As to starting the engine, I recall firing it up with a light diesel and then switching over to some seriously thick, molassas-like oil. Sorry to be so technically inept here, but I had very little opportunity to get into the thing while on board...just a couple months as a relief.
This was the Gus W. Darnell and we were running JP-5 out of the Persian Gulf during the "Tanker Wars" which were an extension of the Iran-Iraq war as I recall. This was the time when Iran was regularly blowing ships up in the Straights of Hormuz with silkworm missiles. The US was putting a captain and chief mate on some Kuwaiti ships and escorting them through. It was an interesting time to be sailing there. We were an American ship, American crew and carrying JP-5 for US to US bases in Diego Garcia and Japan. We had to literally BEG for escorts and the only escort we ever actually got on my stint was when we joined up with a convoy for some Kuwaiti tankers. What a show of force! Beautiful to be in the middle of it all. Too bad the rest of the time we were on our own. Well, that was a long time ago. Yep, that picture sure brought back some memories. Glad I don't have to clean that thing any more!