Hi guys, I am zunnoonpatel from india,
studying marine engineering, greetings to all the sailors
around the world!
Hey guys Jeff here, welcome back and let’s do a top 6 questions about Merchant Marine
These questions I get asked a lot today I am going give more context from an
insider point of view.
First up, how much do mariners get paid I get asked a lot how much do I get paid
It really depends on what type of ship you are on , your company and a lot of variables
Some of my coworkers have been working in the industry for 30 years so I’ve had the chance
to compare what other companies are offering I will give u a range
All units are in U.S. Dollars **per month
Third mate / Third engineer anywhere from
$3000 to $7500 Second mate / engineer
$3500 to $8500
Chief mate/ first engineer $4000 to $10,000 And lastly
Captain / Chief Engineer anywhere from $5000 to $15000
You are probably wondering now… wow Jeff whats with the big range
Here are some variables Specialized ship such as LNG and LPG they
get paid the highest Containerships, the type that I worked on
is also in the higher range General rule, the larger ships the better
the pay Because more work
Bigger company also offers more competitive salary
Nationality, yes your nationality and the ship’s nationality aka Ship’s flag does
matter There are same ranking officers working on
the same ship earning different salary because of different nationality
Second question how do I to get started in this industry?
The bare minimum requirement that everyone needs to work on a ship
are the five certificates from STCW
STCW stands for International convention on the Standards of Training, Certification and
watch keeping for seafarers. Five certificate are : First aid, personal
survival, Personal safety and social responsibilities ,firefighting, and Security
Different countries have slightly different names, but if you want to find out just look
STCW Google or Wikipedia
Then in order to be more specific in your
position, let’s say an engineer, you need a certificate of competency in marine engineering
For deck side it’ll be a certificate of competency for deck watch keepers
Maritime is much like airlines, we have to go through a specialized training school then
accumulate sea time, finally examination for license
You need to research whether it will fit you, such as the cost, how long it takes, and the
location The reason why I say location is because for
some countries it takes longer For example myself, instead of studying maritime
locally in Canada, I chose to travel to Australia, because it takes 1.5 years less
Plus I get to go to a new country while I study
So do your research and weigh your options
Ok third question Can I get into your company
/ how do I get into a company Ok... for my company I don’t have the power
or influence to help anyone because I am only a Third Mate
You’d have to be a captain to recommend someone.
Sorry guys I am unable to help you That aside, here are some advice on how to
get hired into a shipping company. Most shipping company does sponsorship, for
example on the Canadian shipping lines website you can see sponsorship under their career
section. So go on google and Wikipedia, find all the shipping lines you can find
And start sending out resume Keep in mind
When you are a cadet you can’t be too picky especially in today’s economy
you don’t choose the company The Companies choose you
Shipping companies hire in batches so whenever u hand in a resume, it goes into a waiting
pile Sometimes it doesn’t even get looked at
A good strategy for that is to keep sending your resume every month until you get declined
You just have to be persistent
Pirates! Let’s just say Captain Philips happened 7 years ago back in 2009
Since the high profile incidents that brought this issue into international spot light
Countries from around the world have been tackling piracy by sending out navy patrols
into these high risk areas Most ships also hire security guards
for protection They come on with these big sniper rifles
Piracy is actually decreasing by the numbers The media tends to dramatize things especially
with the movies, TV news
Then comes the fifth one is it safe on the ship?
Talk about fire, first aid, and maybe accidents All international ships are fully equipped
to fight fire Not to mention we have firefighting systems
in place for almost anywhere on the ship Lifeboat life-raft life-jacket are all double
capacity We have food water and rations that can last
us for months Global satellite distress systems that can
track us real time For medical we have a hospital onboard
All crew are trained in first aid, from the cook to the captain
For more serious conditions, a helicopter can be sent from land and pick up and injured crew
Systematic safety systems and checklist that
are in place for majority of the task we do So it is very safe to work on a ship, accidents
and incidents that you see on the news are only a small portion of the maritime world
Most people sail for their entire life without seeing an emergency
Last one is internet Yes, nowdays majority of the modern ships
have satellite internet Most if not all are throttled and have a firewall
to block image or videos so that the bandwidth is not spent too quickly
The best available would be cruise ships, I was on “Voyager of the Seas” a few months
back and they offer a 10 USD unlimited internet daily…. which is pricy and very very slow,
don’t even think about uploading or downloading anything. I was barely able to get 360p on
Youtube Bottom line is, if you plan to work in maritime,
be prepared to have less internet
A…*yawn* thank you guys forrrrr
Thank you guys for watching as always if you got a question leave it down in the comments
below Be sure to add and send me a greetings on
Instagram so that I can use in the next video if you want to be featured
I will see you guys next time!