Mills vs Captain Bill Bennett

Orals Report
George Mills
Experience: Passenger Vessels
Online – Belfast – Capt Bill Bennet, with Capt Greg Laird observing
Thursday 6th January 2022 – 11:30 until 13:10
Pass
Please note, as with all orals reports, this must contain the disclaimer regarding the limitations of my memory; there were undoubtedly more questions, and below is probably in the wrong order, however this is to the best of my ability what occurred.
I logged on 10 minutes prior to the start of the exam; I was based in Indonesia during the period of my studies and exam so this was already evening for me, and made sure I had everything set up and ready to hand. At exactly 19:30 my time, the examiner appeared the other side of the screen, and the observing examiner was on mute with the video off throughout the call.
He started by going over the usual procedures of what to do if the internet drops out, looking around the room and confirming that I was using the Teams app instead of the browser. The room I was in unfortunately was using fluorescent lighting which caused the video image to be somewhat grainy and was something I hadn’t banked on – whilst this was OK, he did comment on it. Also be aware that MS Teams requires a much faster and more stable connection than Zoom in order to achieve the same quality. We has a short discussion as he used to live very close to my home address in the UK and then he started with the exam.
Throughout the exam he remained friendly and professional, rephrasing questions whenever I didn’t fully understand what he was asking, and tended not to interrupt me, but wait for me to finish. It was clear through the most part when he got what he was looking for and would move along. Throughout, he seemed less interested in the absolute details and the remembering of lists, and rather more interested in my overall understanding of the topic and how I would manage the situation.
Initially I was placed on a UK flag version of my last ship, as Master
• Talk to me about the masters responsibility under ISM and how you would motive your crew regarding it. Had a further conversation on ‘overriding authority’
• What certificates are needed to run ECDIS on board?
• What advice would you give to a new officer regarding use of the ECDIS?
• How would you write your masters standing orders – what kind of thing goes into it – I squeezed masters obligatory reporting into the answer for this question too.
• As Master, what are your responsibilities under the MLC?
Then he put me on a Bulk Carrier, from Glasgow to the St Lawrence, in Ballast to load Iron Ore.
He bought up an image of the Synoptic chart from that morning, depicting a particularly nasty looking depression on its way towards Scotland.
• What does SOLAS, Chapter 12 say about Bulk Carriers?
o I forgot to mention the loadicator in this, so temporarily we wandered down a path of stability manual contents – as soon as he mentioned that I twigged why and doubled back on myself to cover what I’d forgotten – he seemed happy enough to accept it and that I knew about its requirements.
• As Master, what would you talk to your 2nd Officer about regarding planning the passage? He is experienced and know about APEM already.
o Here I covered in depth about the effect of the passing depression, heavy weather preps, ballast water management, cargo preparations and what to do after preparing the cargo, possibility of ice, but looking at the weather I said I am not going that way so it would be less of an issue. We didn’t touch any more on ice other than those comments. We covered ECA areas, UKC clearance and various other items, including PSC reporting but I did feel he wanted something more.
• What advice would you give to the Chief Officer about preparing the loading plan?
• Heavy weather preps in detail
• Talk to me about Enhanced Survey Program
• We then did Stability:
o Draw a GZ curve, label it, tell me about the minimum requirements for general ship types (we did not talk about any specific ship types for this section)
o GZ curve for angle of Loll – how to fix angle of loll
o Lightship survey
o Inclining Experiment – why and how do you do it?
• The LB was damaged in the heavy weather – what do you do as Master?
o Approved repairer to repair in next port – talked about DPA and Critical Spares
o If not possible, dispensation
o Then if damage warrants it, talked about the 5-year load test
• Company is sending you to dry dock after discharging your cargo – actions and concerns as Master
o Here, it was clear he was after three things and I didn’t articulate them very well, so we got stuck on this topic for a while: arrangements with the yard for fire safety including the pressurizing of the fire line and means of safe access with minimum 2 gangways. He wanted me to talk in depth about P force and the critical period as well.
Now onto a container ship
• Major concerns regarding stability on container ships – Parametric/Synchronous rolling
• Crew member has died on board following catastrophic accident – at sea.
o Note I couldn’t remember the exact phrase of what to put instead of ‘dead’ in the log book so I spoke about reference to the ‘Masters Guide to the UK Flag’ and he was happy enough.
• Contents of the OLB in full.
• What is the role of the MCA and the MAIB and what’s different?
OK, back to the Passenger Ship
• MOB – instantaneous – actions? One of the few times he did interrupt me – I paused to think and check I hadn’t missed things and he moved on straight away before I was finished! Had only got as far as resources of SPARRC.
• What search patter would you use if you cant find them when you get back to the original point.
• When would you use two anchors? What does an open moor look like? No details on it – I just drew it and showed him.
And now onto rules, which were surprisingly simple, using PowerPoint slides on the screen.
• PDV head on
• PDV crossing from starboard – who is responsible for what under what rules
• PDV crossing from port – again who is responsible for what under what rules
o What advice would you give your 3/O on what to do here?
• NUC, open sea, almost head on – explain Rule 18 in your own words
• Narrow Channel overtaking – first explain Rule 9 in your own words – again didn’t finish before he stopped me and asked for my actions.
Your OOW calls you and says there is restricted visibility – actions?
One radar plot with a vessel on port quarter with RoC – I was heading 315° which I completed on the plotting sheet. He then asked for my actions, and then asked why, and then wanted me to explain Rule 19.
Lights including fog signal and day shape
• CBD, Probably more than 50m, Port side
• Pilot Vessel, from PS
• Trawler, more than 50m, right ahead and nets fast
• Sailing vessel, right ahead – this one threw me for a second as they way it is drawn is the sailing vessel heeled over quite a bit.
• NUC
• Aground, more than 50m
Buoyage – explain what it is, the light and where is safe:
• IALA B, SB lateral – where do you find this?
• West Cardinal
• Safe Water
• Then a line of 3, against the direction of buoyage:
o Isolated Danger
o IALA A Port Lateral
o IALA A Starboard Lateral
• Emergency Wreck
And with that he said it was the end of the exam and he would take a moment to discuss with the observing examiner – they came back very quickly, after perhaps just one minute to tell me it was a good exam and that I had passed. He explained that I would receive my NoE back from the admin team within a day or two and it arrived actually just a few hours later.
The best of luck to all those still to take their exam and the greatest of thanks to those who helped along the way!