Merchant Navy

[ArtVandelay]

iacabu said:

Gorilla Boy said:

iacabu said:

Well I can now confirm my sponsoring company is Foreland Shipping. I'm not sure if every Bibby cadet goes with them or not but looks an interesting start for me.

Also, can anyone recommend any stationery for college (and beyond). Specifically chartwork/navigation equipment (i.e dividers, parallel rulers)

Thanks

Welcome to the team, im sponsored by foreland too and i can confirm you will be on one of the point class ro-ro's.

Might even be on one of them with me, gimme a PM if you have any questions

PM'd. Cheers.

Former Foreland Electro-technical officer here.

Look out for that GorillaBoy. He'll bum you

[ArtVandelay]

[iacabu]

ArtVandelay said:

Thanks. I can only find a couple of pics off their website.

Got my uniform through recently...the shirts are awful, to say the least! The thinnest material known to man and about the size of a tent.

[ArtVandelay]

iacabu said:

Thanks. I can only find a couple of pics off their website.

Got my uniform through recently...the shirts are awful, to say the least! The thinnest material known to man and about the size of a tent.

They are awful, I managed to get some thicker shirts sent out. Still huge but good quality. Not sure if you'll have to wear you epaulettes at college, if you don't, look into getting some half decent shirts from next

[hidetheelephants]

ArtVandelay said:

iacabu said:

Thanks. I can only find a couple of pics off their website.

Got my uniform through recently...the shirts are awful, to say the least! The thinnest material known to man and about the size of a tent.

They are awful, I managed to get some thicker shirts sent out. Still huge but good quality. Not sure if you'll have to wear you epaulettes at college, if you don't, look into getting some half decent shirts from next

Bet they were the same crap as I got given by Clyde; so thin you could read a newspaper through them, yet scratchy, stiff and completely shapeless. I've had boilersuits with a better cut and finer cloth.

[BullyB]

I once got a load of shirts from an Australian navy supplier. No idea who it was but the quality was great.
I even made a bit on the side by selling some too..

[chris123321]

Currently sat here waiting for the call for my first trip in the North Sea,

Bored as buggery doesn't quite cut it!

I got some shirts off ebay, the guy accidentally sent them twice and told me to keep them as I was honest, shame they are the cheap stty ones. It's like I'm wearing tissue paper!

[Taffer]

chris123321 said:

Currently sat here waiting for the call for my first trip in the North Sea,

Bored as buggery doesn't quite cut it!

I got some shirts off ebay, the guy accidentally sent them twice and told me to keep them as I was honest, shame they are the cheap stty ones. It's like I'm wearing tissue paper!

Are you going on offshore boats (standby, PSV, AHTS, DSV, etc?). Take your uniform by all means, but I doubt you'll need it! With most companies you'll be wearing coveralls for outside deck/engine room work (delete as appropriate), but your own rig at all other times. Just don't take full tropical rig out there!

[chris123321]

Taffer said:

Are you going on offshore boats (standby, PSV, AHTS, DSV, etc?). Take your uniform by all means, but I doubt you'll need it! With most companies you'll be wearing coveralls for outside deck/engine room work (delete as appropriate), but your own rig at all other times. Just don't take full tropical rig out there!

Hi, I'll be out on PSVs and have been told the uniform can go back in the cupboard for now, somewhere along the line someone told me most offshore lads just take a small carryon with them so I'm just trying to slim my clothes down now to a few basics!

No tropical garb? You mean....there's no gin and tonics on the bridge wings in the offshore industry?

[Taffer]

chris123321 said:

No tropical garb? You mean....there's no gin and tonics on the bridge wings in the offshore industry?

'fraid not! Our company don't even give us soft drinks cans any more; unhealthy apparently (but deep-fried grub from the galley is fine?!?!). A nice G+T for sundowners would be great with views like this though:




You won't need that much - a set or two of going ashore rig (for the exotic delights of Aberdeen, Scrabster, Lerwick, etc. ), cheap jeans/t-shirts/whatever you're comfy in for lounging about ship. All your PPE will be company issued. Laptop, books/kindle and the heaviest item of all.......the MNTB training portfolio!

Edited by Taffer on Tuesday 4th February 12:18

[iacabu]

Gorilla Boy said:

iacabu said:

Well I can now confirm my sponsoring company is Foreland Shipping. I'm not sure if every Bibby cadet goes with them or not but looks an interesting start for me.

Also, can anyone recommend any stationery for college (and beyond). Specifically chartwork/navigation equipment (i.e dividers, parallel rulers)

Thanks

Welcome to the team, im sponsored by foreland too and i can confirm you will be on one of the point class ro-ro's.

