Engine Wactch Keeping

Ship Engine Room Watch Keeping Duties and Routines

Rating forming a part of a watch in a manned engine-room

Scope:

This course has been designed to meet the requirements of STCW section III/4.
Course is open to mariners who wish to obtain an appropriate certificate in order to perform duties as an engine rating forming part of a watch in a manned engine-room.

Objective:

The course has been designed to provide the learner with the knowledge and skills in seamanship required to perform duties as an engine rating forming part of a watch in a manned engine-room.

Course Content:

• Watchkeeping
• Engine system
• Safety regulations and environment protection
• Basis of diesel engines

14Theoretical

2Practical

16Total Hours

Certification:

Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure of the Republic of Croatia
The Republic of Panama – Panama Marine Survey & Certification Services Inc.

Prerequisite:

• At least 16 years of age
• Identification card or passport
• 2 passport size color photographs
• 6 months of certified sea service in engine-room
• Minimum elementary school report card
• Basic Safety Training certificate
• Medical exam (hearing and sight) issued by Occupational health practice in Republic of Croatia, not older than 6 months

Validation:

Unlimited

Minimum number of Attenders

8

Note to Client:

After successful completion of the course and examination at the Harbour Office candidates will receive a Rating forming a part of a watch in a manned engine-room certificate issued by the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure of the Republic of Croatia.

Though there is no ultimate yardstick to measure the efficiency of a watch keeping procedure, we have compiled a list of 12 ways which will help a marine engine on board ship to master the watch keeping procedure.

1.   Knowledge is the Base: The first and most important step to enhance your duties during a watch is to have a very strong knowledge base. One must know the basics of the machines and their operations, new trends and upcoming technologies, and maritime regulations along with their amendments.

Knowledge gives a great boost to engineer’s confidence level and also results in more accurate job decisions. Engine room operation also requires information from other domains of engineering such as mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical and electronic systems, refrigeration etc. Knowing these fundamentals makes an engineer’s foundation stronger.

2.   Follow Your Instincts: It is commonly said on ships that in order to become a good watch keeper, an engineer must use all the 6 senses- i.e. touch, hearing, smell, visuals, taste and kinaesthetic senses (6^th Sense). All these senses when applied correctly help an engineer to understand the condition of machines in a better way.

Touch:  Feeling a machine for its temperature can tell you about the condition inside the machinery, for e.g.  High temperature means something wrong.

Hearing: It is always advisable to keep a track of sounds coming from different machines in the engine room as any abnormality would result in change of the sound.

Smell: Another powerful sense that helps to determine a problem is -smell.  Burning of parts or accessories due to increase in temperature, oil leakage, chemicals etc. can be easily identified using this sense.

Taste: Your tongue can identify different tastes; and you can apply this characteristic to your watch keeping routines, for e.g.  Tasting can help to identify the difference between sea water and fresh water as both of them are used as prime mediums for cooling on ships.

Visual: The most commonly used sense of all is the power of visualisation, helpful in identifying engine room and machinery conditions. Whenever you enter the engine room you must start looking for any kind of visual abnormality.

6^th Sense: Considered to be the most powerful of all senses, your inner feeling (gut feeling) can sometimes prove to be a lifesaver during watch keeping. Listen to it when you feel there is something wrong in the engine room. However, don’t rely on it blindly; back it up with proper procedures.

3.   Go By The Book: Every Engine room is provided with hundreds of documents – Manuals, operating instruction, and safety and pollution prevention instructions just to name a few.  Follow them religiously during your watch keeping procedures.

4.   Interpreting log book: A smart engineer would know the importance of engine room log book and would also know how to interpret previous readings of different machines from the same. Interpreting log means keeping a track of previous records of machinery parameters from the log book and using them to analyse the present situation or to identify a problem.

5.   Clear Communication: Efficient communication between maritime professionals is an important factor for a safe and efficient operation onboard. If you are a watch keeper, you must clearly communicate all kinds of operations and problems/ suspicions with your seniors and crew members. An efficient engine room-bridge communication is also very important to make sure that navigational officers at the bridge can plan their procedures or stay prepared for any kind of situation.

6.   Take a Complete Round, Don’t Skip Any Machinery: Automation and alarm systems of machines are always helpful in detecting early stage faults; however, it is a known fact that human vigilance is more capable of detecting and interpreting errors more accurately. When on engine room round, all machines on all levels must be examined for proper operation. Moreover, also make sure that you note your findings in the log book for future reference.

7.   Never Neglect Any Alarm: Alarm systems in the engine room are indication or pre warning of any abnormality in the engine room machines. Sometimes due to a technical glitch such as connection or electronic fault, an alarm would become faulty and give out audio and visual warnings after every few minutes.

This generates a habit among watch keepers to ignore the alarm totally and to cancel it from the control room.  However, make sure that you are able to differentiate between the faulty and normal alarm, and also keep a track on the repairing work of faulty alarm so that you are aware when it is back to normal condition.

8.   Do Not Hide Faults: If you see any kind of fault while taking rounds or have committed a mistake, never try to hide it. Remember that even the smallest fault can become dangerous if unattended at the correct time. Always report the incident to your superiors and try to remove or repair the fault as soon as possible.

