Courtesy Photo | USNS Trenton (T-EPF 5) crew members perform maintenance during a regular overhaul...... read more read more
RIJEKA, Croatia -- The day began just like every other day in Rijeka, Croatia. Shipyard workers, equipment specialists and crews were waking up, getting dressed and arriving at Viktor Lenac Shipyard to work on USNS Trenton (T-EPF 5) during its regular overhaul period.
Phones began ringing and emails started chiming in across the shipyard mandating United States-based personnel to return home.
Within minutes, everything changed.
A travel ban from the United States to Europe had just been announced and companies were recalling their workers from abroad. As travel restrictions were declared, local airports began rapidly closing, inter-city travel was restricted and borders were closed.
“It seemed so surreal,” said Electrical Engineer Ingrid Agner-DeBord. “It was like we were hearing parts from a horror movie.”
Work had to continue
As the dust began to settle, Original Equipment Manufacturers, or OEMs, had been recalled home or not allowed to travel abroad.
Routine periodic maintenance on specialized equipment is done with assistance from OEMs on shipboard gear like diesel generators, propulsion engines, jet drive and automation.
“Some of them were mid-installation, some were about to start and some hadn’t even come yet,” said Port Engineer Daniel Escobar. “We were left scrambling to either use ships force or in-country expertise where we could find them to get the job done.”
With the OEMs gone and some of the equipment pulled apart, the team put their heads together to figure out the best way to complete the work and find innovative solutions to continue the overhaul.
“People on-site still had to go in, we were all wearing masks and gloves and practiced social distancing” said Principal Port Engineer Wayne Lefebvre. “The work still had to continue, we just had to mitigate it the best we could.”
Based on notifications from the U.S. Embassy, stateside-based MSC personnel were faced with a difficult decision: head back stateside or potentially remain on station for an indefinite period. Lefebvre and Agner-DeBord made tough the decision to return to their home stations, which left Escobar and Assistant Port Engineer James Bullington to complete the project.
“I had previous overhaul experience and was more local to the area command,” said Escobar, “so I was asked to step up and finish.”
Picking their battles
Trenton’s automation system was partly installed with the main engines unable to be started when the travel ban was announced. With unpredictable timelines and a lack of resources, the team reached out to the ship’s manufacturer, Austal USA, to request drawings to complete the install and asked Viktor Lenac Shipyard if a local electrical subcontractor would be able to complete the work.
The drawings were given to the subcontractor, along with the tools and boxes left onboard, while the team researched which portions of the systems had been modified. Engineers worked with the MSC Contract Department and Fleet Logistics Center Naples, Italy, to make change orders with the shipyard to complete the install.
The next hurdle was reassembling the generators. With the generators pulled apart, Chief Engineer Galen Gouzoulis began to reassemble them with ship’s force.
Gouzoulis had arrived during the overhaul and was onboard only a few weeks before the ban started. With electronic diagrams from the technical manuals, the ship’s management team went to work to complete the project.
“We were running a race where the finish line was only slightly slower than you,” said Gouzoulis. “We had to pick and choose our battles to get everything done.”
While the shipboard engineering team was working on the generators, the team asked around the shipyard for assistance. They were able to find a local diesel shop that was familiar with the type of generators on Trenton, which assisted in putting them back together.
Second Assistant Engineer Kyle Wagener, Third Assistant Engineer Edward Munch and Assistant Port Engineer James Bullington worked for five days with the local contractors to clean up all the parts and lay them out in the spaces below the generator rooms.
“Ship’s force set up everything according to the technical manuals,” said Gouzoulis. “We approached it like building a model on a desk.”
Once the generators were reassembled and testing started, the team found additional problems. One hurdle was replacing three salt water booster pump mechanical seals, which was replaced with ship’s force, allowing them to have four operational generators 48 hours after the initial pre-startup checks.
“It was brutal 12-hour days,” said Gouzoulis, “but we got through it.”
The next obstacle was testing the four main engines. Once international travel halted, the OEMs for MTU America were not able to make it out to complete the system testing.
The team went back to the shipyard and MTU America and asked if they had any technicians nearby. Ship’s force performed periodic maintenance and the local authorized representative was available to systems testing.
“We found out there is a lot more talent out there than we probably thought,” said Lefebvre. “This was the first time I have had to find a local contractor for critical systems OEM-related, in accordance with our SMS procedures, and collectively make an evaluation with our senior engineering team to find a company sufficiently qualified.”
Thinking outside of the box
Despite ongoing challenges, crewmembers were finding innovative solutions to complete the overhaul.
The Navy and MSC have one specialist to repair ships’ gyrocompasses, which is a specialized non-magnetic compass used for navigation at sea. Trenton’s Chief Engineer and Navigator used video chat to call the specialist, which walked them through the necessary steps to complete the maintenance.
The ship’s fire pump logic, which controls the onboard fire main system, also needed to be repaired. The crew emailed photos of the local operating panels to the OEMs for distance support.
“It was a pretty easy fix once we were able to describe it,” said Lefebvre. “Austal was very supportive. They helped us at every turn with distance support or any question we had to help give the Chief Engineer the right answers.”
A massive undertaking
Completing work in a new way was only one challenge the crew had to overcome; another was replacing a significant portion of Trenton’s hull.
“We had to replace approximately 40% of the aluminum on the inner hulls,” said Capt. Susan Orsini, Master of Trenton. “This is the greatest quantity to be replaced, it was a massive undertaking.”
To complete the replacement, the engine rooms and adjoining machinery spaces were stripped of most of the essential equipment, including electrical distribution systems, assorted cables and air systems that interfered with the job.
Trenton’s hull was replaced with uncut raw aluminum stock plating instead of using preformed plates. According to Orsini, Trenton had settled over time and preformed plates may not have worked correctly.
“The skill level of the welders had to be certified at the highest levels.” said Orsini, “Welding aluminum is not easy.”
The shipyard had certified welders for the job and was able to meet this challenge and complete the repairs.
Amazing amount of dedication
Trenton completed its overhaul, dock trials and sea trials and was underway by mid-May.
“Trenton, its crew and the engineering team serves as an inspiration to MSC and the entire U.S. Navy,” said Commodore, Military Sealift Command Europe and Africa and Commander, Task Force 63 Capt. Frank Okata. “Their perseverance has made Trenton’s return to service a reality.”
In all, the work was completed by ships force, the shipyard, local companies and support staff during Trenton’s maintenance period through distance support and innovative solutions.
“We got tremendous support at every turn,” said Lefebvre. “If we had to be somewhere when this happened, this was about as good of a place as it could be.”
Lefebvre said that it took next-level coordination and teamwork between MSC, OEMs and Viktor Lenac Shipyard’s workers to achieve this milestone.
“The key word is teamwork,” said Agner-DeBord. “We had a highly skilled set of people on this team. They really pulled together and displayed an extreme amount of perseverance, both to the ship and to MSC.”
Altogether, the team overcame multiple challenges, setbacks and personnel shortages during Trenton’s months-long overhaul period.
“Necessity is the mother of invention,” said Orsini. “Given the opportunity, people can really knock your socks off with how good they really are at what they do.”
| Date Taken: | 06.01.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 07.30.2020 10:11 |
| Story ID: | 374881 |
| Location: | RIJEKA, HR |
| Web Views: | 539 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Overcoming All Odds: USNS Trenton Sails on Despite Global Pandemic, by LT Travis Weger, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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