BLOG 65 - "Certificates of Competency" - Then and Now - A Theory Tried Successfully

To Quote Rabindranath Tagore

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

( had wanted to quote this in the last Blog - Independence Day- and had missed out).

Foreword:

Comparing the divide of (around) 50 years in appearing for and obtaining Certificates of Competency

Fifty odd years ago, an Engineer had to appear and pass

Second Class 'Part A' to join a ship.

Second Class 'Part B' after the requisite 'Article Time' and 'Propelling Time', to qualify himself for the post of Second Engineer.

First Class 'Part A' at any time after he obtains Second Class 'Part B'.

First Class 'Part B' after the requisite 'Article Time' and 'Propelling Time', to qualify himself for the post of Chief Engineer.

It was as simple as that.

Now you have

Class IV

Class III

Class II

Class I

I was under the impression that it was similar in structure to what had been around till the turn of the century.

But no - not according to a discussion amongst three Fourth Engineers who had appeared for and passed their Class IV examinations.

It seems much more complicated.

You can appear for each paper separately or all together.

You have 4 Oral Examinations to undergo - you can take them separately or all at the same time. All for Class IV. !!!

https://youtu.be/5JLX5Ykx4mE

MEO CLASS 4 EXAMS | How to clear in FIRST ATTEMPT | Podcast feat. 4th Engineers Alex, Viraj & Ashish

Hello Mariners ! So this podcast is about our experience in clearing MEO CLASS 4 EXAMS in FIRST ATTEMPT. You'll get to learn many important points from this podcast, if you are really into clearing your class 4 exam in first attempt, I'll suggest you to watch the video till the end or kindly follow the timestamps. Advance courses required for MEO CLASS 4

1) Medical First Aid

2) Advance Fire Fighting

3) Proficiency in Survival Craft & Rescue Boat

4) Engine Room Simulator Operational Level

5) Boiler Course (if your ship did not have a boiler)

(It is advisable to complete your advance courses ASAP especially ERS OP level) Below are the mentioned links: STUDY NOTES:

1) Link : Overall notes https://drive.google.com/drive/folder...

2) Link : Written exams content (objectives) https://drive.google.com/drive/folder...https://drive.google.com/drive/folder... (Dhanush Thevar)

ASSESSMENT GOOGLE FORM MMD MUMBAI: https://forms.gle/WvnD8RLPJqPVw4JHA (Make sure you fill this form after paying the fees for the assessment. Once you fill this google form, the MMD would call you for the assessment within 2 weeks approx, so make sure that you have submitted your e-pariksha form.)

CLASS 4 MUMBAI WHATSAPP GROUP https://chat.whatsapp.com/EgB00YgPx8z... TELEGRAM CLASS 4 WRITTEN GROUP https://t.me/mmd_written

In the closing years of my sea career, I came across something known as the 'TAR Book', which a Junior Engineer carries with him. It contained a series of topics that he is supposed to familiarise himself with, to be countersigned by the Chief Engineer, with his stamp. The Junior Engineer is supposed to get each item signed in his 'TAR Book' every week or so.

When I first came across this 'TAR Book', I had joined the ship hardly ten days back and the Junior Engineer was signing off at the next port. He had brought his 'TAR Book' to me for signing at the last minute - he had not been keeping it up-to-date. A few simple questions revealed his appalling lack of knowledge, all due to his having been given only cleaning jobs during his entire seven month stay on board.

Wherefrom will he get the motivation to ask questions or read up Instruction Manuals to answer the very specific questions that he has to answer in his 'TAR Book'?

In this respect, I take issue with the Senior Engineers who do not even provide him with the basic training, knowledge and guidance due to a raw junior. How will he learn anything if he is treated as an additional 'wiper' only? What if he were to pass all his exams and join the ship as Second Engineer, where the same Senior Engineer has now become a Chief Engineer? Can he expect the Second Engineer to be knowledgeable?

Senior Engineers must realise - and admit to themselves - that, in their age of ignorance, they were taken under the wings of one or the other of their Senior Engineers for them to have reached thus far.

