Hey all, giving this a bump rather than starting a new thread.
I’ve been told several times that the Chief engineer would the the second in command, say if the master was incapacitated or died while at sea the C/E would have the command authority. He’s certainly the next in line on the pay scale, that’s for sure.
While this doesn’t really matter much, I’m still curious because several people across different boats have said this. I can’t find anything in our SMS or company policies. Is there actual legal guidance on the chain of command in the event the master dies? I figure if something like that happens at sea the company would just appoint someone to acting captain till arriving in port.
In our case we work on tugs, so only six or seven guys aboard.
Thanks everyone.