Endorsements to your certificate of competency

[j.sabourn]

Can’t remember the exact wording and your attached thumbnails can’t make out, but what I remember it just stated that the named person had received so many hours including tuition as necessary on steering the vessel . A signature and the ships stamp was the only thing that made it official .JS
Don’t know your experience on steering vessels Julian, but most people immediately think of a wheel and a rudder. This is not the case today. Some ships have no rudders you steer by directional propellor thrusts. Or Thrusters as they are commonly known. Then can go on your next ship and be on a ship as you probably know as a conventional type. When I said in a couple of posts ago said we were doing 6 on and 6 off , this was 6 hours continuous steering in one go.As these vessels were ex fishing vessels and were steering in some cases on a magnetic compass. But that was not too common thank goodness. And fishing trawlers I found much easier to steer than other vessels as would hold their heading for much longer and could leave the wheel and go and look out the window if you thought there was something ahead and then go back on the wheel and she would not have fallen off too much. These were the only ships offshore that I ever saw a seaman on the wheel. JS
As to previous statement on a seismic ship was lucky as had 2 mates. and I did the 8/12. Alongside the steering chair for your 4 hour stint was a radar monitor to watch for Shipping and your GPS showing your track and continuous updating , and your VHF radio where you were putting out every 3 or 4 minutes your Securitay calls to other ships warning all ships in the area to give you a wide berth , quite often it was necessary to set off flares for some who took no heed . There are a lot of stupid people these days at sea. If they had got entangled with all those towing cables they would have soon learned the error of their ways . Cheers JS

[Julian Calvin]

Tks your reply.
My comment is particularly aimed at STCW.
Why have regulations which are not enforced.
Ie vessels must have a visual means for taking visual bearings. (We had gyro wing repeaters on all vessels I sailed on)
On totally enclosed bridges these are rarely to be seen and yet is an official requirement.
Back to steering. On many new offshore vessels the Master only permits the OOW to steer vessel when not on automatic.

[j.sabourn]

Julian a lot of the time some of these regulations are a sham . I can quote you a few as regards offshore vessels in particular stand by safety vessels , the most crew on these vessels that I ever saw was 9 , that is skipper, mate, ch. eng., 2nd.engineer , cook and 4 seamen. The 4 seamen are there supposed to be under 35 years of age due to the wear and tear of the back of the person when the boat was hitting the water hard at full throttle . Most of the boats crews I sailed with were usually in their 50s some ships were certificated to carry 300 survivors , what about this crowd control recently mentioned by 2 men if your lucky. I could go on and on about how so called regulations are bent to suit any vessel . It’s just talk like the pollies talk .The people who sail the ships make the rules to suit the ship otherwise the ship would never leave the port . I used the regs on it’s self by promoting a leading hand to Bosn/ second mate a few times to ease the stress on the lack of manpower and never heard a murmer of complaint from anyone. A steering certificate is the least of the problems at sea today. As you say how does one on an enclosed bridge manage to navigate by the stars or compass bearings let alone see what’s overtaking you , unless you hold the blue Riband. I should have said the crew of the ship were the FRC crew the main reason the vessel was there, as soon as the boat left the ship you had lost all the seamen on the ship, if lucky and you managed to grab one before he also jumped in boat as well. Cheers JS

I made it well known my views on the manning of these vessels after an accident in the North Sea , and the chairman of the enquiry put it in his observations which should be accepted to have 12 and 1 provisional learner a total of 13 . I received a phone call to rejoin a vessel a few weeks after this judgement , and when asked for a crew list was informed there were 8 total , which included 1 seaman he called a bosun , a bosun of what was my query. I resigned over the phone . The ship still went to sea with someone else, the chief engineer was a friend of mine and when saw him days later at home asked him what he was doing there he told me they had had an ER fire.
He set the halon system off put out the fire and they limped back into Shetland on 1 engine , was told by the company if he accepted the blame they would give him a good reference for his next job. The actual fire was caused because they wouldn’t pay for a road tanker to pump out the engine room bilges. JS

[Julian Calvin]

Had similar experiences with the IOCs. (International Oil Companies)
When they wanted to delay a charter, every minor fault was reported and their official requirements were very strict.
That is until an export cargo or production could be delayed. Then the rule book was out of the window.

