Chief Mates Orals

06.04.16
Fellows Vs Keep
Pass (1Hr)
A rocky start, however something must have gone well during the middle because it finished very
well. For me Alec Keep was not at all interactive, he was very fair though and got two answers out
of me which I had completely forgotten.
1. What the main conventions
SOLAS, MARPOL, STCW, MLC (he was looking for LL)
2. What are the surveys for LL (When are they done)
Initial, Intermediate, Renewal (he was looking for Between 2nd & 3rd Anniversary)
3. All about the HSSC
Which surveys and when (looking for OISB)
4. Does the Inspection of the Ships bottom have to be done out of the water
Wanted to know when it can be done in the water and with what ships
5. What is inspected on a LL survey
Why freeing ports and scuppers need to be checked (Weight and FSE)
6. Chief Officer of a cargo ship, concerns when dry docking
Nothing special
7. What is the maximum distance of fire zone on a ship
I mentioned they were usually put in line with the subdivisions and he moved on.
8. What is an A60 partition
9. How do you know a fire door is up to standard
Wanted wheel mark CE mark stuff
10. Who quality assures wheel mark etc
Wanted European directive
11 Stability criteria for cargo ships
12. Stability criteria for Grain Ships and concerns with grain cargo.
13. What is GZ
14. What is dynamic stability
15. What force is GZ
Was looking for buoyancy (I mentioned everything else)
16. Back to survey and certification; what certificates does the MCA issue
After listing them he was interested mainly in ISM
17. The DoC, who is it issued to, audits and who does the audits
18. The SMC, how is this audited.
Was looking for differences in Doc and SMC auditing.
19. What is issued if something is found wrong during an audit
Was looking for Non-Conformity
20. What is involved with an annual and 5 yearly LSA inspection
Mainly wanted to hear about the dynamic winch brake test and that the whole system should
be inspected from boat to foundations.
21. You sail into a Spanish port on a UK flag ship, what may you be subject too.
PSC inspection
22. Who is in charge of PSC inspections
Paris MOU
23. What are the requirements for inspections
I just talked about White/Black list (he mention Belize as being very bad)
24. You are the Safety Officer on-board, what are your responsibilities
Was mainly looking for ensuring compliance with H&S and COSWP

25. You want to load some packages of dangerous goods, where do you get information
IMDG code, Packing list
26. How do you find out the packing requirements
Just mentioned table in Vol 2 and the refer to Vol 1
27. How many types of Dangerous Goods are there
He just wanted to hear a few of them and that they would be on stickers on packaging
28. Stowage and segregation of Dangerous Goods
Wanted to hear that it is in the IMDG code
29. You want to sail from Spain to Brazil but your 10cm is broken.....
I said you could sail but I would not
30. Do any ships have to have a 10cm working
.yes
31. Where do you find this
SOLAS Ch V
32. What is sea area A3
I said all of them and that A3 should have INMARSAT
33. How many INMARSAT satellites are there
34. Where do they cover
35. Do ships have to carry paper charts
36. What are the carriage requirements of ECDIS
was after generic and type approval training of officers
Ship Handling
1. Pilot boat coming alongside, explain interaction effects
2. Running Moor strong current and light wind (wind at 90degrees to tide)
ROR & Buoyage (every time he wanted to hear compass bearings to ascertain risk if collision)
1. Smarty board Green and Red light
Sailing vessel viewed from ahead
What action and rule to apply
2. Region B preferred channel marker coming out of port
Action and details of buoy
3. South Cardinal Mark
Your heading West actions
4. In a TSS and a 7m PDV on my Stbd side crossing
Actions, which rule
5. Vessel crossing from Port Side
Actions, Rules that apply, explain,
Additionally he want to hear man on the wheel and engines for manouvre
6. Vessel crossing on STBD side
Actions, Rules
7. What Shapes and lights for a vessel RAM
8. Same but now your RAM (Landing a Helicopter)
Rules, What action do you have to take as the RAM vessel.
9. Vessel just forward of Port Beam
Crossing or Overtaking; actions and rules that apply
Res Vis
1. Relative Vectors & Trails
A/C to Port
Explain rules

Chief Mates Examination

31st March 2016
1445 1600
Candidate : Andrew Hare
Examiner: Captain N Jobair
Type of vessel sailed on: Passenger (Cruise)
Length of Exam: 1hour 15 min
Result: Pass (1st Attempt)
Captain Jobair, invited me into the room asked for my documents and told me to take a
seat. He scanned through my documents briefly, then said that this was a chief mate
unlimited and master 3000 exam.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

