hawkins – belfast

Chief Mates/Master 3000
Hawkins
1hr 45mins
Pass

Went through the usual stuff, checking around the room and explaining the procedure for the exam.
Explained a little bit about my ship and experience and then went straight in to it.

You are joining a 2999t ship as master. You’re in your cabin/office with the off signing master. What would you go through?
As soon as I mentioned statutory certificates he said tell me about those.
I mentioned DOC copy and he said what’s on that. Then SMC, what’s on that etc etc. Went through the audit/survey requirements for those that I mentioned.
What is a safe manning document? Who issues it? How is the safe manning decided on? What is on the certificate? Who issues the certificate?
Tell me about the Safety Equipment Certificate. What is on the back of it and what equipment is associated with it?
What about crew certificates?
What would you check for on the Chief Officers CoC?
Your ship is heading from San Diego to Yokohama. You are doing the passage plan(!), tell me all about what you will do. As soon as I mentioned any publication he wanted to know what was in it. My answers were a little weak for tides and great circles so he kept digging.
– Mentioned routing charts – wanted everything you could get from one.
– Mentioned Tide Tables (probably shouldn’t have!) and asked about everything that the San Diego Page would show me if it was a Primary Port.
– Tidal Atlas – what can you get from this?
– Asked if I would do a great circle for the voyage. I said I would check wx routing requirements among other things first.
– Asked how I would plot that on a chart? What would a great circle look like on a Mercator chart?
– How do you know where to put the waypoints on your great circle?
Brought up two chart extracts and asked to explain some of the things – tidal diamond, reporting points, lighthouse characteristics.
Ok, your ship has been told to load cargo, how do you know how much to load?
Cargo is steel coils. Tell me about what you would do.
– I mentioned stability as one of the points and he asked how I could reduce the large GM.
Vessel leaves the harbour and runs aground. The hull has been breached.
The vessel is now floating again. You are going to drydock to repair the damage. Tell me about what you would do.

Ship handling:

Similar slide shown on the screen. He moved the ship as I explained what I would do. Right hand single screw.

You’re now alongside the berth. The company comes with a 25t heavy load. The SWL of your vessel crane is 25t. Would you load it?
How do we protect the ship from terrorism?
Now went on to buoyage. One at a time. Some of them he asked to identify, some of them had headings on and asked for actions. Some of them were only top marks – identify what buoy it is.
Then on to smarty board, same as above – some identify, some action. Asked for the arc of visibility of various lights. For the actions – FV port side and tug and tow (not RAM) port side.
Vessel leaves and encounters fog. What are your actions as chief mate on the bridge?
This lead on to a RV radar plot. He placed one target on the radar – had to say commence systematic observation etc until the plot was complete. He then asked me to explain what was on the radar. 3 plots 090 – relative motion towards with a CPA of 0. I then got a bit carried away and continued to say what I was going to do next (plotting W – I think he wanted to do this..!) Once everything was complete he asked me for my actions.
You are in the middle of the pacific and someone is ill. How do you contact radio medical? Could you use VHF? I confirmed we were in the middle of the pacific and said that only if there were nearby vessels with a doctor or a medic. How would you contact UK radio medical? Tell me a bit about them.
You are back alongside, with a lorry on the quayside that is loading bunkers. What would you expect to see when you went down on deck? He showed me a diagram similar to the above ship handling one showing traffic passing – I said hoist RY which he liked.
You have completed bunkering and now there is a fire in the cargo hold while loading general cargo. What are your actions?