Anonymous vs Michael Jubb

Chiefmate Unlimited (Syllabus B)
Year: 2022
Method: Online
Candidate: AMD
Examiner: MJ (MCA Headquarters)
Duration: 1hr 40mins
Experience: Oil Tankers (Product/Crude, VLCC, etc.)
Result: PASS
Intro:
The usual online intro procedures. He was very brief and precise. Just took 3 to 4
mins for the formalities. He said he is sitting at the MCA headquarters and asked me
where I am giving the oral from. Asked me to show around the room. Explained the
cheating policy. And the usuals like “if you don’t understand my question please ask
me to rephrase it to you” “till told otherwise, you are the chiefmate of the vessel” “I
expect managerial level answers” etc. But he said the above in a gentle way, not in a
threatening style. Said he will be taking notes continuously throughout the exam
and I need not worry about it as he will be doing so even if my answers were right or
wrong. He said that I too can take notes and asked me to get a pen and a white sheet,
for the same.
Examiner:
Joined the meeting 3 minutes ahead of schedule. Gem of a guy. Very sweet and jovial.
He was very helpful throughout the exam. He wanted very brief and to-the-point
answers; like bulletin points. Once he was satisfied that I covered all the points he
wanted to hear, he moved on to the next question. If you miss any points, he will ask
you to take your time and re-think. He will rephrase the question till you figure out
what you missed. A couple of times he even completed the answers for me, when I
missed a point or two; the whole exam was kind of like a discussion. I’m kind of
camera shy when it comes to interacting with people on video chat. Was very
apprehensive when the oral exam started. I told him so too. He said he understood
the situation since a few previous candidates also said the same. He told me not to
worry, “take your time to answer”. He gave continuous acknowledgements like
“good” “very nice” and seemed to get excited when he heard what he wanted to hear.
That gave me a boost in my confidence.
Questions (and my answers):
1. You are joining as a Chiefmate of a >500 GT vessel (didn’t mention what type),
what are you expected to do? Where do you find your duties?
● Cargo
● Vessel’s Stability
● Crew manager
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● Crew work and rest hours
● Safety officer
● Security officer
● Deck maintenance
● Crew and cadet training
● Vessel incharge in Master’s absence
● Duties are found in the company SMS
2. You are in port, with an extremely busy schedule. An MCA surveyor sent
Master an email saying “please open up all the hatches and enclosed space
covers for me to do the inspection, the day after tomorrow”. How would you
go about it?
● I said I wouldn’t be comfortable doing so, as I find it very unsafe because the
vessel’s watertight integrity would be affected if any untoward accident
happened. (he was happy hearing this)
3. You have to do a ballast tank inspection. Tell me how you would go about
doing it.
● Basically he wanted the enclosed space entry procedures.
○ Risk assessment
○ Ventilation
○ Gas check
○ Permit to work and approval
○ Toolbox talks
○ Safety check
○ Personal gas meter
○ Standby person
○ Communication
○ Tripod standby
○ Medical equipment standby
○ SCBA ready
○ In and out timings
4. What all gasses would you check for and what equipment would you use. Tell
me about the gas concentration you would consider safe for man entry.
● Oxygen analyser & Gas detector
● O2 – 20.9%
● HC – less than 1% LEL
● H2S – zero
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● CO – zero
(he seemed happy)
5. Crude oil washing, how much Oxygen percentage do you need to have in the
cargo tank?
● I said below 8% is considered safe (here he said, “are you sure?, 8% for
COW?!”). I said, but below 5% is always recommended. He agreed.
6. A PMS job came up. How would you delegate the work to your crew?
● He wanted to hear,
○ Risk assessment (RA made together with the concerned crew)
○ Pre planning meeting
○ Toolbox talks by the crew prior starting work
○ Safety checks
○ PPE as per PPE matrix
7. UK ships hours of work and rest hours, as per which convention? Tell me
about the requirements.
● I said the UK follows STCW and MLC, both of them require similar hours of
work and rest except that MLC allows for collective bargaining agreement and
STCW doesn’t. He said OK, now tell me the regulations.