Handing over as the chief mate? ( Pax and cargo vessel)

What is in the register of lifting appliances?
What lifting appliances did you have onboard? (referenced to LOLER)
What is the role of the Safety officer?
All statutory drill carried out? (L/B, FRC, MOB, SECURITY, OIL SPILL, DAMAGE,
ENCLOSED SPACE, STEERING, FIRE AND ABANDON SHIP)
6) Role of security officer?
7) Components of ISPS
8) How many X-ray machines were required O/B and how would you go about if they
were broken?
9) Who is the CSO?
10) Components of a DOS?
11) Departure stability? (intact stability requirements, SF/BM, FSM, TRIM, FREEBOARD)
12) Going aground initial actions?
13) Actions of the chief in the even of going aground?
14) How would I send a distress?
15) How are the passengers directed to their lifeboats?
16) Damage stability requirements? (pax and cargo ship)
17) What is equalisation?
18) Cross flooding valves?
19) Down flooding valves?
20) Convention valves?
21) Probabilistic damage stability?
22) What is Floodable length, Permissible length and factor of subdivision?
23) What is on your PSSC? (everything little detail from the PSSC and the FORM P)
24) Name all the LSA on your last vessel?
25) Tell me about the weekly, monthly and annual checks you would conduct on a
lifeboat (he wanted soooo much detail on this)
26) GPS failure, how can I determine my position? (PI, Transits, Radar conspicuous
points, lights, echo sounder, Star sight, Sun sight)
27) Additional documents required for pax ships? ( search and rescue, masters decision
support system and operational limitations)
28) How would you help someone who is in distress?

29) How would you use your search and rescue document and what would you organise
onboard?
30) Fire onboard container vessel?
31) IMDG
32) Do pax ships have any Dangerous goods? (yes pyrotechnics used for shows, but in
accepted quantities, so no certificate)

ROR/Buoyage
1) Buoyed channel, name the buoy, light, rhythm and where I would alter.
2) Gave me a restricted vis question but it was wrong. I was unsure as what to say as it
didnt make sense. He told me to answer so I just said that risk of collision does not
exist so I would maintain my course and speed. That was the end of RV.

3) PDV overtaking me not taking action, what will I do?

4) PDV 1 point abaft my beam 5 miles away?
5) TSS, sailing vessel crossing STBD side, does not alter her course?
6) TSS, PDV crossing Port side, doesnt alter his course?
7) SMARTY BOARD
8) Tug and tow port side, doesnt alter course?
9) Day signal and fog signal?
10) Vessel aground dead ahead, actions?

11) Day and fog signal?

12) vessel engaged in trawling, day and fog signal?
13) Fishing vessel other than trawling, could either be stern light underway and making
way or it is underway, possibly at anchor with nets extending more than 150m
horizontal.
14) What would be the day signal for this? (cone apexed UP)
15) Single red light? (sailing vessel)
16) What other lights could they show? ( combined lantern for less than 20m, additional
mast head lights)
17) is it green on top or red on top for the additional mast head lights?
18) RAM engaged in underwater operations?
19) Which way would I alter?
20) What if no risk of collision but you are passing down the side with the obstruction?

Capt. Jobair was a very tough examiner as he wanted every question answered with
extreme detail. He seemed to get angry when I was unsure with a question and I
referred to the relevant MSN. At the end though he seemed happy I passed and wished
me all the best with my future endeavours.

Oliver Froud
Liverpool
Date: 01/03/2016
Examiner: Alec Keep
Vessels: Cruise Ships & Ro-Ro
Chief Mates
13:15-14:10
Pass

