1992: Starting with the Second Generation of Shipowners

Chapter 77 The Inspection Team Arrives

The day the inspection team arrived, Moon Island was swept by a strong wind all night. After dawn, the wind stopped, and the sea was as flat as a gray-blue cloth.

Old Fang arrived at the service station half an hour earlier than usual and wiped the three wooden signs again and again.

After striking the match, I squatted down at the workshop entrance and lit it. The first match didn't light, but the second one did. I quickly cupped my hand around the flame to light the cigarette.

A few more beads of blood oozed from the cut on his finger this morning. He glanced at it, wiped it on his trouser leg, and continued to suck.

The kitchen light was on; Lin Xiu'e had gotten up earlier than usual.

She polished the stove until it shone, scrubbed the iron pot with a steel wool pad, and scraped off a thick layer of black ash from the bottom of the pot.

The pots of tung oil putty on the windowsill were wiped with damp cloth again, and the dishes and chopsticks in the cabinet against the wall were recounted.

She took out several new enamel mugs from the cupboard, which she had bought from the town's supply and marketing cooperative a few days ago, specifically for the inspection team.

She thought for a moment and then added a few more pieces of firewood to the stove.

Jiang Haiping walked out of the dormitory, carrying a jar of boiling water. He squatted down at the workshop entrance and laid out the refurbished water pump registration book, the old parts source nameplate filing form, the provincial qualification approval documents, and the pilot unit certificate one by one on the worktable.

Each document was wrapped in plastic, with the edges neatly trimmed.

The metal nameplate was also brought out; it was the one Ding Haifeng had handed over to Hong Xiaobing. The words "Moon Island Renovation" were crookedly typed on it, the edges were chipped, and it was covered in green rust.

Jiang Haiping placed it next to the registration book, side by side with the new aluminum nameplate. One was fake and the other was real; it was easy to tell without explanation.

Old Fang stubbed out his cigarette on the sole of his shoe, stood up, walked to the entrance of the courtyard wall, and glanced towards the seawall.

In the distance, Wang Cunzhi's motorcycle sputtered along the seawall, with a man in a gray Zhongshan suit sitting on the back seat and a black briefcase in the truck bed.

At the pier, the ferry was slowly approaching the shore. Several people carrying tool bags disembarked and stood on the pier, looking towards the service station.

The inspection team has arrived.

Wang Cunzhi's motorcycle arrived first.

He parked his car at the gate of the yard, took the black briefcase out of the truck bed, and introduced himself as Director Sun of the County Fisheries Bureau, who had personally brought the inspection team here today.

Director Sun was wearing a faded gray cloth Zhongshan suit and black cloth shoes with mud on the uppers, which he had picked up at the dock.

He stood at the gate of the courtyard and looked at the three wooden signs. Then he looked into the courtyard for a while and said that when he came here a few years ago, this place was called a ship repair shop. Now it is more impressive than some of the formal repair stations in the county.

The people who disembarked from the ferry have also arrived.

The team leader was Engineer Zhou from the Provincial Ship Inspection Bureau, an acquaintance of mine. He was the one who led the team last time to review the inheritors of the traditional needlework technique.

Following behind was a newly transferred technical cadre from the Fisheries Department, surnamed Zheng, who wore glasses and carried a black imitation leather bag with the zipper pull worn away.

Behind Zheng, the cadre, was a woman in her early forties named Wu, who was the intangible cultural heritage protection specialist from the Provincial Bureau of Culture. She was holding a list of inheritors.

Old Fang went up to Zhou and offered him a cigarette, but Zhou waved his hand and said he wouldn't smoke anymore; he had quit smoking last time when Master Qiu was reviewing the sewing.

Old Fang said it was good that he quit, and put the cigarette back in his pocket.

The inspection process is clearly stated in the notice: verification of the refurbished parts register, tracing the source of the old parts, on-site random inspection of finished products, and review of the inheritor's file.

Director Sun stood at the workshop entrance and repeated the procedures again, saying that this inspection would not be a mere formality and that the inspection team wanted to see the real stuff.

Every number in the register must match, the origin of every old part must be traceable, and the signature of the person verifying the refurbished water pump and the warranty follow-up record must correspond one by one.

Jiang Haiping led the inspection team members to the work table and laid out the registration book and nameplates in a row.

Engineer Zhou picked up the registration books and flipped through them from beginning to end. He then picked up the metal nameplate, held it up to the light, examined the rust on the back, and put it back on the worktable. He said that this was the metal nameplate used by the counterfeit water pumps from Hongjia Island.

Jiang Haiping agreed, saying that the characters on every nameplate were crooked and there was no signature of the verifier. Every water pump refurbished by the service station had an aluminum sheet nameplate.

It includes the refurbishment date, old part number, warranty expiration date, and the verifier's signature.