○ minimum 77 hrs of rest in a week
○ minimum 10 hrs rest in a 24 hr period
○ rest periods can be split into two periods, one period with at least 6 hrs
in duration and the duration between the two rest periods shall not
exceed 14 hrs. Here he stopped me and said ”Ok, a person started work
at 1000 hrs and he worked till midnight (2400 hrs). How much rest
would you give him after such work?”. I thought he was pointing at
compensatory rest. He said ”No, no. You said the period of work
between two rest periods can be 14 hrs. 1000 hrs to 2400 hrs is 14 hours,
so no violation here. How much rest would you give him after this?”
○ I asked him, are you asking me about work rest exception regulations?.
He said no and rephrased the question.
○ The person had a good amount of rest prior to 1000 hrs (say from
previous midnight to 1000 hrs, he slept well), then from 1000 hrs to 2400
hrs he worked. How much rest will you give him?
○ Now I understood what he was wanting to hear. I said, it has nothing to
do with midnight to midnight, it’s any 24 hr period as per regulation. He
got very excited hearing this. He said, “That’s what I wanted to hear!”
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8. Lifting gear; inspection frequency and the crane certificate name. What info
would you find in the certificate?
● I said, as per LOLER, if the lifting appliance is for lifting people then thorough
inspection every 6 months.
● He said, its a regular crane; what is the frequency of inspection?” Can ship
staff do this?
● I said every year thorough inspection by a competent person as per LOLER.
● He was not satisfied. Asked me what kind of inspection is done every year. I
said crane rock test. He said ok.
● He said my company won’t be happy if I do a thorough inspection of lifting
appliances every year.
● Then I said thorough inspection is every 5 years.
● He said, “good, now what certificate do you get after a 5 yearly inspection?”
● I said Crane Test certificate (because I had no clue). He didn’t seem satisfied
and was smiling. He mentioned some name for the certificate. I can’t recollect
now.
9. As per SOLAS chapter 3 Regulation 35 and 36, what is required onboard
regarding LSA onboard?
● I got shit scared here. Is he expecting me to memorize a random SOLAS
regulation?! I panicked a bit.
● Luckily he understood my worry and rephrased the question with a little
laugh.
● Basically he wanted to hear the LSA training manual and instructions for
onboard maintenance. When I answered this he seemed happy.
10. What all you’ll find in the LSA training manual?
● I said, locations, maintenance procedures, etc. He said “What else?” I couldn’t
properly recollect so I said drawings. He “and?”. I couldn’t answer. So he said
“what items are required to do the maintenance?”. Then it clicked me and I
said “spares!”. He was smiling.
11. What are your concerns regarding a scheduled lifting operation?
● Crane and related equipment inspection before lift.
● Test certificate available.
● SWL suitable for the particular lift
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● Need to account for the weight of blocks, sheaves, wires etc. when calculating
lift load on the crane
● Stability of the vessel when lifting the item, specially ship’s list when
maximum overside
● Reduce free surface effects by pressing up the ship’s tanks
● Try to make vessel stiff by lowering G prior lifting operation
● Load density of the deck
● Where to secure the item on deck
● Unnecessary personnel off the deck
● Remove railing if possible
● Keep deck clear of obstruction
● Cast off any boat alongside
● Loosen moorings
● I was very thorough with this answer as I had read about this the previous
night in an online blog
12. What is the purpose of a KG graph in the stability booklet?
● I was confused and said that I didn’t understand the question
● He started screen sharing. Showed me a KG graph with a question alongside.
Ship’s displacement is 2500 T and KG 8.75m. From the graph tell me if it is safe
to load 1500 T weight with Kg 3.2m. Please use a calculator or anything you
need to answer the question.
● I felt slightly weird here since he asked me to use a calculator if I wanted to. I
knew the answer without a calculator just by looking at the graph; actually
that’s the purpose of a KG graph!
● I said, it is safe to load. He said good.
● Then he asked me would the KG of the vessel lower or rise if you load this
weight.
● I said G will go down so the KG will reduce. He said “you are correct”.
