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I am a deck officer cadet in the UK and having just finished my first college phase I will be joining my first ship in couple of days. It is a chemical product tanker and I will be on it for a about 3-4 months; I'm currently packing my bags, is there anything you experienced folks can think of to bring other than the obvious clothes, laptop and documents? What is usually available in the slop chest on your ships? Any magical cures for seasickness? How badly and how long does it usually effect you if at all? Have you ever known anyone to not get over it? (despite the million ways to die on a tanker this is what I am most nervous about) Do you have to join your ships in uniform? Do you even wear uniform when not in port? Is it true that lifeboats have killed more people than they have saved?
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Mar 1, 2011 00:18
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Tactical Grace posted:I'm applying for a deck officers cadetship.... Everything FrozenVent said is gospel. I am a UK deck cadet at the moment in my first sea phase. There are some serious mongs in my class so I wouldn't worry too much about entry. In the interview they are mainly looking to see that you comprehend what the career entails. Other than some typical interview questions for any industry they will ask you how you would cope being away from home for long periods, how you would feel to be the only British person on board a ship for said long period, if you think you could cope with the sometimes harsh working conditions, etc. They also want to see that you have well researched the career and may ask you about different types of merchant vessel, the career progression/different ranks (see this http://www.careersatsea.org/careers/). They probably will ask you if there is anyone in your family or friends that are or have been at sea in any capacity. They will ask you if you have had any experience at sea. I had neither of these things but it didn't seem to matter too much; they just want to see that you have fully considered it and aren't just going on some whim. What you are doing right now is what they are looking for really; you could put in you application that you have spoken with qualified officers and cadets about the career. Batter on with any other questions if you've got them. There is also this website if you havn't seen it already, http://www.officercadet.com/index.php there is some ok information within it, they are all a bit too keen for me personally but they know their stuff. As for the university thing don't worry too much about it, just be honest and show real enthusiasm for the career at sea. There were plenty of people in my class who'd been to university and not finished it; spin it into a positive experience if you can. See if you can get this to work for you http://video.stv.tv/bc/Programmes/programmes-themerchantnavy/ and try to catch Mighty Ships on freeview channel Quest (it's a bit overly dramatic but has some interesting episodes). Also the fact you were in university I hope you are applying for the Foundation Degree (Professional Diploma in Scotland) because the HND/HNC would be way to slow for you,the FD/PD isn't taxing at all as long as you know how to take notes/study. quote:Basically, tell them "I'm not a 17 year old dickhead who's gonna drink every night, fail half his classes and then drop out to go work at McDonald's." Funnily enough, one of the best guys in my class came from working at MacDonald's.
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Jun 2, 2011 21:52
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Has anyone been on a DP shuttle tanker and do you think it would be a good time for a deck cadet? I've possibly got a chance to get on a DP shuttle tanker on my last sea phase (deck cadet) and was wondering if anyone could advise me as to whether I should go for that or try and get more time on LNG for the gas endorsement? I would have thought a bit of DP time during the cadetship would be an advantage but its not necessary for the basic dp course so I dunno. Ideally I'll have time to get both but scheduling is a nightmare; I'm sure I'll come out of the cadetship with enough time for the oil endorsement, dp or not, but the gas could be time constrained. In the long term would you recommend going down the dangerous cargo route or the DP route?
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Apr 10, 2012 16:21
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FrozenVent posted:DP's not booming the way it was a few years ago, but holy gently caress if you can get your DPO, get your loving DPO, why are you even asking about this. And your tanker endorsment, obviously. This was my main concern about the job market (which to be honest I am pretty clueless about at this early stage); almost every British cadet I talk to wants to go for DP but none even seem to think about LNG (none of my sponsor company's oil/gas/chemical tankers are UK flagged), even though there are a lot of LNG tankers on order. Everyone's going to have DP, although I think a lot of them will also take shore jobs at the earliest possible chance.
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Apr 10, 2012 16:56
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localized posted:... to get my basic DP certification before I ship as a cadet next year... I thought as of January 2012 you couldn't log any DP watchkeeping time without an OOW ticket? Are you wanting the ticket early to help get a job later on?
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Apr 10, 2012 18:29
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StopShootingMe posted:Crossing the Bay of Biscay on the way from Alesund, Norway to Cape Town. We'll be taking a look at the Madeira Archipelago and the Canaries on the way through. Beats working in a cubicle. Hey I might pass you on our way up! We're going West Africa to West Europe. We passed the Canaries and Cabo Verde on the way down and will do something similar on the way back. The heat got stupid off Liberia and Ivory Coast with virtually no wind; I wish I had a fridge in my cabin.