Each item bears the buyer's signature or fingerprint, and the old item origin registration form and nameplate number filing form can be matched one by one.

Engineer Zhou nodded and asked Cadre Zheng to check the records in the register against the actual items in the old parts warehouse.

Ah Guang opened the door to the used parts warehouse, and the used parts on the shelves were neatly arranged according to their numbers.

The earliest pages in the register show the first water pump that was refurbished when the service station first started doing refurbishment work.

The page was worn and frayed from being turned so many times, but the model number and the date of the follow-up visit were still clearly visible.

Zheng, the cadre, stood in front of the shelf, took out the registration book, and matched the old items with their numbers one by one.

A-Guang followed beside him, answering Zheng's questions one by one: how to assign numbers, how to record specifications, who signs for the items received, and who verifies the items when they are returned.

After flipping through the entire book, Zheng randomly selected a few orders from the refurbished parts sales records and asked A-Guang if he could still contact these buyers.

Ah Guang said that all the after-sales service follow-up records are in the file folder, and the most recent one is from last month when Lao Chen brought in the oil filter for repair.

At that time, Old Chen casually mentioned that the refurbished water pump on his brother-in-law's boat had been running for a year and a half without leaking at all.

Qiu Changhai sat on a stone stool by the stone trough, twirling a walnut in his hand.

Engineer Zhou walked to the stone trough and stood there, staring at Old Sun's sampan for a long time.

Lin Xiu'e was squatting by the sampan, sewing the hemp fibers evenly and smoothing out the tung oil putty.

Commissioner Wu opened the list of inheritors, checked the names of the fourth and fifth generations on the genealogy chart, and asked Lin Xiu'e to show her the training boards and assessment records of the apprentices she had trained.

Lin Xiu'e moved the provincial competition training boards out of the old parts warehouse, arranged them one by one, and then showed Commissioner Wu the basic training records of Hong Xiaobing and Jiang Haibo on twisting.

After watching from the side, Engineer Zhou said that during the last review, Xiao Lin's blunt chisel was not sharp enough, but now he can control the arc of his wrist when chiseling grooves.

When the list of inheritors was being verified, Zhou Gong examined Qiu Changhai's technical grade certificate for a long time. He also checked the inheritor recognition document issued by the Provincial Bureau of Culture at the beginning of the year and said that both the certificate and the document were valid.

Director Sun, standing to the side, interjected, saying that Master Qiu's current technical level is assessed according to the standards for senior technicians, and the approval document is already on the wall.

Qiu Changhai slowly stood up from the stone pier, walked into the shed, and took out the certificate of recognition for the inheritor from the innermost layer of his tool bag.

The approval document was still wrapped in plastic. He would take out that red-headed document, which had been folded several times, and look at it every morning before he went to the stone trough to suture the seams.

On-site sampling inspections of finished products were conducted at the dock.

Engineer Zhou randomly selected three fishing boats that had been repaired and were ready to be launched: one was Old Sun's sampan, one was a transport boat from the aquatic products company, and the other was an old fishing boat that Hong Xiaobing's third uncle had towed over a few days ago to replace the hull.

The three ships were inspected again in turn, including the caulking of the bottom plates, the testing of the diesel engines, and the sealing of the water pumps.

The hull plating of the aquatic products company's boat was welded by Ding Haisheng and A Guang. The fish scale pattern on the vertical and horizontal seams was even and smooth, and the three data points on the weld inspection scale were all within the provincial competition standard tolerance.

After the old fishing boat was launched that day, it ran a full lap, and the water temperature and oil pressure were all normal. The maintenance stamp of the service station was finally added to the boat owner's registration certificate.

Director Sun squatted on the dock and watched the entire test run. He stood up, rubbed his numb legs, and said that fishing boat repair is ultimately a matter of conscience. The service station has repaired so many boats in the past few years, and not a single one has been returned for repair. This record is more convincing than any report.

The inspection team spent most of the day at the service station.

Before leaving, Engineer Zhou put the copy of the registration book and the sample of the metal nameplate into his black briefcase. He said that Moon Island was the first place in the province to have a complete registration format for the refurbished parts ledger and a signature system for the nameplate verifier. When the province promotes the standardization, he wants to take a picture of the service station's registration book format as a sample.

Jiang Haiping escorted the inspection team to the ferry terminal. Standing on the seawall, he watched the ferry slowly sail away. The sea breeze stirred up the broken waves along the stone trough, which crashed onto the rocks and broke into white foam.

He turned and walked back to the workshop, locking the register in a drawer.

In the service station courtyard, A-Guang had already compared and filed the verification personnel and new nameplates for the refurbished water pumps one by one, while Lin Xiu-E took out the packets of brown sugar from the kitchen and put them away again.

The waves lapped against the stone trough, and the service station would continue repairing the boat tomorrow.