Reminds me of a story I heard a long time ago while working on s Sea-land ship:
A cocky young second mate, from Kings Point, that had a habit of reading Playboy while in the bridge head. On a dark night, while he was enjoying his time in the head, the Captain entered the bridge and sat in his chair. The second mate came out of the head, walked to the captain’s chair, propped himself up and sat right in the Captain’s lap.
I would pay good money to witness something like that.
“proudly stand their 4 hour watches”
What a different world, on a OSV Mates have a 12 hour watch, and we sit much of it.
That sucks but most of us have been there. It keeps the roof over your family’s head & the cupboard full though. What about when your underway? I know some clients call for 2 DP operators for each watch which would mean 4 or 5 bridge team depending if the master stands a watch or not. Do you go down to 8’s if you have the people?
Sounds like just another sea story where you fill in the blank for whatever school you want to shit on at the time.
I hate those stupid 12 hour watches. It’s far too long. It shouldn’t be allowed.
I’m ok with 6 and 6, so long as I spend most of it sitting down.
4 and 8 is a pleasure cruise. There are only about 200 US vessels left with that easy schedule. 4 and 8 is becoming a thing of the past, as is standing.
All crew work 12 hours, on the bridge we stagger watch changes so every 6 hours someone comes on and someone goes off watch so someone is fresh. We carry 3 Mate/DPO’s and the Master who also has a 12 hr watch. We can leave the bridge for a short time to eat but when away from the dock most of that 12 is actually on the bridge.
Chairs are meant to be looked at and not sat in…every mate knows that.
Now 5 gallon buckets, that’s another thing.
If you’re underway then you have enough mates to work 8 hours a day. Perhaps you can work it out with the Master? When I worked on AHTS/OSV’s & had enough people I tried to give my team 8 hour days when I could. A problem sometimes arose when I had enough oilers but not enough A/E’s & vice versa. One group would sometimes complain about the good fortune of the other. Another problem that I had with it as well was when certain crewmembers would get too accustomed to the 8 hours days & get bent out of shape when they had to go back to the 12’s.
@tugsailor 's 200 number might be near the official count but I think there’s a lot of crews who are working it out on their own without their offices knowing it.
We used to do 6 and 6 in this neck of the woods on an OSV but if we were running anchors we had an extra mate, 6 on the bridge, 6 on the back deck and 6 off. STCW kicked that into touch and with DP the normal is 2 in a watch working 12 and 12. When it was 6 on 6 off we always picked up another mate for a run job because the pacific is a pretty big back yard and if one watchkeeper was incapacitated you still had two.
To be sure, there are sometimes unofficial variations in watches to suit the circumstances.
I sometimes do 12 hours or more.
If there are two licensed mates onboard (even if one is officially sailing as AB), we might do 4/8 while out in the middle of nowhere, or the mates might do 6/6, leaving me free to back either of them up as necessary.
The crews keep getting smaller and there is usually redundancy. If some is sick or sprains an ankle it can become a crisis.
Of course its an emergency
Uh huh…
Way back in the day when I was a lad. It was stand. The only chair, was the Pilot chair, usually in the fwd port corner of the wheel house. Best not to get caught sitting in it by the old man.
There was usually a “day bed” or couch at the side back by the chart table.
I only ever saw one silly old codger use it. He went and tried to sleep on it in Fog one night.
I preferred to stand. Or actually walk around. Most of the time.
We had two radars, one forward, one aft beside the chart table.
Both with plotting screens and hoods.
So you walked around. Looked in the hood, out on to the bridge wing to look around including astern.
I would sit in the Pilot char occasionally, late at night out at sea. Always had a look out on duty at night.
One of the other 3rd Mates, had a collision, in the North Sea with a FV.
Glancing blow no serious damage.
He was sitting in the pilot chair, the FV was in his blind sector behind his shoulder.
He was apparently awake keeping a look out, just not a very good one.
In later years on other ships. I had a stool. Which I quite liked, you didn’t get to comfortable.
As Master, running coastal, we do our own pilotage and landings. I quite like to sit in my chair with my feet up drinking coffee and leave the Mates to it. Basic rule everything was cool, so long as I didn’t have to get up out of my chair.
Some of the smaller vessels, with 360 wheel house, I sit behind a consol. I like a chair I can get rid of so I can stand. I don’t like sitting all day.
Now the ships, have two chairs at conning stations in a horseshoe with every thing in front or beside you. Feels like a starship on Star Trek. I’m more like Picard than Kirk though.
Sometimes I have to stand up and walk around, if I didn’t I might nod off.
I’ve never nodded of standing up.
I have – woke up on the way down. But I was very tired indeed.
Company policy and prudent seamanship require 2 crew on the bridge at all times when underway, going to be hard to convince the Captain it shouldn’t be the two getting paid to be there.
I was only suggesting when you were underway, perhaps with AB’s who held RFPNW were on watch at the same time. But absolutely, if what I suggested sounds foreign or offensive to you & your Captain then don’t give it a second thought. Stick with the 12 hour watches which you, the 2 other mates, your captain & AB’s are familiar with. Sounds like you work on a real safe boat. If you all get paid for 12 hours then might as well put it in. Good luck.
I would say that on most tugs with four or five men, the AB on watch is busy cooking, cleaning, and checking the engine room when the engineer is off. The night watch AB might typically spend half his watch in the wheelhouse. The day watch AB may be busy painting and spend very little time in the wheelhouse. When the AB is really needed in the wheelhouse, those other duties must be deferred.
Not all of us are as stubbornly set in our ways in OSV companies… some of us have come to the realization that by doing 8/16 nav watches, one can get deck work done for 4 hours in addition to having safely (and within company policy) manned bridge watches during transits. Goodness… that means we don’t have to fudge our rest hour logs on the boat too… it’s a miracle!!
When I first got to the oilfield from deep sea, you should have seen/heard my reaction when the Captain said, “after you put in your 12 on watch, I expect you to work on deck a couple hours…” I did not endear myself to him with my response. But his attitude was/is all too common down there and needs to change rapidly for safety, and of course to comply with regulations.