Lowliness is young ambition's ladder,

Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;

But when he once attains the upmost round,

He then unto the ladder turns his back,

Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees

By which he did ascend

== Shakespeare

The Junior Engineer, on his part, should show interest in all the jobs going on. Instruction manuals are available for his study and note taking in far more detail than what a 'TAR Book' can do. In fact, he can be 99% prepared for his Class IV on board the ship itself, if he were diligent enough. It takes effort, it takes discipline.

The changes over time has been rather drastic. Have technical skills and knowledge been replaced by an exam oriented curriculum? Have 'hands-on' learning been replaced by simulators?

Back to the "Tysla"

ANCHOR CHAIN COMPLETELY PAID OUT

We were in Sagami Bay, Japan and we had to remain at anchor for a few days. Without checking the depth, the anchor was 'let go' and the chain just kept going and going, till it had run out till the ‘bitter end’. Luckily, the ‘bitter end’ held, otherwise we would have lost the anchor and the complete chain. Further luck proved that the brake band had not burnt out.

The Chief Officer, when trying to pick up anchor, put the windlass motor on ‘full speed’ at which time the fuse blew. The Electrical Officer and I became aware of the problem forward, when we were informed by a telephone call to the Engine Control Room. Both of us went forward, where the Chief Officer told us that the anchor cable had paid out fully and was ‘up and down’. We realised that the windlass motor was not capable of taking up the load of the full weight of the anchor and chain. After renewing the fuses, the motor was operated at the minimum speed, interspersed with 'cooling off' periods, and slowly brought up the anchor. It took almost two hours. My respect for the robustness of ‘Fuji’ motors grew. I am certain other motors would have burnt out.

As a precaution, we renewed the windlass brake band, as it was 60% worn.

SAGAMI BAY, WATER SHORTAGE AND HEAVY RAIN

The photograph below was exactly what we were looking at from the ship, when we were at anchor in Sagami Bay.

We had been running short of fresh water and were rationing it, to reduce domestic consumption and keep enough reserves for engine consumption. Suddenly, one afternoon, it started raining. It rained heavily, a massive cloudburst. The Chief Officer and the entire crew rigged up canvas sheets and channeled the rain water into the air pipes of the fresh water tanks aft. All the tanks filled within minutes, the rain was that heavy.

All this with ‘Fujisama’ in the background. It was an unforgettable and 'drenching' experience.

Courtesy dreamtimes.com

Chapter 7 – We try out a theory of mine - a theory based on observations

On occasion, we used to get bad weather when in the South China Sea. But the 62 days’ round voyage was performed mostly in pretty good weather.

As Chief Engineer, one of my duties was to write the Engine Abstract every day and, at the end of the month, send a copy to the Office. This Abstract contained hundreds of details and were the averages of a 24 hour period, the most important being engine rpm, fuel setting, fuel consumption, exhaust temperatures, turbocharger speeds, average estimated horse power developed on a daily basis, observed horse power developed from indicator cards, ship’s speed, ‘slip’ incurred, wind speeds and direction, state of the sea and wave heights and from which direction, other oil consumptions and a host of other details.

Voyage averages and monthly averages were, then, derived.

During the first month, I noticed that we were about 2 knots faster at certain times and less at other times.

I had the habit of spending the evenings walking on deck, watching the sunset and also looking down from the bow of the ship at the ‘bulbous bow’ below, which would be cutting through the water, many a time with dolphins racing beside the bulbous bow. That used to keep me fascinated.

I remembered my first sight of a bulbous bow from the late 1960s, when I was still in College. One of the ships had come up the Hooghly river with a crudely riveted-on bulbous bow. Now it is a streamlined affair, well designed and aesthetically better looking.

A ‘Bulbous bow’ is for the purpose of reducing drag, increasing speed for a lower fuel consumption. Different configurations of bulbous bows give different results. In this, each ship is different.

