Engine Room / Boiler Room
This ship is propelled as no other ocean
going charter 
vessel today. The challenge and intrigue of maintaining a big steam plant dates
back to my (Lance) youth where I was raised at the small Vancouver Island town
of Chemainus, then site of the world's largest steam sawmill complex. Huge mill
steam machinery operating from a powerhouse of 16 boilers impressed me with a
lifelong affection for this type of power. A logging railroad running 26 steam
locomotives over 100 miles of track into mountains and canyons behind our town,
hauled giant old growth timber with often just one log per train car. This great
logging show was known as the Copper Canyon Logging Division. My machinist father
serviced these great engines, and this child watched with wide eyes the process
of their shop maintenance.
These impressions continued into my employment
with Island Tug & Barge Ltd. a large towing and salvage firm based at Victoria,
BC. They operated many steam vessels when first employed, and I was determined
to work on all before they passed into history. Old Scottish chief engineers fed
my curious mind many details of each vessel served on. One, similar in size and
power to 'Thorfinn' was a former WW 2 Canadian corvette. The 'Sudbury' was making
headlines salvaging ships across the entire Pacific, and the knowledge gained
about her engines and gear was to later serve well with similar sized ships of
my own.
Thorfinn was purchased in 1974 to convert to an ocean 
going
tug, as we had successfully done to a former sister whaler. An OPEC created oil
crisis had brought demand for oil exploration in Canada's northern Arctic, and
we were intent to join the expected bonanza. OPEC's cartel crumbled before the
job began, and after two years lay up at Halifax, NS, we decided to steam the
ship around to the west coast on her original machinery. A mixed gender of Whistler
Mtn.ski employees along with a ship's former Norwegian engineer on leave of absence
from home, joined the ship for an epic three months sojourn visiting many ports
and islands en route via Panama. The ship's reliable steam plant was so impressive
I vowed never to replace it. Profitable jobs later on the west coast paid the
way towards a conversion to luxury charter ship, which only needed a niche industry
and location to blossom. Micronesia was finally selected over many Pacific areas,
due to good air access, and a stable leadership with US guidelines. Myriads of
island paradises completed the picture. Truk Lagoon was selected as a base due
to its great harbor and sunken treasures. We were one of the world's first diving
live aboard cruisers, and still appear to be largest.
The steam plant performs
well, and economies are 
created
by adding waste diesel lubes from shore power plants to costly boiler fuels of
marine gas oil. Preferred bunker fuels are not available at Truk. Environmental
services are performed in preventing pollution of lands and lagoons with former
troublesome residues.
Engine room visitors watch spellbound as big
shining piston rods push a massive crankshaft propelling this vessel effortlessly
at speeds well beyond most others in this trade.