13. How would you know if a TRS is approaching or nearby?
● I gave the standard Mariners Handbook answer – ugly lurid sky, barometric
tendency, long swell, wind veering/backing, wind speed increasing, heavy
seas, etc. (he seemed fine with it)
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14. You are the chief mate. During navigational watch, your vessel collided with
another vessel. What is your action? (here I confirmed with him, whether the
vessels already collided or about to collide. He said the collision happened
already.)
● He wanted to hear,
○ Stop the vessel or keep the engine running depending on the collision
situation (in order to keep the vessel plugged to prevent flooding)
○ General Emergency Alarm
○ Call Master. He said the Master is not available.
○ VDR save
○ Call the other vessel on VHF
○ I said I want the Master up on the bridge to handover and go to do the
damage assessment. He said Master still not available, with a laugh
○ NUC lights
○ Distress Message on GMDSS
○ Dynamic Risk Assessment
○ Call up the collided vessel to check if they are alright and if they need
any assistance. Give and take relevant information like Name of the
vessel, nationality, Master name, last port of call, next port of call (the
usual obligatory stuff )
○ PA announcement and ask everyone to immediately muster at the
muster stations and do a head count
○ Send a deck officer to do the damage assessment. He should also check
overboard for any pollution related damage. In such a case action as
per SOPEP
○ Crew to be sent for taking the soundings of ship’s tanks. Keep checking
at regular intervals to determine rate of water ingress (if any)
○ Engineers to sound their relevant tanks
○ Call the engine room and ask them if there is any flooding. (here he
stopped me and asked, what I would do if there was flooding in the
Engine room. I said if there is too much flooding I’ll ask the engineers
to be safe and get out of the engine room meanwhile, as situation
permits, start pumping the bilges
○ At this point, I said that I’m a bit concerned that the Master is not yet on
the bridge. Maybe something happened to him?
○ Here he smiled and said Master is in the toilet and he will be coming up
shortly, so please continue your actions as a chiefmate on bridge
○ Prepare the lifeboats. Here I said that I’ll assess if the depth is suitable
for grounding the vessel in case of requirement to abandon the vessel.
Ship is the best lifeboat, until it is not. He agreed.
○ At this point he said, are you forgetting something? I thought he meant
record keeping. I said that would be my last thought, as I have to keep
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people, environment and property first. Recordkeeping can stay behind
at the moment. Anyways the VDR is still recording.
○ He said “You are right. But what if you are forgetting something?”. I got
confused here. I said I’ll use the emergency checklist. That’s what he
wanted to hear. He asked me where I’ll find the checklist. I said
company SMS and emergency checklist file
○ I also wanted to talk about the ‘Recovery of Persons from water Manual’
but by then he said, Master has arrived on the bridge. I said then I’ll
handover, informing him the current status and everything that’s been
done up to this point and run to the deck for damage assessment,
render assistance and damage stability calculations.
15. He started sharing his screen. Showed a CATZOC C symbol. Asked me what it
is?
● I said its a CATZOC symbol. He said “Ok. Now tell me what would a CATZOC
symbol look like with a condition better than shown by this symbol. He meant
CATZOC B. So I drew the CATZOC B symbol on the white paper and showed
him. He agreed.
Ship handling:
Screen share – Small vessel, in a river basin, heading towards the right side of the
screen. Tide astern 2.5 kts. Jetty on the port side of the vessel, slightly ahead of her
(towards the right side of the screen). You can use two anchors, 2 head lines, 2
springs each forward and aft, 2 stern lines, and your engine with a right hand
propeller. Briefly explain to me how you would berth the vessel.
