Isabelle, the master actually remained with the vessel for another 13 years! (Died in Tasmania in 2001)
Investigation revealed that when the ship was built in Dundee, the propeller manufacturer sent up the hub, shafting & blades to be installed at the required schedule time. The manufacturer knew that the blade seal landings on two of the blades were porous, and they intended to replace the blades with two new items before launching.
When the blades were ready a technician was sent up to change out the two defective blades. He removed these, and fitted the two new blades, then bolted the hub halves back together with the special-material 'unbreakable' bolts. (You have all heard of 'Unbeakable Bolts' before I assume). Unfortunately, he set the torque multi-plyer incorrectly, and instead of tightening each bolt to 4,745 ft lbs, the loading applied was far higher. This over-torqueing of the bolts eventuated in the bolt heads breaking off 4 of the 8 large 'Unbreakable' bolts.
When checked in August 1980 at the guarantee all appeared ok. But it was the bolt head failures that eventually led to the blade snapping off. When we dismantled the hub, crack testing revealed the other three blades were also cracked and about to break off too!
Also, once all the broken bits were flown back to UK, Lloyd's Register of Shipping also carried out metallurgy & stress tests on the remnants & re-examined the design. Once they determined the propeller design was defective a message was sent to all ships installed with SMM 'Seffle' design CP propellers, and many others were found with cracked blades as well (including a twin-screw naval vessel here in NZ)! So it wasn't the master's fault - he was being very prudent in testing the prop before we arrived in enclosed waters.
Photos below show other cracked blades. The shaft was ok, but the ship was laid up in NZ for 6 months awaiting a new prop. They bolted a plate across the empty stern tube (the bearings had been jacked out & also sent back to the UK for testing & re-metalling), scrubbed & painted the hull, then dropped us back in the water.
It was really tough - we (5 of us from each swing - everyone else was made redundant) lived in the St George Hotel in the city centre and just wandered down to the wharf each day.
I best not tell any of the stories of what happened while we stayed there!
Skilly
