bill bennet – belfast

Chief Mate Unlimited
April ’21
PASS
Belfast – Captain Bennett
PSV & Tankers
Joining a container ship as Chief Mate
Started from point of getting email from company
Prepare for a load line survey
Standard answer when I mentioned checking the loadlines…
Where do you find details of your loadlines
Loadline certificate
Draw me a loadline
What’s the formula for DWA?
Contents of stability book
Explain to 2/O about loading DG
What’s on the shippers DG declaration
Contents of a cargo securing manual
Crossing Atlantic on container ship considerations as mate
Pulled out me he wanted bw exchange considerations in heavy weather
D1 and d2 ballast water
He didn’t ask this but I just closed the door
Draw me a gz curve
Explained everything that can be pulled from the graph. Didn’t mention area under the curve or
intact stability requirements as he didn’t ask.
Draw me a gz curve at angle of loll
How did you end up with an angle of loll
How to fix an angle of loll
Mob situation
Stopped me soon as I got to completing the turn and launching rescue boat
Can’t find mob what can you do
Why is a sector search better than an expanding square search
Solas Ch 12 what is it what’s in
Dangers of high density cargoes
Eventually drew blank here after telling him as much as I could remember
Synoptic chart in colour – need black and white for the wind scale
Synoptic chart Features
Wx at an occluded front
What do you think the wind speed and direction will be here?
Picked an area with very close isobars just wanted to hear weather not very nice F10/11 and a rough
direction
Rule 6
Stopped me at the start of vessels with operational radar
Rule 9
Got to crossing vessel and he asked me about overtaking, I explained that and then we moved on
Masters responsibilities under ism
What’s a bl
What’s a dirty bl
How does a master be sure he’s complying with MARPOL annex 1
What’s salvage
Radar plot
Ships head 045 one target bearing 045 same speed reciprocal course.
Pdv port side no action
CBD port side
Is it crossing or overtaking both quarters and responsibilities
I struggled with this one because it wasn’t immediately obvious to me the aspect of them so I just
told him everything and he prompted me one way or the other
Light identification
Trawler
Pilot vessel
Around
What’s the buoy and actions all single buoys no line of buoys
What is isophase?
How do you know the direction of buoyage if there is only one buoy
General direction of buoyage on chart and he wanted to know what that looked like
Pilot ladders
I just spoke about certificates, inspections, approval, securing. Didn’t go anywhere near particulars
of the ladder. I did talk about max climbing and combination arrangements though.
How to tell if Manila rope is deteriorated
Enclosed space entry preparations
What else do you do a permit to work for
What do you understand by masters overriding authority?
Masters responsibilities to report accidents
Why do you tell the MCA?
I spoke here about the MAIB investigation not apportioning blame. MCA will likely want to know if
they need to revoke certification or increase survey frequency. He wanted more… so I said they will
look to see if any regulations have been broken… What legislation? I just said the MS Act here not
really knowing what else it could be.
Do the MCA issue fines?
I knew the answer was no here, clutching at straws and knowing this also wasn’t the answer I said
HSE. No they have their own things to deal with….
So who issues fines then?
He coaxed it out to me, what happens if you break the law? You get summoned to court….
He then explained that yes and you may be fined and/or put in prison.
Questions not always in the order asked.
It felt like a grilling and I didn’t feel like I was going to pass, but there were no trick questions and in
some questions I was simply looking too much into it when he wanted a simple answer. I guess
that’s what two months of oral prep will do to your brain….