Things I wish I'd known on my first trip as a Deck Officer

[Mirkatron]

Thanks for advices

[RobinBjerke]

Fantastic thread I can testify to the whole letting things wash over you. Obviously not from shipboard experience but from life and the music industry. Thing is, the pecking order just works that way. So live with it, buckle down, do an exemplary job and in the end no one can justifiably fault you (they will probably respect you all the more for it).

[rafsun]

Excellent

Excellent post man :-) so helpful.......

[cableguy]

No job is ever worth a broken finger, let alone a life.

Luckily I haven't fallen foul of this (ie seen a fatal injury but I have seen some nasty injuries whilst at sea) but looking back I have taken some huge risks at sea. Take you're time, plan any job, think about what you're doing and why, and if you need to rush it or take big risks for whatever reason don't do it, come back tomorrow, almost anything (outside of an emergency) can wait.

I know this is all easy to say, but some people, as was I when I was a little younger and wetter behind the ears, are worried about consequences when saying no to a job. In the end of the day a bollocking from a bad senior officer for not doing something is far better than a broken bone or worse!

[condeh]

In common with a number of responses her, I can agree that there are some people at sea who have to be the 'bigger man'. Often senior officers, mostly captains, they seem to take pleasure in making you feel very small.
It took me a long time to realise that you simply can't win in those situations, so stop trying. As hatchorder said, simply saying 'yes cap' or 'I don't know' would have saved months of spoiled seatime, but life's a journey.
The other thing I wish I had taken onboard from day one is to never be afraid to appear dumb. I have learned you get s whole lot more respect for saying that you don't know, as opposed to making out you do and hoping for the best.

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[cableguy]

A way that a deck cadet behaved when I was a second officer leads the following little nugget of advice: -

Just because you are doing a degree and all the qualified officers on board have HNDs does not make you better/more competent/more knowledgeable/above the qualified officers.

In this instance all this attitude did was to hack every one off. The cadet was pretty average, not bad, but not particularly shining, however when being given some guidance on the way to do things on board he made it quite clear he thought he was better than the guys who had a CoC, and unfortunately the attitude continued until he paid off.

[condeh]

A way that a deck cadet behaved when I was a second officer leads the following little nugget of advice: -

Just because you are doing a degree and all the qualified officers on board have HNDs does not make you better/more competent/more knowledgeable/above the qualified officers.

In this instance all this attitude did was to hack every one off. The cadet was pretty average, not bad, but not particularly shining, however when being given some guidance on the way to do things on board he made it quite clear he thought he was better than the guys who had a CoC, and unfortunately the attitude continued until he paid off.

oh my word, I second this a thousand, million times.

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[YoungMariner]

I've heard of cadets like that from even before the FD system, think some people just can't handle the authority gradient at sea, would hate to think what they'd do in the military.