As “most” said, the Master is ultimately responsible. Does not matter who was on watch. That is why is normally compensated more. Does anyone remember the name of the 3rd mate on watch for the Exxon Valdez??? He was the one on watch, not Joseph Hazelwood. But you heard Joseph Hazelwood’s name at that time all over the place.
The majority of my time with ECO I have been on their U/L vessels, and we followed the chain of command, Master, Chief Mate, 2nd Mate and so on. I have been on a couple OSV’s for them in the Gulf, and you heard about 2nd, or 3rd Captain. Never heard of a 3rd captain before. I would have thought that person would be considered a “mate” regardless of what license they hold. Simple as that. I guess the title sounds good to some. But when I questioned it, “there is only one captain on a vessel”. I was told that some oil companies require more than one captain on the vessel, meaning license wise.
I got burned already with a guy saying he was “one of the captains” onboard. The client rep who just got onboard heard the guy say that, and then later went find this guy and asked about the placement of some sub sea equipment. He gave his answer, and it was not how I wanted to do it. So now I have to go and find the client rep and explain. His reply was, “the guy said he was a captain”… So back to the original statement, there is only one captain onboard…
P.S. The name of the Mate on watch on the Valdez at the time of the incident…Gregory Cousins. I remember stupid things as this…