Andrew-Paisley

19 Aug 2019 Chief Engineer’s Orals
Started with going through my testimonials passport etc. Asked me what sort of ship’s I’ve been sailing on. Also had some casual conversation bout the ship’s he sailed on.
Questions
1. What are the 4 major conventions
2. Write down all the certificates you know as per convention.
3. Who sets the laws on a ship – flag. IMO lays the guidelines. Flag decides if they make it a law.
4. Then he went to boilers, asked me to describe the economiser system to him.
5. How the pressure would be controlled if the pressure goes too high.
6. Went into the working of a controller.
7. Asked me how the pressure is converted to a signal. Said with a bellows arrangement. Then he wanted to know how it could be converted to an electrical signal. Said piezoelectric transducer. Asked me how that works. Moving on.
8. Draw a flapper nozzle arrangement. Was struggling here and he could see that. Some how got through that. Didn’t really prepare for controller diagrams. He added explain it to me like you would to a cadet.
9. Said he’d ask me a gearbox questions cause I’ve not sailed with them. Wanted checks carried out on it without pulling it apart.
10. How to check backlash.
11. Lube oil analysis of it.
12. How are gear teeth hardened. I didn’t know that. Took me back to crankshafts. Said it’s hardened by the same process. Finally let me know it was nitriding.
13. Asked me where exactly the hardening was carried out. On the whole gear.
14. What would happen if the whole gear was hardened? – would get brittle.
15. How would you check contact was good-Marking Blue.
16. Went from there to drydock – you’ve finished your dock. Flooding. What checks would you do as a chief engineer. He was very keen on securing bolts and lashing of them with seizing wire.
17. From there went into flooded. What checks will you make inside.
18. Ok. Disconnect shore power. What other services will you disconnect. At the end looking for purging the Fire pumps.
19. Looked at the clock and said an hour’s up. Let’s do into electrics. What is discrimination. Explain how it’s done.
With that he said he’s gonna give me a pass. He was helpful along the way. Explaining things at times.
He said they’re not looking for what you don’t know. They probe into things to see where you need to improve. I May have missed some questions out.
At the end of the exam he also mentioned that most of the people coming for their chief’s orals can’t answer Officer of the watch questions. Guess that’s why they go back to basics some times.