NAVIGATIONAL WATCH

On the ship. There are 6 navigational watches. Each watch lasts 4 hours. They are divided and named as follows:

ü  The watch from midnight to 0400 hours is called middle watch.

ü  The watch from 0400 to 0800 is morning watch.

ü  The watch between 0800 and noon is called forenoon watch.

ü  The watch from noon to 1600 is called afternoon watch.

ü  The watch between 1600 and 2000 is evening watch. There are 2 shot watches in the evening watch. They are: first dog watch and second dog watch. First dog watch is from 1600 to 1800. Second dog watch between 1800 and 2000.

ü  And the watch from 2000 to midnight is called first watch.

Traditionally, the officers on board take turn to keep there watches as follows:

ü  Chief Officer and second engine keep the morning and evening watch.

ü  Second officer and third engine keep the middle watch and afternoon watch.

ü  Third officer and fourth engine keep the forenoon watch and first watch.

As a rule, there are always two officers in the watch: one from the deck department and the other from engine department.

When handing and taking over a watch, there are some points to note:

The Watch Officer has to take note all of situation on board in ship’s log book, and must not work different things not to belong his duty.

The Watch Officer should check all of equipment which affects to the safety navigation of the ship, mark position of the ship of voyage continuously, lookout all of strange on board before handing over the watch for next Officer.

The next Watches Officer has to check living quarters and public area to ensure all safety and should go to work 15 minutes earlier and update information from the last Watch Officer.

MARPOL

MARPOL is The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, one of the most important international marine environmental conventions.

Every year, there are a lot of waste is dumped from the ship into the sea. They are in the form of plastic containers, cardboard containers… in fact: in the report, there are about 450000 plastic containers find every year. So, in 1973 MARPOL was born. It manages the design and equipment of ships, establishes system of certificates and inspections, requires all ports having reception facilities to minimize pollution of the seas.

MARPOL’s regulations for Every Ship certified to carry 15persons or more are required to have a garbage management plan. In addition, all seafarers must be aware of the correct procedures for collecting, storing, processing and disposing of garbage. It prescribes: If a ship hasn’t an incinerator, sealed and labeled plastic bags can be disposed of in port, too.

If storing waste on board is a problem. So, you can be discarded the food into the sea after grinding or incinerating, unless you are within 12 miles of the shore. Over 25 miles, dunnage, lining, and packing material may be got rid of too.

SAFETY EQUIPMENT

Safety is very important when we work on the vessel. On the ship, there are a lot of safety equipments. Such as: lifebuoy, life boat, breathing apparatus, safety goggles, first aid box, life jacket… and now, I’d like to tell you about some of safety equipment:

ü  Lifebuoy support a person who fallen into water or is washed off the ship.

ü  Life boat use for rescuing people in case a ship is likely to sink and when a ship must be abandoned in an emergency.

ü  Breathing apparatus provides oxygen when we work in the enclose spaces places with toxic gases.

ü  Safety goggles protect the eye from dust, pieces of rust when we work under water, in dusty environment, when we weld, when we expose our selves to environment with a lot of dust or pieces of rust floating falling in the air or with drips of poisonous chemical.

ü  First aid box provides simple medical treatment to someone who is injured or suddenly become ill before that person can have further medical treatment.

ü  Life jacket keeps us afloat when we are in water. It’s used when we need to abandon ship.

IMPROVEMENT INTERNATIONAL MARITIME INDUSTRY

Technology nowadays has been developing and made maritime industry develop with a lot of improvements. Such as: ship design, communication equipment, the crew on board, living condition and ship size…Now I’ll tell you about them.

Ship design

The past, ship are designed with bridge are amidships. Nowadays, bridges are aft, and this improvement help the crew to control ship easily and ship has more spaces to load and unload cargo (ship size has been changing bigger).

Communication equipment

Nowadays, we use radar or GPS to know the ship position. They are very convenient. Before time, people use sextant, chronometer liquid magnetic compass. In the past, we usually use VHF radios to communicate. In the past, we had to use messages which were sent via the nearest coast radio station.

The crew on board

 The numbers of crews on board has been reduced a lot because a lot of things on board will be controlled by machines. And their Health is cared better with faster assistance of the coastguard and helicopter. However, their kill is better than seafarer’s kill in the past.

Living condition

Seafarers have better cabin, they are entertained from ship’s chandler. The rooms of seafarer are fitted with all modern convenience.

Ship size

Nowadays, ships are usually bigger than those of the same type in the past. Because: the need for shipping is on the increase. As a result, ship’s size has to increase. Another, consequence is that quay and berth size also increase.