Whilst navigating through my career at sea I have noted a serious lack of engineering stories of note. Peculiar in the sense that the whole purpose behind the profession is Engineering and that a minimum of eight hours a day was always spent down the engine room. It is not my aim to bore you with such occurrences as even I find engineering a subject that I like to avoid. So I will confine such to one chapter and one chapter only to which you are quite welcome to skip. And that chapter is this chapter.

I regard myself today as an extremely competent Engineer one that has a great future in the field and one who is regarded by others as excellent! Superintendents, sea-going Engineers and Captains alike. This though was not the case when I started, as I never really showed any proficiency in the field until I became a Chief Engineer on the coast. I would surmise from this that I work far better when in charge than under the control or authority of others.

Engineers at sea tend to fit into different categories. You get those that excel in the routine duties required, others that show promise in the solving of unexpected problems, those that prefer mechanical problems and those that have aptitudes towards electrical work or refrigeration. And it takes all types to make a ship run smoothly. As a recognized engineer I have found that I hate, with a passion, the routine duties preferring to scratch my head over some problem until I come up with an answer than just to open and shut valves or such like. I favor fixing a broken machine than doing routine maintenance and I have shown great insight into the solving of electrical problems. Refrigeration? Ach, a little bit but not my scene.

Being a junior Officer on a deep-sea vessel you are never given the opportunity to break free and utilize your skills. Always monitored by your superiors who prefer to act and do themselves than to delegate responsibility. A good example of this comes from the deck side where a mate can rise to the rank of Chief Officer without ever having the chance to maneuver the vessel alongside. This duty being regarded as the Captains responsibility so a Chief Officer, recently promoted to Captain is still unaware of his ability to do such. Often a fear exists of delegating responsibility only to find that it is being done better or faster than they can do it themselves.

Jumping from Fourth Engineer to Chief on the coast threw me into the thick of it all. Suddenly I had to make decisions, suddenly I had to fix things using my brain and hands without recourse to others more experienced. I was the man on the spot and all responsibility lay on my shoulders.

Once when alongside a stone berth I had a serious problem. The ballast pump decided to blow the discharge gauge off its mounting, thus spraying the whole switchboard with salt water. The end result, that of a blacked out ship. Wow, what do I do next? Natural to stone berths around the UK coast you come in on the high tide and have to get off before the tide goes out otherwise you end up sitting on the bottom until the tide returns. I noted that the main engine was still running and worked out that it would stop when the control air pressure fell below a certain point. I informed the Captain of such and we decided to back away from the dock and drop our anchor, doing this using hand steering. It worked and we dropped the anchor just seconds before the engine ground to a stop. Through trial and error I worked inside that switchboard for twelve hours cleaning and drying out water and replacing burnt contact where found and eventually I managed to regain power and off we set. But the whole episode taught me more than all the college and sea time combined. Through necessity I stumbled my way through a switchboard, tracing wires and busbars, ripping apart and rebuilding contacts and breakers and generally teaching myself as I went.

Another time I had both generators packing up on me at the same time and I resorted to the installation of a deck generator, thus giving me time to overhaul the mains. Again this was the first time for me to do a certain type of work and it was far removed from the theory that college taught us.

So as a cadet you gain theory, as a fourth you gain experience but it is only when you become a chief that you gain responsibility and that, as far as I am concerned, is the making or breaking of being a good engineer at sea.

As a junior engineer I was told frequently that I did not have what it takes to succeed. Yet here I am today, regarded as one of the most qualified and experienced engineers in the fleet. Requested for return by most of the Captains I have sailed with and given the most difficult of tasks by the Office Superintendents.