9.   Call for Help When in Need: In an engine room having hundreds of machines, faults are bound to happen. Sometimes you may feel that the fault is big and a single person won’t be able to handle it alone. In such situations, don’t hesitate to ask for help. Ship operation is all about team work and you should respect that and know its importance.

10.  Obey Orders: A good watch keeper must follow eligible orders from seniors, who have better experience and understanding of machines.  However, a smart watch keeper should also use his/her own judgement when the need arises. Take inputs and advices from your seniors, but be confident while carrying out your duties.

11.  Follow Alcohol Policy: Never ever commence or carry out your watch under the influence of alcohol, as it may interfere with your decision making abilities. Always follow your company alcohol policy.  In case you are under influence of alcohol, don’t be ashamed to inform your seniors.

12.  Avoid Fatigue: Fatigue is the biggest reason behind human mistakes on ship. Always take proper rest in your free time and avoid working when tired. Though this is tough to follow most of the time, ask your seniors for a brief break so that you can freshen up and get back to work with more energy and enthusiasm.

These are the most important factors which decide an efficient watch keeping procedure. Do you know any more factors to enhance watch keeping procedures on ships?

Ship engine room watch keeping duties and routines are carried out by Engineer Officers. The watches are split into three 4-hour spells of duty, that goes by quite quickly as there are many checks to be carried out on the main and auxiliary engines, along with the numerous pumps and coolers.

• A new marine engineer may need to learn several things on their own, since not everything can be taught at the marine school in a practical manner. Some of these things might seem very simple but could be quite confusing for a trainee engineer. So I thought of penning down my experiences of watch keeping and hence will continue in the next few articles along the same line

  The purpose of these articles is to inform newbie engineers about the watch keeping duties of an engineer at sea in charge of a marine diesel engine and will include the following:-

  • Engine-room layout
  • Main engine components subject to pressure and temperature change
  • The reason or cause of a rise or fall in temperature to an engine-room item of machinery
  • The consequences of these changes in pressure and temperature on the diesel engine efficiency
  • The rectification of a rise or fall in temperature or pressure
  • The affect a rise or fall has on various cooling and lubricating liquids

  Certainly it is not possible to indulge in all these in a single article as that would be an impractical idea so will proceed step by step and will start by talking about the standard temperature and pressure checks to be performed during a watch. Before I proceed with that, I would like to suggest another article about basics of marine watch keeping that will give you a broad idea about the entire concept in case you are not familiar with it.

  Standard Pressure and Temperature Checks

  There are standard pressures and temperature checks to be carried out by the watch keeping engineer, as he gains experience these will become second nature; the various thermometers and pressure gauges being scanned as he walks around the engine room checking the components. This means when a rouge value turns up it is spotted right away either on the component or the engine control station instrument board. This is situated just above the engine control station, either in the engine room or in the modern control room. The board contains the pressure and temperature gauges for the main systems such as; exhaust temperatures, jacket cooling and lub-oil pressure. We used an arrow to mark the optimum temperatures and pressures on these gauges, and endeavor to maintain them; again any rouge value will show up instantly.

  The board is located above the controls, being easily consulted from here. The other main gauges and components that are easily reached are the engine room telegraph, rev-counter, air start reservoirs pressure gauges and of course the controls themselves. Depending on the engine manufacturer, these consist of two levers; left hand one usually air start, right hand lever; fuel control and are used when maneuvering.

  A sketch of an engine room control station and board is shown below, please click on image to enlarge;

  
  

  

  Heavy Fuel Oil System (HFO)

  The temperature of the HFO system must be kept at the recommended value to control its viscosity. This is important as it must not turn "waxy" when being pumped through various heaters, the fuel pump and into the injectors.

  Lube-oil System

  The temperature of the lube-oil must be carefully controlled through use of the lube-oil coolers seawater inlet valve. Remember that as the temperature of the lube-oil rises the pressure drops. Conversely, a low lube –oil temperature will increase the oil pressure. A sudden unexplained rise in temperature could signify a bearing in the main engine running hot.

  Jacket cooling System

  The pressure and temperature of the jacket water cooling also need close monitoring and maintained at optimum values as the cooling water also supplies the turbo-blower air coolers. The pressure in this case is controlled by the circ pump, so any change could be a faulty pump, however, down to the pump or a loss of pressure through a faultycylinder liner rubber sealing ring, or even a cracked liner.

  Temperature is another matter; this must be kept at the recommended value. Any rise could signify a scavenge fire a rise in sea temperature or cooler problem.

  The generators temperature and pressures are checked as per the main engine ones.

  This leave the thrust block, prop shaft bearings, and stern gland. Here again the sense of touch should be used as a guide to overheating, but there will be temperature gauges on the thrust and prop bearings along with oil - level sight gauges.

  In my next article I will continue along the same vein; talking more about these subjects and catch hold of another single aspect in more detail. So just keep a look out for my further articles and please ask any questions through the comments at the end of the article. Enjoy your time at sea – it is the best years of your life.

  
  

  
  

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