One result of unrestricted tank-cleaning was that if you sat on the beach at Brighton or Hastings you usually got sticky, black "tar" on your trousers

Thanks for the info....Much appreciated.
As for cleaning tanks en-route to the grain port.......as Calant says, a lot of of the dirty stuff just had to be jettisoned overboard...no wonder it was eventually seen for what it was: "Not a very good idea"!
Not a job I would like to undertake either. But explains why some tankers had larger than average crew numbers than, say, tankers that stuck to transporting only oil.
This photo was taken 5 years before I went to sea...which is why I found it interesting, not having come across the practice.

Thanks again & Cheers.

The practice was quite common. The tanks had, of course, to be thoroughly cleaned before loading grain and usually cleaning would be carried out during a long voyage to the grain loading port

Never worked on tankers either, but heard the
stories from the mates & engineers.
Butterworth high pressure washing, check:
www.butterworth.com

Don't forget, in the old days the dirty stuff
went simply overboard, period.

According to my info, those oiltanks were
perfectly clean after the process of hot water
and finally steam washing...Otherwise they would
not pass the loading survey in port.
Hope this helps?
Rgds,
Capt.Bill

I don't know , I am not an expert in this matter.

cheers

Adenanthos: How on earth did they manage to get the tanks clean enough for grain?
Or was a high percentage of "spoiled grain" acceptable? This was not the OBO era, dirty Oil, dirty Ore etc.
A tanker for spirits: Less of a problem I guess....but other liquid cargoes, like lube oil etc....?

Many tankers were in the grain trade in those years