Hello from a cadet in Limbo

[O-mightyraddish]

Hi

I'm currently in Limbo between Aspiring Engine Cadet and being accepted as a Cadet. I am having trouble choosing what sort of ship I want to work on. I have narrowed it down to cable repair vessels and container ships/bulk carriers. While I managed to find out quite a lot about the latter, I have no idea what life and work on a cable repair vessel is like. So, what do I have to look forward to while working on a cable repair vessel?

[EH75]

Know a couple of guys on cable repair. Seemed to spend most of their time alongside going ashore and getting drunk. Nice work if you can get it. To be fair it was mostly British crew and as far as I know they got decent training when they were out at sea as well. DP time also. Got offered jobs at the end of it. Not much chance of that on containers or bulkers. Given the choice I would choose cable repair every time. I did my cadetship on container ships btw. It was a means to an end but certainly wouldn't be my first choice if I was doing it again.

[chris]

If the cable repair ship is with Global Marine via SSTG, I would be wary as they got rid of a few cadets mid training in their 2011 intake, although I think they found them all new sponsors. Before I heard that news I was a big fan of Global Marine in some old posts on here.

[Lewis]

I wouldn't worry about it the training company will ask what your preferences are and then ignore them.

[bobofinga]

I wouldn't worry about it the training company will ask what your preferences are and then ignore them.

Only if your Clyde Marine.

SSTG you tend to get who you ask/are offered

[Mors]

It was a tricky situation with Global Marine and the 2011 intakes, they were all ETO cadets and Global had recently started another branch of the company called Global Marine Energy (Windfarms etc). These ETO cadets were under GME contracts only for Global to sell GME a few months later.

I have recently finished an engine cadetship with Global Marine, a cable laying company, and although probably the more fun companies to carry out a cadetship with, I wouldn't advise it. They are alongside most of the time but when you're stuck alongside in Portland Uk for months on end with only ?330 a month to live on it isn't so glamorous !

But that's not the reason I wouldn't recommend it, cable layers are usually DEP without any steam systems. Your oral will be heavily bias on slow speeds and the systems that accompany them, meaning during your time for oral prep, you will need to go over your previous ships as well as learn everything about the running and the systems about another !

I would recommend finding a well organised larger company rather than a smaller one where 1 person is doing several jobs !

[cableguy]

Having worked for Global Marine Systems for about 5 years I have to say as that I would not recommend a cadetship with them, although not for the obvious reasons (and some might even say the wrong reasons). I think my opinion is possibly a little impacted by the fact that I was not a cadet with them, but there you go: -

1. The vessels spend a lot of time in port - good for having fun and plenty of spare time, not so good for "on the job training, in particular RoR"

2. They only carry cable (who would have thought) - easy specialist cargo to handle, again not good for experience.

3. They are a dead man shoes company - not many pro-active young officers for training cadets. Those who are proactive are junior officers, which is good in itself, but is only one side of the coin.

4. Global Marine are not as big and secure as they like to say - as a poster mentions earlier they sold their power cabling part of the business, so are out of the boom part of the cabling industry, and they are pretty small, so when they do hit a significant project shortfall, the first thing to go will be jobs, specifically young deck and engine officers (they have thing about going to the Philippines for these guys now aswell)

HOWEVER: -

You do get DP time (this is only of any real use to qualified officers as cadets can't get DP tickets)

They have station ships in Curacao, Philippines, Bermuda/UK and Canada.

The work is really interesting and I have always found it far more rewarding than cargo runs.

In essence I would say that GMSL is really good for qualified officers to get a few years experience in and then move on, but for cadets it could have a career long damaging effect. The guys who I have meet who were GMSL cadets seemed very limited in what they could do/what they knew, which I personally thought was a bit of a waste of potential, also sitting in paradise some where for eight weeks at a time tends to build in a little bit of laziness.

Hope that helps any one trying to make a decision.