Might even be on one of them with me, gimme a PM if you have any questions

Well second day of college is going smoothly. Will have to try and say hi at some point if you're around

[chris123321]

Taffer said:

'fraid not! Our company don't even give us soft drinks cans any more; unhealthy apparently (but deep-fried grub from the galley is fine?!?!). A nice G+T for sundowners would be great with views like this though:




You won't need that much - a set or two of going ashore rig (for the exotic delights of Aberdeen, Scrabster, Lerwick, etc. ), cheap jeans/t-shirts/whatever you're comfy in for lounging about ship. All your PPE will be company issued. Laptop, books/kindle and the heaviest item of all.......the MNTB training portfolio!

Edited by Taffer on Tuesday 4th February 12:18

Bloody hell it's not a bad old life is it! What company are you with if you dont mind me asking?
Ah the exotic delights of Lerwick and Aber-"I work offshore doing X"-deen, lerwicks no bad actually I found!

The magnitude of the training record book is a bit daunting, sure once I get in the swing of it it's all doable.

[Taffer]

chris123321 said:

Bloody hell it's not a bad old life is it! What company are you with if you dont mind me asking?

Sealion Shipping - currently on an AHTS in SE Asia, been out this way for 2 years now. My cadetship was mostly North Sea-based though - can't say I miss the place much other than the shorter 'commute' to home!

[hidetheelephants]

Taffer said:

Sealion Shipping - currently on an AHTS in SE Asia, been out this way for 2 years now. My cadetship was mostly North Sea-based though - can't say I miss the place much other than the shorter 'commute' to home!

Need any engineers? The last 31 days(Ops planning comedians plus 3 poorly ships meant the joy of a late crew change) were particularly trying and spending a month on a boat that feels like it's perpetually tumbling over Niagara no longer appeals like it used to.

Still, mustn't grumble; nothing much broke and despite discovering the harmonic frequency of the bridge structure(in 70kts it hits a middle C) the only injury is sleep deprivation.

[chris123321]

kapiteinlangzaam said:

Dont worry too much about that - the VAST majority of it is complete BS if its anything like what it was in 2001-03.

We spent Sunday afternoons plugging away at it, and after 5 months it was looking very full indeed. By coincidence I actually found my old NVQ book when tidying the attic last week, I had forgotten what a bloody big pile of documents it was.

You will quickly discover whats important and whats not, what to pay attention to and whats just 'paperwork BS'. The best advice I can give from my experience is work hard, play harder, dont miss deadlines and dont make a 'name' for yourself.

I'm quite happy with most of it, it's just making sure all the right parts are signed etc, gonna be alot of reports written, luckily paperwork is something I'm not too bad at!

[chris123321]

Taffer said:

Sealion Shipping - currently on an AHTS in SE Asia, been out this way for 2 years now. My cadetship was mostly North Sea-based though - can't say I miss the place much other than the shorter 'commute' to home!

I'd love to get out on the ships around SE asia and on AHTS' for that matter, I'll definitely take a look at Sealion when I'm qualified, do they take on British deck officers often?

[Taffer]

hidetheelephants said:

Need any engineers? The last 31 days(Ops planning comedians plus 3 poorly ships meant the joy of a late crew change) were particularly trying and spending a month on a boat that feels like it's perpetually tumbling over Niagara no longer appeals like it used to.

Still, mustn't grumble; nothing much broke and despite discovering the harmonic frequency of the bridge structure(in 70kts it hits a middle C) the only injury is sleep deprivation.

No spaces here at the moment, although they're building a tasty new DP3 X-Bow construction ship in S.Korea. The newbuild AHTS might have spaces but they've been deployed to, er, the North Sea..... Worth throwing your CV in anyway!

I've seen the weather reports and pictures of crocked ships over the winter - fair play to you for surviving that on a standby boat!

chris123321 said:

I'd love to get out on the ships around SE asia and on AHTS' for that matter, I'll definitely take a look at Sealion when I'm qualified, do they take on British deck officers often?

They take on a few British cadets (via SSTG) every year, and a fair proportion of officers are British. As a junior deckie on AHTS you'll have to get your hands dirty during anchor handling ops though - no tea and biccies sat on the bridge!

[Popeyed]

Working on the deck of an AHTS is one of the last bastions of proper seamanship and is thoroughly recommended. Surfing up the deck on your backside as seas crash over the stern roller is an experience.

[chris123321]

Its a bit of a mission to work out how I'd transfer over to AHTS', they do look like hella fun though. Will have to see once I qualify!

Still not out to sea, hurry up and wait is the order of the day here.

[Gorilla Boy]

iacabu said:

Well second day of college is going smoothly. Will have to try and say hi at some point if you're around

How're you finding it dude? Im in all week doing a first aid course after finishing my first lot of exams today