Introduction

This website was built because of the amount of accidents/fatalities happening at sea, its all too easy to rely on other peoples judgment's when faced with a problem, problems like (am I the give way/stand-on vessel), get this wrong and you could loose several lives including your own, (NO, it will never happen to you !!!!)

I could tell you of several incidents that this has happened, what about this one,,,,, the captain of a certain vessel told his watch keepers not to alter course for any vessel as he had a tight time schedule to keep, guess what! this vessel had a collision and the captain of the vessel denied telling the watch keepers to not alter course, who's wrong?,,, watch keeper or the skipper - always the skipper - its the skippers responsibility to make sure his watch keepers are fit and able to take a safe watch,,, do you know that a skipper can be jailed for setting an inappropriate watch.

Do You know that the most common reason for accidents/fatalities is "HUMAN ERROR" everyone is prone to "HUMAN ERROR" that's why we are here to learn, right till the day you die - you never stop learning.

You have employed a Nautical Captain from the M.C.A., great stuff, would you let him command the wheelhouse himself?

Under no circumstances can he command the vessel until he has learned what wheelhouse equipment you have and how it works, how many different radar's are there?

You need to show him 2 really important pieces or apparatus

(1) How to stop your vessel, what do you have - variable pitch or Morse controls, I was 15 years at sea before I was aboard a vessel with variable pitch - I had to learn and so would the captain if he has not used it before

(2) How to switch from autopilot onto manual steering - in a situation I always preferred manual steering, more response, and coming into harbour you can manoeuvre through tight spaces easier

I've been recommending a second watch keeper alarm to skippers of vessels and I'm getting my point across now, having it onboard his vessel allows him to be more at peace when he is off duty and asleep, anything goes wrong while in the wheelhouse then the whole crew will soon be mustered, if the watch has fallen asleep, guess who's going to be out of a job soon !!!!

Would you rather be alive so you can come home to your family, the second watch keeper alarm is a must, what follows is a true life situation.

IMPORTANT TO READ THIS, it could save your life !!!

A power-driven vessel (VESSEL ONE) is making for land and the skipper is on watch while his crew are all tucked up in bed, the skipper takes a heart attack, it could happen to anyone irrespective of age, on his starboard side is another power-driven vessel (VESSEL TWO) who is the stand-on vessel, so he stand-on keeping his course and speed, both vessels are on a collision course with each other, (Vessel two goes into a close quarter situation with (Vessel one) no one is giving way and a collision occurs, (Vessel ONE) sank really fast and all lives aboard it lost, (Vessel TWO should have taken avoiding action according to Rule 8 Action to avoid collision and made any alteration she could have done to prevent this collision, I cannot help (VESSEL ONE), but I can try and prevent a disaster like this from happening again, if (VESSEL ONE) had a second watch keeper alarm fitted into the accommodation then they would have found out that something was wrong and found the skipper had taken a heart-attack and stopped the vessel thus preventing the collision, Please get one fitted to your vessel

I want everyone to stay safe at sea, if you keep at least 4 miles away from any vessel then how can you get into a dangerous situation, ok it will take longer to get there and cost more fuel, but at least you arrived safe

Prevention is always better than the cure

Fires scare the living daylights out of me, I've been faced with fires on vessels, one incident was when a hydraulic pipe had burst spraying hydraulic oil everywhere over an engine, it got to the exhaust and went up in fire, I did not panic, I looked around for a fire extinguisher and tried it, it was empty, left the engine room and tried a foam extinguisher in the mess deck it was full, I alerted the crew who informed the skipper, I went into the engine room and put the fire out, then stopped the engine so I could repair the pipe and check for any damage, I know your all going to say that I did it wrong, this was before I had done a fire-fighting course, as soon as I was finished, I checked and refilled the extinguishers

M.C.A. Certificate Of Competency Tips

Going for your first M.C.A. Oral Exam puts butterflies in most peoples stomach, fear of the Unknown, you don't know what the Captain going to ask you,,, neither do I,,,, I have a good idea,,, but no-one can tell you what he's going to ask, I've seen something that threw two or three candidates, having two captains in the exam room at the same time, the second captain is examining the first captain to make sure he is giving you a fair exam.

Now to the reality, prep for this exam is a must, long hours of study time is a must to give you a chance of passing this exam, the captain is checking you to see if your fit to skipper a vessel, would he feel comfortable asleep while you where skipper of the boat?

Subjects that everyone will be involved with.........

(1) Alterations - overtaking situations, head-on situations, crossing situations, narrow channels and in traffic schemes in restricted visibility and when in sight of one another

(2) Light Recognition - fog signals - daytime signals - Underway or What - Arcs of lights - dimensions of where the lights are placed on the vessel - distances you can see the lights

(3) Situations - Aground - flooding/sinking - manoverboard with searches - fires in the vessel and usually taken into a major fire - collision then rigging up a collision mat - abandoning ship with the act of launching a liferaft - spotting a red distress flare and doing searches for the vessel that launched the flare

(4) Lifesaving and Fire-fighting appliance's, what you have on your vessel, how it works, what life span they have

(5) Risk assessment - what dangers are there to you and your crew - as soon as you step on to your vessel then your in danger

(6) I.S.M. Code - Captains are asking loads of questions about this - it covers a vast range of subjects

(7) Dangerous Goods - Merchant Navy only - you will be given a UN Number and asked to find everything about it - be cautious with this - some dangerous goods cannot be stowed alongside each other below deck and can be above deck

(8) Grain Cargo's - Merchant Navy only - How can you find out if you can carry 10,000 tonnes of grain - what do you need from the shipper - what about your stability

(9) Containers - Merchant Navy only - unloading containers (dangers taking too much containers off same side of ship) - Rule of thumb for containers

(10) Compass Work - What is Variation and Deviation - What is Variation - What is Deviation

(11) MGN 84 Safe watch Keeping - what are the skippers standing orders - what would you like to see put into the skippers standing orders to make a safer watch

(12) Stability - How important is it to know your vessel is in a stable equilibrium, what effects would ice on the superstructure do to it - take a heavy weight onto your top-deck - overloading - stability book what's in it - what is your stability criteria for your vessel