How is to work on a Crude oil tanker ship as a female engine cadet?

    So this article is about my personal experience, in 2013 I started my internship in a crude oil tanker (if you don’t know a crude oil tanker is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products), I remember that day it was June an it was quiet sunny I just saw a giant ship in front of me and I told myself "you can do this", and that’s how this journey started.

(Home for 12 months)

    I didn’t talk with anybody to have a guidance as all you know or if you don’t, this is a very competitive field but I was not skeptical, I was up beat and happy to start sailing after passing four years in college my only goal was to be graduated. 

    The guy that guide me through the ship take me to the cargo control room (at that time I didn’t even know what was that so I was like ok let’s go there), once I got there he introduced me the Chief engineer, 3rd engineer, 1st officer and other crew members, they give me the welcome to the ship and the guy who was giving me the tour take me to my cabin, so at that point I was very scared I didn’t know what to expect, maybe my cabin was only for me?, or maybe I will shared it with someone else?, once the door was open I saw another girl that studied with me at college so I was kinda relieved, once I get in I saw another girl who I didn’t know and there was 3 bunks with two beds in each bunk with curtains for “privacy” after all we end up being 6 girls in one cabin.

     The first 4 months were weird day by day I got to know more the engine team and the cadets who I share cabin with, It was very difficult at the beginning because everything was new for me even do I studied 4 years at college once you get on the ship and start to familiarize with auxiliary equipment everything looks so different than what you learn at college, so I was a little bit stressed but I started to go to the library and I started to study all the manuals and the drawings so day by day I was able to understand more and more how this ship worked. 

    After those four months I started to work closely with the engine officers. 

    I started doing the watch with the 3rd engineer, it was from 8:00 to 12:00 and 20:00 to 00:00 plus overtime. The overtime with the 3rd engineer was after lunch some days were two or four hours depending on how many things we had to do. Once I finished the overtime I was back in my cabin resting or in the library of the ship studying. 

    The 3rd engineer on board in this ship was in charge of:

• Pumps.
• Purifiers: oil, heavy fuel oil and diesel oil.
• Valves.
• Sewage treatment plant
• Engine room and pump room ventilation and extractor system.
• Cathodic and Scale protection.
• Control air dryer filter.
• Drinking water system (hot and cold).
• Lifeboats.
• Rescue boat.

    The 3rd engineer had to do all the maintenance of these equipments and he had to be aware of how all this equipments work properly also if we had operations of onload and offload of crude oil, he had to be aware on how to prepare and operate the steam system in a safe and correct way, in fact all the engine officers had to be aware of how to prepare the system and how to control it when we were in operations.

     I was two months in his watch and I learn:

• How to prepare the engine for sailing, docking or anchorage.
• Maintenance of pumps like: centrifugal, screw, piston, gear, multistage these were the types of pumps that we had on board this ships but there are other types of pumps).
• Maintenance of valves like: butterfly, gate, check, preassure relief, strainers and steam traps.
• Maintenance of oil, heavy fuel oil and diesel oil purifiers.
• Maintenance of sewage treatment plant and all their accessories.
• Prepare the steam system which includes; drain the system, control it, and keep a permanent surveillance of the steam pressure.

 (Maintenance of purifier, bowl assembling)

    So working with 3rd engineer was very helpful because I was able to learn more about the daily duties that we had on board and also I could learn a lot about different equipemts, at that time I started to see everything a little bit more easy after all I had already six months on board.

 The next two months I was changed to the 2nd engineer officer watch which meant that my schedule was change to 00:00 to 04:00 and 12:00 to 16:00 plus overtime, this two months were a little bit more complicated because he was in charge of delicates equipments and hard tasks like: 

• General maintenace of boilers and economizer.
• General maintenance of Diesel generators, on board we say DG`s.
• Fresh water generator (depending on the ship is also call evaporator)
• Air compressors
• Fire fighting system
• Emergency fire fighting pump.
• CO2 system.
•  Foam system.
•  Emergency generator.
•  Quick jump shut-off valves.
• Emergency closing system.

    I said it was a little bit more complicated because like I said this were very delicate equipments that must be continually monitored, for example every week we had to do boiler water sample test, add chemicals to the cascade tank (boiler water e boilers tank), drain the boiler top and bottom, clean the burner mostly every week, clean also the furnace (we did a wet cleaning), oil test for the DG`s, oil test for the air compressors, I had the opportunity to participate in the major overhaul of the DG`s which was kinda great because I was able to see all the internal part of the engine and also to do all the measurements according with manual and I participate in a major maintenance of the fresh water generator due failures. 

 ( Major overhaul DG`s, checking fuel racks)  

    

    Even do we had a lot of work, we had to do also the operations which were two or three times per week, so it was not easy at all, at the end of this two months I was exhausted. I was at that time with 8 months on board and still there were 4 more to go.

(Boiler, furnace cleaning)

    For the  next two months I was assigned to work in the watch of the first engineer for me this was a more relaxed time than with the 2nd engineer, because I was a little more confident and familiarized with all the equipments in the engine room and operations so It was a little bit more easy. The watch of the 1st engineer was from 04:00 to 08:00 and 16:00 to 20:00 plus overtime of course he was in charge of:

• General maintenance of main engine
• Bilge water separator
• Inert gas system
• Incinerator
• Steering system
• Air conditioning system
• Ballast system
• Refrigeration system
• Winches
• Hydraulic system
• Sea water filters
• Welding machine
• Heat exchangers
• Engine room crane

    Like a mention above I worked together with the first engineer for two months I was involve in every maintenance of all his equipments, after I finished my time with him, I was ask by the Chief engineer if I was capable to cover the 3rd engineer watch because he had to leave the ship, so I accepted. 

(Starting main engine from pedestal)

    I was the 3rd engineer in charge, without license, with 10 months on board and trying to not get crazy with all the responsibility I  had, so that month I was in charge was challenging and tough, but I managed to survive, I was able to perform any maintenance without supervision and luckily I didn't have any problem with my system also I managed to do the offload operations with the help of the oiler of course and everything turned up to be great. By the end of my eleventh month we had a new 3rd engineer on board I trained him, and by the end of the my twelfth I was ready to go back home and get my degree in maritime engineer and my license of course.