Bhot vs Chris Bates

Name: Shahren Bhot for Master U/L
Vessel Type: Tankers
Surveyor: Capt. Chris Bates
Date: 17th Oct 2022

Joined the Teams Call 10 mins early and waited for Examiner.
He joined the call at 0903 and introduced himself. He asked me to move my laptop around to confirm I was alone in room & asked me to Confirmed that I’m appearing for Master’s Oral Exams. Asked me to hold up my Passport for ID confirmation. He asked me what type of vessels I have served on and I told him I have been sailing on Tankers. He then told me that for this orals exam he would put me on a UK registered vessel as master if he needs to change type of vessel, he will inform me & I need to answer all questions from a master’s perspective.

A master needs to demonstrate leadership skills, what type of management style you will practice as master? – Spoke on it for about 3 mins.

As a Master of a Vessel, who are you representing – Mentioned that I am representing the Crew onboard, the Company and the owner’s representative.

You have an experienced 2nd and 3rd Officer onboard and a New Chief Officer onboard. What will be your advice to the new chief officer: Mentioned that since he will be new in rank, I will ask him to familiarize himself with his Job responsibilities and with cargo equipment in CCR and the Loadicator. Since he will be the training officer will have to carry out regular drills as per schedule and training of the crew for LSA/FFA/SOPEP equipment.
Also mentioned that if at any time he has a doubt, he must get in touch with me immediately without any delay.

What will be your advice to OOW regarding maintain a Bridge Watch?
Check the position of the vessel and use look ahead function to ascertain what will be the vessel’s situation for the period of his watch, any VTS reporting, take early action for vessels, Engines at your disposal. In case need to reduce speed, then carry out the telegraph order first and then notify me, maintain CPA as per Standing Orders, whether at Open Sea or in Coastal Area, Plot manual positions on ECDIS in coastal passage.
At night time, not to carry out any computer work and have a lookout in Hours of darkness, in daytime the lookout to be working in vicinity of bridge with Walkie-Talkie. Have an overview of the deck work being carried out. Check Gyro error every watch and compare compasses. Check Navtex and Sat-C for any Nav Area warnings. If any Distress alerts received on GMDSS, inform me immediately, make sure that both the Radars are properly tuned. Any vessel’s actions causing concern, call me immediately.

What else you want them to do? Complete log books, carry out proper handing and taking over. Make sure OOW leaving watch has completed logbooks. Pass on any instructions I have left to the incoming OOW, check Temperature, Pressure and wind speed readings every watch. Inform me immediately in case of restricted visibility, or if the barometer pressure drops to less than 5 to 3 Bars during the watch, or if wind speed increases to more than BF 5. Take fire and safety rounds and report to bridge. Call me incase any bridge equipment malfunctions.

On an ECDIS, how will you know whether your ECDIS is displaying the correct presentation Library.

On an ECDIS if a symbol is not displayed as it is supposed to be, what will it show. – Mentioned that it will show a black line with a question mark, and the same symbol will be displayed in the ‘aa’ symbol chart on the ECDIS. In this case I will have to send a screenshot to the Shore Based Maintenance and ask them to contact the ECDIS manufacturers and send a patch file for the error in symbol display.

He said for Master’s we are supposed to ask you one Engineer Related Question. Asked how does a Steering Gear Work – Spoke on it for about 5 Mins, but he was not happy with my answer.

Let’s consider that you are a Master of a Passenger Ship, what do you think are the Fire-Retardant measures in place to prevent the spread of Fire Longitudinally on the vessel – Mentioned that there would be A60 class bulkheads in place and more number of Smoke / Flame / Heat detectors on board and with sprinkler system to assist in putting out fire without harming the passengers.

How do you identify that a bulkhead is an A60 class bulkhead – I went blank here.

During de-briefing he mentioned that the way you identify them is that they have a protective layer on them to prevent the passing of heat from one side to the other. I said you mean cladding; he said yes, you know about it but you didn’t mention it.

Which Vessels are not required to carry Lifeboats – I was blank for 2 Mins and then he asked again what kind of vessels are not needed to carry Lifeboats – I mentioned Supply vessels, fishing vessels, sailing boats, Pilot vessels.

During de-briefing he mentioned that the answer for that is Vessels less than 85 metres in length.

I will share my screen now and ask you questions:
Showed me an image on the screen. He said this is an image of a Precision Aneroid Barometer. What do you think is the average Pressure around the earth. – I answered 1000 mb. He said could you do better than that. I thought for a while and said that it would be around 1 ATM which is 1000 mb.

During De-briefing mentioned that it is 1013.2 mb.

Some UK flag vessels are voluntary weather reporting vessels. What Weather monitoring Instruments do these vessels receive from UK MCA for carrying out weather observations. –
Mentioned the following:
Precision Aneroid Barometer
Barograph
Steven Screen with Wet and Dry Bulb Thermometer
Whirling Psychrometer
And Anemometer is already onboard for measuring the True and Relative Wind Speeds.

Then showed me an image of UK Synoptic chart. Asked me what do you understand by this symbol here: Col
What kind of weather expected in this region (Col) – Fair weather conditions, Clear skies, low wind speeds, calm seas.

What do you think the weather is going to be in the next 12 Hrs. – (There was a Low Pressure that was approaching the area of Col, with an approaching warm front so mentioned the weather associated with approaching and passing Warm Front.)

Showed me Current Rows – I mentioned that it is wind rows as observed on a Routing Chart.
He asked me how will I measure the likelihood of wind from a particular direction – Mentioned that I will measure the wind rows directional arrow using dividers and on right side of routing chart there is a scale with Percentage on it, and using the divider, I can check the likelihood of the wind in that direction.

Then he mentioned that this is not a wind rows, any other possibility? – I was confused and didn’t know so I mentioned that it could be Tidal Rows, he mentioned it’s not. Asked me again any other possibility, I was blank and so he moved onto next question.

During De-Briefing me mentioned that it is a Current Rows and what gives it away is the number of observations and the very small values of Maximum and minimum readings for that particular area.
Maximum was about 5.6 and minimum was about 0.3 and number of observations was 104568.

Showed me an image of Paper chart with Compass Rows, asked me to calculate the variation – I asked him whether I could use the calculator on the computer and he allowed it.

Showed me Magnetic Compass Binnacle and asked me what is this pointing out to the Kelvin Balls. Asked me what is the purpose of these and what coefficient of Magnetic Compass do they correct. – Was not happy with answer.

Showed me this X band Radar Picture and asked me what is wrong?

Mentioned the following Points:
Gain Set to Maximum, HL off, Speed of Vessel too High with Land few cables away, Use of Guard zones in costal navigation, Echo of vessels not being painted clearly on screen, use of AIS for collision avoidance, own ship and three other ships with same speed 16.5 knots.
Heading 000º T and COG 038º T, etc. So, there is error in input sensor from Gyro.

Did not ask anything further on that image.

Showed me lights for Trawler making way seen from stern Hauling her nets – Asked me only to identify the target.

ROR Situations:
• PDV on Stbd. Side – Open Sea
• NUC on Port Bow – Open Sea
• FV crossing from port in TSS at 6 NM – Actions to be taken as per Rule 18, for Chris Bates PDV cannot stand on for FV.
• FV with extending gear more than 150m in the middle of the TSS lane.