To sail or not to sail?
If you are a prospective/current student considering sailing, please read Ship crew hierarchy for context.
Q1: Is it really common to be Master/Chief Engineer or Chief Mate/Second Engineer in 10 years?
@highfatmilk: What is more relevant is your sea time rather than calendar years as your experience usually only count at sea. Usually a decent officer does get Master/Chief Engineer within 10 calendar years.
@icedcappucino: There are Masters/Chief Engineers who took the rank within 10 calendar years however rare. There’s a few who became Chief Mate/Second Engineer within 7-8 calendar years. Typically most companies require 3-4 contracts as Chief Mate/Second Engineer before promotion to Master.
Q2: Does your salary increase everytime you sail, do you get paid overtime for working on deck? Vacation pay?
@highfatmilk: Your salary increase with your rank and not everytime you sail. You can expect yearly increments based on your sea time and not calendar year. Officers don’t get paid for overtime and there is usually no vacation bonus. You are paid for the days you are on the ship. Likewise working in most office roles in Singapore, we are not entitled to overtime pay.
@icedcappucino: Salary structure depends on company, broadly speaking there’s two kinds: 1.Contract based: Basic (which “covers” overtime), performance bonus, leave pay. “Overtime” is “expected”, as deck officers keep 4 hours watch on the bridge and will have to do their maintenance work (such as inspect and maintain Life Saving Appliances around the ship) outside of their watch duties. To elaborate a little more on highfatmilk’s explanation, “yearly increments based on your sea time” means you would have to sail 12 months onboard to get the first year increment. E.g. Basic wage for Year 0 = USD 2000. Basic wage for Year 1 = USD 2100. Etc. Leave pay is “You are paid for the days you are on the ship”, e.g. Leave pay for each month onboard = USD 1000. Therefore 6 months onboard = USD 6000 lump sump paid at the end of the contract. If you only served 4 months onboard, leave pay would be USD 4000 accordingly. 2. Annual based: Every month fixed salary, short contracts and short vacation in between.
@Amateurmind Some companies give bonus, in the first month, for your last contract when you start a new contract.
Q3: What country companies do Singaporean sailors work for?
@highfatmilk All kinds, all countries.
@icedcappucino Agreed with highfatmilk, though a higher % of Singaporean sailors work for companies with branch office or HQ in Singapore.
Q4: What kind of working schedule do you follow?
@highfatmilk: For foreign going large ships like tankers, bulks, containers, etc usually it is 4-6 months per contract. For offshore vessels the contract may vary from weeks to months. I’m assuming you are in the officer route then, does your job primarily revolve around working in the bridge then? I hear that starting as a 3rd officer, one mostly does safety related inspections and keep watch in the bridge, 2nd officer does more navigation duties. So officers still have to go around the ship but progressing up the ranks moves more of an officer’s core work into the bridge? I hope this doesn’t come off wrong but is being an officer one of the physically safer roles on ship? Usually as a 3/O, you have your duties on the bridge ie; 8am-12pm on the bridge, 8pm-12am on the bridge every single day without fail. During your overtime, like 1-3pm, the 3/O will go to do his extra works like the safety equipments you mentioned. Same for the 2/O and C/O they do extra works out of their watch keeping hours. Except for master who do not usually take watch but do admin work instead.
@icedcappucino: Agreed with highfatmilk, with the additional point that officers will have to go work whenever the ship operations requires, such as arrival/departure, internal/external inspections. At times it could be 18 hours continuous working (inclusive of quick meals), and more. For the engine dept, the working schedule is usually either shift work similar to the deck dept, or Unmanned Machinery Space where Mon-Fri tends to be office hours and the engineers take turns to be on standby for any overnight alarms.
Q5: What was your education path before getting on your first ship?
@highfatmilk: Most people in Singapore either get a diploma in SMA (polytechnic) or Wavelink (mid career change).
@icedcappucino: Diploma in Marine Engineering at SMA (Singapore Polytechnic).
Q6: How’s the WiFi on your ship?
