Is it just me, or does it seem like there is a sort of gatekeeping to specific maritime knowledge of the academic sort required for certification and licensure?
Maybe I’m displaying my own ignorance or something, but I feel like it’s hard to find the information you need to pass exam requirements and such without paying a pretty penny.
I’m about to attend MPT for a full STCW AB suite (AS-D, BST, RFPNW, and PSC) and I found out the RFPNW class is just a 1 day assessment, not a course where they teach you. So I tried looking up study guides for whatever that may entail, seeing if I could just study on my own. I was very hard pressed to find anything on a web search, and even YouTube videos seem limited. I am having to resort to a good captain friend of mine to help me out and study for it, but I would have preferred to just read a book on it and not bothered him about it. I remember some of it on my brief time on a tanker, but the rest eludes me.
Am I just not digging deep enough, or is this really a case where the knowledge is gatekept to only on the job experience? Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, I actually do admire that in some respects, but in some contexts and circumstances, it can hold back imo.
I don’t consider on the job experience as gate keeping. Some things only make sense when you actually do them onboard a ship. As far as I know the RFPNW 1 day class is only meant to get the assessments signed off, it isn’t meant to teach you anything. You should have the knowledge from being on a boat. Reading a book about steering the ship & complying with helm orders from a Captain and actually putting your hands on bridge equipment in real life are vastly different things.
This career should not be spoon fed…we are teetering on the edge of knowledge and skill vs memorization. You HAVE to be able to do the job and “hand, reef, and steer” even in the modern age. Learning on the boat and then applying that knowledge under the eye of experienced ABs, Mates, and Captains is the way ahead. Period. Short cuts teach you nothing…
If the RFPNW course being assessments only is a concern for you, I’d look into that AS-D course also. Like RFPNW, there are no required courses to get AS-D, just assessments. So that course is likely also just assessments.
Oh I’m not saying that on the job experience itself is gatekeeping, just that some information seems to be difficult to find or obtain. Looking at that NVIC is actually what prompted me to make the thread, actually.
I do find actual experience invaluable in some respects, but at the same time, if somebody like me wants to discover more or find out more, you’re not always guaranteed that from job experience. That’s where trying to find other sources would come in handy, but I’ve found it a bit more difficult in this industry than most other subjects. Maybe a double edged sword, for sure.
Like, nearly all of my marlinspike knowledge came from other sources Outside of my job. There has been little that I’ve learned in that specific respect from the job itself. So I learn it on my own, and then try to find opportunities to apply it on the job. I’ve learned and can apply about 40 different individual knots, hitches and bends, and various splices for various strands, as well as whippings/seizings. Meanwhile all I ever see is people using bowlines for everything and nasty looking splices, which is fine, I guess, cause it does work. But still I like to have that knowledge for when it is needed.
I don’t want to get ahead of myself here. I’m not saying that I know it all. In fact, the more I do learn, the more I realize I’ve yet to learn. I just wish the knowledge was a bit more accessible is all.
But in any case that book seems to be exactly what it is I’m looking for. A direct reference to inquire in, where Google fails. I’ll try and snag a copy.
Mariners or wannabe mariners should start acquiring a few books
A good first book is Chapman’s, PILOTING AND SEAMANSHIP. Chapman’s is fairly easy reading. If you study the chapters relevant to being an AB for a few weeks, and practice the skills that you can (e.g. knots and splices, the names of lines and their purposes, anchors, how to steer, etc.), you will know more than most ABs with several years of experience.
The course for AS-D usually also includes national Able Seaman. And since that needs a USCG test, the course includes that in addition to the required assessments.
I actually do have that book, and I do reference it from time to time. It is definitely a good book for the general knowledge, which I do try and apply.
Don’t get me wrong in the slightest, I’m not saying that I am AB material, though I have had at least one captain say outright to me that I am more AB than actual AB’s they’ve met/worked with. I try to keep a humble attitude as much as I can.
I remember reading a section from a book by Richard Henry Dana Jr iirc, and as he was describing historical positions and their duties, as he described the hand hierarchy, boys/Greenland were brand new lubbers with no idea at all, while OS was pretty decent sailor, knew their shit for the most part, but more in a general aspect, and AB was reserved for those who knew their shit top down without a doubt. Before licensure was a thing, you signed on with an honor system. You declared your skill level. And if you lied on that, and you were green, or OS, and signed on as AB, if found out, your life was a living hell for obvious reasons. Becoming a burden and shackling the actual ABs with mundane duties.
Even as OS, I have met more than a few AB’s just like that. I’ve found one common theme. Just simple lack of curiosity. The pay is well, and as long as you can get away with doing the least to not get fired, that’s all that matters. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think I’m an Ace deckhand, considering I worked with a couple of such, but I guess it’s just my simple curiosity that has either presented me as a threat to some, or a promising hand. I feel pretty mediocre tbh. My flaw is that I have to be explicitly given a task, of which I will shine at it. I don’t have it yet where I just know and do it without anything said. That’s the difference between an ordinary hand, and an ace hand imo.
Either way, that’s besides the point. I’m just trying to find the knowledge for certification purposes. But it doesn’t stop me from thinking that’s all there is. Just seems harder to find than most I think.
