Third Mate
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 The 3rd mate is often the ship's safety officer. |
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| Department: | Deck |
|---|---|
| Reports to: | Chief Mate, Captain |
| Watch: | 08:00 to 12:00, 20:00 to 24:00 |
| Typical Responsibilities: | Safety Officer |
| Requirements: | At least 3nd mate's license |
A Third Mate (3/M) or Third Officer is a licensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship. The third mate is a watchstander and customarily the ship's safety officer. Other duties vary depending on the type of ship, its crewing, and other factors.
Duties related to the role of safety officer focus on responsibility for items such as firefighting equipment, lifeboats, and various other emergency systems.
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[edit] Watchstanding
A third mate is almost always a watchstander. In port and at sea, the third mate is responsible to the captain for keeping the ship, its crew, and its cargo safe for eight hours each day. Traditionally, the third mate to stands a "8-12" watch: from 8am until 12 noon and 8pm until midnight. On watch, the mate must enforce all applicable regulations, such as safety of life at sea and pollution regulations. In port, the watch focuses on duties such as cargo operations, fire and security watches, monitoring communications and the anchor or mooring lines.
IMO regulations require the officer be fluent in the English language. This is required for a number of reasons. Examples include the ability to read charts and nautical publications, understand weather and safety messages, communicate with other ships and coast stations, and to successfully interact with a multi-lingual crew.
[edit] Sea watch
At sea, the mate on watch has three fundamental duties: to navigate the ship, to safely avoid traffic, and to respond to any emergencies that may arise. Mates generally stand watch with able seamen who act as helmsman and lookout. The helmsman executes turns and the lookout reports dangers such as approaching ships. These roles are often combined to a single helmsman/lookout and, under some circumstances, can eliminated completely.[1] The ability to smartly handle a ship is key to safe watchstanding. A ship's draught, trim, speed and under-keel clearance all affect its turning circle and stopping distance. Other factors include the effects of wind and current, squat, shallow water and similar effects. Ship handling is key when the need arises to rescue a person overboard, to anchor, or to moor the ship.
The officer must also be able to transmit and receive signals by Morse light and to use the International Code of Signals.
[edit] Navigation
- For more details on this topic, see Navigation.
Celestial, terrestrial, electronic, and coastal navigation techniques are used to fix a ship's position on a navigational chart. Accounting for effects of winds, tides, currents and estimated speed, the officer directs the helmsman to keep to track. The officer uses supplemental information from nautical publications, such as Sailing Directions, tide tables, Notices to Mariners, and radio navigational warnings to keep the ship clear of danger in transit.
Safety demands the mate be able to quickly solve steering control problems and to calibrate the system for optimum performance. Since magnetic and gyro compasses show the course to steer, the officer must be able to determine and correct for compass errors.
Weather's profound effect on ships requires the officer be able to interpret and apply meteorological information from all available sources. This requires expertise in weather systems, reporting procedures and recording systems.
[edit] Traffic management
The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea are a cornerstone of safe watchkeeping. Safety requires one lives these rules and follows the principles of safe watchkeeping. An emerging focus in watchkeeping is maximizing bridge teamwork, including the practice of Bridge Resource Management.
The main purpose for Radar and Automatic Radar Plotting Aids (ARPA) on a ship's bridge is to move safely among other vessels. These instruments help to accurately judge information about prominent objects in the vicinity, such as:
- range, bearing, course and speed
- time and distance of closest point of approach
- course and speed changes
These factors help the officer apply the COLREGS to safely maneuver in the vicinity of obstructions and other ships.
Unfortunately, radar has a number of limitations, and ARPA inherits those limitations and adds a number of its own. Factors such as rain, high seas, and dense clouds can prevent radar from detecting other vessels. Moreover, dense traffic and course and speed changes can confuse ARPA units. Finally, human errors such as inaccurate speed inputs and confusion between true and relative vectors add to the limitations of the radar/ARPA suite.
Under the best conditions, the radar operator must be able to optimize system settings and detect divergences between an ARPA system and reality. Information obtained from radar and ARPA must be treated with scrutiny: over reliance on these systems has sunk ships. The officer must understand system performance, limitations and accuracy, tracking capabilities and limitations, and processing delays, and the use of operational warnings and system tests.
[edit] Emergencies
Emergencies can happen at any time. The officer must be equipped to safeguard passengers and crew. After a collision or grounding, the mate must be able to take initial action, perform damage assessment and control, and understand the procedures for rescuing persons from the sea, assisting ships in distress, and responding to any emergency which may arise in port.
The officer must understand distress signals and know the IMO Merchant Ship Search and Rescue Manual.
