What are the responsibilities and authority of the officer in Charge of the Navigational Watch? Is the officer just in charge of the navigation watch as the name implies or is the mate on watch a direct representative of the captain with responsibility for the entire vessel and with authority over the crew?
The name doesn’t [B][U]IMPLY[/B][/U] just being in charge of the navigation watch, that is what it specifically states. Everyone has responsibility for the entire vessel and is the eyes and ears of the Captain, not just the mate on watch. Authority over the crew though … sorry, just for deck guys.
I am very curious as to the background of the question.
I’m not sure if you are looking for a dictionary definition or just our opinions. IMHO, when I’m on watch, underway, open water,. Its my job to follow the voyage plan. I have the authority and the duty to alter course as I see fit due to traffic or unforeseen hazards to navigation. I am responsible for contacting other ships to arrange passing, meeting and crossings. I have the duty to follow the Captain’s night orders and the standing orders. I also have the responisbility to contact the Captain in the event said hazards require an unusually large deviation from the voyage plan or if the weather/visibility turns to poop.
[QUOTE=KPEngineer;66107] I am very curious as to the background of the question.[/QUOTE]
Looking for opinions, practices on other ships etc. Seen a couple different written versions, wondered about other view/experience of forum members.
K.C.
The authority granted to any OICNW is spelled out in the master’s standing orders which are themselves a legal document which can be subpoened in a court. The OCINW is under a master’s command. He can give you no authority if he chooses but he better be prepared to be on the bridge endlessly if that is how he wants to run his ship.
With engineers it is a bit fuzzier since a chief engineer is under a master’s command yet the master cannot run an engineroom unless he is also a chief engineer himself. With deck officers it is difference since a master was a deck officer himself at one time and can be an OICNW. In the end, a good master should let his chief run the engineroom and keep a close eye on his mates but let them handle the navigation of the ship provided they are competent and capable. The less a master is seen, the better for everybody else.
I am very curious as to the background of the question.
Delete double post
[QUOTE=c.captain;66113]The authority granted to any OICNW is spelled out in the master’s standing orders which are themselves a legal document which can be subpoened in a court. The OCINW is under a master’s command. He can give you no authority if he chooses but he better be prepared to be on the bridge endlessly if that is how he wants to run his ship.
With engineers it is a bit fuzzier since a chief engineer is under a master’s command yet the master cannot run an engineroom unless he is also a chief engineer himself. With deck officers it is difference since a master was a deck officer himself at one time and can be an OICNW. In the end, a good master should let his chief run the engineroom and keep a close eye on his mates but let them handle the navigation of the ship provided they are competent and capable. The less a master is seen, the better for everybody else.[/QUOTE]
Master is responsible for operation and safety of the vessel, discipline of the crew. C/E has technical authority over the equipment. My view is that the mate has duties beyond just running the nav watch. It seems to me that the duty mate and duty engineer derive their authority from the master and C/E respectively.
K.C.
One can assume that the first duty any mate has is to carry out all the masters lawful orders. By carrying out the masters orders he would be considered a direct representative. But to be technical it would probably depend on the OICNW’s duties as defined by the vessels management system. In combination between a Masters standing orders and the companies procedures set forth by the MS system there should be no question of a mates responsibilities.
The OICNW is responsible for the navigational watch and orders concerning that need to be followed.
The CM, 2M, 3M (or only mate on small vessels) have additional authority as granted by the company’s operations manual.
I agree with shamrock and Capt Phoenix, duties and responsibility beyond OICNW should be spelled out in the ship’s safety management system.
Specifically the wording on one ship was something along the lines of: In matters relevant to ship safety, security and protection of the environment, the mate on watch is a direct representative of the master and all crew members are subordinate to the mate on watch with the exception of the master and chief mate.
However other places the language seems more vague. How much does this vary from ship to ship?
K.C.
[QUOTE=KPEngineer;66107]Everyone has responsibility for the entire vessel and is the eyes and ears of the Captain, not just the mate on watch. Authority over the crew though … sorry, just for deck guys.