I got to the exam centre about 15 minutes before the exam time. Signed in only to hear one of the
ladies at reception saying the next available orals date isn't until May. No Pressure then! I was
called through by Mr Keep at exactly 13:15. He asked to see my documents and calmed my nerves
by asking some questions about my experience and offering me water. He stated I was going for a
Chief Mate Unlimited ticket and I would be examined as such. Throughout the whole exam he had
STCW open in front of him and read each part out before asking a related question. He asked an
awful lot of questions for which the ones I can remember are as follows:
What is HELM?
How do you keep passengers calm in an emergency?
You have a 3rd Mate on watch with you. Would you want him to challenge you if he felt you were
doing something wrong?
What ships are required to have a doctor on board?
Who is responsible for issuing regulations for the maritime industry?
Name all certificates required on a Class 1 Passenger vessel. Just name not validity etc
Dangerous good on a Ro-Ro, What certificate is required? Who issues it? Validity?
What publication would you check?
What are the Classes in IMDG?
How would you load lorries carrying Dangerous Cargo?
What is the HSSC?
Ro-Ro fire fighting equipment. Stability concerns? What specifically would you find on a car deck?
You are a chief mate on a general cargo vessel, how do you know the ship is seaworthy for the
intended voyage?
LSA Requirements for a Cruise Ship?
What's the maximum weight for a childs lifejacket?
Why do shipbuildiers build ships at 84.99m long?
Example of some load lines and why do we have loadines?
How would you prepare for a loadline survey?
What certificate relates to this?
Tell me about MARPOL Annex V
You're on a cruise ship going from South America to Australia. How are you going to manage
garbage on board?
Name some special areas relating to garbage.
What code relates to security?
Tell me about ISPS
What are the main duties of a Security Officer?
When are you required to hold a security drill?
What is the MAIB?
What should you report to them? When and how?
CPP twin screw twin rudders 2 bow thrusters (my last ship). How would you make it go sideways?
Name all the conventions
How does the UK Enforce these?

On a bulk carrier going from Australia to China carrying Iron Ore. What would you check with
regards to the cargo and where would you check it? Stability concerns?
What's Hogging?
What's Sagging?
What kind of load would put Shear Forces up?
What is TML?
What can happen in a cargo hold going from a warm environment to a cold environment?
You've got a crane on board a general cargo ship. What inspections are required on it? How often?
Who's considered to be a competent person?
ROR
On a ferry going from Dover-Calais. Why are you allowed to enter the separation zone? Why can
you go into the ITZ?
How should you cross the lane?
Lights Power driven vessel less than 50m, towing length less than 200m seen from starboard side.
You're following a TSS and see him on your portside. Actions?
Still in TSS PDV Starboard side actions? Port side actions? For the vessel port side he wanted to
hear right down to 5 short rapid, call Captain, man on wheel and alter as appropiate. Don't go to
Port!
Vessel abeam slowly converging, when it's closer you see a ball, diamond, ball, what is it?
Responsibilities?
Vessel 5 degrees abaft stbd beam, what's the situation?
Now 10 degrees, what is it?
Now 20 degrees, what is it?
Radar Plot:
Just one target which was directly ahead slowly getting closer. You're overtaking him and so quoted
the relevant part of Rule 19.
No Buoys!

After the radar plot he said Yep well done you've passed and shook my hand. It was the most
intense 50 minutes ever. The questions were thick and fast and as soon as he was happy with your
knowledge he would interrupt me and move on. Very fair examiner though and gave me a few
prompts when I'd missed the odd thing. Thanks to all the lecturers at Fleetwood College who helped
over the last few months and to everyone in the class for the question and answer sessions. Good
luck!

11th Feb 09:15 at Liverpool

Passed with Capt. Leggit.

Questions :
Line of Buoys. Describe and take action for each.
One White light. Possibilities. Action.
Green light 4 pts port bow. Action. Possible course.
Define:
Vessel Engaged in fishing
Vessel RAM examples
TSS crossing port side
TSS crossing stbd side
Rule 7,8,12,13,16,18.
Radar plot.
Taking over as chief officer
Information from planner
DG cargo info
IMDG cargo stowage on board
Special provisions for fire fighting
Checks on Fire Fighters Equipment before proceeding to fire.
Safety officer responsibilities
Frequency of enclosed space drill
Life Boat maintenence, Test of davits yearly,5 yearly. (1803)
(541) Fall preventive devices.
LOLER. Maintenance of crane.
Ship Handling :RHFPP take ship off port side berth tide from fwd and small onshore wind.
RHFPP short round turn.
Thanks and Best regards,
Carl Vaughan Mascarenhas.
Thanks and Best regards,Carl Vaughan Mascarenhas.

MCA Chief Mates (Unlimited)

