Entry & progression
Your certificate is built out of paper, and so is your defence. The engine room log, the Training Record Book, and — critically — the sea service letter, which AMSA accepts from one source internationally and a different source domestically.
The engine room log
- Watch handovers — who relieved whom, and when
- Machinery readings at the standard intervals — pressures, temperatures, revolutions, running hours
- Alarms — every one. Time raised, time acknowledged, cause, action taken
- Starting, stopping and changeover of main and auxiliary machinery
- Bunkering and internal transfers — what, from where, to where, how much
- Defects, breakdowns and repairs, and anything left in a degraded state
- Bridge orders — manoeuvring, standby, full away, changes of speed
Write it as it happens, in ink, and do not tidy it later. A log written from memory at the end of a watch is a story. A log written as the watch runs is evidence.
WARNING — The oil record book is not the engine room log, and it never will be The Oil Record Book Part I is a separate statutory document with its own entries, its own signatures, and its own criminal exposure. Do not put ORB entries in the engine room log and do not assume the log covers you. Lesson 4.4 deals with the ORB in full — read it before you touch a transfer valve.
Sea service letters — the trap that wastes months
| System | Who must issue the sea service letter |
|---|---|
| International (STCW / MO72) | The company. "Letters issued on board a vessel by a master will not be accepted." |
| Domestic near coastal (MO505) | The master, owner, operator or chief engineer — an on-board letter is accepted |
Read that table twice. It is exactly backwards from what most crew assume, and getting it wrong does not cost you an afternoon — it costs you the accrued time, because by the time AMSA rejects the letter the vessel has been sold, the company has been restructured, and the master is in another hemisphere.
Get the company letter before you leave the vessel. Every time. Not when you need it.
What a sea service letter must show
- The vessel, its propulsion power in kW, and the kind of propulsion
- Your capacity — engineer, trainee engineer, engineer cadet, or a capacity regularly engaged in engine-room watchkeeping
- The dates, unambiguously, and the days claimed
- That you were paid, and by whom
CAUTION — How MO72 counts a day of sea service MO74 (deck) and MO505 (domestic) each publish explicit day-counting rules — an 8-hour threshold, part-day credit, one day maximum per 24 hours. The equivalent day-counting rule in MO72 was not confirmed for this course. Do not assume the deck rule applies to the engine room. Confirm with AMSA before you calculate your total.