Merchant navy or Royal Navy

[Joe shipping]

So, i have applied for chiltern maritime for a deck officer cadetship and my initial interview is tomorrow over Skype. My situation is; that i have applied for the Royal Navy but failed my medical due to an inguinal hernia, was due an operation in the next few months and then potentially in the Navy come next September. However, with my operation indefinitely postponed for the foreseeable future (at least 6 months) i have started to think about what i could do between now and potentially 2 years until i could commence Naval Officer training. Now, if you've got this far thank you for bearing with. I would be extremely interested in doing the cadetship for 3 years at chiltern, gaining the qualification and then joining the royal navy upon completion of the cadetship. If i enjoyed my time in the Merchant navy enough then i'd see no reason to leave. How would this go down with a shipping company upon completion of a cadetship, given i would also have no contractional obligation to stay with them. And how would this look during application for the RN? thanks, Joe

[agibbs98]

If you completed your cadetship and wanted to join the RN straight away it's no problem, you're highly (almost certainly) unlikely with Chiltern to have a "return of service" requiring a few years work from yourself.

I would question why exactly you'd want to join the RN over the MN or vice versa; they are very, very different. But as you say, if you like the MN then you'll stick with it anyway. Regarding your application for the RN after being in the MN, it can only be neutral or beneficial. There is a chance they'd look negatively upon it as they may see it as they'll require to strip you down then train you back up differently, but I doubt that.

Are you confident you can pass an ENG1 medical with your condition? If it's something that can be felt when the doctor prods your belly feeling for lumps, bumps and hernias it would be hard to hide, I'd say 60% of my medical examinations did this to me.

[EH75]

Not sure how much research you have done into the MN, but you would be required to obtain an ENG1 medical in order to commence a cadetship, I would expect your condition would preclude this until you have the operation (although I'm not a doctor, obviously). So really you would be no further forward in this case. Have a look at MSF 5011.

Another point to note is that if you did somehow manage to obtain yourself a medical before getting this fixed and find yourself on a ship in the middle of the Pacific and some sort of complications arise from your condition...well, that's not really a situation I would like to be in. The medical facilities on most commercial ships consist of the 2nd mate with a copy of the Ship Captain's Medical Guide in one hand and a Black & Decker in the other. The Royal Navy it is not.

[Inland Pirate]

The medical facilities on most commercial ships consist of the 2nd mate with a copy of the Ship Captain's Medical Guide in one hand and a Black & Decker in the other. The Royal Navy it is not.

Yeah, it's the Ship Commander's Tactical Battle Action Medical Guide there and a Warship Grey and Decker!

[Moose23847]

Your first choice is RN, that's your primary goal the rest is a holding pattern till the RN becomes possible. I don't know your financial position but a private operation may still be possible, its a small operation and may not cost too much, I believe around the ?2000.00p mark. This may be impossible now due to the virus you'd have to check.

[Bodie]

Hi Joe, may I ask why you would prefer the RN over merchant? From what I can gather merchant seems better in almost every aspet: better pay, much better holdays, much more comfortable conditions onbord, not subject to military discipline, less spurious duties, more transferable skills, etc. I think the only advantages of RN are that you get a cooler uniform and you're not going to get atacked by pirates. I joined the RN years ago and not joining the merchant instead was my biggest mistake. Note this is from my own opinions and research so I could be wrong about some of these points. if so, please correct me.
The RFA seems somewhere in betwen RN and merchant, so if you're on the fence that could be the one to go for.

[agibbs98]

Hi Joe, may I ask why you would prefer the RN over merchant? From what I can gather merchant seems better in almost every aspet: better pay, much better holdays, much more comfortable conditions onbord, not subject to military discipline, less spurious duties, more transferable skills, etc. I think the only advantages of RN are that you get a cooler uniform and you're not going to get atacked by pirates. I joined the RN years ago and not joining the merchant instead was my biggest mistake. Note this is from my own opinions and research so I could be wrong about some of these points. if so, please correct me.
The RFA seems somewhere in betwen RN and merchant, so if you're on the fence that could be the one to go for.

Agreed apart from transferable skills. In this regard RN engineers and navigators have far more opportunities on land than MN, power stations almost solely employ ex-RN and a hell of a lot of good positions love employing ex-forces, especially officers. As opposed to MN navigators who barely have a chance ashore, and engineers who generally have to take a pay cut for one of the many jobs ashore.

[Malcolm Macd]

Too many sailors in the RN living too close to each other. Not for me but only my opinion.

[Joe shipping]

Thank you for your feedback everyone, it is definitely valuable. I am finally about to have my operation on my hernia so my time will be next year. I am going to apply for both this coming September and see where i end up. The Chiltern recruiter was very understanding when i told him I was going to take a year out due to my hernia and he mentioned opportunities with marella cruises.