Anonymous vs Capt Rehman

Examiner : Capt Rehman
Date : 16 June 22
Past Experience : Drill ship
Result : Fail

Apologies for bringing this pretty late, but I had to join a vessel only 4 days after the oral and that made sitting and noting these questions pretty difficult. But I have tried to take note of all exam question that I remembered throughout the last 6 days.
Logged in well in time and Capt Rehman appeared right in time and introduced himself. He set the ground rules for orals as in MGN. Enquired if any phone was on me and I had one but it was off. He wanted if off the room. He did not scan the room .
I asked if I could take notes before answering the question to which he was not very receptive. He said I could but I would not delay the questions.
Question : You are captain of a VLOC ( Very large Ore Carrier ) and you expecting a ISM , ISPS and MLC audit. What are your preparations.
5 minutes in to answer ..
Please confine your self to the documentary evidences that you will be required to show for all these three audits ?
5 mins into the answer ..
What are the tools you have to enforce a compliance with SMS ?
2 Mins in to answers
What are the functional requirement of ISM code ?
First tell me how many functional requirements are there ? List them for me ?
What are the documents required for MLC?
Your company makes DMLC 1 or 2 ? you sure ?
Content of DMLC 2 . How many of them are there ? Please list all of them ? Donot explain them ? I will ask if something needs to be explained ?
Stopped at Accomodation and asked me changes made ?
Stopped at SEA ? mention details of SEA ?
PSC is supposed to visit ? With ref to MLC what documents you want to keep ready ?
When I reached HOR …… Who maintains it ? What are the requirements of HOR ?
Okay now I will change the Topic .
You are on a VLOC in some port of South America , Planning to come to Japan , Loading Iron Ore to Japan . You have 2 hours left before Pilot . What are the things you would check ?
I think I got close to 15 mins for this topic without any leading question . Few things that I thought he was looking at ( Stability report “what to look as captain “ , Draft survey” What to look in the report” Mates receipt , Bill of loading , Things to discuss with agent , Pilot arrangement “
Question : As I have told you are a Very Large Crude carrier . With a draft of 24 Mtrs , What specific requirements are you missing now ?
I think he was looking at Tide tables , Tidal windows , Shallow patches , Sand banks , UKC , sea suction and finally when I talked of Interaction next question was asked.

Question : Now you are about to depart, Pilot on board ? What exchange would you do ?
Question : He says you have 4 tugs how would you like to tie them off . To which I said “ Pilots would have a Plan I will examine his plan and decide its suitability “
Question : Okay.. he says 2 tugs Fwd and 2 tugs aft . Would you accept . I said “yes “ because I have seen arrangements of tugs.
Question : What are the safety precaution while handling tugs . ( he stopped me when I reached Girding , actually I forgot the term but I explained the effect . He was fine with that .
Question : Now you departed ….. Suddenly vessel shakes and comes to a halt ….what just happened
I stated with Grounding …… Actions … he gave me a lot of time to explain action of all teams ……. He waited for me to use Pilot , call for additional Tugs , prepare for other emergency like Flooding , Fire and SOPEP

Question : The tugs you called have have pulled you out . Would you proceed with the voyage ?Why ?
Question : What certificates would be effected . ( I ended with COI ) He asked to the the purpose of COI.
Question : Is that a Flag state or Port state ?
Question : If Port state comes to inspect you after an accident what type of an Inspection will that be ?
Question : Are you mixing detailed and Expanded Inspection ? explain again ? What do you know about Concentrated Inspections ?
Question : Okay come back to situation of your vessel . Who all would be informed about this accident ?
Once I finished with Insurance he looked satisfied.

Question : Okay you are sailing in open sea and you see following Yellow Flashing 5 . Whats that ?
Question : Lights of FV at anchor or stopped .

He shared this screen and told me that you see a FV vessel on your Port side .
What your action ?
I have aleady detailed this part of story on my hand note . So I will keep it short .
Under what rule you take action ?
I explained it will be Rule 8f (3)
Question : You are not in TSS and what will be your action ?
Answers : Rule 18
Question : Back to TSS , ROC exists what will be your action ? Under what rule ?
Answer :I explained but finally settled on Rule 8 f(3)
Question : Are you sure ? One last chance confirm your answer
Answer : I reworded the answer but confirmed that FV will not be relieved of her obligation and that I will take action based on 8f3 .
Okay we have finished with the exam .. I will need 15mins to decided ….. You can roam around with speaker open, stay close by …
Afer 15 mins …
Surveyor informed me that I had failed because of my understanding of rule 18, 10 and 8 .
In his understanding as soon as ROC collision exists , Rule 18 comes in force , and we will take action based on rule 18 and responsible to keep out of way and that 16 comes to play. And that we will not waste the precious time any more ………
It was a good discussion for 15 mins where I tried to explain my position , but every time the same thing was repeated and I was told if it was Chiefmates exam I may have passed but not as Master.
He wished me luck for future …..