was found drifting in the ocean, about 220 nautical miles south of Port Elizabeth, and was towed ashore.

The relatives of the Indian crew are furious with the shipping agent, Pelican Marine, for not alerting them or the Indian shipping authorities about the missing ship more than a month later. More here:

The tug Jupiter 6 is officially presumed lost with all hands after an emergency radio beacon signal was picked up and a search failed to find the ship.

Several grim signs pointed to the fate of the tug, missing for more than a month.

But they fail to shed light on the mystery of what befell the ill-fated vessel.

The clues are a belated signal from an emergency position indicating radio beacon, a patch of oil and a piece of wreckage in a position about 200 miles south of Port Elizabeth, well off the shipping lanes.

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This seems to be the tragic conclusion to the mystery that has haunted the shipping industry since September 6, the day the last communication from the Indianowned tug was heard.

The tug and her tow were reported missing when no further communications were received and ships at sea were asked to keep a lookout. At the weekend, the tug’s emergency beacon finally began signaling and the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Bellville sent an SA Air Force long-range aircraft to search the sea around the position signaled by the beacon. Two ships joined in the search.

The aircraft crew saw only a patch of oil and a piece of wreckage, but no survivors or other signs of the vessel.

Even the wreckage and the oil could not officially be linked to the tug, said a spokesman for the rescue centre who did not wish to be named.

3. Answer the questions.

1.What kind of mystery had happened at sea?

2.What was the name of the vessel and her type?

3.How many people were on the ship and where were they from?

4.Where was the accident?

5.What was Pelican Marine?

6.Were there any signs of the missing tug found?

4. True or false?

1.The name of the tug vessel was Satsang.

2.The ship had been missing at sea since September 10.

3.Satsang was found drifting in the ocean about 220 nautical miles east of Port Elizabeth.

4.The shipping agent was Pelican Marine.

5.Three ships joined in the search.

5. Grammar check. Put sentences in interrogative and negative forms.

1.Satsang was found drifting in the ocean.

2.The aircraft crew saw only a patch of oil and a piece of wreckage.

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3.It had sailed from Cuba two months ago and reached the Namibian port.

4.The relatives of the Indian crew are furious with the shipping agent.

5.Several grim signs pointed to the fate of the tug.

Terms relating to towing

Anchor windlass. Machine used to hoist and lower anchors.

Automatic towing machine / winch. Winch-like machine which relieves tension on the tow line by automatically paying out and then reclaiming wire payed out when the tension is reduced; found on fleet tugs and salvage ships.

Barrel. The rotating drum of a capstan or winch.

Beam. The extreme width of a vessel, broadside.

Bight. The middle, loop, or bent part of a rope, as distinguished from the ends. Birdcaging. The flaring out of wires in wire rope around the full diameter of a rope, with resulting kinks in the wires; this can occur when there is a sudden release of a heavy load on a wire rope.

Bird Nest. After reeving a mooring line around a bitt, neatly lay the free end of the line on top of the bitt.

Bitt. A pair of metal posts or barrels to which mooring or towing lines are made fast.

Bitter end. The last part of a rope or chain, in contrast to the middle part or

bight.

Bollard. Single posts secured to a wharf or pier; used for mooring vessels by means of lines extending from the vessel.

Bow line. The mooring line that runs through the bull nose or chock at or near the bow of the ship.

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