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Maritime Jobs: The Life of a Deck Officer

written by: domanconsulting • edited by: Ricky • updated: 7/7/2011

Do you know about the duties and lifestyle of a Deck Officer on board a ship? Or have you even
heard the term Deck Officer? If not then its time you get down reading this article to find out.

 Introduction
The deck officers on board any seagoing craft have responsibility for the smooth running of all
matters above deck. While their colleagues in the engineering department have roles that pertain
to ensuring the propulsion and inner working of the ship as a unit, deck officers are involved
more with ensuring that anyone working above board can discharge their duties sufficiently. On
a merchant vessel, the deck crew tends to consist of the following (apart from the Captain or the
Master who is in overall command)
o Chief Officer
o Second Officer
o Third Officer
o Able and Ordinary Seamen
o in some cases a Boatswain.

 Job Roles
Boatswains & Seamen
The Boatswain’s job is to act as supervisor to the deck crew. If judged necessary, he will act as
the chief mate’s go-between to the rest of the crew. In some cases, the tasks ordinarily delegated
to a Boatswain will be entrusted instead to one of the Able Seamen in order to obviate the need
for an individual Boatswain. IMO regulations do not designate that a Boatswain is required, but
do call for at least three able seamen on the larger cargo and passenger ships. The work of the
deck crew is generally concerned with maintenance of on board systems that allow free
movement and ensure the comfort of the passengers and other crewmembers, as well as the
safety of any cargo the ship may be carrying.
Marine Deck Officers
When the ship is in transit, the duties of marine deck officers will be to ensure that the journey
goes off without any problems. An able seaman, for example, will be called upon to perform
emergency duties, such as life saving and the operation of safety equipment, and repair any
damage caused to the systems on deck. Able Seamen are generally unlicensed, but semi-skilled
workers and play a major part in the unloading of cargo and containers from a ship, often by use
of winches and other deck machinery. For this reason it is important that they have an awareness
of how to operate and mend machinery. They are also required to have training and certification
for the operation and deployment of a ship’s lifeboats.
Officer of Watch
Ships also require a Deck Watch Officer. This is one of the most important Maritime jobs as the
Deck Watch Officer – referred to in port as the Petty Officer of the Watch – has the job of
overseeing the safety of all on board. Spotting hazards on the horizon or closer by, they will keep
up communication with the ship’s commanding officer to stop situations from developing that
might endanger the safety of passengers, crew or cargo. These dangers may be presented by
human factors such as piracy or other ships, or by detritus or other hazards that float in the sea
below. The Deck Watch Officer may also be the first to spot a situation requiring action under
the Convention for Safety on the High Seas, where a search-and-rescue operation may be
required.
A good deck crew will work together to ensure the smooth running of on-deck operations, and
collaborate with the engineering crew to ensure the correct handling of on-board equipment.

Day in the life of a deck officer on a ro-ro

cargo ship
It may seem like a fairly busy and long drawn out day but to be honest its all up to how you manage it.
Good time management planning and record keeping is the key to preventing fatigue. The following is a
typical work schedule for a 3rd Officer on board the Tasmanian Achiever on Bass Strait.
0550- ½ hour wake up call for mooring stations,
0615- Deck Officer on the fo’c’sle for the forward mooring station,
0730- Breakfast,
0800-Cargo Watch down in the cargo control room and on deck, discharge,
1000- Cargo Watch normally commencing loading cargo,
1200- End of watch, lunch time now with the engineers,
1230- Go ashore for a good coffee with the engineers,
1300- Rest time on board or safety checks,
1530- Bridge equipment gear pre-departure tests,
1630- Deck Officer on the fo’c’sle for the forward mooring station,
1700- Rest time,
1800- Meal relief for the Chief Officer on the Bridge,
1830- Dinner with engineers,
1900- Rest time,
2000- Bridge navigation watch for 4 hours,
2400- End of watch, bed time.
The best part about this daily schedule is that you are always busy doing something. There is really no
time to get bored or lonely on this ship. You do get time to relax and watch movies every now and then
and when you do you cherish those quite times a lot more.
Does any of this inspire or encourage you to take that step for a change in career?
Life as a cadet
Filed under: Life Story, Ship talk — 8 Comments
July 9, 2011

1 Vote

I was a cadet for 3 years, and I’ve sailed with enough of them in the near 7 years since I’ve been
qualified to think I know what I’m talking about.

