Has the profession gone mad?

[Ernest Fletcher]

I was watching a program on telly last week when it showed an inspector going aboard a cruise ship for the ships first inspection in a British port.

I was amazed to find out that they now have a log of hours worked and free time for the whole crew. The ship was fined because a log was not kept for the captain's working hours!!! How daft is that? I went through a typhoon in the Pacific as an apprentice and the Old Man never left the bridge for 3 days. How would that go down these days? Is the ship supposed to founder whilst the Old Man has his compulsory time off?

Another thing I read some time ago was that Mates have to have STC95, and in future will no longer have to know how to use a sextant. It is also no longer necessary for a sextant to be on board!

The wife would like to go on a cruise, but the first thing I want to know is can anyone on board navigate if there is a problem with the electrics? I remember sailing all the way home from Japan via Panama using magnetic compass and a man on the wheel because the power supply for the Gyro compass had burned out. Do they still have magnetic compasses on board?

Maybe I'm a cynical old saltl, but sailing without the means to navigate, or the expertise, seems like a recipe for disaster. The cruise ship on the news the other week without electrical power and stranded for days is a case in point!!

Ernest

[Keith at Tregenna]

Someone from Ryan Air may look in.

Could imagine them doing something similar.

Did they or another airline suggest not having co-pilots and the senior trolley dolley be trained to land the plane in emergency ?

Makes you wonder what comes next, NASA not using Astronauts, leave it to the monkeys ?

K.

[nigel george]

think russians and usa did the thing with monkys all ready he he

[Captain Kong]

Hi Ernest,
The new cruise ships have all enclosed wheelhouses, no bridge wings and passenger accommodation above, So no chance of nipping up to the monkey island to take a sight, they are in air conditioned comfort whilst on watch, no smells from outside, we used to smell iice in the old days, no sounds of whistles in fog, no feeling the weather, to see it is changing etc. The cruise ship Officers are now a lot of posers now, more interested in having a photo taken with a young lady passenger than looking ahead.
The last cruise ship I have been on with a sextant and the means to use it was on the Caronia, now Saga Ruby, and the QE2. All the newer built ones are completely enclosed no way can you take sights.
If there is an electrical close down they are knackered.
I was on a 280,000 ton tanker in the 70s, the old Decca Radars and the Decca Navigator, the spider one, fell in a heap leaving the Gulf. We were bound round the Cape to Rotterdam and we took her all the way there with no more than Captain Cook had, a Sextant and a Chronometer and a look out.. Todays New Navigators would be hard pressed to do that.

I saw the prog on TV, It was a small Russian expedition cruise ship getting ready to load passengers in Dover for a trip up North, I saw her down in the Antarctic last year. She was also loaded to several inches above the load line. On the quay the Captain said she had a starboard list, so the Surveyor got in a boat and went to the port side and she was the same there. They had to discharge some bunkers , ballast etc.Also they could not launch the Life Rafts amongst a few other complaints.

"Fings aint wot they used to be."

[robpage]

i can appreciate your defence of cruise ships Rmariner if you are working on them but how new do you mean the one that caught fire is 2008

Carnival Splendor Cruise Ship Statistics
Maiden Voyage Spring 2008
Passenger Capacity 3,006
Gross Tonnage 112,000
Length '
Beam '
Draft '
Cruising Speed knots
Crew 1910
Cabins
Decks 14

[jimmys]

Hi RMariner,

If you do not have a sextant on board your vessel, any competent engineer can make you one, it is a simple piece of eqipment. If you do not have a compass any competent engineer can make you one it is a simple piece of equipment.
The Carnival Splendour has segregated engine rooms and segregated switchboards complete with link. Three engines each engine room.
You should note that cabling in switchboards can ignite from the inside or the outside and it may be the switchboard fire is a problem of reverse power after the failure of number 5 engine. If it does not fully clear the other engines drive the the damaged engine with the subsequent switchboard fire. If the switchboard link is not run open both switchboards can be damaged. If the auto system is engaged it will continue to close engines to the switchboard with subsequent damage. We do not know as yet the cause but with the Master of the Carnival Splendour throwing chairs around the bridge we are sure it is a "fcuk up".
I am really impressed to hear from a Cruise Ship Deck Officer with myself being a dirty old jock tanker engineer.

regards
jimmy

[Gulliver]

Dear 'dirty old jock tanker engineer Jimmy'.
If you can'tstart your (fully automatic,completely self-maintaining sewing machine,then I have a button on the bridge I can press for you and start it .
If you can't find your immaculate Unmanned Engine Room,then I can provide you with a General Arrangement Plan.Bet you didn't know there were a couple of Engine Room entrances.
As for MR.R.Mariner,yes,we never had it so good,mate,unlike you newly qualified cruise ship officers,I mean all I ever did on cargo/container ships for the last six years was 12 hour cargo watches for 6 weeks in African ports,followed by mooring stations/pilotage,followed by a few days bridge watches,then over and over again until 8 months was over.
Not like you poor tired darlings ,in pristine white uniforms from the laundry,who are so tired of looking at your radars/ECDIS/Sat Navs,that you can hardly lift your binoculars(remember those?,or are they just for show whenever a TV documentary camera crew,or a passengers Bridge Tour is in progress?
You poor tired overworked pen-pushers with all those forms to fill in.I feel so sorry for you By comparison we never had it so good......


That's one good reason why I could not take a cruise.I just would not feel safe.
So,I wish you a good watch...don't fall asleep!


And just because everyone else is doing it tonight...well,the temperature here is currently -4 deg,with a biting NE'ly wind,and I'm rapidly draining my supply of 8 Bells....
All the Best!
Gulliver

[Roger Dyer]

Naughty, naughty, Davey.....Me thinketh ye may have prickethed the bubble - what planet are these people on? Yes, of course, time and technology march on, but very little in this world is 'fail-safe' and to place too much reliance on technology must surely end in disaster (and does). Bit like the lass (or laddie) working at the supermarket check-out when the system breaks down. It's pitiful to watch and, unless you like standing in queues, it can make the weekly shopping a nightmare.rolleyes: Call me a dinasaur if you must, but......................cheers, Roger.

[happy daze john in oz]

In a working living museum today and there for all to see a working morse code set, working and sending messages to others around the world. But as the operator told me when this crop of ametures has gone there will be no one left to operate the system. Another victim of the tecno age. As to wings on bridges of cruise ships. I have been on two where you can stand on a deck above the bridge and watch the officers manouver the ship using controls on the bridge wings out in the open.

[John Cassels]

Jimmys:- "If you don't have a sextant on board , any compenent engineer can make you one , it's a simple
piece of equipment ".

I cannot believe that anyone of your obvious intellect and experience would make such a ridiculous
statement. It really is beyond belief.