As the cadet 2^nd engineer, I start my day at 0600 with breakfast and a coffee. At 0645 I meet with the other student leaders on the ship for a short meeting going over operations for the day, safety topics, and the goods and bads from the day before. After morning quarters, I proceed to make a round of the engine room. I focus on equipment such as fuel/lube oil purifiers, fuel/lube oil strainers, fuel/lube oil pumps, coolers, fuel skids, and steam related systems (hot well, feed pumps, Aux. Boiler, Exhaust Gas Boiler, etc.) The reason I focus on these systems is because they fall under my responsibility as the cadet 2^nd engineer.

At 0800, my workday begins with a fuel transfer. Depending on the transfer, the fuel may need to be dosed with a lubricity modifier, in which I do the calculations for beforehand. The reason why we do fuel transfers every day, is to keep up with the fuel the engines burn throughout the day. Depending on the day, this number usually averages around 15 metric tons of fuel a day. After the transfer, I am usually assigned a job to last me until lunch. As of today, it involved replacing and cleaning the fuel oil burner tip in the Aux. Boiler and assembling the newly cleaned Diesel Generator purifier.

At 1200, it is my job to provide the ships engine noon report to the Chief Engineer. The noon report numbers are a summary of the performance and changes the engine room had in a 24-hour period. Among many other things, it helps us visualize things like water production, fuel usage, fuel transfers, waste oil transfers, and engine hour counters.

At 1300 the 2^nd engineer usually assigns me work to do throughout the afternoon. Today, it involved cleaning a couple of fuel oil strainers that I noticed were dirty during my morning fuel oil transfer. After that, I helped the 2^nd engineer calibrate the discharge valve for the fire and general service pump. It was jamming itself shut, so we reset the fully closed position of the valve. After, we tested it to make sure it was fully functional.

At 1600 I do boiler water and cooling water testing. Water testing is important because the quality of water that we put into our systems can have a really big impact on the components within the systems. Having proper water chemistry can prevent things like corrosion, scale build up, foaming, etc. Based on the chemistry, we dose the systems with the chemicals they need for proper operation. This usually concludes my workday. I then go to dinner, workout, and hang out with friends the remainder of the night.

Post By: 2/C Brody Hathorne, MET Delta Company, Cadet 2nd Engineer