CAREERS

When we say maritime careers, a lot of people might think it involves only seafarers, however, there are a lot of different careers in the maritime industry. The other careers will be tackled in our next article. In the meantime,  let’s start with the well-known ones, Seafarers.

Seafarers are individuals who are employed by a shipowner to provide services that enable a vessel to move from one destination to the other, by performing ships operations as well as maintaining the vessel and also providing support for the crew members and those on board.

Even with the seafarers, there are different fields they work on, on the vessel. Since the seafarers have a known career in the industry, let’s have a look at the various careers among the seafarers; There are the Deck and Engine departments.

DECK, ENGINE RATINGS, AND MORE
CAREER

Deck

The Deck department has two fields under it. The Stewards and the Deck Officers.

The deck officer’s primary role is to navigate(sail)  a ship safely and smoothly, they also work on a variety of jobs on a vessel like making sure to monitor the ships stability by loading and discharging ballast water, conducting mooring operations for a vessel to berth, monitor and supervise cargoes that comes on board the vessel as well as maintaining the deck and upper hull structure.

As a deck officer, you will have to go through ranks in order to achieve the captain position. This is how it works. You start from being a  Cadet ➡Third Officer➡Second Officer➡Chief Officer➡Captain.

Meanwhile, a Steward is mostly an unlicensed crew member. There is the Chief Steward also known as the chief cook whose role is to prepare and serve delicious meals to the crew members while the mess man’s role is to assist the chief cook in cooking and also ensure the mess room, the kitchen, and the rooms of the officers, as well as captains, are cleaned.

CAREER

Engine

The engine department is where the heart of the vessel is because without the engines the vessel cannot be moved. The engine department has two fields just like the deck department. That is the marine engineers and the electrical engineers.

Marine engineers’ primary role is to work closely with the architect in designing the blueprint of a vessel’s structure and to also inspect and identify technical issues and implement effective repairs as needed. An engineer’s job on a ship is challenging as the engine room is a complex mechanical system with a hostile environment. The Engineers also have ranks like the deck officers, there is Cadet➡Fourth engineer➡Third engineer➡Second Engineer➡Chief Engineer.

With the electrical engineers, their role is already found in the name.Their primary role is to make sure everything electrical works properly, from implementing and controlling electrical maintenance schedules to making sure every automation and computer systems work perfectly on the vessel and reporting any electrical defects to the Chief Engineer.The Electrical Engineers also have ranks from Cadet →Electrical Technical officer➡Electrical Technical Officer.

CAREER

Ratings

Seafarers who don’t have an officer’s license are called ‘Ratings’. Their role involves a lot of physically challenging jobs. Rating assists in the tasks that arise during the voyage, like cleaning the ship’s hold and repairing broken ropes as well as helping in mooring.

Just like how the Deck officers and the Engineers have ranks the ratings also have ranks. The ratings under the deck department go by this ranking, from the least to the highest rank respectively. Ordinary Seaman ➡Able Seaman ➡Boatswain whiles the ratings under the engine department also goes by this ranking, Wiper ➡Oiler ➡Motorman.