Here's another photo of a flushing team in action. While not the most pleasant of tasks, sometimes the spray of water helped alleviate the oppressive heat and humidity. Most days I was on the line I'd end up soaked in sweat so rain was refreshing. This water though, is swamp water so not the most pleasant stuff.
It looks as though the seal in the swivel has failed in this setup. Either that or there's a bad fit between the swivel and the flushing tube. It could be that the bottom of the pipe is blocked or constricted, raising the pressure in the system.
Primitive though the technology was, there wasn't a great deal to go wrong. Most of the problems were either with over-sized debris entering the pump chamber or with the Briggs and Stratton engines on the pumps. On this side the only thing you had to ensure was that you could keep the pipe turning. If it ever got stuck then more of the crew might have to get involved with more pipe wrenches to increase the available torque, but we didn't have to worry about broken gear boxes or worn out mud-pump valves which were sometimes a problem in Libya.
The key to preventing the pipe from sticking was to keep it turning so that meant being diligent when adding additional flushing tubes to get to greater depths since the crew had to stop pumping water, disconnect the swivel, attach the swivel to the top of the new section of pipe then connect that pipe to the one already down the hole before starting to pump water once more!
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