One topic that always rankles with me is the ignorance that is associated with the knowledge that a sea-going engineer possesses. I say this with regard to "landlubbers" who have no clue as to what an engineer at sea does during his time onboard. For example when a domestic fridge in somebody's house has broken down, upon suggesting that I look at it I have been informed that I know nothing about fridge's. The same goes for car engines, hot water boilers, lawnmowers and a whole variety of domestic products that breakdown. Once when I told a friend that I would rewire his attic he laughed in disbelief, still retaining disbelief even after I did it. Many people say this to me:

"But what do you do all day"

Let me explain about a sea-going engineer. He is a person that had been taught the theory behind 99 percent of mechanical equipment available on the domestic market. He has grown up to solve problems regarding thousands of different types of mechanical and electrical problems far more complicated than is found ashore. He becomes adept at finding a solution without raising a finger, rapid in his judgment and faster in the fixing of such. On a ship he faces industrial size refrigeration units, complicated and outdated air conditioning units, Main Engines bigger than your house, electrical generators of every make possible, pumps of every style, make and capacity, pipe lines resembling spaghetti, electrical breakers from Noah's ark and electronic gadgets designed by robots. As far as I am concerned there is nothing ashore that will phase a sea-going engineer. Apart from say a nuclear power plant or a some part of an American missile. But even then he will have a grasp as to what is involved and, with his ability to solve, he will soon get to grips with such. His skills extend beyond engineering problems to welding, fitting, computing and as far removed as to naval architecture.

In summary I regard a ships Engineer as one of the most adept and versatile groupings of engineers today. As we say "he knows a little bit of everything and allot of nothing". But the allot of nothing is easily solved as he digs down further, learning and adapting as he goes. So what do we do all day? Eh?. Okay let me ask a few questions instead and maybe I will get your brains ticking, instead of me rambling on for hours. Where does a ship get its fuel from? Who starts and stops generators and Main Engines? What sort of maintenance does a large engine required? How many pumps would you find in an engine room? Who keeps the ship upright and stable? And so on and so on. I will only say that there is not enough engineers on any vessel to complete all the work that is required or that needs to be done - work always being done on a priority basis.

An example of the alternative skills of an engineer come to light in two experiences that I had. Both involved shipboard fires and both involved the wearing of BA sets to extinguish. Fires are always a threat on a ship, a potential just waiting to happen. Seafarers always appreciate this and do their utmost to prevent a fire from being able to start, through cleanliness and watchfulness. Whilst working offshore I experienced what could have been two potentially dangerous engine room fires. One occurred in the Steering Gear compartment and was caused by hot slag from welding on deck falling onto some oily ropes stored in the Steering Gear Compartment. I went down with the Chief Officer and we managed to put the fire out using a couple of Fire Extinguishers. The other fire was potentially worse and happened when we were under way at sea. One of the shaft generators had been vibrating badly and there was nothing we could do about it. We had to keep running whilst stepping carefully around this large metal mass jumping around. It got too bad though and some of the internal wires must have vibrated loose, causing sparking which resulted in the whole machine exploding into flame. It was the poor Oiler that got the shock as he had been standing not far away went it suddenly happened. Again, I went down with a Chief Officer and using the large portable Dry Powder unit we extinguished the fire. It was amazing to see the reaction of all the crew during these two fires. Nobody panicked, every body mustered according to the set rules and all did their bit as required. I was in bed when the second fire broke out and woke to the sound of the alarm bells ringing. I was shocked at my reaction as it was so calm and relaxed, as if I was just getting up for breakfast. I heard the alarm bells and surmised that it was not a drill as one crew member was opening up the cabins and shouting fire. I went outside to see many crew members shutting the fire flaps and sealing the engine room off. Naturally I went to the deck to see the Chief and discussed with him what we do and it was decided that two persons would go down and investigate. So off I and the Chief Officer toddled to do our bit. But I am not interested in relating the pernickety details all I want mention is the calmness that was associated with these two fires. All ships crew train endlessly for this type of emergency but often they will never have to sue their training. So when it does actually occur are seafarers ready for it? Well, judging but those two fires I experienced I would say, YES!!