● I said, since I’m new and inexperienced to do ship handling (as a chiefmate),
I’ll do a proper and thorough risk assessment
● Then e wanted to hear,
○ Transverse thrust direction by a right hand screw propeller when going
ahead and astern
○ Stemming the tide
○ Turning the vessel around to stem the tide using anchor
○ Correct speed and use of engine
● I jokingly said, I would prefer a tug in this situation. He was smiling and said
“Nope, no tug available”
● Lucky for me, I explained a maneuver which he seemed to agree with 100%
and told me that the maneuver I explained is exactly what the Pilots do near
Dover. He was extremely happy with my answer
○ Initially, while at a very slow approach speed, gave an astern kick to
transversely start turning to stbd in the basin
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○ Once the turn started I used stb anchor (just 1 shackle) to snub around
in the basin (to stem the tide)
○ That’s all he wanted to hear, he didn’t ask me to berth the vessel
● To be frank, this was a lucky guess. Ship handling is a dynamic process which
involves so many variables. You can’t follow a set of rules and expect the
vessel to react as per those rules. And I was not very confident with my oral
preparation regarding ship handling questions. I kinda ignored them till last
minute (few hrs before the oral, I read a few situations)
Buoyage (screen share):
● A channel. Vessel inbound. Heading North. A series of buoys (vertical
alignment). 1st buoy New Wreck Marking buoy, then preferred channel to stbd
buoy region B, then an East cardinal buoy, finally stbd lateral region B.
● He wanted,
○ Buoyage direction (a dick with two balls)
○ Buoy light and top marks
○ Which side would you pass each buoy
○ New wreck Marking buoy – I said I’ll stop my vessel instantly and check
Navtex or local warnings as the wreck won’t be available in the charts
yet. He said with a smile – “good, but don’t stop the vessel yet, you have
to continue along the channel for this exam”
○ He asked me about the Morse signal emitted by the New Wreck Marking
Buoy Racon. I said “Delta”. He agreed.
○ I gave the direction I would turn for each buoy (he was fine with my
answer)
COLREG lights (Type, Size, Aspect, Fogsinal, Daysignal, Action):
1. Aground vessel seen from stbd. (he didn’t ask me action, just gave the rest of
the info)
2. Next screen had plenty of lights together like in the South China Sea at night.
He wanted identification (with underway/making way), aspect, size and
action. There was,
○ a trawler shooting nets seen from stbd (making way)
○ a trawler heaving nets seen from stbd (making way)
○ a trawler with nets fast upon obst. seen from stbd (making way)
○ a fishing vessel with gear >150 m (stopped)
All of the above were together on the screen. The fishing vessel with >150m gear was
the right most. So I said I would make a bold alteration to the port. Then he said
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“anything else you are forgetting?”. I said “two short blast and a/c to port” (he was
smiling)
COLREGS situations:
1. Daytime – a Sailing vessel with cone with apex down (propelled machinery)
seen crossing from port to stbd of own vessel (a PDV) – I said the usual stand
on with caution, 5 short blasts, call Master. He stopped me and said with a
smile “woh! lets don’t get ahead of us so fast, what will you do 1st?”. I said
stand on with caution. He said ok.
2. Daytime – a towing vessel and a tow (diamond on each vessel; so tow length
more than 200m) crossing from my vessel’s (PDV) port bow to stbd. I said,
since the towing vessel is not showing a RAM day shape, she is a PDV and she
would be the give way vessel. He said ok and asked for my action. I said I’ll
standon with caution. He agreed.
3. My vessel (PDV) is entering and about to cross a TSS (just outside). There is a
PDV proceeding along the lane (on my port bow). I said I’ll stand on with
caution. He stopped me there “You said you would standon with caution in all
three situations. Now tell me what’s your next action?”. I said I’ll sound 5 short
blasts, call Master. He said ”that’s alright, but what are you supposed to do
while standing on with caution. What does the rule say?”. I said, I shouldn’t
cross ahead of her or alter towards her as per rules 15 and 17. Then he said
”What does rule 17 say about standing on with caution?”. For the life of me, I
couldn’t remember. I felt like I’m about to fail this exam. He wanted to hear,
○ Rule 17 a(i) (i) – Where one of two vessels is to keep out of the way the
other shall keep her course and speed .
I started hyperventilating. I said I need time to think. He asked me not to worry, to
think carefully and answer.
Luckily after about 2 to 3 mins (felt like eternity), I said “I’ll stand on with caution
and I’ll keep my course and speed”. He said “aaha! finally, you got it!”
He was extremely patient. I thought he would fail me for sure, as this was
concerning COLREGS.