I am very curious as to the background of the question.[/QUOTE]
Boundary maintenance. Good fences make good neighbors. If you live in a sleepy neighborhood where the houses stay in the same family for generations it may not matter much where the property line is. But if an out-of-state developer buys the house next door and wants to build a condo, parking lot or some such it may matter a lot. The time to mark the boundary is before it becomes an issue not during or after. If you do mark the boundaries in advance that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to start chasing kids off your lawn.
K.C.
[QUOTE=Kennebec Captain;66303]Boundary maintenance. Good fences make good neighbors. If you live in a sleepy neighborhood where the houses stay in the same family for generations it may not matter much where the property line is. But if an out-of-state developer buys the house next door and wants to build a condo, parking lot or some such it may matter a lot. The time to mark the boundary is before it becomes an issue not during or after. If you do mark the boundaries in advance that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to start chasing kids off your lawn.
K.C.[/QUOTE]
How cryptic… almost a fable. I hate fables because usually they are connected to something bad happening.
[QUOTE=BMCSRetired;66306]How cryptic… almost a fable. I hate fables because usually they are connected to something bad happening.[/QUOTE]
It wasn’t meant to be cryptic. I’ve been sailing for a long time, all sorts of things have happened aboard ship, both good and bad. Just as I make sure the safety equipment is being checked on a routine basis I also check that the drug and alcohol policy is posted where is should be. I don’t need to have a particular reason, its just a routine precaution.
As for the duties of the watch officer, our written procedures have been made obsolete and need to be rewritten. I had been confused by the OICNW language but the explanation provided upthread make sense. The nav watch is only part of the responsibilities of the OOW. You recall in the C.G. (and Navy) the watch officer duties were divided up in the deck and the conn. Usually one officer had both but sometimes it was divided. On the merchant side we divide it as well when we do BRM.
The hard part (for me) is putting it in writing. I was hoping to get some samples or at least some thoughts from other members.
K.C.
The point of the previous post was that policy needs to be in place before it becomes an issue. Another example might be local zoning laws. It is better if they are in place before your neighbor wants to open a gravel pit or strip club. If you wait it becomes a personal issue rather then a matter of routine.
Understood. Though I hated splitting the Deck and Conn when I was on watch because sometimes the JO’s would forget to inform of some small piece of the puzzle so I liked to keep them both unless I was training someone.
I may be Lucky enough to write my first set since I retired. The ones in the military I saw ran anywhere from 5 to 125 pages depending on how paranoid the CO was. I want to keep it one page because people get bored quickly. For this set, since I believe and so do the courts, the Master is “inescapably and ultimately responsible”, to cover my butt the last line will read, “No standing orders can cover every situation. A good rule of thumb is; if you think you should call the Master, you should already be picking up the phone because I would rather be assisting you than being a witness to my own lynching,” or words to that effect.
Good luck KC. Fair winds and following seas!
To put things in context here is a story -
My first ship was WHEC-721. That’s where I first learned the chain of command. I believe that on that ship O-3 or O-4 were in charge of the various departments. Operations, supply,deck and engineering. Discipline and supervision followed the same path. The head of deck was not responsible for discipline in other departments.
I then went to work on tugs and small vessels where the crew worked together as a team as described by KPEngineer. Sometimes the engineers would come out and help on deck and sometimes I’d take the crew down to help in the engine room if we were in a tight spot.
Now to the story, the outfit I worked for went under and I went to work for MSC. I went on a cable ship, first as AB then as third mate.
So one night we are tied up in Adak Alaska after being at sea for some time and I am the mate on watch on the 12x4. Around 2 am the gangway watch calls me on the radio and tells me one of the oilers has returned from ashore drunk was last seen in the house carrying a fire axe.
Well this was my first in-port watch as mate. I need help and I think oiler ; engine department, so I call the Chief Eng on the phone and explain the an oiler is loose somewhere with a fire axe. He tells me it’s not his problem and hangs up. Ok, so I think I’d better call the Chief mate, the mate tells me ok, he is on the way and he’ll give me a call on the radio as soon as he is on deck and meanwhile he tells me see if I can find the oiler.