Engineers suffer an amazing torment at sea. This torment comes in the form of Surveyors. I shudder to even mention the word "surveyor". A ship is controlled by so many outside bodies, each with their own agenda but whoever or whatever they are they remain and always will remain an annoyance to those onboard. I have noted this more so, in the Offshore business and it seems to be ever increasing. In a one week period we could have a Charters Surveyor onboard, a Company surveyor, an Oil Company representative, a Class Surveyor and a Port Inspector all coming down to pry into the workings and state of the vessel and to make our lives a living hell.

On one Gas Tanker I had witness to this in triplicate. The US coast Guard will always come onto the ship prior, to it entering US waters. The when alongside the owner or buyer of the gas will conduct a survey. Then comes the charterers Inspection of the vessel and finally the port inspector may have nothing better to do and come to make your life a living hell. But I asked a question to the engineering guy from the US Coast Guard. I asked him what they do with all the information that they collect during the inspection. He told me that all facts regarding the state of the vessel, its sea state, any problems noted and all the ship's particulars are posted for all to see. From this I surmised that one inspector could do the work of four and if others required to know something of that vessel then they could access the appropriate site and hey presto: there it is. He did say to me not to mention this as most people where interested in keeping their jobs - sorry, I will say no more.

Unfortunately, it is not so easy to please a surveyor. As the ships engineers we are caught in the middle of two large bodies. On the one side we have the company and on the other a mass of tormentors checking up on our home. As an engineer, upon finding a fault on that vessel we like to fix it. To fix it we may require time, spares or extra labor and equating to extra expense for the company. So many a time things get ignored, delayed or are fixed in a substandard manner. So many a times a ships sails around with various faults that require to be hidden from the surveyor. It is all very well, as shore parties like to say, that officers are not required to hide anything and that all blame reverts to the company itself. But we are company, we are that section of society that have a family to feed and money to earn. Simply by working on ships we lose government and union protection, thus by allowing surveyors to spot all a vessels fault comes back on our shoulders with subsequent loss of job.

Today this attitude had improved with companies realizing that ships officers are not all to blame. And there is greater paper work in place to protect officers but it still happens and will always happen as companies try to stay afloat by scrimping on repair costs.

An example of how to fool surveyors goes like this and how it can all go wrong: I experienced a US Coast Guard Survey on this rust bucket. Nothing worked and the company informed us that we must get through that survey. One item typically under survey is the emergency fire pump and on this vessel it was situated in the f/castle way down in the bottom level. This pump had a problem in that if the ship was loaded it would work, but if the ship was light in the water it would not. Quite simple really and a factor that the company appreciated but did not feel justified in acknowledging. Regardless it was our duty to fool the Coast Guard and show that it was working. We did this via a complicated arrangement of hand signals. Basically one man had to start the fire pump with the Surveyors closely watching, when it was running he had to secretly wave to the cadet who was up the ladder. The cadet would then signal to the other cadet who was on deck at the top of the f/castle hatch. This deck cadet then had to signal the bridge whence the master would phone the engine room. The chief engineer upon hearing the phone would start the main fire pump. And finally the surveyor would see the emergency fire pump running and a suitable pressure on the fire main line - he assuming that this was caused by the emergency fire pump and not by the main one.

Ha, the surveyor was happy and had started to climb up the ladder to deck and onto his next item on his list. Wham bang, it all fell apart. The pressure from the main fire pump was too much and the pressure gauge on the emergency unit blew off, promptly spraying the surveyor and the switchboard with water.

We did manage to apologize to the surveyor and we passed the survey without further ado, him unaware as to being duped and us with a f/castle with no power and filled with water. The subsequent cost of replacing half the switchboard was far greater than had the company fixed the fire pump and far less trouble.

But the above story is basically one of countless that occurs in an attempt to pass a survey without fault or cost.

But this has all improved today with greater control and less come back on the vessels crew. Paperwork is in place to report faults noted and subsequent company action must be taken. If it is not then the blame cannot fall on the officers backs, and they can happily show the surveyor that they have tried to fix the problem. The surveyor can then turn to the office for answers and the crew can be left out of the equation. Not that all is so perfect but it is by far better than it was.