Applicant: Christopher Rowles
Experience: Cruise Ships (6 years)
Examiner: Alec Keep, Liverpool MCA
Date: Monday 29h February 2016
Time 1045-1215
Result: PASS!!!
Just after 1045, Captain Keep welcomed me into the room, and checked through my documents.
Turns out he did one trip with P&O in the Mid 90's. He made it clear to me that I was going for an
Unlimited ticket, and I would be examined as such.
He started by asking about the different roles of a Chief Mate onboard a ship.
Say you are Chief Mate on a Bulk Carrier. How would you discharge ballast when loading in port?
(Using a centrifugal ballast pump). What other ships may have one? (Tankers). How would you
monitor the stresses of your ship when loading? (Loadicator).
Say you are loading a cargo like iron ore. How would you maintain an atmosphere in a hold. Told him
how an IG system worked and we moved on.
LoadLines- what do the different marks mean. What is significant about the initials either side of the
Plimsoll line? Why is there a difference between Tropical and WNA? (This is where I stupidly
mentioned about the ITCZ!) OK, so what does the ITCZ stand for? What is a Hadley Cell, and how is
formed? (TOP ORALS TIP: Say what you know and nothing more, or it will potentially bite you in the
a*se!)
What certificates do you have onboard ship? What is the MCA? To be honest, I didn't fully give him
what he was after (which was an Executive Agency under the Department for Transport, therefore
a representative of Her Majesty's Government!). I mentioned the Coastguard duty, and surveys of
UK Flag ships and vessels entering UK ports but that wasn't enough! What is a classification society?
What ship surveys are the MCA and Classification Societies responsible for? We spent ages on this
topic!
Lightship survey- why do we conduct one? How is it performed? How often? Inclining experiment,
conditions required.
What is the HSSC? What periods of surveys are there? When would you conduct an inspection of the
ship's bottom?
Name some different Conventions. Ahh, MLC- what are the minimum hours of rest?

Onto LSA. Best advice, know MSN 1803 off by heart!!! What annual test do we do on lifeboat davits,
and the lifeboats themselves? Who performs it? How do you do a dynamic winch brake test? What is
the difference between that and a proof load test?
What is the duty of a Safety Officer?
ARPA. What can you deduce from it? What is the difference between ground and sea stabilised?
Explain SOG and STW?
Onto a Radar Plot, pre drawn, Relative vectors and Relative Trails. Own ship heading 000 at 15 kt.
One v/l 4 points stbd bow, on reciprocal track. One v/l overtaking on stbd quarter, 0 CPA. Actions in
Res Vis.
Buoyage. Is there a uniform set of buoyage around the World? NO!! Explained Regions A and B.
You are heading 085 degrees and you see this buoy (a South Cardinal). Light characteristics, and
actions. (Under nerves I said I would alter to 180 as the safe water was to the South, but I quickly
retracted that to say I meant I would come to starboard to pass to the South of the buoy!) Thee is a
light displaying equal light and darkness, what is it? Then I was given a preferred channel to
starboard, IALA Region B.
Onto ROR, in a TSS. You're on a PDV following the lane, and there's another PDV on your stbd side.
Actions. Now instead there's a v/l, 7m in length, same position. Actions.
Single green light on the port bow. What is it, actions.
V/L displaying a cylinder, on your port side. What is it, Actions. Could you go to port? No.
After which he said I think that will do, congratulations you have passed. The best words you
could ever hear- what a relief! Especially as I thought my (lack of sufficient) knowledge in the mid
part about the MCA and what they do had upset him enough! But my Rules and buoyage were bang
on, and everything I did was safe (think safety always, risk assessments, the whole shebang!)
Without wanting to sound too much like an Oscar's acceptance award, I would like to thank the
lecturers at Fleetwood, especially Captains Khan and Lukose for their additional help in the evenings,
and to all my class mates who helped me along the way and for being a great group to be with over
the last 7 weeks. If you put the work in, you will succeed. Best of luck to you all!

Rhys Herd.
Chief Mate (Unlimited).
Passenger Ships.
Liverpool.
Captain Leggett.
3rd March 2016.
The examiner collected my passport, discharge book and CoC before inviting me into the
exam room. We discussed my previous ship types (including as a cadet) then he began
asking questions.
1. What did your studying at Fleetwood recently involve?
Oral preparation classes what did you cover?
NAEST (m) What did you do?
Medicare.
2. All certificates on a passenger vessel.
3. Loadline survey preparations and certification.
4. PSSC survey and what you would find on the PSSC cert including Form P.
5. Cargo ship equivalent.
6. EDCIS - requirements for paperless.
7. Stability intact and damage curve of limiting KG?
Stability Book.
How do you know you meet requirements?
8. Loading a small bulk carrier
How do you know how much cargo you can load?
Dangers?
Stowage factor?
Timber cargoes.
9. Disciplinary Fighting crewmembers.
Actions as Chief Officer and MN Code of Conduct.
10. Long voyage Chief Officers responsibilities.
MARPOL Garbage/sewage requirements.
11. Fire in galley actions of c/o.
12. Fire zones sizes, divisions, construction of fire screen doors/type.
Ventilation shut down methods, how many dampers in a zone.
Possible to shut automatically?
13. Muster stations locations and when to muster passengers in an emergency.
14. How to launch lifeboat Hydraulic and gravity davit (bowsing tackle).
15. How does a disabled passenger board a lifeboat?
16. MES training requirements and launching.
17. Ran aground actions
Manoeuvring
Tide astern, wind onto berth bring her off/turn around Wanted I wouldnt
manoeuvre with tide astern.
Tide astern, wind onto berth bring her onto berth/snub around on anchor.