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May 31, 2012 12:40
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Bawjaws posted:Glasgow nautical. As bad as I hear? I'm most of the way through a deck cadetship at Glasgow. The college is disorganised but it gets the job done. I am pretty satisfied with my Glasgow time. In my experience the real learning happens at sea anyway so a good company/crew is way more valuable than a good college. As for accommodation if you go to Glasgow please choose self-catered/en suite accommodation as the fully-catered accommodation is known as 'Alcatraz' for good reason. As for Warsash, all I know about it is it quite posh and has a phantom shitter who leaves surprises in the accommodation's shared showers and laundry machines. I don't know if there are any exceptionally good colleges in the UK as I speculate they have all suffered in quality in recent years due to poor lecturer wages so most of the good talent retires/quits.
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Nov 10, 2012 21:34
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Two Finger posted:Shovelbum, you're it, I don't think we even have another cadet in here. Nah I'm still a cadet but I'll be qualifying this summer. Congratulations! Do you have a job lined up? Is it pretty easy for newly qualified officers to get a job in North America? Here in the UK I have heard it can be difficult to get a contract as a new officer but once you get your first stamp it's easy after that; the advice here is always to take the first job offer no matter what it is for that reason.
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Mar 22, 2013 19:34
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Two Finger posted:Well, cadet, I can't tell you anything about North America because I'm from New Zealand. Oops sorry; cadets eh! Morons think they know everything. I'm hoping to get employed by my sponsor company so I don't end up on a fishery protection vessel.
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Mar 22, 2013 20:22
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FrozenVent posted:
They still do that totally seriously at British colleges as well as vertical sextant angles. You do one as a cadet, put it in your training record book and then never think about doing it ever again.
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Nov 4, 2013 13:34
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), that caused a shitstorm of epic proportion.
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Two Finger posted:Well, that's poo poo. I just found out that one of the cadets I went through school with was killed in a car accident in Mauritius at the end of October. Rest in peace, buddy. That's a real shame, sorry. Was he on shore leave or signing on/off? Agents seem to drive as fast as possible between the ship and the airport.
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Dec 3, 2013 12:39
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Yoshimo posted:UK goons, what's the chances of finding a firm in Aberdeen that would put me through an Engineering Cadetship in the same city? It's going to be offshore vessels then right? I knew plenty of guys with Vroon, Gulf Offshore, North Star and Farstad, sailing out of Aberdeen a lot of the time. The thing with a lot of offshore companies is they don't sponsor directly, instead they go through Clyde Marine or SSTG. I'm not sure but there might be some ferry companies operating out of Aberdeen too. As far as studying in Aberdeen I have no idea, I never met anyone who studied there. Would that be Banff and Buchan college? Chances? Getting your ideal company in your ideal town might be hard and cadetships are quite competitive at the moment. Apply to Clyde Marine and you might end up on a box boat sailing out of Hong Kong. It wouldn't hurt to contact companies directly to find out; SSTG in particular seem to have a lot more offshore companies though not exclusively. Here's a website with some details of sponsoring companies: http://www.careersatsea.org/apply/sponsoring_companies.php
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Feb 16, 2014 08:57
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Polikarpov posted:I did that once, on my first trip. All I got back was profanity. Oh god, during my last blackout the chief mate jokingly asked the cadet to call down and ask the engineers when the AC would be back on. Had to hold the guy back from going for the phone.
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Mar 8, 2015 19:44
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I'm bored of being British and would like to move to Canada or the USA. The only qualification I will have is a UK Chief Mates Unlimited licence and seagoing experience on oil and LNG vessels. Does anyone know if there is a place in any part of the Canadian or American shore or sea based maritime industries for an immigrant? It's my limited understanding that the sea based roles in America are for trained citizens only. How about Canada? Is it possible to convert my British ticket to get a certificate of equivalent competency to sail on Canadian coastal vessels? Have any of you come across any Brits working in terminals or harbors as loading master, surveying, etc? I'm thinking/hoping more of operations work rather than in some oil major superintendent/chartering office. This is probably a question for an immigration lawyer but would anyone know if I can live permanently in either of the two countries and still work for a foreign shipping company as I do now? They are willing to fly crew to and from anywhere in the world but I think it would be a complex or prohibitive tax problem. Could anyone please link me to some of the better maritime recruitment websites for North American shore based jobs?
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Dec 12, 2015 13:11
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