Structural Inspection of Older Black Sea Ships in Istanbul: Coamings, Air Pipes and Cracked Brackets

What condition are Black Sea trading ships usually in?

The fleet moving through the Strait is mixed, but a large part of it is second-hand tonnage kept in service by careful owners with tight budgets. Bulk carriers of Handysize and Supramax size carry grain, steel products, coal, ore and fertilisers between Black Sea, Marmara and Mediterranean ports. General cargo ships carry whatever offers. The voyages are short and the cargo handling is frequent, so holds, hatch covers and coamings take more punishment per year than on an ocean trade.

Coatings on such ships often last long past their expected life. Steel is touched up between dockings, not renewed, and ballast tanks may run for years with partial protection. The structural picture on a twenty-year-old ship in this trade is therefore usually one of localised heavy wastage in predictable places, set against large areas that are sound. A structural inspection finds the heavy places and measures them, instead of estimating from general appearance.

How are hatch coamings, ventilators and air pipes assessed?

Weathertight fittings are small items with large consequences. Hatch coamings, ventilator coamings and air pipes protect openings in the weather deck, and their wastage can let water into holds or tanks. They also corrode from both sides: seawater and cargo residue outside, condensation within. A thin air pipe may look sound until it is tapped or measured.

Readings are taken at the base of each coaming and along its plate, at the head of each air pipe and at its connection to the deck. Pitting is measured and recorded separately from general thickness, because a single deep pit decides renewal even where the average is acceptable. Deck plating around the fitting is gauged as well, since wastage often spreads outward. Where fittings are due to be renewed, the report gives dimensions and positions that the yard can use for ordering.

Where in Istanbul can a structural inspection be done?

In a Tuzla dock, with the hull dry and staging in place, the whole shell, bottom and internal structure can be reached, and this is where a full structural picture is best obtained. At Ambarlı, container and general cargo ships can be inspected between cargo operations under terminal ISPS rules, mostly in deck structure, accessible tanks and engine-room spaces. At the Ahırkapı anchorage and the Black Sea entrance anchorages, ships waiting for transit or orders can be boarded by launch for deck, coaming and ballast tank work.

Because anchorage stays end when a ship is called forward, we agree a priority list: the details most likely to be cracked or wasted come first, with the remainder left to the next stop or the dock. Scrubber-fitted ships docking at Tuzla are also a chance to examine wash-water piping and the structure around it, since the Sea of Marmara lies outside the Mediterranean emission control area and many ships switch to a scrubber or fuel change on the way out through the Dardanelles.

Where hull structural integrity sits in the survey cycle

How much steel has to be gauged depends on which survey the ship is due for, its type and its age. The pattern below is the usual one under IACS unified requirements; the attending surveyor and the class rules for the ship decide the final extent. For a ship calling at Istanbul, we agree the programme with the class and the owner before the team mobilises.

Who does the work, and when class approval applies

The inspection team is mobilised from India for each job; nobody is stationed at the port, so mobilisation is planned against the vessel's schedule and visa lead times. Our founder and Responsible NDT Level III, who holds ASNT NDT Level III in UT, RT, MT, PT and VT and has over eleven years of international field experience, plans and supervises the work. Technicians are certified under the company's written practice to ASNT SNT-TC-1A, and the company holds ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification.

Thickness measurement that a classification society credits to a class survey has to be carried out by a firm approved by that society under IACS UR Z17. Atlantis is in the process of obtaining UR Z17 approval from DNV, Lloyd's Register and ABS. Until a certificate is issued, the readings we take are for the owner's own decisions, not for credit to a class survey, so tell us the vessel's class and the survey due when you enquire and we set the scope for the right purpose. Owner's and charterer's condition gauging, pre-docking steel estimates, pre-purchase and on-hire or off-hire gauging, and scrubber and piping condition checks between surveys do not need class approval.

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