I had many and varied training officers as a cadet, some gave me gems of wisdom others talked a load of crap, but on the whole they were well meaning and genuinely interested in seeing me do well in my chosen career. The tradition being that the seafarer trains up his successor, the more well trained the better, and even though it is no longer called an apprenticeship, it is to all intents and purposes. The training received onboard ship can’t be replaced by simulators, it can be enhanced and helped along by but not replaced, all too many of the final phase cadets and trainees that are coming out to ships today have no clue about traffic situations because they have no experience and don’t know the rules, but they can operate the ARPA and ECDIS like experts, poor foundations for a job as deck officer. Final trip cadets should know the basics. Practical hands on experience combined with a firm grounding in the basics is without doubt the best way to train cadets.
Maritime Colleges and Marine Academy’s can provide schooling in the basics which if planted correctly in the brain of the trainee or cadet will make their lives easier as an officer when the time comes, I’m talking about Collision Regulations, Buoyage, LSA, FFA, ISM, Stability, Construction and all the myriad of rules associated, but primarily Collision Regs and Buoyage, if a junior officer knows his rules verbatim then when a situation arises he doesn’t have to start wondering about what type of vessel is showing what lights and what the right move to make is, he just does it, and if it is getting hairy then wake up the old man. If confident enough wake up the old man and tell him what you intend to do, if less confident wake him up and ask for assistance, if shitting bricks then wake him up and ask him to take over, but rule number one wake him up , it doesn’t matter how much of a cantankerous auld bastard he is, he will be worse if not woken up in time to prevent a catastrophe and you may lose your ticket/license at the end of the day or worse.
Having said all that an experienced Captain won’t (should not in any case)leave an inexperienced officer in charge on his own in the Dover Straits, Singapore Straits , or anywhere that a large volume of crossing traffic and meeting traffic is likely to be encountered, thats only asking for trouble. But the junior officer should keep conning until the master takes over or until he requires assistance.
Anyway back to the title of this post, the “Mark one eyeball method”, a phrase I learned from an old professional second mate, who served his time with British India Steam Navigation Shipping Company, the likes of whom are rare if there are any left at all, when I was learning to do chart correcting with this guy he was able to tell an anecdote about whatever port or harbour the chart related to, how much the beer was what the girls were like and how much a taxi back to the dock was, a living encyclopedia of jolly jack information and it was his advice to all the cadets he sailed with, it boils down to this…look out through the window at what is happening outside in real life, forget the Ecdis and the Arpa and the AIS, take up the binoculars and look out through the window, take bearings with the azimuth ring and get a feel for what is happening, use the eyeball method, the oldest and most well proven navigation method known to the seafarer, then go back to your other Navigation equipment for distances and CPA’s and the like. If you pay heed to this simple piece of advice you will have a better feel for navigating and you won’t start to shit bricks when a ship appears on the 12 mile range giving 0.1nm CPA. You will also be able to navigate without the radar if the screens go black on the bridge, and still have a good idea of ranges. It also will improve confidence both personally and in the confidence the old man has for his deck officer, the more the old man trusts you the less time he will spend breathing down your neck, better for all parties concerned.
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