Info and advice for aspiring deck officer cadet

[Alex McEwan]

Hello everyone!

I’m 17 and I have just applied for a deck officer cadetship with chiltern maritime. I have chosen Condor Ferries, Fred Olsen Cruises, Holland America Line, Maersk Supply, Döhle Yachts and MSC cruises as my sponsoring company choices. For some back ground info, I have 9 GCSEs all between A and C grades and I have just completed a Level 3 Diploma in Aeronautical Engineering (not ship related but it was the hardest engineering course they offered and it looked interesting) at college with a distinction grade.

I’m just wondering if anyone here has experience with chiltern maritime or has gone through their deck officer training with them and could tell me more about the course, finding a job etc. If anyone has any general advice about the industry or stuff to look at to prepare myself that would be great to hear too!

Thanks!

[Paul Johnson]

Hi Alex,
Have just read your post, I wish you the best of luck in starting your career, times have changed but you will still be sailing on the wet green choppy stuff, so you have my best wishes. Please keep in touch with this site, I am sure we would wish to know how you progress, best of luck.
Cheers, Paul.

[Paul Kirk]

Hi Alex, I started my career by going to Boulevard Nautical School in Hull at the age of 13. It was a 3 year course where I was lodged with George and Connie Tulloch. George had a barbers shop near the school and it was full of the lads from the school at lunchtime. I stayed with them for 3 years, but going home at weekends. I was made the Cadet Captain ( Head-boy) of the School. I took 6 O levels but failed them all with grade 7s. I was found to be dyslexic. I was taken on by Mobil Shipping Company as a Cadet Officer, as the Captain who was interviewed me had a similar problem to me. I worked my way up to Chief Officer and was able to take my wife with me. We sailed on small chemical ships which got into every port. We then went on the Super Tankers 250,000 tonnes but was limited to larger ports and berths. I do hope you get the chance to take up this career, as you will enjoy the life.
Kind Regards Paul.

[j.sabourn]

Have never heard of Chiltern Marine Alex. The others have though. Looking to your future you should consider what is going to be the most longest time of shipping types for well into the future. I don’t know the true certificate structure these days , but if I was starting again in today’s work climate , the hands on experience choice would be the offshore industry , which will have a number of years yet to run. Your passenger vessels will never give you seamanship experience that you will require some way down the track. You will find out for yourself that in the future when applying for jobs your CV will be the one to land you that job and standing on the bridge of a ship is a very small part of the overall running and maintainance of shipping. Maersk line offshore vessels are usually well found ships and have been on a number of them and are all over the world wherever there is oil and gas , so would be one I went for. I assume Chiltern Maritime is an agency ? If they are they are in business to find you work. I would advice you to apply direct yourself to the shipowner. Most work today is in what they call specialised shipping so is best to get the groundwork in on those type of vessels. However your future life at sea will be all decision making so now is a good time to start. But my choice on what you have going would be Maersk who incidentally have a wide range of different types of vessels. However as said is your choice and will have to live with it , hopefully well into the future. Regards JS..

[Derek Chadburn]

Hi Chiltern is a reasonable organisation to go with. Not many shipping company's are taking their own cadets. Maersk made their UK based cadet training officer redundant last August. I'm not sure if this applies tp offshore.
Trinity House sponsor cadets but place them with Chiltern.
Good luck. Regards Derek