Quoting Wikipedia:

“A bulbous bow is a protruding bulb at the bow (or front) of a ship just below the waterline. The bulb modifies the way the water flows around the hull, reducing drag and thus increasing speed, range, fuel efficiency, and stability. Large ships with bulbous bows generally have twelve to fifteen percent better fuel efficiency than similar vessels without them. A bulbous bow also increases the buoyancy of the forward part and hence reduces the pitching of the ship to a small degree.

A conventionally shaped bow causes a bow wave. A bulb alone forces the water to flow up and over it forming a trough. Thus, if a bulb is added to a conventional bow at the proper position, the bulb trough coincides with the crest of the bow wave, and the two cancel out, reducing the vessel's wake. While inducing another wave stream saps energy from the ship, cancelling out the second wave stream at the bow changes the pressure distribution along the hull, thereby reducing wave resistance. The effect that pressure distribution has on a surface is known as the form effect.”

The combined influence of a subsurface bulb and a conventional bow on wave formation where the wave created by the bulb cancels that created by the conventional bow

• 1. Profile of bow with bulb

• 2. Profile of bow without bulb

• 3. Wave created by bulb

• 4. Wave created by conventional bow

• 5. Waterline and region of cancelled waves

A typical Bulbous Bow shown below.

Courtesy Reddit

Depending upon how much cargo is carried, how the ship is ballasted and a whole lot of other factors, the bulbous bow immersion is less at times and more at other times. For example, bulk carriers and tankers have extremes of immersion of the bulbous bow – either immersed fully and well below the water line when loaded or partially immersed when on full ballast or completely out of the water when in a partly ballasted condition. For General Cargo ships, Multi Purpose Carriers, Car Carriers and the like, the immersion is not as extreme and is dependent on how the ship is loaded with cargo and how it is ballasted. Depending on stresses, tanks are ballasted or de-ballasted to suit.

This constant activity of mine of watching the bulbous bow at sea and the water flow paid dividends one day when, in a ‘Eureka’ moment, I realised the ship was doing higher speeds when the bulbous bow was immersed a certain amount, about 60% immersion. Combining this with the figures I was entering into the 'Engine Abstract', it was easy for the Chief Officer to figure out what the draft was under those conditions.

I explained it to the Captain with facts and figures. In the modern day world, I would have used an ‘Excel’ application, drawn graphs to explain. I did the best I could with the facts and figures that I had. The Captain, more to humour me than anything else, asked the Chief Officer to work closely with me to get the desired draft. We had to take into consideration the vessel’s dip forward – sometimes as much as 40 cms – when the vessel picks up and goes to full speed.

Within 2 weeks, we hit it right. After that, the vessel was making 1.8 to 2.2 knots more than average – all for the same revolutions and fuel consumption – and making port much earlier than the printed schedule. After a month or so, we found ourselves making the 62 day round voyage in 57 days. Willine had to revise the printed schedule.

I ensured this was adapted on the other ships I sailed on.

Chapter 8 – What I Learnt on the ‘Tysla’ – What Were My Takeaways.

A beautiful ship, very good and reliable equipment and machinery, a pleasure to work on – what more can an Engineer want? I enjoyed my work, in spite of a busy and tight schedule and in spite of reduced staffing. Eight months passed before I even realised it. It was a very satisfying tenure.

I added Sulzer engines to the list of engines that I had come to know very well, along with MAN and B&W engines.

I learnt how to cope and assuage a situation where there was tension in the air, as was the case when I joined the Tysla.

I felt I had become better at handling of personnel. A ‘soft’ approach was needed to restore the confidence of a shattered 2nd Engineer. A ‘hard’ approach was needed for a belligerent Fitter to be put in place without sacking him. A ‘firm’ approach was needed to put an end to the drinking conclave of the Captain, Fitter and Electrician.

I had always thought of myself as average in intelligence, but I realised that if I were to give myself time and immerse myself in a particular thought, I can come up with solutions to either solve a problem or improve a given situation.

Since my outlook was to gain the cooperation of all, I found that inter departmental animosities dissipated away. I was gaining a reputation where ship’s staff wanted to sail with me, as I was firm and honest in my approach.

Rangan

===== Continued in Blog 66 ======