To find out what life on board is really like, you can link to the Marine Society and Sea Cadets 'webships'
that profile and trace the progress and onboard happenings of two ships on their voyages around the world.
John Dowds – Deck officer trainee
Shell Ship Management Ltd
On accommodation at sea – 'the on board accommodation during my cadetship programme was pretty
standard. There was nothing negative and nothing amazing, just a comfortable place to live.'
On friendships and the multi-cultured on board environment – 'You make very good friendships on board. I have sailed with Indian,
Croatian, Slovenian. It's always been different, everyone is different in their own way. You learn tolerance very quickly. It
has been excellent.'
On starting her training – 'I went on cruise ships for a couple of weeks for induction to see what it was all about but originally I didn't know what a bridge was.'
On traveling to different places – 'Sydney was my favourite. I was given two days off and met up with some friends that I had not seen for a long time….If you get off the ship in Czechoslovakia it is just an hour and a half flight to Rome.
And the Caribbean is very nice and you can walk straight to the beach. Aruba is my favourite part of the Caribbean. It's only a small island.'
On the multi-cultured on board environment – 'The crew are all sorts - Filipinos, Indians, Pakistanis, that's the majority of them. They all seem to get along.'
Jamie Elliot – Deck officer
Second Officer Clyde Tugs
On his work at sea - “We did one of the biggest tows in the world – a pipeline - we towed it from
Scotland across to Norwegian waters. It was five or six kilometres long… they built the whole thing ashore in one piece, we
towed it off the shore straight across to Norway. The North Sea work I always found interesting.”
On what he likes about the job – “I like standing up on the bridge and knowing that here’s ten blokes down there that can rely on me to do my job properly…
and there’s sense of responsibility…everything that you do on the ship makes a difference…you rely on each other …I like the teamwork.”
Chris Olsen – Engineer officer
Third Engineer – Royal Fleet Auxiliary
On why he went to sea – “really when you look at it is the perfect opportunity when you leave school
to get paid to go an do further education… rather than going to university and get into debt. Every 18 year old likes the idea of going
to different ports and different places and lifestyle that it can bring - that’s what got me started.”
On things that he’s seen – “we’ve rescued fishing boats and done drugs busts in the Caribbean which was interesting and done hurricane
relief for people in Belize …we provided fresh water and used the helicopter to get that ashore. When we get to these places we often
have cocktail parties and you get to meet the local people.”
Carlton Shorter – Engineer officer
Second Engineer – Mega yacht
On his daily routine – 'One day is never the same as the other, it is purely
because of the amount of different types of equipment we have on board and it's quite interesting. I seem to be
spending a lot of my time on hydraulics. I have never had a day yet where I can say that it was exactly the
same as the day before. You have different sets of problems and different time scales and sometimes there's
a lot of pressure to get things done - now.'
On hobbies – 'Hobbies are varied and I've got lots of them - I seem to have taken up too many. I am always running out of time and if I want I can go skiing.
Time off last I got some snowboarding done. I enjoy a bit of scuba diving.'
Lee Tobin – Deck officer
First Officer - Dive Support Vessel
On working patterns, lifestyle and salary – 'My son was born and I started thinking
'Well ok the leave was very good'. If you were working in the North Sea you would get 4 weeks on and 4 weeks off and if
you were working off the continental shelf then you had to do 6 weeks on but you got 6 weeks off and the pay was very good.
If you consider that your pay was tax free as well and you weren't paying National Insurance and you were only working 6
months of the year it was absolutely incredible pay really. To get that sort of money ashore, sometimes I flick through
the paper and the jobs at times and what people with honours degrees and things like that are getting a fraction of what
I was earning, so the pay was tremendous……Passenger Ferries - It's the perfect job for me. Doing the job you love and
you're working on ships and you're messing around on the Solent doing something that is absolutely marvellous, you know -
beautiful weather and you're getting paid for it and then you go home that night.'