But this is not the only problem that is encountered. One that really rankles with me is that of machinery surveyors for the classification societies. They require that machinery is overhauled and surveyed at periodic intervals. You spend days overhauling a perfectly good and functioning item of machinery for inspection only to find that he walks straight past it without looking or more often than not enjoys a beer in the captains cabin without showing his face. All that work for nothing is how I regard it. And more often than not you have a failing piece of equipment right next to it that would have benefited from you attention had you had the time to do it.

Or the types of surveyor that knows nothing about Engineering. Those that come down the engine room for inspection and waste your time by asking the most ignorant of questions: "Why do you have an engine running whilst alongside, why is there nobody else down in here"?

One of the things that I do honestly enjoy with regard to engineering is "problem solving". There you are faced with an item of equipment that may be behaving strangely, malfunctioning or just plain not working. Some engineers resort to violence or the installation of an expensive new piece of machinery. I would prefer to try and work out the reasoning behind all of this, always with the option of replacement available to me.

Frequently I have had recourse to scratch my head over problems for days at an end. Unable to sleep properly as something that should be simple suffuses your whole system.

Then it can all turn to disaster. You see you may be so busy and so involved in trying to work out that problem that you lose perspective over it. I have often been this way, sweating profusely whilst crouched over a mass of bits, unable to work out why it is not working. And hen along comes a deck officer for a chat, and you stand up and tell him what you are doing. And he with no engineering knowledge points out something extremely simple that you have missed, thus solving the problem for you. Naturally you resort to some excuse like, "oh that, I know about that one but there is something else the matter with it". "Yes, okay but what about the internal drive impeller do you think it requires building up", just to re-enforce the fact that you are the Engineer and he is not.

I myself am an extremely pernickety engineer. I like things to be correct and in order. My motto being that "if it does not work then fix it". Others have a similar motto that "if it does not work then paint it", and this can really rub me up the wrong way. Crews especially regard paint as the life and blood of a vessel. I have seen pumps leaking oil into the bilge and the Oiler happily painting around it. I have seen Oilers painting machinery that has not worked in the lifetime of the vessel, I have also informed crew that we will do a certain job only to find that they have just painted it. I have grown to hate paint with a passion and any time I find myself in charge I ban crew from using it. Clean the old paint, fix the broken equipment, and cure the leaks all being preferred to that can of paint and the paint brush. One engineer recently decided to paint the floor plates. He then proceeded onto the pipelines and valves surrounding the plates. Then working upwards he painted the bulkheads, the pumps and the pipelines all around before proceeding top the deck head and the exhaust casing. He painted the exhaust casing in with aluminium paint which tends to be an extremely liquid one, never mind the fact that it was high up and awkward to get at. Needless to say all the floor plates, the bulkhead and the machinery became covered in splatter from the aluminium paint, basically ruining all his previous hard work. I asked him why he did not start at the top first and then work down but.........well, less said the better. Yes I hate paint and would rather see a clean engine room than a well painted one any day.

Strangely enough the company that I now work for, prefer shore managers to have worked up through the engineering ranks rather than the old time system of masters. It also happens in Offshore work that the boss of an FPSO or a drilling rig is from the engineering side rather than from the deck. And why would that be may I ask? If you compare a navigators skills to and Engineers skills there are some similarities. Both control others therefore they are managers. Both have mass responsibility and thus accept that as part of their life. But engineers have one thing that many navigators do not - they have practicality. The ability to start at the beginning of a problem and work through it methodically. This is a strong point but I suppose engineers are preferred ashore for another reason - that of understanding all the details associated with engineering offshore and onshore. Ask a Navigator the allowable stress on a certain pipe he will say "hold on I will get that information from the Chief Engineer". Ask the Chief Engineer and he will tell you, probably by having read the relevant literature but who's to know. But all this goes to show that Engineers do have a wider range of skills. The way that I look at it all is that if an Engineer had to navigate then he could do so, he could take the ship from A to B, without mishap. Ask a navigator to step down the engine room and run things would be a disaster waiting to happen. Eh, how does that sit?