How to join a cruise ship? ver 1.0

Basic advice to a young man who wants to join the cruise industry. Age 27, done this and that in the travel industry ashore, now looking at the romance of being on a ship.

Please do read, update, correct, suggest improvements?

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a) To join cruiuse ships now, you will need:-

1)  To do 4 x basic courses also called STCW/78, these can be done at a variety of institutes and colleges in India. Cost about 12k.

2) An InDOS number, which the institute will apply for you, costs about 800-1000/-

3) Then, with these two things in hand, you simultaneously start looking for jobs, for which you have to check out the newspapers, catering colleges, byelanes of port cities, internet.

4) Once you have an offer, that company may sponsor you for a CDC of that flag which their cruise ship flies. There are hardly any Indian pax ships, and their rules are, different. So it will be open register and similar.

5) Also take a look here:- http://www.tsrahaman.org/  . . . you can do the 4 courses listed in "1" over here and hopefully pick up some grapevine on agents/jobs etc. Pleasant place, residential campus.

5) One more 3 day course called Passenger Ship Course, this is done in Cal/Madras/Mumbai. But is better done AFTER you have acquired a CDC or atleast got somewhere.

These are the 4 courses you will need to do, at DGS approved colleges, for STCW purposes:-

Personal Survival Technique
Personal Safety and Social Responsibility
Fire Prevention & Fire Fighting
Elementary First Aid

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And then, good luck.

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How many people should we have on board ships??

I believe the Port State authorities in Spain and the US, and now to some extent Greece also, have recently as Port States started taking some interesting initiatives in placing their National interests first as far as safe manning onboard ships of other flags visiting their waters and ports/countries is concerned. I do not have the exact details, but have heard about how the number of watch-keepers, for example, has to be "better" if that from the flag state is at variance to what the port state expects.

There is no reason to not motivate the Indian Government to do so for all vessels calling Indian ports, also - we are not exactly minnows in the world of ocean trade either. Likewise, with some foresight, the same can be applied to ships entering Indian waters in their voyages worldwide - especially now that ships from the PG to the Far East as well as others tend to hug the Indian coast because of the Red Sea/Somalia piracy issues.

Just a thought - but worth pursuing. Or we keep our peace - Black Rose at Paradeep and similar not-withstanding. Volvo buses plying between Mumbai and Bangalore now have 4 drivers (2 for city at each end and 2 for the long haul) like do Suez Pilots - but at sea, we keep worrying about Indian seafarers becoming non-competitive?

As far as reduced manning is concerned - it is my submission that for the typical ship-owner/operator, human beings on board are certificates of competency that eat food, so the fewer the better. In the risk analysis of seaworthy in terms of documentation versus seaworthy in terms of actual facts, the cost of those lives is factored in - so the fewer the better. Barring the Derbyshire and maybe a few other cases, has anybody here heard of family or flag state pressing for investigations, lately?

Bob Couttie's Marine Accident Casebook online

So how often has your company called you for a seminar, conference or meeting, to discuss accidents at sea and how to prevent them? And how often do they turn into finger pointing sessions, with the main real issues never being resolved? And then, the findings on accidents at sea, after all those investigations, never see the light of day.

Compare this with aviation, where every accident report is not just publicly available, but increasingly available in print and other formats - in mess rooms, briefing rooms, magazines, everywhere.

Bob Couttie's resource on the internet, found here:-
http://maritimeaccident.org/
tries to do exactly that.

Find time to go through it. Register for better access, free, and subscribe to his newsletter.

There was a day and age when Walport would not pick up Poseidon for viewing on ships. Matter of fact, in this day and age, it may be very relevant to show marine accidents and rescue films onboard.

And he has a very apt lifeboat survey up and running now, here:-

http://maritimeaccident.org/survey/index.php?sid=41249&lang=en

This one is for seafarers, and you are requested to take part, don't say you don't have a voice.

Thank you, Bob Couttie.