NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Naval Quartermasters and M.M.Officers
From: Joel Jacobs
Date: 2004 Feb 2, 18:36 -0500
From: Joel Jacobs
Date: 2004 Feb 2, 18:36 -0500
I'll throw my 2 cents in the ring. Historically, the USCG accepted sea duty and tonnage in evaluating Naval officers or enlisted personnel's experience. But the USCG, never allowed the carry forward of Navy Qualifications to meet the various and sundry licensing requirements which included in part for licensed USMM officers: Col Regs Flashing Light Morse Code Radar Observer Lifeboatman Ship Stability Damage Control Maritime Law Nomenclature Fire Fighting Navigation & Piloting Medicine & First Aid Cargo Handling Meteorology Shiphandling Ship Construction Drug Testing Some of these, like the Col Reg's exam require a score of 90 or 100% to pass. I forget which. Doug, jump in here and add to this list please. The above was before STCW which the U.S. adopted probably as far back as the mid 1980's. but didn't implement until the 1990's. The acronym means Standards for Training and Certification of Watchkeeping personnel. Today, much of the qual's are achieved by going to highly specialized schools which in some cases, can sign off on lesser tonnage licenses, but not deep draft stuff like Doug is involved in. This shifting has created a new industry, and imposed on seafarer's very high personal costs to meet the new requirements. There are very few USN or USCG officers, who upon their retirement, have taken all the various tests and gone to all the various school to get Unlimited Master's papers. I'm sure there are more, but I only know of two, and they are very proud of this accomplishment. BTW, on a merchant ship's bridge, you are apt to find three watch standers, on a USN bridge, maybe 15. And Stacy, how about the Lee Helmsman? ;-) Joel Jacobs ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stacy Hanna"To: Sent: Monday, February 02, 2004 5:26 PM Subject: Re: Naval Quartermasters and M.M.Officers > Doug, > Currently Naval personnel (or Coast Guard for that matter) are not > required to hold Coast Guard licenses. In fact very few people in the > Navy would qualify for a Coast Guard license that would enable them to > stand the same watches on a merchant ship. One of the main reasons for > this is because we do not meet STCW requirements. The Coast Guard is > currently reviewing Naval training to determine which of our courses > should count for equivalency to STCW approved training. For example the > Coast Guard has determined that Basic Training (boot camp) meets the > requirements for STCW basic safety, with the exception of exposure suit > training. Hopefully it won't be long before we can get credit for our > training and it will be common for Naval personnel to be > licensed(although legally the crew of a Navy ship still won't be > required to be licensed). > I hope you didn't take my comment wrong about QMs going head to head > with merchant officers. That was in reply to someone who said that the > Navy had to look to the merchants to find a good navigator. The Merchant > Marine Academy alumni that I have worked with definitely knew navigation > and without a doubt were better trained in that area than graduates of > the Naval Academy or ROTC. > On a Navy ship the typical bridge watch includes: > Officer Of Deck (not necessarily an officer, I was qualified on my last > ship) > Junior Officer of the Deck and/or Conning Officer > Quartermaster of the Watch > Boatswain's Mate of the Watch > Helmsman > At least two lookouts > Phone talker communicating with the lookouts and CIC > And then we still several guys in CIC (Combat Information Center), who > are also navigating as a cross-check on the quartermaster and watching > the radar as a cross-check on the OOD. >