What is merchant navy? For all the wannna be SeaFolks, I will just try to give a brief of this great profession here. Drop me a comment if you have any doubts. Other SeaFolks may continue this thread and write on other aspect as they like.

 

    Ok so to start with, lot of people confuse merchant navy with national navy so I will first try and explain that aspect. Merchant navy is a combination of ships and the people who man them, like we seafolks. It is primarily used to transport cargo of a commercial nature. Whereas nation's navy is about ships who transport cargo for or during the time of war or war like situation.

 

    Now a lot of people must also be wondering why there is so much of fuzz about this profession. Why is it so important or attractive. So for them let me say that sea transport is the largest carrier of freight in the world. More than 90% of the international world trade is via these ships. Yes thats why we SeaFolks rock. And we get decent pays also on ship. After reading just this, many of you must be thinking that yeh I wanna be part of this profession right? But wait till you read the full post. Its not all goodie goodie. Its a very hard life mind you ok.

 

    I will try and brief you with professional streams widely followed across the world now. There are three of them to say; deck, engine & steward.

 

 Deck officers are responsible for navigation of ships & some cargo operations along with lot of other duties. The ranks in deck department are from deck cadet till captain.

 Engineering officers maintain and operate propulsion and all other machineries on board ships. The ranks in engine department are from junior engineer till chief engineer.

 Steward department as the name suggest looks after the food and general house keeping of the ship. They have various posts like chief cook, chief steward etc.

 

    Deck and engine officers generally follow watch system for their duty like 12-4, 4-8 & 8-12. Means the one who has 4-8 watch, will be on duty from 4am to 8 am & 4pm to 8 pm. Plus minumum of two hours of overtime. You must be thinking that after that will be a good night sleep right? Well you do get to sleep but when you are on ship, you are all the time at work! You may be needed for work at any time. You are on call.

 

    Well there is a lot to write even now. But I have to make an end somewhere right. I have not even started talking about the conditions you are expected to work in...:) I guess I will leave that to other SeaFolks. If anybody write in the same topic then make a comment to this post with the link to your blog ok. Keep browsing.......