How to get engine department letter wrote, for a deck mariner

Maritime Topics Maritime Training & Licensing
1

I am a newer entry-level mariner trying to get both deck and engine credentials before deciding which direction I ultimately want to go.

I am hopefully about to get RFPNW, PSC/LB, and AB-Special. After that, I am debating whether to continue toward AS-D or temporarily pivot toward RFPEW and QMED/Oiler. I have seen people recommend getting QMED/Oiler before RFPEW, especially since the QMED coursework and exams are more substantial than RFPEW?

I work on small near coastal inspected vessels with engine rooms, and every employee aboard holds an MMC (not like Fishing where no TWIC required). My employer apparently allows unlicensed crew to request either deck- or engine-department time on our sea-service letters, depending on what we elect and prefer, with a stipulation. I suspect this gives me an opportunity to accumulate legitimate engine time without leaving my current job to find a dedicated wiper position.

If I might eventually pursue DDE and/or Third Engineer, what exactly should I make sure my employer includes in an engine-department sea-service letter?

I remember reading on Facebook, Reddit, or gCaptain that certain wording or information is particularly important for getting the time credited toward engineer officer endorsements, but I embarrasingly cannot locate what I read.

I mainly want to avoid accumulating hundreds of days of engine time only to discover years later that my letters are not sufficient for officer rating(s).

One thing I want to make clear, I don’t have any illusions that I’m on some fast track to become an Unlimited Master and Chief Engineer simultaneously, or that I’m somehow some wunderkind super mariner; I’m just a new mariner learning how to be a decent OS/wiper.

Any advice from engineers or people who have actually submitted similar sea-service letters to NMC would be greatly appreciated. If you have both RFPEW and RFPNW simultaneously, I’d love to hear from you about living on both sides of the paradigm, and if that has helped you get good jobs and make more money. Thank you!

2

https://www.dco.uscg.mil/Portals/9/NMC/pdfs/professional_qualifications/crediting_sea_service.pdf This is the standard. I’ve used letter similar to what’s on page 10 for years.

For engineer seatime, make sure it says you were working as a wiper and has the propulsion type and horsepower.

3

I was under the impression that engine seatime letters are supposed to have some verbiage or something. Is it supposed to say “worked at the behest of this person” or “worked underneath a licensed engineer”?

If it doesnt have some specific wordage you can never use the letter to become a DDE and/or third engineer?

4

My seatime letters have NEVER said “at the behest/underneath a licensed engineer”. They state the particulars of the vessel, dates, and what position i held onboard, etc. And I used them to get a DDE, 3rd, and 2nd.

Once again, “I was under the impression, I thought, I heard, etc” is doing too much as it seems to do in your posts. I gave you the link for the USCG STANDARD for seatime letters with examples, including the entire section on small boat seatime requirements and you still question it. I really don’t know what else you want from your posts. I feel like you just enjoy arguing.

5

I’ve spent a couple hours trying to find the post and I have not been able to find it. It’s like my google history doesnt actually save any weblinks anymore, which is frusturating. I wish I had a verbatim quote to provide in the post

Please don’t comment on my posts any further if you feel I am disrespecting you

6

Dude he gave you the actual CG requirement from the actual CG…your google search doesn’t matter.

You shouldn’t be searching google, you should be taking the requirements directly from the USCG NMC website, which happens to be what the above poster thanklessly provided you.

7

Start with NMC Website Checklist.A.K.A Maritime Cliff Notes.

For deck department - The checklist for National 500/1600 Near Coastal Waters indicates one of the following sea service requirements as:

  1. 180 days of service while performing bridge watchkeeping duties under the supervision of the master or a qualified officer. This must be documented.

If you want the actual regulation it is provided in the checklist as 46 CFR 11.416.

Now it becomes your obligation to weed through the National Engineering checklists to find if there is a point in the engineering pathway that requires similar language for any Engineering Officers position.

8

This isn’t Schrödinger’s deck engine utility. I can’t speak to whether an employer will write a letter, but if you have one letter for both engine and deck positions you are going to need to have a breakdown of how much of the total was in the deck department and how much was doing engine stuff. You can’t use the total for both endorsements, e.g. if you are on board for 3 months you don’t get 3 months engine time AND 3 months deck time, you get however much of the 3 months was sent on deck and how much was engine.

For OICEW part of the service requirement is at least 6 months “having performed engineroom watchkeeping duties, under the supervision of an officer holding the STCW endorsement as Chief Engineer Officer or as a qualified engineer officer.” You need to provide evidence showing that. See 46 CFR 11.329(a)(4).

Watchkeeping is an STCW requirement, there is no such requirement for 3rd AE or DDE so you can use that letter. You can also use the letter for part of the 36 months required service for STCW OICEW, you just can’t use it for the OICEW requirement that 6 months of the total was performing watchkeeping.

9

Not to be too nit picky but I received a sea service letter years ago that had…

“from XX November XXXX to XX June XXXX Mr. Mariner preformed the duties as a bridge watch stander under the direct supervision of a Licensed Deck Officer, in accordance with 46 CFR 11. 407.”

It was from a small organization and I have never received another sea service letter with this wording, but I’m sure that there could be more out there.