first off, a disclaimer; seeing as this in my first post to gcaptain, please be gentle ;-). If my thread is in the wrong forum, please tell me where it would be better suited. Second, it seems that a lot of questions here on the forum are answered by: “use the forum search function” or “that’s what google is for”. Please rest assured that I used both these options, but is is very difficult to steer the search in the right direction, since I’m only getting actual job listings for deck crew… Anyways, on to the question part!
A little introduction may be appreciated: I’m a (Dutch) second officer / JDPO on a 75m 145 ton bollard pull AHTS who is mainly involved with static towing/holdback operations during tanker/FPSO lifting ops. Other than that we do in-field maintenance of surface assets (CALM buoys, export hoses, etc), and frogging/transferring of personnel. I work the 00:00-12:00 shift, and we do 8 weeks on/off terms. Currently we have a 5 year contract in the Angolan Offshore. Normally we have three 2nd officers, one chief mate and 1 captain. Unfortunately, our chief mate got ill during the beginning of the trip, so he had to be send home. Since I’m the only officer on board with his chief mate license I now have taken over his duties until a new chief officer arrives on board. Here is where my question comes in.
The other chief mates have helped me tremendously over email/IM with what monthly/weekly jobs the chief has to do. At this moment my only problem is coming up with jobs for our deck crew (bosun, 3 AB’S). Painting and greasing of everything is well underway, and I would say the ship is in good state. I’m now calling upon your expertise/experience to help me with coming up with some new jobs that tend to be forgotten. When the new chief officer arrives I’m able to get back on deck as well so we have plenty hands on deck I would say.
So: what kind of USEFUL (not something like polishing compasrings) jobs do you know of for the deck crew?
Many thanks in advance!
p.s: being Dutch, English is not my mother language, please be forgiving.
This guy came to a forum seeking info. He took his time explaining himself and what he needed help with, and everyone just laughs and says stupid shit.
Painting and greasing of everything is well underway, and I would say the ship is in good state. I’m now calling upon your expertise/experience to help me with coming up with some new jobs that tend to be forgotten. When the new chief officer arrives I’m able to get back on deck as well so we have plenty hands on deck I would say.
So: what kind of USEFUL (not something like polishing compasrings) jobs do you know of for the deck crew?
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If the ship is in “good” state, why not figure out how to get it into “phenomenal” state. Raise your expectations, and your standards of what is acceptable, and what is not good enough.
Get a copy of the checklist your classification society uses during audits and go through each and every item on that inspection sheet with a critical eye. Make everything perfect, so that if an audit happened tomorrow the auditor would leave the boat impressed with how squared away the vessel and her crew are.
Inventory gear, list every expiry date, lots of clerical stuff. Ab’s I know would rather count and inventory rather than chip and paint so it should be a fairly easy thing to get them to buy into.
welcome to the world of being a “bucko mate”…I suggest you issue each of your seamen one of these and tell them not one square inch is to be missed or you’ll have their guts for garters!
and if you see three seamen talking in low murmurs, shoot the one who looks meanest. You’ll soon enough get the scurrilous dogs back in line…
the term applied to the mate of a sailing trading ship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who drove his crew by the power of his fists, and his general brutality which made life a hell on board for the crew. ‘Bucko’ mates were notably prevalent in the American square-rigged ships on the New York or Boston to California run after the discovery of the goldfields there and before the railway to California was built. The competition to make quick passage round Cape Horn was always very fierce among these ships, and many owners appointed masters and mates on whom they could rely to drive their crews to the limit, and sometimes beyond, in their search for speed. These men did not spare their voices, fists, or rope-ends to keep their crews at work whatever the weather. Many seamen in these ships went to their deaths in the seas around Cape Horn, mainly because exhaustion from being driven too hard caused them to miss their footing on the yards when working the sails in a gale.
A typical ship of this type was the 800-ton American clipper ship Challenge. Built in 1850 by William H. Webb of New York, she was commanded by the murderous ‘Bully’ Waterman, with the equally notorious ‘bucko’ mate Douglas, and she held the record for many years for the fastest passages from New York to California around Cape Horn.
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