4. My vessel (PDV) in a TSS. A sailing vessel coming out of the Zone into the lane.
She is on my port bow. Action? I said as per rule 10, a sailing vessel shall not
impede the SAFE passage of a PDV while in a TSS. In this situation, the sailing
vessel is not impeding my safe passage, so I’ll take action as per rule 18 and
keep clear of her. So two short blasts and wide a/c to port. He agreed.
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Restricted visibility situation:
1. Showed me a radar plot. My vessel is doing 10 knots at 000 heading. 2 vessels
both doing 5 knots, one on my stbd bow (about 4 points) and one abaft my stbd
beam. I was expecting an OAW plot, but this was a mock radar display and the
display was on Relative motion. So the targets were showing their relative
vectors. Both targets had a CPA around 0.2 nm and TCPA 60 mins. What’s your
action? Tell me what would be your action with respect to each target and
your final decision.
● I had lost my confidence from the previous Standon with caution-situation. So
for this RV question I took my own sweet time. Then I said ”I would slow
down”. I dunno if he was satisfied with my answer. He didn’t show any
emotion.
2. Showed me another restricted visibility radar screen. Similar condition; two
vessels, one almost right ahead; slightly to the port of my heading. Another
vessel abaft my stbd beam. CPA 0.2 nm, TCPA 60 mins, speeds around 5 knots.
Asked me to explain the actions with respect to each targets and my final
action. After some explaining, as a final action, I said ”I will do a bold
alteration to port”. Here he asked me, how much alteration. I said, so much to
be readily apparent to the other vessel observing by radar. He wanted a figure.
I said 30 to 40 degrees alteration. He said, “Ok, so what does the rule say?”.
Damn! I thought I screwed this up and that’s why he was asking the rule. I
assumed, he wanted to hear Rule 19(d), and I recited it in my own words
(shakely of course! as my confidence level, by this time, was below zero in the
vacuum space!)
○ Rule 19(d) A vessel which detects by radar alone the presence of another
vessel shall determine if a close-quarters situation is developing and/or
risk of collision exists. If so, she shall take avoiding action in ample
time, provided that when such action consists of an alteration of
course, so far as possible the following shall be avoided:
■ (i) an alteration of course to port for a vessel forwards of the
beam, other than for a vessel being overtaken;
■ (ii) an alteration of course towards a vessel abeam or abaft the
beam.
3. Next he asked me “What would a stand on vessel do in this situation?
● I said there is no standon vessel in restricted visibility and that all vessels are
give way.
4. What does a stand on vessel do in a normal situation (not RV)? (he was going
back to my previous answer regarding action by standon vessel as per rule 17)
● I said “Stand on with caution and maintain course and speed”. He said with a
smile, “that’s what I wanted to hear”
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The moment of truth:
Finally he said “That’s the end of the exam. Let me share the screen.” He fumbled a
bit with his laptop as his battery was about to die. He apologized for that and showed
me my NOE on the screen and said “So, how do you think you did?”. I said, I had no
clue. Then he typed the letters P A S S on my NOE. The best feeling in the world. I
thanked him and said “God bless you Sir”. He said “No, no, it was your answers that
passed you, nothing else! I didn’t do you any favor. So please don’t thank me!”. I told
him that I cleared my writtens in the 1st attempt and this was the final hurdle and
I’m so relieved that I can now apply for my CoC. He said ”Congrats for that! Do you
want any feedback about the exam?”. I said “Of Course, please go ahead”. He gave
me a detailed debrief. Gave me his score for each of my answers, one by one “Good”
Very Good” “Was OK”, etc. He told me that I did well except for the slight lack of
confidence on the RoR side, but that he found to be bearable as I can brush up my
rules before appearing for my Master’s Orals. He asked me to come well prepared on
Rules part next time. He said, I’ll be getting the signed NOE with in two days as this
was a friday. He said “Congrats once again and enjoy the rest of your evening. See
you next time”. I just logged out of the Teams app and ran downstairs to say the
great news to my Mom, who was praying the whole time in the prayer room
throughout my exam!. Moms are the best!
A note of thanks:
Thanks to Glasgow Maritime Academy (Capt. Vinil and Shayne) for their tuition,
guidance and study materials. You guys are awesome!
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