[esailor Team]

Orals Report

Experience: Passenger Ships & Private Yachts
Captain Kaiser – Glasgow Marine Office
Wednesday, August 31st 2022 – 14:30 until 16:10
PASS

Please note that the questions asked were to be the best of my knowledge and I’m sure there were more questions asked than stated below.

Captain Kaiser is a very fair examiner, who thoroughly went through the exam code of conduct and ensuring I would ask if I were unsure as to what he was asking.
He asked me my previous vessel experience, type, pax and crew count and the setup with regards to SSO and Safety Officer on board. He then stated for the exam I was to assume I was on a passenger vessel unless specifically told otherwise.

– What is you understanding of the term Gross Tonnage?
– What is your understanding of the term Net Tonnage?
– What convention is the ISM code under, followed by which chapter in SOLAS?
– How is the ISM code enforced into UK Legislation, how can I step aboard a vessel UK vessel and ensure compliance? I wasn’t 100% sure of the answer here… he wanted about going through Parliament to get enforced under UK legislation.
– What is the certification under ISM, validity of cert and what happens at the end of the 5 years?
– Tell me what you know about ISM code and how it is implemented on board? SMS was the start of my answer and then he wanted me to explain all of what was covered within the shipboard SMS.
– What are your responsibilities as Master under ISM?
– With regards to ISPS, what is the certification, validity and what happens at the end of the 5 years?
– What is a Declaration of Security? When is one issued? What is the CSR, tell me about it?
– MLC Certification, validity and what happened at the end of the 5 years?
– You are preparing for an MLC audit, how are you going to prepare?
– You are now taking over your passenger vessel as Master in Osaka, first time with the company and rank. You will be having a 3 day handover with the outgoing Master.. talk me through what you will expect joining the vessel. I went through what would happen prior to joining, company headquarters, and documentation to be send, then went onto joining as Master and all the checks I would carry out along the ship’s hull, gangway, etc. Once in master’s officer I went through all shipboard certification, Logbooks, Insurances, safety familiarisation/walkaround, meeting with HOD’s and what I would expect to go through with each individually, meeting the Deck Dept, Chief engineer chat/engine room walkaround etc. I would say he allowed me to talk for nearly 10 minutes on this.
– Taken over as Master, in addition to the passage plan what else are your considerations in the voyage plan as master?
– Heading from Osaka to Australia, heavy weather expected Force 8-10, what precautions would you take on your passenger vessel? I went through meeting with HOD, risk assessment, stability, bridge watchkeeping, night and day masters orders, weather routing, informing the crew, informing the pax and continuous updates, heavy weather securing and lashing, medical facilities, triage if required, closing of outer decks etc.
– Have you heard the term Heave to? How would you navigate the vessel in heavy weather?
– You have lost a lifeboat over the side, what are your actions as master? Risk assessment, corrective action plan, request dispensation, danger message to vessels in vicinity and MRCC/Port State, inform DPA/Marine & Technical Superintendent, request assistance from shoreside for new lifeboat and inspection of davits in next port etc.

We then moved onto buoyage where he shared his screen I was shown the below buoys and asked to identify and the light;
– IALA Region A Preferred Channel to STBD
– IALA Region B Preferred Channel to STBD
– I was then given an East and West cardinal while heading due South, identify and action?
– Given 3 buoys in a row and wanted action for each one
– Emergency wreck buoy, what is it and lights?

– What do you understand about the Paris MoU, how does it work and what is it based upon?

Moved onto lights on a smarty board at this point. I had to identify the vessel and mention day shape and fog signal for all;
– CBD >50M in length
– RAM >50M in length… then put me on CBD and stated risk of collision existed what action would I take?
– NUC underway
– FV with outlying gear
– Trawler shooting nets, then asked what additional flag she would hoist
– What day shape would I expect for a vessel aground, and sound signal if more than 100m… what additional signals could be added U or L

Moved onto manoeuvring after lights.
– How would I prepare for anchoring the vessel, went though all pre actions, briefings, teams, actions of preparing the anchorgin equipment, PPE, Communication procedures and then how I would lower the anchor
– Then got given N’ly Current and E’ly Wind asked how would I approach and drop anchor, I asked for specific current or wind speed, he said just assume one of them is stronger how would you approach?

That was the end of the exam, Captain Kaiser is very fair and if I forgot information within my answers, he would ask follow up questions or probe to get the information out of me. We debriefed for around 10 minutes afterwards and that was it. As mentioned above, more questions were asked but the whole experience already feels like a blur!

A big thank you to Captain Vinil and everyone at GMA for their help with my Orals Prep Course and to everyone at Whitehorse Maritime for their continued support and tuition throughout! I certainly couldn’t have done it without your help and guidance!

[Author]

Posts