If you want to get by as a cadet, at sea, especially as a 1st tripper, you could do a sight worse
than read these words.

Bring a sense of humour and a bit of humility.

Accept the fact you are the lowest ranking most junior thing on the ship.Your experiance
regardless of what it is, unless it’s actually on a ship, wont count for much if anything, I’ll be
honest. You’re degree in aeronautical science doesn’t mean shit if you don’t know port from
starboard, and left loosey, righty tighty. You are coming into our world, respect that.

I don’t like it but in the 30 or 40 cadets I’ve sailed with since qualified, the easiest to teach and
most eager to learn were not the degree cadets, they were the 16/17 year old children who came
away and were shocked into learning. Degree cadets I’ve found on the whole, when they come to
sea, are arrogant and won’t listen to anything a fully trained officer who is younger than them,
has to say. I’ve had degree cadets say to me, “I know that I know it, what do you know? You’ve
only a HND”. I’ve had it said twice to me before, and twice I’ve had the cadets in question
confused with work within 10 minutes and had them re-write the technical reports they had to do
for their NVQ as they were hopelessly shit. Respect the fact we are more experienced than you.
Despite our age.

You’ll be referred to as “The Cadet” in conversation, you probably won’t be praised an amazing
amount if you are in earshot as well. No one likes an arrogant cadet, and no one certainly likes a
cadet who is cocky. To engineers, like myself, there’s nothing in the world worse than a
cocksure, arrogant smug deck cadet. I’ve never ever praised a deck cadet for the work they have
done. I rarely praise engineer cadets to be honest either. But I’ll explain later.

You will be given jobs that seem pointless, but remember we all were given these jobs. You will
be expected to make cups of tea, organise the flag shelves, help with the mundane
painting/chipping, cut gaskets, wipe down tanks. You will be expected to get stuck in, especially
the shit jobs. You’ll garner more respect off us if you offer up to do the shitty jobs, I myself even
though I’m now a senior engineer still enjoy washing down sewage tanks and inspecting sludge
tanks. nothing makes me happier on a ship if after a job my boiler suit is so minty I have to bin it
straight away rather than wash it. if you off to do the shitty jobs you are more likely to be offered
the nicer jobs. If you only try hard at the plum jobs we will make sure you end up cleaning the
grease trap, or find a pointless repetitive task that needs doing for no reason. We are experts at
finding these things.

You will be given crappy jobs that we don’t want to do, but remember if you weren’t there we
would have had to do them, and it’s not like we don’t know how to do any of the jobs we give
you. Yes we will give you the smelly, vomit inducing, jobs. But think, in 2.5 years time, when
you are final trip cadet, or qualified you probably won’t have to do them again!

remember it’s not all G&T’s at high noon on the bridge wings. In fact it rarely is ever these days.
You are joining as a cadet, you will not be expected to have mastered the ins and outs of
spherical trigonometry or how to change the cross head bearings. You will be expected to have a
certain amount of common sense and if someone tells you to learn something, learn it. We don’t
tell you these things for our own good, we tell them because YOU WILL be asked them at
college, and YOU WILL be required to know them. Some of us may not come across as the
smartest cookies in the jar, but we have had to pass the same exams you guys have had to, in
some cases we’ve had the same teachers as you have.

If you are lucky enough to be able to drink onboard or ashore, do so, I did, and I had a fucking
brilliant time, but I always turned up on time. Theres nothing worse than a pissed up cadet.
Especially when you’ve just got them trained up enough for them to have a smidggen of
responsibility. I like to get cadets to do the morning readings and stuff in the engine room. If you
are pissed out your skull, 2 hours late, and turn up whingeing that you are hung over, you and I
will fall out quickly. It will involve you opening up a grease trap, or tracing an untraceable
system, or bilge cleaning. Something that will only help me, not your learning.

Now the reason I rarely heap praise on cadets is because unless they are doing an extra-ordinary,
off their own back, job on the ship they are just doing what they are being told to do. For
example if I told a cadet – “have a look at number 2 purifier” and they came back and said, “Its
fucked, its shitting oil into the tank and the sealing waters arse” he wouldn’t get thanks for telling
me whats wrong. If they came back and said they’d shut it down and started the standby one, and
got the kit ready to strip the other one down and cleaned up then they would get thanks, as it
proves they are starting to think alone.

