Endorsements to your certificate of competency

[Tony Taylor]

Des I worked for John I. Jacobs one of the oldest privately owned tanker company’s going others reckoned . NZ in the early 70s brought back many happy memory’s of the 50s. Cheers JS

You reminded me of Wellington in 75, cheap draught Bass, cheap grub and everyone seemed to be driving 50's cars like Morris Minors

[Tony Taylor]

To sail on an oil tanker you need an endorsement to your C.O.C stating you are qualified to do so.
So I wonder if there are anyone sailing these days who doesn't have one or more of these endorsements in the back of their certificate.
Rgds
J.A.

Between 07 and 13 I travelled regularly on the ferry between the Tyne and Ijmuiden, on arrival at Ijmuiden or Tyne there was no evidence of anyone attempting crowd control, the disembarkation area was always gridlocked.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Tony.
When we lived in NZ in the late 50s to early 70s you had to have money in a foreign bank if you wanted to buy a brand new car in NZ, we only had second hand cars from the 50s era.
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Des I did hear that farming vehicles were allowed in and there were many who used a tractor to move around.
Recall a family friend who worked for Morris telling us about second hand ones being sent to NZ.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

JOhn.
Farmers made money out of the scheme, most had money overseas, they would buy a new car, couldn't sell it for twelve months, but when they did, sold it for more than they paid.
Des

[Julian Calvin]

Ended up two years ago inspecting vessels off Nigeria.
Asked one Master “who has a steering ticket onboard”. He didn’t know.
As there was no traditional wheel, what is the requirement nowadays? Is there such a thing as a “steering ticket”.

[j.sabourn]

By what I gather I would of been entitled to one the very first week of my going to sea. Gave plenty out as seemed to be the first ambition of every deck boy and had to have 10 hours or something on the wheel. Never had one myself and never missed it and it was never asked for. I spent nearly 25 years in the offshore industry on most ships imagined and can never remember a seaman on the wheel , apart from the converted fishing vessels in hand steering all the time , when one of the seaman would come on the bridge and offer to relieve you when on transit. I had no hesitation on handing the bridge as well as the steering over to him ,asking to sight a piece of paper never even entered my mind. This was of course to people I knew , when you are 6 hours on and 6 hours off apart from other duties , you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth . Cheers JS

[happy daze john in oz]

All they have now is a joy stick.
No need to know very much as it is all done by computer now and all the 'helmsman' does is stare at a screen all day.

[j.sabourn]

It’s not as easy as all that John. On a seismic ship you sit in a big padded leather chair and the officer of the watch does the steering on an automatic steering device and the course has to be within Half a degree , you could be continually adjusting the computer for offsets due to leeway set and drift and speed which had to be constant at 4 knots . If there was too much error on your estimations and had to be done over again , you would soon become too expensive to keep. When your towing over a mile of 6 different cables and making explosive noise in the water every minute or so, plus all the sonar readings , how much do you think all that costs each run you do . Cheers JS

[Julian Calvin]

My point is that, as far as I am aware, part of the required competency for a deck rating ticket under STCW ll/4 ( if anyone understands it) is to be a qualified helmsman. Yet no one seems to check on this nowadays.