Can anyone post the pecking order of rank which USCG has? Ie. captain #1, 1st mate #2- chief mate, 3rd mate , AB , oiler, ect ect… Seems easy but I get confused Thnx

The narrative in Memel’s post rings true to me. In my experience the ships I worked on were both non-hierarchal but with little ability to cooperate between departments, the worse of both worlds. The ships are run more based on personal relationships than through the command structure.

Years ago I happened to be down in the engine room late one night looking at one thing or another when I noticed it was just the engineer-on-watch and me down there. I asked the engineer where the Oiler was. He shrugged his shoulders saying it wasn’t his job to keep track of him. I had a big problem…

Pecking order is not a good way to think about it. It’s more situational. One of the 5 main points made in the book Managing the Unexpected: Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity is the idea of dereference to expertise. Aboard ship there is planning / problem solving and there is exec…

[image] Memel: The Master and CHENG are both in charge of their respective departments but the master has the additional and all consuming overall command responsibilities Incorrect, the Chiefs are each in charge of their department and the master is in charge of the vessel as a whole. [i…

Which is what I figured. But after hearing this on several boats I decided to dig around in the company policies and wondered if maybe there was some legal exception to the rule somewhere for certain circumstances. The chief certainly makes more than the mate. I’m thinking this was a company policy …

[image] Skylarker9: The chief certainly makes more than the mate. So what!? Pay scale has absolutely zero to do with the issue. You guys got to stop talking like pay has something to do with chain of command or accession.

Fair enough, I agree with you and I have never given the pay scale much heed. It’s some of the people I work with that make a thing of it.

So what is the normal pecking order for pay (with and without overtime) on unlimited ships?

The master gets the highest base rate, the C/E next then guy with the most brains and greatest responsibility - the 1st Assistant Engineer - gets the fattest paycheck. When the 1st gets a chief’s job his brain cells begin to atrophy and he has to rely more and more on the 1st.

I stand corrected Capt Phoenix. Both Chiefs head of their dept but in practice the day to day tasking of the CM appears more in line with the 1/AE and are frequently paired in other matters as well, perhaps just appearances. Disturbing in another later comment is that some SMSs apparently leave it…

Pecking order?

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Pecking order?

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