[edit] Cargo handling
The ship's officer must be able to oversee the loading, stowage, securing and unloading of cargoes. He must also understand the care of cargo during the voyage.
Of particular importance is knowledge of the effect of cargo including heavy lifts on the seaworthiness and stability of the ship. The officer must also understand safe handling, stowage and securing of cargoes, including cargoes that are dangerous, hazardous or harmful.
[edit] Controlling ship operations
The officer has special responsibilities to keep the ship, the people on board and the environment safe. This includes keeping the ship seaworthy during fire and loss of stability, and providing aid and maintaining safety during man overboard, abandoning ship, and medical emergencies.
Understanding ship's stability, trim, stress, and the basics of ship's construction is a key to keeping a ship seaworthy. The mate must know what to do in cases of flooding and loss of buoyancy. Fire is also a constant concern. Knowing the classes and chemistry of fire, fire-fighting appliances and systems prepares the officer to act fast in case of fire.
An officer must be expert in the use of survival craft and rescue boats, their launching appliances and arrangements, and their equipment including radio life-saving appliances, satellite EPIRBs, SARTs, immersion suits and thermal protective aids. In case it's necessary to abandon ship, it's important to be expert in the techniques for survival at sea techniques.
Officers are trained to perform medical tasks and to follow instructions given by radio or obtained from guides. This training includes what to do in case of common shipboard accidents and illnesses.
[edit] Licensing
[edit] United States
There are two methods to attain an unlimited third mate's license in the United States: to attend a specialized training institution, or to accumulate "sea time" and take a series of training classes and examinations.[2]
Training institutions that can lead to a third mate's license include the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (deck curriculum), the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and U.S. Naval Academy with qualification as an underway officer in charge of a navigational watch, any of the state maritime colleges, the Great Lakes Maritime Academy, or a three-year apprentice mate training program approved by the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.
A seaman may start the process of attaining a license after three years of service in the deck department on ocean steam or motor vessels, at least six months of which as able seaman, boatswain, or quartermaster. Then the seaman takes required training courses and completes on-board assessments. Finally, the mariner can apply to the United States Coast Guard for a Third Mate's license.
A master of 1,600 ton vessels can, under certain circumstances, begin the application process for an unlimited third mate's license.
If approved the applicant must then successfully pass a comprehensive license examination before being issued the license. Hawsepiper is an informal maritime industry term used to refer to an officer who began his or her career as an unlicensed merchant seaman. A Hawsepiper does not attend a traditional maritime college/academy to earn the officer license.
A ship’s hawse pipe is the pipe passing through the bow section of a ship that the anchor chain passes through. Hawsepiper refers to climbing up the hawse pipe, a nautical metaphor for climbing up the ship's rank structure. Hawsepiper is considered a positive term when said respectfully. Most hawsepipers are proud of their background and use the term to describe themselves.
Several maritime unions offer their membership the required training for career advancement. Similarly, some employers offer financial assistance to pay for the training for their employees. Otherwise, the mariner is responsible for the cost of the required training.
Since the requirements of STCW '95 have been enacted, there have been complaints that the hawsepiper career path has been made too difficult. Examples include the cost in time and money to meet formal classroom training requirements. Critics assert that the newer requirements will eventually lead to a shortage of qualified mariners, especially in places like the United States.
[edit] Notable Third Mates
- Jack Lord, American television, film, and Broadway actor.
- Gregory Cousins, on watch during Exxon Valdez grounding
- Charles William Pearson, a pioneer Anglican missionary in Uganda
- Harry Lundeberg was sailing as third mate during the 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Table A-II/1, Specification of minimum standard of competence for officers in charge of a navigational watch on ships of 500 gross tonnage or more. International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers. Retrieved on March 16, 2007.
- ^ [http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr;sid=3c91d4046f9587b25d46063179b29ec3;rgn=div5;view=text;node=46%3A1.0.1.2.10;idno=46;cc=ecfr#46:1.0.1.2.10.4.7.5 U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 46, Part 10, Subpart 407]
- Hayler, William B. (1989). Merchant Marine Officer's Handbook. Cornell Maritime Pr. ISBN 0870333798.
| Typical ship transport occupations |  |
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| ←Junior Unlicensed |
Senior→ Licensed |
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| Deck: | Ordinary Seaman | Able Seaman | Boatswain • Carpenter | 3rd Mate • 2nd Mate • Chief Mate | Captain • Pilot |
| Engine: | Wiper • Oiler | QMED | Electrician | 3rd Engr • 2nd Engr • 1st Engr | Chief Engineer |
| Steward: | Steward's Assistant | Chief Cook | Chief Steward | Purser | |