The reason why I never praise deck cadets is that they get enough back slapping and well dones
for the tiniest of things they do. Its nothing personal against them, it’s the fact that everything
that gets done on time and good, on a ship is apparently due to the deck department and
everything wrong is the engineers fault. Engine blows up due to the Captain going to fast for too
long against our advice its out fault. Ships gets to port on time thanks to the engineers blood
sweat and swearing, the captains a bally bloody hero. But that’s oil and water for you, we never
truly mix well.
Sea is a great place to work, I love it, I wouldn’t have devoted the last decade of my life to it
otherwise & I do genuinely believe that if you are willing to learn and can have a laugh and show
just a bit of respect, you will go far. Those are the 3 basic principles of working at sea. In
importance I’d say,

1) Have a laugh,
2) Respect,
3) Willing to learn,

You’ll be walking into an environment of an entirely new language and atmosphere. You’ll learn
to find that table salt is in fact “fucking salt” and the Engineroom is “That fucking shit hole”, and
deck “The fucking deck”

You’ll love it really….. promise*

*promise nul and void after reading this blog

A day in the life of a Deck Officer

Welcome aboard, I would like to introduce myself as Peter, second deck officer on board this
fantastic cruise ship.

The majority of my time, when on duty, is spent on the bridge. I am a navigation officer and
have spent, prior to getting this job, many years in a nautical school and serving at sea on Cargo
Ships and Tankers.

When I started in the cruise industry I had to work my way up in ranks so started as a Cadet, then
have progressed up to 3rd Officer and recently got a promotion to 2nd Officer. Of course my
goal is to be Master of a cruise ship one day.

There are 3 shifts for the navigation officers and I am lucky to have the rather good one from 8 to
12 both in the morning and evening. The other shifts are from 12 to 4 and the so called
"graveyard shift" is from 4 to 8.

Today we have a day at sea, so I will be navigating the ship and have to be alert whilst on watch.
Most people think that this is the job of the Master of the ship – but who could possibly be on
duty 24 hours a day?
During my watch I am "driving" the ship, holding it on course which has been calculated, plotted
into the map and approved by the Master. Nowadays much of the work has become "automated"
but you still need the human eye to be on the lookout for other ships or obstacles. The ocean is a
moving force, and therefore there are currents, which can make the ship drift off course easily.

Today we also have the Bridge Tour for the guests. This is where an exclusive group of guests
will be allowed to look over our shoulders for a short time to try and get an idea of what we do.
Of course the Captain will be present, and one of my colleagues will explain some of the
equipment we are working with on the bridge.

This tour is a highlight for our guests, when they get to see the commanders bridge, and I think
that they often still expect to see a huge wooden steering wheel as the centre piece!

I am also checking the weather forecast and just noticed that we have heavy rain and stormy
weather heading our way. I have just checked our course and the size of what is coming and as
it's pretty bad so I am going to inform the Master and the Hotel Manager, in order to get all lose
items secured, the pool decks cleared of pool furniture and get ready for a bumpy ride. Flying
deck chairs are a major safety risk, so the guests have been informed to leave the open decks, to
go inside the ship, and the crew have to collect all the movable objects on the deck, stack the
pool lounge chairs and deck chairs and secure them with ropes.

We always try our best to avoid these storms but sometimes it is not always possible. We receive
a weather forecast on-board several times a day for the areas where we are sailing but you can
never predict the weather!

The Master will sometimes decide to alter our route if he feels this is necessary but this can also
mean that sometimes we arrive late into a port or location which can cause many inconveniences
especially for the guests, at times even resulting in us having to skip the port completely.
Therefore all possibilities need to be taken in consideration, prior to this happening.

As you can imagine the rough seas also mean that the ship will be moving about a lot. We advise
the guests to stay in their staterooms and the crew have all been given training on what to do
when rough seas are expected. Mainly this is to secure loose objects, especially in the galleys and
bars.

The Master has just informed us that we must reduce the speed of the ship, and find a way to
reduce the movement so that are guests aren't being thrown about the ship. Regardless on how
big a ship is, in comparison to the ocean, it is no more than a cork in a lake, bouncing up and
down and having to go with the flow.

I hope you enjoyed hearing about what we do here on the bridge and maybe one day you too
could be sat here on the bridge of a ship.

Peter Wagner, Austria