Mr. Canal - You may be lamenting up the wrong tree. Aside from the fact most posters seem to be missing your point (as I understand it anyway) and aside from the fact it may be completely correct, you are in the unfortunate position of being right and yet maybe pissing up a rope.
Drilling contractors hiring newly minted mates as Jr DPO’s is not going away and if one does nothing but DPO and gets sailing time towards next license, well you are most certainly accurate that they are not necessarily prepared for a non-drilling sailing berth. Most probably they are not even prepared for a chief mate slot on a drill ship unless they work for a company that actively gets them out doing PM and running deck crew for part of their day which at least one I know of does.
I agree with your premise but not with the conclusion that these new third mates are the problem. It’s just not realistic to expect people looking for jobs to not apply for jobs the drilling contractors feel they are qualified for or at least trainable for.
The problem or potential problem you are concerned with lies with a USCG that permits that time to count for upgrading an unlimited license. Back when Moby Dick was a minnow DPO’s were not mates at all. Most of them were ET’s. That was the pinnacle of their career path, unless they became Electrical Supervisor. How many brand new third mates would take Jr. DPO jobs if they knew they would be confined to the desk for their career and not get a free pass to an advanced license? Maybe some would, it is an honorable profession. It’s just not the profession you are talking about.
The fault also lies with the employers themselves. With the USCG and flag states enabling them they can have DPO’s and meet minimum manning requirements with a single employee. There is not much of a downside for them. They get a reasonably well educated/trainable employee and don’t have to worry about where the next DPO is coming from since the license time carrot on a stick is in place. Still one might argue with a proper mentoring program they’d make just the sort of Chief Mates and Masters you’d want on a drill ship.
But really (other than another drilling contractor) who is going to hire a Master for their tanker, container ship, or whatever, who only has DP experience? No one in their right mind but I guess that is part of your point - even one guy who gets that shot is one too many.
I happen to agree with your point but can only muster a slow simmer about it. It is unfortunate you have run in to new guys who feel entitled to something more than the job they were hired for and lack the tact and discretion to keep their mouths shut. Stick a young person in front of a console with lots of lights, buttons, buzzers and screens with the sole purpose of keeping a vessel on location and one would think that would be challenge enough. One would think they would be kept busy enough by keeping their nose in the books, asking questions or heaven forbid - attempting to understand power management. You’d think they would not have time to think about, never mind discuss out loud, how they are going to get their sea time / next license. For anyone of a certain character (no matter how they got that license) they get comfortable after a few hitches, think they know more than they do, notice they sit on their rear and don’t get dirty, develop a God-complex and can actually begin to believe they are controlling a lot more from their consoles than they actually are. This is when things really get interesting. My experience is these guys don’t last long or change their tune when they realize just how things really work on a drill ship. By the way I have seen a parade of deep sea guys come to the drilling industry and not be able to adjust either. They can’t stop saying things like “on my last ship …” They can’t handle the hours, the largely unplanned demands from the rig floor or a hundred other things. They too go away or change.
So unless you have a lot of pull with the flag states who issue minimum safe manning certificates or drilling contractor upper management / policy makers you just have to treat these guys as you would any obtuse shipmate on any ship.
