Have you ever dreamt of becoming a ship captain and take command of a multi-million dollar vessel plying the high seas? Its responsibility is undeniably huge. Being the ship’s “old man” needs a lot of experience, knowledge and know-how on various ship operation and management.
This is a very attractive job to fill in due to its high pay and the demand never runs out. It is because 90% of the world’s trade are being transported by vessels at sea. All of this vessels need someone who can command and safely transport goods from one port to another.
The starting point
Every end goal has a starting point. Therefore, one must identify his or her starting point before he or she can arrive to his or her lofty goal. As a crew in the deck department, he or she can begin with the following ranks: Deck Cadet, Deck Boy, GP (General Purpose Crew), OS or Messman. It is to be noted that the company will assign these ranks to its applicants depending on the needs in their fleet.
Start as Deck Cadet
The deck cadet rank has the most viable option available to newly graduate cadet. It is because it is considered the very foundation to become a ship’s officer and eventually a captain sometime in the future. He or she has to have a structured training program as mandated by STCW.
Thus, he has with him the advantage acquiring operational level license at the earliest possible time among the entry level ranks. There are plenty of companies who get their officers through cadet programs. Normally these are sponsored cadets or cadets who passed the selection process by the company among various maritime schools in the country.
However, only a few get to be in the program and majority of cadets at school will start in other ranks other than being a deck cadet.
RELATED: 4 Possible outcome of a maritime graduate
Start as Deck Rating (Deck Boy/GP/Ordinary Seaman/Messman)
These ranks, on the other hand is definitely the story of most seafarers whom didn’t receive any help or under any scholarship grants or programs. This is the start of the path to become a skilled worker onboard sea going vessels. They have to go through all the ranks and spend some time there before moving forward.
Nobody can guarantee how much time a seafarer has spent in these ranks. Majority of them never got the chance to take the exams and stay in these ranks until they retire.
Even worse, Messman rank does not count for the 36 months needed as a requirement for OIC NW exams. So the seafarer must serve in the deck department as Deck Boy or Ordinary Seaman first and then start the counting from there.
But if they do become an officer, it’s like hitting the jackpot so to say. Since they worked hard to earn the rank, it is a sweet victory for them.
Transition from Deck rating to Junior Officer (Jr. 3rd Officer, 3rd Officer, 2nd Officer)
Nowadays, everyone wants to become a ship’s officer, quick.
However, they don’t understand that going through ratings first for a considerable amount of time is vital. It is because once a rating will become an officer, he or she will understand what the struggle behind and remember all those years he or she has gone through.
Rising through the ranks are never measured how fast one can go. It shall be based on how ready and how capable the candidate seafarer is. It’s not easy to be an officer however, one must go through this stage in order to reach the lofty goal to become a ship captain.
There are plenty of ratings now that already has an officer license. Meanwhile for some, they are struggling to be promoted to an officership position in their respective companies. Most of them usually seek out another company for them to be able to use their license.
RELATED: How to become a seaman in the Philippines
Transition from Junior Officer to Management Level Officer
This jump is comparable to a follower becoming a leader. Once you’ll be a leader, you will be managing people, schedule and whole lot of managerial stuff. You’ll also be initiating leadership in implementing established company procedures and policies. Your rank is directly proportional to your responsibilities.
The higher your rank is, the heavier responsibilities you have. It’s like your shoulder stripes, one stripe means a whole new set of responsibility in your scope. You have to earn every stripe on that shoulder. When you do, master it, learn more, work hard to get another stripe until you become the ship captain or master of the vessel.
Do you aspire to become a ship captain?
There’s a huge chance that if you ask cadets at school nowadays, most of them will say yes. Of course, they have high aspirations. But once they go out to the real world, this enthusiasm will die down slowly as years will pass.
Some challenges and plans in life will prevent some of them to reach the pinnacle of this profession. Some are lucky and blessed enough to be able to see the mountain top.
Salary remains to be the highest motivating factor to all aspiring ship captains. All others as most say, comes second.
With seafarers who already has a shot at becoming a Captain, I am sure that most of them did not lose sight of the ultimate goal and working hard towards it.
Watch our video on Youtube!
Don’t forget to hit Subscribe!