Monday 19 April 2010

Behind the scenes (I)

Of course, of course - after a long time being on the road in order to get to Oslo and FRAM, one has every right to be tired. So this sea day was a calm one, relaxing and no current need for action. Let's benefit from this opportunity to sneak into those places you normally would not be aware of on this elegant, shiny ship. The places that are vital for the life on board. Find a little collage below of the following rooms: Top left - the "car" deck. It is only named like this because in the very, very beginning FRAM was conceived to take on cars for short ferry rides. Now we store everything here, from Polar Cirkel boats to fresh deliveries to oil spill rafts to rubber boots. It is a big space, sometimes even not big enough. Top right - the electrician's workshop. Any idea how many devices work on electrical power in this ship? It is a frightening number. And one single man is supposed to keep all these running and in shape. A hell of a job, because it does not only involve running around the ship to fix things, but also to take apart and analyze in the small but well-equipped repair shop on deck 2. Bottom left - the incinerator room. That's right, we have a whole compartment where garbage gets processed. Paper, wood and cardboard gets burned in a closed system, every thing else is being sorted and - by the means of heavy hydraulic pistons - compressed to a storable size, until we leave it in the next port. Bottom right - the laundry. In fact, there are several of them on board, this is only the crew's laundry, where we do our shirts and uniforms and stuff ourselves. Sometimes it takes a bit of timing, since 70 crew members and 6-8 staff are all using the same machines.
There is way more to see, strange storages, like for instance the chocolate room, the prison (no inmates at the moment…) or the broadcasting center, providing the whole vessel with data, music and time. It is not the Queen Mary, but still a big ship. Next sea day we will take you down to the lowest of all decks - to the engine room. Stay tuned!