The Technical Head is always the Chief engineer, and he must be allowed to make decisions on technical matters. The master, on the other hand, listens like a puppet to company superintendents daily and always says YES, sir, irrespective of whether there is a fault in the technical issues on the vessel to gain a good name in his career. I am a very senior Chief engineer and have seen all these things where technical breakdowns were appraised to the Master, and the Master never took overriding authority, and finally, a BIG INCIDENT happens. What is known and seen to all is the DELI incident. Technically, it's all under wraps, but everything will be out after everything is settled.
Then there’s a serious issue with the onboard management & that needs to be addressed first ! All C/E’s certainly are the technical heads and have the authority to take a final decision on the E/R machineries & take the necessary actions accordingly. AND all Masters are not puppets . If a C/E is courage enough to tell the Master / company the vessel cannot sail out from the port with the existing machinery condition, no sensible Master will take the ship out from the berth. If the Master tries to act otherwise, in these days of excellent communication systems, the C/E can easily and directly approach the office and inform them about the seriousness of the issue. But many won’t do that, because they are afraid of their position and start doubting their own abilities. I have successfully commanded ships ( tankers, mostly VLCC’s )for 3 decades with Indian, Croatian, Sri Lankan, Latvian , Romanian, Filipino and even British C/E’s with the best team work. Sir, however very senior you are…don’t be judgmental.
Agree. The owner should continuously be monitoring his ship & be aware of what’s happening on board, especially with respect to safety. With regard to overriding authority for C/E, my view & experience is as below Overriding authority to more than one person on board may not be good idea & is better to be restricted to the Master. The ship’s personnel are expected to work as one team. The C/E should make the Master aware of the issues & difficulties in the E/R in the most transparent manner. The Master who is the team leader should work on it in a diligent manner and exercise the overriding authority as required. A meeting by all the top 4 officers should be conducted daily at a specified time to discuss all the issues on board ( Technical, operational, safety, crew management etc ) recorded and actions taken accordingly. I don’t know how many management companies have this procedure in their manuals.
The Technical Head is always the Chief engineer, and he must be allowed to make decisions on technical matters. The master, on the other hand, listens like a puppet to company superintendents daily and always says YES, sir, irrespective of whether there is a fault in the technical issues on the vessel to gain a good name in his career. I am a very senior Chief engineer and have seen all these things where technical breakdowns were appraised to the Master, and the Master never took overriding authority, and finally, a BIG INCIDENT happens. What is known and seen to all is the DELI incident. Technically, it's all under wraps, but everything will be out after everything is settled.
Then there’s a serious issue with the onboard management & that needs to be addressed first !
All C/E’s certainly are the technical heads and have the authority to take a final decision on the E/R machineries & take the necessary actions accordingly.
AND all Masters are not puppets .
If a C/E is courage enough to tell the Master / company the vessel cannot sail out from the port with the existing machinery condition, no sensible Master will take the ship out from the berth. If the Master tries to act otherwise, in these days of excellent communication systems, the C/E can easily and directly approach the office and inform them about the seriousness of the issue. But many won’t do that, because they are afraid of their position and start doubting their own abilities.
I have successfully commanded ships ( tankers, mostly VLCC’s )for 3 decades with Indian, Croatian, Sri Lankan, Latvian , Romanian, Filipino and even British C/E’s with the best team work.
Sir, however very senior you are…don’t be judgmental.
Great video. Thank you!
You are welcome!
Agree. The owner should continuously be monitoring his ship & be aware of what’s happening on board, especially with respect to safety.
With regard to overriding authority for C/E, my view & experience is as below
Overriding authority to more than one person on board may not be good idea & is better to be restricted to the Master. The ship’s personnel are expected to work as one team. The C/E should make the Master aware of the issues & difficulties in the E/R in the most transparent manner. The Master who is the team leader should work on it in a diligent manner and exercise the overriding authority as required.
A meeting by all the top 4 officers should be conducted daily at a specified time to discuss all the issues on board ( Technical, operational, safety, crew management etc ) recorded and actions taken accordingly.
I don’t know how many management companies have this procedure in their manuals.
its crazy what happened to that Baltimore bridge
True
interesting