Entry & progression
Five years total in the engineroom. Two years of it as an engineer officer while holding an engineer officer endorsement. Thirty months as a QMED. Exam required — but waived in defined circumstances. Minimum age 21, not 19.
The service requirement — 11.518(a), verbatim
NOTE — 46 CFR 11.518(a) "...5 years of total service in the engineroom of vessels. Two years of this service must have been as an engineer officer while holding an engineer officer endorsement. Thirty months of the service must have been as a QMED or equivalent position."
Three nested requirements, and the middle one is the one that catches people. The two years as an engineer officer must have been served while holding an engineer officer endorsement. Not while doing the work of an engineer officer. Not while the chief called you the second. While holding the ticket.
That single clause is why Chief Engineer-Limited cannot be a first endorsement. You have to hold something first — in practice, Assistant Engineer-Limited — and then serve two years on it. The ladder is built into the section, whether you like it or not.
Age 21 — and this is where people get burned
WARNING — Chief Engineer-Limited needs 21, not 19 The default minimum age for an officer endorsement is 21 (11.201(e)). A short list of grades drops to 19: Third Assistant Engineer, Assistant Engineer-Limited, Assistant Engineer-MODU, Assistant Engineer-FIV, and DDE of vessels under 4,000 HP / 3,000 kW.
Chief Engineer-Limited is not on that list. It needs 21. People assume that because the assistant grade is 19, the chief grade must be too. It is not.
The examination — required, but frequently waived
The exam for Chief Engineer-Limited is required by 11.903(a)(32). But 11.903(c)(7) and (c)(8) waive it in stated circumstances: where the endorsement is limited to less than 10,000 HP / 7,500 kW, or to less than 4,000 HP / 3,000 kW on near-coastal routes, and the applicant has already been examined at the management level.
The logic is straightforward. The Coast Guard is not going to make you sit a management-level examination twice. If you have already passed one, and the ticket you are asking for sits inside the horsepower band the waiver describes, the written exam falls away.
CAUTION — Do not plan your career around a waiver The waiver is real and it is in the regulation, but whether your application qualifies depends on which management-level exam you sat, what limitation your endorsement carries, and what route you are seeking. That is a determination for the National Maritime Center, not for a course. Ask them before you decide not to study.
What it entitles you to
- Service as chief engineer — head of the department
- Any horsepower within the limitation computed under 11.503(b)
- Unlimited tonnage inland; less than 1,600 GRT on oceans, near-coastal and the Great Lakes
- Deck credit up to 25% or 6 months, whichever is less (11.504)
Why this rung is worth more than it looks
One year of service as Chief Engineer-Limited, plus the appropriate examination, equals First Assistant Engineer — an unlimited grade with no tonnage limit at all — under 11.512(a)(2). Not Third Assistant. Not Second. First. That crossover is the most valuable thing on this endorsement, and it gets a lesson of its own at the end of the course.