About having a career at sea…

Today I would like to give you guys an insight in the life of an officer in the merchant navy.

The back-story goes something like this…. Ever since I was a teenager I wanted to see the world, but had neither the money nor the access to information that we have now. So I set out to find a job which could ensure that I had a chance to see parts of the world and at the same time get paid a decent wage so that I didn’t have to worry about tomorrow.

The options were quite limited, at least as I saw it at the time….it was either the air or the sea. I chose the sea.

Four years of Maritime University and a year of cadetship later I had become a young Officer in one of the best tanker companies in the industry. Now I am away from home around eight months/year, working on the sea, travelling around the world.

What I can definitely say about it is that it’s not a job that anyone can do….it might seem like a life of adventure at first, however you soon realize that the adventure sometimes turns into 12-14 hour workdays(when you are onboard every day is a workday), sleepless nights, storms, altercations with other crewmembers and many other unforeseen circumstances.

As an Officer Of the Watch you are in charge of the safe navigation of the vessel on the Bridge, which basically means for 8 hours every day for the entire duration of the voyage you have a certain time-frame where you are the “pilot” of the ship(Ex. 8-12 & 20-24 is usually the Third Officer’s Watch time), taking care of the good operation of the various systems required for the ship to safely operate. Sometimes it can get rather boring, as everything will be running smoothly; sometimes it can be overwhelming, with high density traffic and systems failing at the worst possible time. Of course for those less than ideal cases, an officer has an entire team which he can rely on.

This is just an example of an Integrated bridge system.

But the bulk of the job is simply about maintenance jobs. Every officer has in his responsibility a number of systems which need to be checked periodically and any deficiencies rectified.
The Third Officer is usually in charge of everything related to Safety and Firefighing: Rescue boat, lifeboat, lifevests, lifebuoys, Fireman Outfits, Fire Line, hydrants and fire hoses are just a few examples.
The Second Officer is in charge of all the navigation equipment on the Bridge
The Chief Officer is in charge of everything related to the cargo, all the cargo manipulating systems and everything on the deck. The other officers usually answer to him directly.
The Captain is overall in charge of the ship, he coordinates all the different departments onboard and is responsible for the vessel entirely. There are many more ranks onboard a vessel and various departments, but i just briefly covered the deck department.

Depending on the reasons for which each person engages in this line of work, usually a lot of people give up in the first few voyages or years. It is a life full of sacrifices, and some people are not willing to make those sacrifices.

My main reason for doing this is not a particular passion for the job, but a need to travel, to get even a glimpse of other cultures and societies. And that I can do, either in the short visits we get in the ports of call, or when I am on vacation and have the time and funds to go anywhere I want.

There are so many things to be said about this, I’m actually afraid to say anything more because if i get started, I don’t know where the post would end….and nobody wants to read a never-ending post. So I will stop here after I add a few more photos, but please feel free to ask any questions if you are interested in the subject.

Greenland in the summer