Then cooks move up to become mates and want to mess with career AB’s who maybe cant move up because of citizenship issues and tell them how to do their job, when they have never even worked on deck themselves. Its not right.
They’re free to be mates in their own country. Just playing devils advocate.
good point, I didn’t think of that
It all depends on the situation. I have been on a tug with an AB cook. The only difference between them and a regular AB was that they didn’t do rust preventive maintenance (for hygiene purposes). But they did help making up and braking tow as well as docking. They also spend a lot more time on the wheelhouse with the mate and Captain. As any time you needed one of the ABs help (holding the wheel, chart correction, ext…) they were the easiest to call up as the other AB was usually working on deck or helping the Chief.
Maybe a mate that can cook is more useful that a mate with only sea time on a modu
On most tugs, back when we always had dedicated cooks, the cooks normally helped out on deck and did some lookout duties. Now that we are in the cost saving era of “camping out” onboard with no cook on a tug, we usually have captains, mates, engineers, and anyone else cooking. Sometimes one person is the normally designated cook, and that person does less of his other duties.
The notion of a galleyhand on a ship using his galley time toward a mate’s license is ridiculous, but on a tug where the cook is a lot more than a cook, no problem.
This has turned into an interesting thread. 
By the way, The master of my vessel started out as a cook.
I worked with two cooks that ended up as captains with ECO, both were excellent cooks
[QUOTE=chefedemaquina;150165]I worked with two cooks that ended up as captains with ECO, both were excellent cooks[/QUOTE]
This hits upon one of the pleasant surprises that I’ve had since coming to work in the Cajun Navy: I’m actually enjoying far better meals than when sailing deep-sea on ships with a SIU Stewards Department. Without any “professional” cooks on board, I’ve had some meals that have been second-to-none. I consider myself a to be a pretty decent cook, but some of these guys that I’ve sailed with over the last several months (particularly local guys from Louisiana), have cooked meals that wold give celebrate chefs a run for their $.
Interesting thread - License degradation to quality of meals.
We decide the quality of food hence the standard has never changed
Vessel owners via their proxy ( the USCG) decide on mariners standards
just read the new USCG DP proposal as flagged here on another thread, the idea is to allow cooks to do a DP watch so these 2 items are closely related according to the USCG