Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Aug 2008
- Posts
- 4,255
- Location
- North Sea
I'm currently an engineering officer cadet in the Merchant Navy, working on UK flagged vessels for a Norwegian shipping company. Our working hours are dictated by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency, that state at maximum we can work 14 hours in one 24 hour period. The 8 hours rest can be broken up, but we have to have at least one 6 hour period for sleep, meaning they can dictate when you take your remaining 2 hours.
However, that's the rules as laid down by the authorities, the shipping line themselves are much more laid back, meaning my normal routine was 8am - 5pm with 15 minute coffee breaks (that would often stretch to half an hour) at 10am and 3pm and an hour's lunch at midday. I'd also do night rounds every other night, alternating with another cadet onboard. You'd go down to the engine room at 10pm and visually check everything over for the likes of leaks, smoke, cracks etc. then check temps, tank, sump and bilge levels and so forth, then record the parameters in the logbook. It'd take about an hour to an hour and a half usually.
It was give and take though. At one point I was working 17 hours in a 24 hour period, as we'd taken on badly contaminated heavy fuel oil in Singapore, and as a result the two centrifugal heavy fuel oil separators kept taking it in turns to clog up and break down Mid-Indian Ocean, in Monsoon season. We'd only run one at a time using the other as a backup, thus one would clog up, so we'd shut it down and fire up the back up, then we'd strip down the clogged one, clear it, reassemble it, test it and put it back on standby as the back up, only to find the other would clog shortly thereafter, meaning we'd have to repeat the whole exercise over and over. Now that was a ballache when you consider it was 45C in the purifier room, and 100% humidity thanks to the engine room fanhouses on deck drawing in ambient air from outside and forcing it into the engine room to supply the main engine turbochargers with air.
However, that's the rules as laid down by the authorities, the shipping line themselves are much more laid back, meaning my normal routine was 8am - 5pm with 15 minute coffee breaks (that would often stretch to half an hour) at 10am and 3pm and an hour's lunch at midday. I'd also do night rounds every other night, alternating with another cadet onboard. You'd go down to the engine room at 10pm and visually check everything over for the likes of leaks, smoke, cracks etc. then check temps, tank, sump and bilge levels and so forth, then record the parameters in the logbook. It'd take about an hour to an hour and a half usually.
It was give and take though. At one point I was working 17 hours in a 24 hour period, as we'd taken on badly contaminated heavy fuel oil in Singapore, and as a result the two centrifugal heavy fuel oil separators kept taking it in turns to clog up and break down Mid-Indian Ocean, in Monsoon season. We'd only run one at a time using the other as a backup, thus one would clog up, so we'd shut it down and fire up the back up, then we'd strip down the clogged one, clear it, reassemble it, test it and put it back on standby as the back up, only to find the other would clog shortly thereafter, meaning we'd have to repeat the whole exercise over and over. Now that was a ballache when you consider it was 45C in the purifier room, and 100% humidity thanks to the engine room fanhouses on deck drawing in ambient air from outside and forcing it into the engine room to supply the main engine turbochargers with air.
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