@icedcappucino The conventional satelite wifi speed depends on ship location and how many persons using at the same time. I’ve seen lowest 10kb/s (after dinner time), highest 1mb/s (at 3AM). Haven’t tried Starlink yet.
Q7: Also are seafarers just exempt from CPF? What would be a situation where CPF is part of your salary, is it only when your employer is a Singaporean company that practises CPF?
@highfatmilk: Seafarers are exempt from income tax if you fulfil certain criteria. CPF contribution is dependent on your company. I know some companies that provide CPF and some don’t.
@icedcappucino: Agreed with highfatmilk, employer CPF contribution depends on the employer. I’ve been working for Singapore companies paying CPF, sailing on Singapore flag ships, exempt from income tax.
Q8: A more personal question, any regrets or misconceptions now that you’ve been sailing awhile?
@highfatmilk: Common misconceptions are that people often overestimate the time they get to visit other places. Your communication skills have to be great to do well as it is a job that requires communication especially as they usually come from all over the world. How do I put the regrets. Many people regret for many different reasons, be it short term or long term. Like regretting the career choice or regretting that you may have missed an event at home, a wedding of a kin or a birth of a child. But there are sacrifices to these careers. I can answer to more specific examples if you have them.
@icedcappucino: Yep agreed the overhype about “visiting new countries” as a seafarer. Frankly I regretted stressing myself out too much over work issues that I barely remember years later. As you might imagine, the ship is a small space (unless mega cruise ship?) so tensions bounce off people easily. Would have preferred to learn how to better handle bullying and harassment, before I went out to sea.
Q9: For regrets, I’m wondering if there are any “common” career choice regrets, like just realising certain downsides in the job are often a quitting factor for sailors e.g. Many officers didn’t realise being out at sea for long periods was more taxing than they thought. Also how do sailors actually meet their partners? Of course it differs person to person but I’m assuming most don’t meet each other at sea? Either from before they went into the job or just between sailing.
@highfatmilk: Very true for your second point, a lot of people underestimate the mental strain of being at sea for months at a time. With regards to meeting partners it is really personal and can’t really comment on it. But don’t expect to meet your partner at sea, really one in a million, or less.
@icedcappucino Usually the two biggest reasons to quit sailing is the exhaustion (physical and mental) combined with isolation for months away from family and friends. From what I’ve seen in the seafaring community, most met their partners either during school days or dating apps in between sailing or after they quit sailing.
Q10: So usually no bonus or extra allowance, whatever’s your rank pay is what you get mostly. I have heard of the SAILMAP but excluding that nothing much then?
@highfatmilk: That is usually the case. It is closer to contractual work instead of a full time employment.
@icedcappucino: That’s right, SAILMAP and scholarships are mutually exclusive.
Q11: So as a Singaporean sailor, one can take on jobs based on one’s qualification & rank from basically any country/company to work on ship. Is it right to say the pay doesn’t change too much from ship to ship as compared to sea time and rank? (I do know that certain type of vessels do pay more) Do Singaporean sailors face any specific employment difficulty because of nationality, or we’re just like any other sailor out there?
@icedcappucino: For the junior ranks, the pay doesn’t differ too much comparing several companies and types of vessels. The pay difference becomes larger for senior ranks. E.g. A Chief Officer on a containership might earn USD 8000/month, another Chief Officer on a chemical tanker might earn USD 10000/month. This is as expected as oil/chemical/gas ships require advanced training and certification which takes time and money as well, in addition to slower promotion. As far as I know, Singaporean sailors don’t face employment difficulty unless they ask for higher salary than the employer’s rate. Some companies do pay Singaporean sailors higher salary than other nationalities of the same rank.
Q14: What should I do if I’m nervous about joining ship?
Try attending networking events organised by the school/union, usually active sailors attend and are willing to share their thoughts and advice. Sailing is not a job/lifestyle suitable for everyone.
Q15: How do I know if I’m suitable for sailing?
