Engineering on North Sea Supply Vessel

[Unregistered]

TO THE MOD - I wanted to register and post this in the engineering section but I'm at sea and having trouble logging into my Hotmail. I'm stuck in an endless cycle of verification due to "unusual activity". I gave up and posted here.

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me with a question regarding engineering duties on board a supply or standby vessel which primarily worked in the North Sea.

I am currently a fourth engineer working on board deep sea going oil tankers. Although I enjoy the work I sometimes question how long I will be able to hack the long trips. The shorter trips in the offshore sector appeal to me but I would like more information on day to day jobs before I were to ?jump ship?.

In order to give an idea of what life is like for me at the moment I will give you a brief outline of the kind of equipment/jobs that keeps me busy.

Fuel Oil Purifiers
Lubricating Oil Purifiers
Fresh water generator
Sewage Treatment Plant
Air compressors
Various Centrifugal and Screw Pumps
Bunker transfers and bunker system
Incinerator (Sludge transfers, sludge burning)
Bunkering operations
Paperwork ? ORB, LO inventory, Bunker Reports, Water tests, LO tests.

(Other jobs crop up on a daily basis but these are the main things)

The ship operates UMS so every third day I am the duty engineer so have watch keeping duties. I am pretty confident in my ability to diagnose and repair faults on the above equipment and also strip them down for inspections and overhauls (with the manual nearby). They also usually work when I put them back together again . . .

During cargo operations we run steam turbine driven cargo pumps which are the responsibility of the engineering department. So during cargo operations my duties involve preparing the high pressure steam system and warming through the turbine, starting/stopping the turbine and monitoring the Inert Gas system. I also have some experience of working on the boilers, removal/cleaning of burners, water tests etc.

From the above you can see that my duties don't extend to any actual work on engines. This leads me to my main question, as a Third engineer on a supply vessel would major overhauls of generator engines fall into my responsibility? I'm kept pretty busy on here with various things so it's hard to find time to shadow the third engineer and work on the generators. It's a slight worry that I would be in at the deep end on a supply vessel with limited experience of actual engine maintenance. I'd assume some of the work I?m doing here doesn't exist on smaller vessels due to the different type of operating conditions e.g. no heavy fuel therefore no heating/purification/sludge production. So in a nutshell would I struggle with the change or would it only be a slight adjustment.

If anyone has any info it would be good to hear your opinions.

[Chiefy]

A lot of the Off SHore boats d not carry a 4th, so the 3rd is the 4th and Major overhauls are often (though not always) done by shoreside, your input is mostly injector changes, routine bits and bobs, maybe a head change here and there, but the whole team would be involved, not just you on your own.

Genny tend to be uses as little as possible with most stuff being on the Shafties, or the ships are Deisel Electric which makes most of your worries go away.

As suh dont worry, you got the skillz give it a go.

AHTS etc still have purifiers for Lubes and the MDO, with and without heaters, still have all the gear you see, even the cargo pumps and stuff, though not the steam plant, and there are more pumps than foot locker (for our american readers ;0 )

[jcwilson91]

Sounds fairly similar to my job description, I too am looking at offshore work, rigs also. Although i would like to get my 2nds ticket at least, although im not sure how/if that would benefit me if i went to the rigs.

My general game plan was to stay deep sea and then come home to offshore/rigs when i hit around 27/30. Hopefully having my chiefs license by then. We shall see how it goes though. Best of luck to you and sorry for not really answering your questions!

[Clanky]

Yeah, as chief said, you still have most of the same equipment on offshore vessels, it’s just a lot smaller.

Supply you would tend to work daywork / UMS, but with a lot of night time working when you are under the rig, not sure about standby.

Anchor handling you will most likely spend a lot of time doing 60n / 6 off.

[thatwillbenice]

If you want to forget more than you've learned then supply boats are the way forward.

Working on a supply boat can be mind numbing. Anchor handlers are better, the scope of work is more interesting. But neither compare to the experience and knowledge you get from working deep sea so my advice would be to stick it out on tankers as long as you can and at least get your 2nds ticket before going to supply boats etc.

[swishwellingtons]

If you want to forget more than you've learned then supply boats are the way forward.

Why do you say this? I figure supply boats might be dull for a deckie, but why is it enervating for an engineer?

[ETwhat?]

I would guess smaller plant and slightly less of it and such things as major overhauls being done by shore side rather than ship.

[Chiefy]

what? really? There are more of everything compared to deep sea, more and different compressors (for bulk powders) more and different pumps for mub, brine, fuel,water more variations on propultion Diesel electric, direct Drive, azi pods etc, variations on a theme for thrusters, that before we get near the winches, hydraulic or electric, steering gears, vane or ram, the variations are endless. the kit may physically be smaller, but it's all there and more compact.

My first AHST had MORE horse power than my previous deep sea box boat, just applied very differently.........so no dont go with that theory at all, the job is what you make of it

[swishwellingtons]

...the job is what you make of it

Too true!

thatwillbenice, any further clues?

[thatwillbenice]

Chiefy, the OP was asking about supply boats. I said in my first post anchor handlers are good. I would recommend anchor handlers if he wants to move onto offshore vessels but I wouldn't recommend supply boats. He should be aiming higher than that.

I don't agree that the job is what you make of it because on supply boats there's only so much you can do, there's only so many times you can read the machinery manuals without actually doing the job before it starts to piss you off! There's very little down time if the ship is chartered. If the ship is on the spot market it's on stand-by waiting on a job, either that or it sits idle for ages and doesn't rack up much running hours. A couple of folk have already alluded to the fact major jobs are done by contractors.

Each to their own but if the OP likes doing all the jobs he has stated then he'll not get as many opportunities to do them on a supply boat.

[Snorey8]

I have to pitch in here as I did on a similar thread earlier.

I work on a standby vessel as a third engineer. I have done two contracts since I have qualified and I seem to be forgetting more than I am learning. Anything other than basic, basic routine maintenance, is done by shore side contractors, which is EXTREMELY frustrating. I have done a hand full of filter changes and changed the flexible coupling on a pump in the two months i have worked.

I am trying very hard to move onto AHTS or ROV but it is very difficult when i have a 420 GRT, 1230 kw ship as my only experience as a 3/E