Tom Williams
(3/4/04 3:16 pm)
Captain's Snow Storm
The Atakapa had stopped in Jacksonville, FL on our way to pick up a tow and being August it
was hot. We had a rather unique air conditioning system that was a latter day add on and they had
put cooling coils in the ventilation system and each space had a thermostat and an electrically
operated valve to control the refrigerant flow. Normally the machinery operatred pretty well and
most of the crew was happy, this is about the captain being on the other side of the fence.
About two AM one morning while getting my rest the captain called me and said it was cold in
his room and snow was coming out his vent, I just laughed and told him that it had to be cold to
snow and this caused all hell to break loose, he used some choice words and told me to get up to
his quarters immediately, grabbing my pants on the way I went up to see what was wrong.
He
was right, there was snow coming out of the vent right over his bed. I did a fast diagnosis and
grabbed a dogging wrench and went out to where the refrigeration coil was in the vent system,
found the electrically operated solenoid valve, gave it a crack with the dogging wrench and it
closed the way it should have long before. Went back in and in about 30 seconds the snow
stopped and it started to rain on his bed, the ice that had built up started to melt and since there
was so much water the drain wouldn't take it and it blew it out.
We waited a few minutes and the rain stopped and I had a new duty, I became a stewards mate,
took the sheets off his bed, turned the mattress over and put on clean sheets and got him all fixed
up. I must have hit the valve in the right place because it never stuck again while I was there.
I thought I might get to be a chief after that, but by morning tempers had cooled and we had a
few laughs over the Captain's Snow Storm
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