Many years ago during my relatively short career moonlighting as an oilfield diver, I was on a salvage job off the North West coast of Western Australia. While operating in shallow water, a 2,500 ton support vessel managed to strike an abandoned oil well. The well head pierced the hull of the ship and opened it up like a sardine can. She steamed no further and sank to the bottom.

This was my first marine salvage job. And it was fairly major. A derrick barge was brought down from Singapore to lift the stricken vessel off the well head. The dive crew I was part of was subcontracted to the salvage company. And the salvage company had two representatives on site. Although I didn’t know it at the outset, one of these guys was the Salvage Master; an ocean-going captain with umpteen years’ experience. And the other was the Salvage Engineer; an ocean-going marine (Chief) engineer also with umpteen years’ experience. But I didn’t figure this out, or have it explained to me, until much later in proceedings.

The morning of the first day as we’re preparing to start diving operations, the Salvage Engineer is alongside our diving vessel in an inflatable. And try as he might, he can’t get the outboard motor started. The diving superintendent, a hard-as-nails, ex-special forces Vietnam veteran knows I’m mechanically trained. So he signals to me to go get that outboard motor running.

So I grab a tool bag and climb down into the inflatable. And without having a clue about who I’m dealing with, I start giving the Salvage Engineer a lesson on gasoline engine troubleshooting (in a friendly way). “Compression; fuel; spark”, goes my commentary. A pull on the starter cord confirms compression. So I remove the spark plug and it’s wet with fuel. “That leaves spark”, I say out loud and quickly confirm we don’t have any. For his part the Salvage Engineer appears quite happy for me to take the lead. Probably because 10,000 horsepower Sulzer Diesels are more his thing anyway.

Zeroing in on the fact that there’s no spark, I quickly establish the kill-switch is faulty. With the kill-switch bypassed, the outboard starts first pull. The Salvage Engineer seems pleased. My superintendent is satisfied (happy is not an emotion he’s familiar with). And having passed my first ‘test’ I get to go blow bubbles.

Couple of points about this story: Had I known at the time I was helping a Chief Engineer who has forgotten more about engines than I’ll ever know, I probably would have deferred to him. With the result it may have taken a LONG time to get that outboard started. Much longer than it should have anyway. With my diving superintendent going thermo-nuclear in the process.

And the other thing is, I’ve always been good at identifying and zeroing in on PRINCIPLES. Compression, fuel, spark is not one I can take credit for defining. But it came to me instinctively when I needed it under pressure. And when it comes to hydraulic maintenance, hydraulic troubleshooting and the decoding of complex hydraulic controls, there are many principles I can take credit for defining and popularizing. And just like compression, fuel, spark, they are empowering. So be sure to know and use them for YOUR advantage.