As soon I get off the phone with the mate the phone rings again and it’s the chief eng. He tells me that someone is trying to break his door down. In the background I can hear the oiler yelling obscenities and the sound of the fire axe pounding on the door Ok, so at least I’ve located the oiler.
Many times I’ve had engineers pull my bacon out of the fire and I’ve been helped many times by crew working outside their normal roles. I think that in this case the C/E was 100% justified in what he did. But the lesson I leaned that night was crew problems in port are handled by the mate on watch, chief mate and captain in that order. That night it was the Chief mate and I that had to confront the oiler. Not a lesson forgotten quickly.
K.C.
Incredible story!
That hit close to home on many levels. Mine ended with 6 extra guys, a mattress, some duct tape and a court martial, luckily it was not mine that time.
You obviously have much more experience than me on so many levels so I will leave you with this: I have a mostly foreign crew, it has taken me a year but they finally TRUST the foreigner because I have gone to bat for against the client when others would not. Additionally, I lead by example as a CHIEF and put all their needs first before my own because if they can not do their jobs, I can not do mine. Before I used to get, …not on watch," now I get “…onboard, on duty.”
This attitude permeates through the entire ship including the bridge and engine room. While a pain to instill, it made my job so much easier. While none of that is written in the standing orders, it is now common sense that prevails. While none of us aboard are perfect, we give 100% and expect 100% in everything and no piece of paper or no standing orders can do that.
On the pay raise thread one poster stated that, as mate, he could handle 99.9% of the situations that arise without calling the captain. That got me to thinking that there are two different approaches to writing instructions for the mate on watch… One is to give broad authority with certain exceptions or to give limited authority. It is similar to Power of Attorney. In the case of a parent with dementia, broad powers can be given or you can give someone very limited powers, for example, giving an acquaintance the power to close on a house while you are at sea.
The broadest limit to the authority of the mate on watch is the limits of the authority of the master. The mate can not do what the master can not.
A second point is implicit vs explicit instructions. The guys that grew up in the GOM on those mud boats may not need written instructions. That’s not the case where I work.
K.C.
[QUOTE=Kennebec Captain;67713]On the pay raise thread one poster stated that, as mate, he could handle 99.9% of the situations that arise without calling the captain. That got me to thinking that there are two different approaches to writing instructions for the mate on watch… One is to give broad authority with certain exceptions or to give limited authority. It is similar to Power of Attorney. In the case of a parent with dementia, broad powers can be given or you can give someone very limited powers, for example, giving an acquaintance the power to close on a house while you are at sea.
The broadest limit to the authority of the mate on watch is the limits of the authority of the master. The mate can not do what the master can not.
A second point is implicit vs explicit instructions. The guys that grew up in the GOM on those mud boats may not need written instructions. That’s not the case where I work.
K.C.[/QUOTE]
The companies in the GOM have (or should have) a page of standard “Master’s Standing Order’s” in their SMS systems. If the Master has additional orders they will be noted in a night order book or a watch hand over form of some sort. From my expierence the additional orders will be something like “call me if you need me”.
Yes, the oil patch is unique in many ways and some issues that effect other segments of the maritime industry just don’t apply to our little slice of heaven.
[QUOTE=PLM;67719]The companies in the GOM have (or should have) a page of standard “Master’s Standing Order’s” in their SMS systems. If the Master has additional orders they will be noted in a night order book or a watch hand over form of some sort. From my expierence the additional orders will be something like “call me if you need me”.
Yes, the oil patch is unique in many ways and some issues that effect other segments of the maritime industry just don’t apply to our little slice of heaven.[/QUOTE]
That’s exactly right. The company SMS manual includes a three or four page long "master’s standing orders. In addition I can supplement them with my own. However the written instructions serve two purposes. One is to serve as a guide for the crew and the other is as a CYA for the company. For this reason there may be no loopholes from the companies point of view but there may be some loopholes from the captain’s point of view.
K.C.