RoR

Towing vessel <200m port bow.

PDV starboard bow.
PDV port bow not taking action.
Sailing vessel port bow.
Asked to quote rule 6 and 8.

N Cardinal - heading west.

Restricted Visibility
True trails, relative vectors.
One vessel on starboard bow crossing with risk of collision.
One vessel starboard quarter overtaking with no risk of collision.
I went to starboard which he said was correct but wasnt happy that I didnt mention trial
manoeuvre before altering.
Captain Leggett seemed like a fair examiner and explained his reasons for not passing me at
the end of the exam. He wasnt happy with my answer regarding passenger ship stability as I
didnt mention limiting KG curves and couldnt explain the use of them. He also wanted
more detail on the loading of a small bulk carrier and expected me to challenge him when
he had me manoeuvring with a tide astern.
Good luck to all.

Chief Mates Orals Report - 03/03/16

Thomas Chitseko v Anthony Hilliard
The MCA Strikes Back
Result Fail
I arrived about a quarter of an hour early and it was about 15 minutes after my scheduled start time
before I was called through. Hilliard introduced himself and then spent about another quarter of an
hour shuffling about doing paperwork and things. I had no problems with this, as you can imagine.
The questions that follow are more or less in the order that they were asked:
Tell me about your last ship?
If a crane is repositioned on deck, what sort of tests do you have to carry out afterwards?
What sort of tests and inspections need to be carried out on rescue boat falls? How often? What
weight?
I struggled with this as Id revised lifeboats, but not spent much time on rescue boats. I went for
annual inspection and 5 yearly test as per LOLER, but didnt know the weight (1.25 x SWL)
What equipment should a rescue boat contain?
What information should be displayed on the side of a life raft? Whats the difference between
the type A and type B pack?
How many watertight doors did you have on your last ship? How should they be used? How long
should they take to close?
I wasnt sure (its 20-40 seconds) I was thinking 30 seconds but didnt say it.
What type of ship is Wave Ruler? Where would you find what type of ship you are on?
What are the criteria to be type A ship?
What are the damage stability requirements for a type A ship?
When would the damage stability criteria change?
Im still not entirely sure what he was getting at with this. Apparently theres some condition that
the tanks need to filled with a liquid of no more than 10% difference in density to the type approved
liquid (or something). Id never heard of this.
What types of loading conditions will you find in the stability information booklet?
This answer needed to be dragged out of me a bit. I knew lightship and ballast, but had always just
considered the others as others. He wanted dry-dock and I got there in the end.

What precautions should you take prior to entering dry-dock?

What effect does introducing a longitudinal bulkhead have on the free surface moment in a space?
I said reduces the moment to its square root. Correct answer is reduces to cube root.
Tug and tow crossing from port side actions?
Ship at 22.5 degrees abaft the starboard beam actions?
Restricted vis: ship forward of the port beam passing ahead at 1 mile and another to starboard
with small cpa actions?
Rattled off Rule 19 and said Id make a large alteration to starboard.
What else?
Continue to monitor.
What else?
I was at a bit of a loss and said sound 1 short blast, thinking aloud.
What else?
Ah yes! Trail manoeuvre how could I forget.
Ok, Im going to ask you again.
Bugger. Went through the above actions starting with the TM and leaving out the short blast.
Would you do anything else?
I wasnt sure and hesitated.
Would you sound one short blast?
I still wasnt sure and was still making up my mind when he said ok, Im not going to pass you. Of
course, you dont sound one short blast in RV.
They say you learn more from failure than from success so Ill try to pass some useful tips on:
1. If you can sleep at home the night before your orals then do that. Sleep is important and its
easier if youre somewhere familiar than in a hotel, especially if Liverpool win 3-0. This was a
marginal exam and I honestly think it would have been a different result if I was better
rested
2. So long as youve prepared well, dont sweat too much if you struggle on some questions.
Eventually the inspector will ask you something that you do know and youll have a chance
to make up ground
3. Practice answering questions as much as possible. Its one thing to know the subject matter
and another thing to know that you know it
So not the right result, and it smarts a bit, but you get another go so not the end of the world.
Thanks to all who helped, especially study buddies and staff for those after-hours sessions.