Are you able to live independently and overcome homesickness for 6 months? Much of the work is learned on-the-job, so the largest factor is the ability to handle isolation while adapting to a physically and mentally challenging environment.
Q16: What if I’m already onboard my first ship, and feel like quitting?
– Exhausted: Are you consistently overworked and broke MLC rules? If yes, this is a serious issue that the senior officers need to resolve.
– Bored: Are the assigned jobs monotonous (e.g. 80% cleaning/painting jobs)? Found yourself being actively excluded from actual jobs? It’s relatively normal (not saying this is best practice!) for new cadets to be treated as a cleaner and admin assistant. This is usually a two-way story. From the senior officers’ POV, some grew up in that type of “culture” so they refuse to put in time and effort to train the cadets. Or afraid of the new cadets injuring themselves (usually the cadets get the most injuries out of all the other ranks). Or they think the cadets are not ready yet to assist actual jobs.
In this case, brush up on your theoretical knowledge and improve your safety consciousness + situational awareness. Request for your Second Engineer or Chief Officer to test you at a convenient time/place for him/her, show you’re keen to learn and support the team. If your senior officer still refuses to give you a chance, escalate to the head (e.g. Chief Engineer or Master). If no use, contact your crewing manager.
– Disillusioned: Sailing might be be hugely different from what was told by your lecturers/seniors? That’s normal too. Think hard about why you even chose sailing, and where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time? There’s many who quit during or after cadet ship and changed careers, some regretted, some don’t. 🙂
– Sad/angry: Were you bullied or harassed intentionally? There are crew who engage in such behaviour but feel it’s normal due to the culture they come from. Approach your senior officers and arrange for a suitable time/place to share your concerns in a professional way. It’s possible there might be people who will gaslight/manipulate you or push their responsibility away. Escalate your case as per your company’s policy.
Q17: How should I request for sign off?
Approach your direct superior (either Second Engineer or Chief Officer) to arrange for a suitable time/place to share your concerns in a professional way.
E.g. Immediate family in danger or death. An example of a situation not usually classified as “need sign off” is your other half breaking up with you or threatening to do so. More on seafarers and their relationships here. Usually the sign off request would be signed by you, head of your department, and the Master. He/she would send your sign off request to the company’s crew department to arrange your repatriation as soon as possible, without financial or career penalty to you. If you’re requesting to sign off for reasons that are deemed not serious by the company, you may risk being blacklisted or not be called for re-employment.
Q18: What should I do to get faster promotions?
Q1: What should I do to get faster promotions?
This is a question that has a wide variety of factors which may differ hugely from person to person even in the same company!
Let us start by agreeing promotion is related to visibility and availability, not just right mindset and knowledge + ability. In this era, “company loyalty” may not mean as much as it used to.
A) Type of vessel (or fleet):
Generally dry fleet (container/bulk/car carrier etc) companies promote faster than oil/chem/gas tanker companies.
(i) Tankers require much more training and experience to handle than dry fleet due to cargo operations and related additional equipment.
(ii) The companies and/or the ship’s charterers strictly require each officer to follow their guidelines for minimum sea time before they’re allowed to be promoted. Whereas dry fleet companies usually do not have that restriction, thus higher chance of promoting faster.
B) Type of crew:
Especially the senior officers who would be writing your performance appraisal and promotion recommendation. Obviously we can’t choose our bosses, so
(i) Sometimes one gets lucky to sail with an experienced crew and supportive senior officers who guide AND write good appraisals.
(ii) There have been cases where the seafarer works very hard and reasonably good, but the senior officer wrote bad appraisal due to personal agenda and bias.
C) Your experience on a specific type of vessel:
Generally, companies require their officers to have more experience for larger and/or different class of vessels.
D) Your company’s promotion guideline:
E.g. some companies require 12 months as Fourth Engineer/Third Officer before promotion, while another company with same type of vessel requires just 6 months and likely lower salary and welfare.
(i) Do you want a prestigious company on your resume, or a senior rank in an average company?
E) Controversial but can’t be ignored, how close are you to the office management?