Housekeeping is watchkeeping

Because of the farts? I’m sure the lawyers gas comes out like roses.

The problem is when housekeeping becomes seen as synonymous with maintenance instead of often being correlated with it. I think we’ve all seen reflags with pristine paint and paperwork, especially in the engine room, where nothing actually works. They will sure cruise through every inspection, though!

1 Like

I can’t speak for other outfits, but a sharp looking engine room and vessel was generally a reflection of the overall upkeep and condition of the vessel. Although we were union, I had great latitude for a hand picked crew. As I said before, going from 12 men to 8 I had to be selective. Many good memories of who I kept and who I made them think they were perhaps in the wrong place. The crew telegraphed that to the person that wasn’t pulling his weight. They knew it before me and made my job a bit easier… No regrets.

I think some of you are missing the point. Maybe I can say it more clearly:

The minimum manning requirements are not congruent with good watchkeeping and SMS in the case of vessels with more than one engine room.

Its not about getting gussied up for vetters, putting lipstick on a pig, or having your cabin in order.

4 Likes

You nailed it.

Sorry you are having so many problems. We dealt with it and produced a good product for the vetters. It wasn’t easy with the downsizing. Glad they didn’t look in my quarters. My engineers were spot on. That’s what sells my friend. As a wheelhouse guy, I backed them up 10 thousand perccent. And my deckies made my rig look good. Didn’t miss the point you are trying to make, just rolled with the shit sandwich we were handed. Proud of those guys to this day.

2 Likes

You are right, Minimum Manning doesn’t align with the standards we as Professional Seafarers want to maintain, and it also has significant implications to safety and emergency response on board.
Our ability to adapt, make good use of the limited resources we do have and still get the job is what keeps the maritime industry running.
We shoot ourselves in the foot by being who we are as Seafarers, it enables the industry to push us harder and only a disaster with change its thinking and make new policy.
Staying firm and clear with management, supporting our teams, making sure they are safe and healthy and focusing on what is important is how we survive as Seafarers.

5 Likes

As far as I’m aware minimum manning scale stated the minimum number of licensed and unlicensed personnel to sail the vessel legally in the event that some crew were incapacitated or missing. It was never meant to detail the normal manning.
For a 5000 teu container vessel this was:
Master and chief mate and second mate
Chief engineer, assistant engineer and two greasers for UMS
4 AB’s
The kicker on this amazing document carefully crafted by Sue Sue and Litigate for the Liberian Registry of Virginia said the master was responsible for ensuring the manning was adequate.
It may well be that legislation should require that where a vessel sails with minimum manning, dispensation should only be granted for a single voyage.

1 Like

First of all, I did not know that. Secondly, would you preach this sermon at the company camp meeting? (They might call it ‘golf,’ but they need to come to Jesus more than they need weird Scottish whack-a-ball)

There is no way that any chief engineer that I have sailed with would be prepared to sail permanently with the manning I described above deep sea. As for me I couldn’t see how I could properly discharge my duties as master. I have on, several actions sailed short handed lacking a mate but only to the next port even though on one occasion it was 14 days steaming away. It took the oil majors to upgrade the manning of PSV’s.
Some in the GOM may recall an incident that happened some years ago. A PSV was under the hook of a rig. A wayward basket hit and severely injured one crew and knocked the other into the water where he was recovered by the basket being lowered into the water. All the master could do was rouse a crew member from sleep and call the engineer to offer first aid, there was no one else.
It is time that US mariners stopped being taken off because it has stopped resulting in more money in your pocket.

Between taken and of insert advantage.

Ok, fellas. We’re going to try rebranding the thing. Housekeeping is perceived as menial and low-status. So we’re going to glam it up. No one is doing any more housekeeping from now on.

Choose your weapon: for now we go to Battle with the Forces of Chaos!!!

FoC

1 Like

image

Just step one is a good start:

Seiri is sorting through all items in a location and removing all unnecessary items from the location.

Goals:

  • Reduce time loss looking for an item by reducing the number of items.
  • Reduce the chance of distraction by unnecessary items.
  • Simplify inspection.
  • Increase the amount of available, useful space.
  • Increase safety by eliminating obstacles.

Implementation:

  • Check all items in a location and evaluate whether or not their presence at the location is useful or necessary.
  • Remove unnecessary items as soon as possible. Place those that cannot be removed immediately in a ‘red tag area’ so that they are easy to remove later on.
  • Keep the working floor clear of materials except for those that are in use for production.

Mariners tend to be pack rats, don’t want to get rid of something they might need later but almost anytime something is needed ordering again is more efficient then rummaging through the “used but good” box or heaps of unused material from past jobs.

Eventually the stuff that’s kept “just in case” becomes more of a hindrance than a help.

4 Likes

Used but good…! During an extended yard stay I was coming back to the ship from the hotel they were putting us up in. I found a piece of scrap in the weeds in the parking lot, it was a buttefly valve bolted to a stub of pipe. I took it with me, put a “used but good” tag on it and left it in a parts locker. Five years later it was still there.

3 Likes

I tried to stress those under me parts were either “good” or “no good”. If good, they were entered as a part of inventory. The “used but good” description was not tolerated. If in prior service there would usually be additional notes such as rebuilt, refurbished, or tested and dated.

2 Likes

My garage resembles that perspective. Soon as I get rid of it, I need it. It was easy to get rid of the old picnic baskets and holiday decorations, but don’t take my tools and spare parts out of my cold,dead hands. Toyotas rock.

It sounds a lot like my garage at home!!

On one little ship I was captain of the deck department had their own shop. I was tired of all the wasted time and money associated with missing tools, and all the complaints from the Engineering Dept, of deck hands borrowing tools and losing them.

So I had a tool board made like the one shown, and racks made for the power tools. Every tool had a place, easily seen, and I had a rule: when the work day ended every single tool had to be racked or no one could knock-off. (Non-union boat, so I could get away with that. :slightly_smiling_face:) Also, before the boat hit the dock and the crew left, all the tools were taken down and stashed away, so the dock crew couldn’t pilfer.

I enforced the rule ruthlessly. No one rested until all tools were put away. Soon missing tools were a thing of the past. If you needed a tool they were always there. No more complaints from the chief–hell, he borrowed tools from me. No more Sawzalls left out to rust in the rain.

I was the single most hated captain in the fleet…

8 Likes

One trick I’ve learned is during shipyard periods making a quick tool board out of plywood and spending a few hundred at Harbor Freight goes a long way towards maintaining a shipshape environment and not spending thousands on replacement tools when the boat returns to sea.

The temporary tool board is mobile and can be placed nearest the heaviest work. Tools will be destroyed and lost and abused during an intense maintenance period and the pain is lessened when they are cheap tools. Shipyard workers and vendors aren’t going all the way to the shop/truck for a wrench or a sledge, and it wouldn’t be productive if they did.

Sometimes it’s possible to lock up the good tools, but I’ve found it easiest to squirrel them away in engineering staterooms. This also helps with not having to explain to OSHA why this grinder I didn’t know existed has no guard.

1 Like