After twenty seven years service to Queen and Country, I shucked my sea-boots for carpet slippers! Alas, I couldn’t settle to a land lubber’s life, so I signed up to a life as a cruise ship Safety Officer! It was a steep learning curve to begin with, but as time went on I got to grips with everything and really developed my potential. I felt I had something to offer here and I was damn well going to give it my all!
A Liferaft Launching Team during a crew drill
After the major revision of IMO SOLAS; STCW, which became commonly known as STCW 95, the sky was the limit. I may not have had a licence, however, I had expertise, experience and ... I could teach (Instruct) something that doesn’t come very easy to some people! My twenty seven years service in the RN stood me in good stead for this and it wasn’t long before I was developing training modules for our crewmembers, which was a lot of hard work, but also a lot of fun!
Personal Survival Training
The only time the crew get to use the pool!!
Eventually I had everything just to my liking and was able to deliver the training in such a manner that everyone could easily understand. Bearing in mind that the training was delivered to a multi-national audience, I worked on the premise that ‘A picture paints a thousand words’ and ‘Actions speak louder than words.’ My method was; talk and show for forty five minutes, have a ten minute break, then back for another forty five minutes. Half way through the tutorial we would have practical demonstrations, walk a bouts’ and role play. All good fun and what is most important of all, the crew enjoyed it.
Realistic Fire-Fighting Training
Crowd Management
First Aid Team
Life at sea, especially working on a cruise ship is not easy. It is long hours and very hard work. Often as not new hire crew would be put on night shift, so when they came to the classroom they were tired and sleepy. So keeping them awake was a challenge in itself, hence the reason for plenty of breaks and plenty of action!
Yes we actually launch a Liferaft
This would be experienced crew demonstrating to New Hires
This is a demonstration raft used for instructional purposes
a very useful piece of kit!
Learning to trust your equipment
and how to use it!
It's all good fun and run in a safe environment!
OK so now it's time to pack up for this class everyone lends a hand to stow the kit
then down below for a nice warm shower and coffee!
When you take into consideration that every crewmember has a ‘Safety’ function onboard and that position mainly revolves around making sure that passengers are looked after in the event of an emergency. This position is known as an ‘Emergency Station’. Every ship has an emergency station bill and each crewmember is assigned a position on that bill.
Emergency Station
My job was to make sure that they understood what the position entailed and that they could effectively perform the task assigned to them. A big responsibility, but not all my own, the other Marine Officers also shared in that responsibility and took it very seriously.
I learned many things from my peers, for which they have my undying gratitude. It wasn’t long before I became accepted and became good friends with most of them. We worked as a team and that is of the utmost importance, as we all had a great responsibility to keep both our passengers and crew safe!
So! How did we do it?
In my early days it was pretty much mundane instruction, which was delivered in as bigger module as time would allow. In any case it was made as interesting and entertaining as possible.
However with the advent of STCW 95, training really took off, last we had structured training, which was now mandatory. Along with the rapid development of computers, training reached the realms of ‘High Tech!’ It was certainly a busy time for everyone, but the outcome was extremely rewarding for all!
It was certainly a challenging period in my life, none the less it was most enjoyable; I derived a great deal of satisfaction from it. The end product of which was a crew who were more knowledgeable in the aspects of shipboard safety and the safety of our passengers.
A grand old lady!
The 'Rapid Response Team' these people were first responders to a fire call.
Is this gonna work Chief?
Oh yes! Trust me!
Team training on the jetty.
A 'Dry-Dock' team of first responders.
and Fire Patrol very important when you're in dick!
Two Dry-Dock Rapid Response Teams
and the 'Admin Officer' very important person!!
Additional equipment for dry dock.
The maiden voyage!!
More of the team
Practical demo!
There were a lot of subjects to teach and of course a lot of New Hire Crew. They started off with an introduction to safety the day they signed on the ship (this was mandatory for all signing on crew anyway). This was followed up the next morning with a familiarization tutorial and a walk round. Then about a week later there followed the ‘Basic Safety’ training which was spread out over two days. This included; Basic Fire-Fighting, Personal Survival, First Aid and Crowd Management with Personal Safety & Social Responsibilities. I liked to run this as a complete two day course, mainly because the retention level was much higher than it would be by spreading it out over several days.
I also ran Survival Craft & Rescue Boat courses (commonly known as ‘Lifeboat’ course). For senior management there was the Crisis Management & Human Behaviour course and for selected Officers and crew, the Advanced Fire-Fighting course.
It was an enjoyable time, I achieved a lot during seventeen years, but it was a most satisfying time. Not only did I achieve a lot, but I also learnt a lot, and made a lot of friends.
Sadly all good things come to and end. It rankles a bit, to be told you're no longer needed, especially when you're nearing retirement age anyway...
.... but that's life!
more later,
God Bless,
Sean.
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