What is a third officer?

Unfortuanetly bridge controlled ships came in later life VIC. In an exam room that point was sometimes not brought up. Same as recent post about crossing trawlers. 0ne Indian examiner his answer to discharging an expensive motor car at one of the surf ports in west Africa was to sew it up in a tarpaulin and tow it ashore in the motor lifeboat . Laughable ?but that’s the answer he wanted and at the end of the day was to please him to gain the ticket , and then business as usual when back to normal shipboard life. JS

All this oil and water stuff is a load of old rubbish. As with any discipline there are great, good, average and less so. That applies to both Deck and Engine and always has done so. It applies in whatever line of work or professionalism you become involved in. One thing I have noticed, though, is that seafarers have more often than not, more personal investment in the safe outcome of the next minute, hour, watch, day week or year when compared with those who go home every night and have weekends off.
Got that off my chest.

On the bridge of the Diamond Princess a few years back.
Harly recognizable to the ones we knew, more computer screens than you could poke a stick at.

No wheel to speak of just a small joy stick, no not that kind, and a 'helmsman' if you could call him that just staring at the screen.

As to the officers, all changed, no third or second, now more likely called navigation officer or similar.

But some names remain such as staff captain and staff chief engineer.
Chief steward is now hotel manager and I have no idea where the second steward went.

#73 probably still doing the same duties John as the Captains tiger , but now just a fly on all that braid and closer to the ear of the staff captain to let him know what was happening and keep him up to date of possible future problems and other places that the staffy couldn’t reach. A bit like that beer that reaches parts others can’t. Certainly wasn’t Newcastle Brown ale , could have been Tennents or Carlsberg ? JS

Oh dear!! Is that how the world saw me when I was a third mate all those years ago? Probably not changed much since.

#75… Never mind ! If you had a 2 mates cert. you got 30/- a month more , if a mates cert. even more ? If a Masters cert.the sky was the limit maybe even 50/- a month, if you didn’t have to pay them for living in the lap of luxury on their super duper liners . Cheers JS

Really enjoyed all the stories and banter. Just had to add my tuppence worth. As engineer, never had any oil and water conflict with any of my shipmates. Spent many nights in foreign ports carrying each other back home. Now "other" conflicts did come up, but all that testosterone confined in a small space for long periods does percolate some. Another reason for all male crew.

Paul 891020