Duties of Officers & Crew

[Low Light Mike]

Here's a thread to ask questions, hopefully get answers, and to share info on the duties and responsibilities of the various officer & crew positions on the various types of ships.

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To start off, I was talking to an acquaintance yesterday, and she said that her husband was working as "2nd on the Alberni". So I asked what that meant, and that meant "2nd Officer".

Apparantly on the Alberni, the 2nd officer works on the bridge during the middle of the sailing, in charge of the ships course and speed, etc, during the time between ports. The Quartermaster (crew member) is on bridge, doing the actual movement of the wheel or joystick.

During loading, the 2nd officer is in charge of the upper car deck, and the 1st officer is in charge of the lower car deck. During this time, the master is on the bridge.

During loading, the 1st officer gets the tougher job of the lower car deck, where there are the overheight heavy vehicles, where loading can impact on the ships balance & list.

So when you are driving onto the upper car deck in your Ford Pinto, it is the 2nd officer that you see first, who directs you into a particular lane. It's the officer's responsibility to load that deck efficiently for getting max vehicles aboard. A skilled job.

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[Islander12]

You're right about it being a difficult job to load the car decks Nanaimo. On major vessels the second officer and Chief Officer both take times at the CON( Officer of the Watch on the bridge). On the Spirits, usually the Chief officer doesn't as there is a Third Officer on those ships. Also, on the Spirits the third officer is in charge of loading on the upper car deck and the second officer is on the bridge. On the main car deck the deckhands are usually responsible for loading while the C/O is there to supervise and make sure everything gets done safely. Contrary to popular belief, weight balancing is not such a big deal. Ferries are designed to run out of deckspace before weight becomes an issue. Granted you wouln't want to put a bunch of Semis with rebar on one side and leave the other one empty, however the biggest thought is maximizing deck space safely.

[hergfest]

I was driving on the New West on Labor Day weekend in my 70 Charger and the officer loading wanted to put me on the four laned "undersized" side instead of the three laned "oversized" side of the upper car deck. I said I wanted to be on the three laned side to prevent door dings and he obliged. I was one of the first cars on the boat though.