[happy daze john in oz]

John, you are correct about the thrusters and other means of steering.

Side thrusters are fine as long as the correct one is used at any time.
On one cruise ship leaving port from Napier, something very wrong as instead of moving away after the lines had ben cut we continued towards the quay.
Apparently one bright spark on the wing bridge did not do their job correctly.

[j.sabourn]

Maybe he had the magic box hanging around his neck the wrong way round. ? JS

Most of us still think of the era we came up in with a ships lifeboat with one single banked complement of oars , 2 spare oars and a steering oar, and one and a half sets of crutches . Now that’s given an opening for Graham to give a lecture on different types of crutches. As regards those great big tower blocks floating around I think if the engineers went on strike they would all be at a loss. The old single screw , single plate rudder with a turning circle of at least a mile would be no competition for today’s vessels . Even the passenger ships lifeboats were sometimes more refined with an upright lever to work back and forwards to work a propellor ( just like my mams old washing machine) none of this heave away lads stuff. That was the start of modernisation . JS

[Graham Shaw]

Maybe he had the magic box hanging around his neck the wrong way round. ? JS

Most of us still think of the era we came up in with a ships lifeboat with one single banked complement of oars , 2 spare oars and a steering oar, and one and a half sets of crutches . Now that’s given an opening for Graham to give a lecture on different types of crutches. JS

Hm.That depends upon whether Graham has his seaman's cap or his wordsmith hat on.

I would certainly say there are far more seamen into crutches than I ever was,or on crutches if they happened to have a good punch up ashore and came back hobbling on a pair. My dealing with oars (no,NOT that other spelling ) was at the local boating lake as a lad,or lowering the non-motor lifeboat and taking it for an exhausting trip around the harbour and trying to avoid each bank of oars pulling in different directions when trying to get out of the way of a passing tug's wash.There is of course a definite knack to successful rowing (Once again,the wordsmith kicks in and rowing in this case does not refer to having an argument with one's partner ).Unless you are a bowsman coxwain I always think how terribly rude it is for the oarsmen to turn their backs on you,and with the size of some of those bug**rs they can make it very difficult to see where you want the boat to go.
I'll leave 'strokes' and bows'out of it-we're none of us fit enough now to enter the Putney to Mortlake race, and comment then on what you might be referring to as hand-propelled lifeboats with levers,known technically as Fleming propulsion gear,although what the inventor of penicillin has to do with lifeboat propulsion mechanisms needs to be researched more,but how very versatile of him!
I suppose a lifeboat that has lost all it's crutches might be deemed crutchless? Moving on- that brings us to rowlocks- yes,it is pronounced 'rollocks' and if you have 4 a side then you can truly say "What a load o' rowlocks !"

[Des Taff Jenkins]

I started in 49 and can't ever remember getting a steering ticket, unless as I have said before I got one at the Vindicatrix on the launch.
As for the Fleming gear in the lifeboats, we had them on the Wave Baron, and the lifeboats also had a steel shutter that slid over the top to avoid oil fires, but I would sooner try and scull it than pull on those handles.
Des

[j.sabourn]

#27 I think the title of this post Graham should maybe of been Certificates of Complacency. Think the new ones at least should have that printers error on . Maybe some eager beaver of a news reporter may see this and the next maritime disaster call it that . The same as the one ex Suez calamity who didn’t know his tankers from his container ships. Or his ear from his elbow. Knew you would handle the crutches very well. Bet you could have tossed ( Navy style) the two boat hooks ( not mentioned) equally as well . Cheers JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Fleming gear was the name I think for that form of life boat propulsion.
Saw one guy get his leg caught between the lever and a thawrt, very painful
But now the life boats are used as tenders to take bloods ashore for tours, not that comfortable or clean, but the signage for water is clear, no mention of food though.
Should have enough fuel to steam for 24 hours at 4 knots.