First job of the day was with the Chief mate to do a dock water test. This involves taking a sample of dock water and testing its density. A ship can only be loaded to a certain level, called the plimsole line, so when a ship is ‘down to her marks’ she is fully loaded. Dock water has a density less than seawater, so it can be loaded down beyond her marks in the dock and once out in the sea, she will be above her marks again due to the higher water density. The density testing was done so this value can be put into the stability programme to check it will in fact rise up to her marks.
Tula was lifted on board and final lashings were done in the holds. The ship had to move across the dock to load explosives, and then we had a fire and boat drill. These were to get everybody to the correct muster stations/lifeboats and familiarise everybody with the kit.
Lines were dropped at 1900, I was in the aft party, stowing lines and driving the winches. First bridge watch is at 0400 tomorrow.
Portsmouth bound.
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