Entry & progression
Entry: engine-department seagoing service, or an approved training programme. Progression: this is the big number, and there are two ways to reach it.
46 CFR 11.329(a)(1), verbatim
NOTE — The two routes "(i) Thirty-six months of seagoing service in the engine department; or (ii) Successful completion of an approved training program, which includes a combination of workshop skill training and seagoing service of not less than 12 months."
| Route | Requirement | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| (i) Sea service | 36 months seagoing service in the engine department | The hawsepipe. Three years below. |
| (ii) Approved programme | An approved training program combining workshop skill training and seagoing service of not less than 12 months | A maritime academy or equivalent. One year of sea time inside a structured programme. |
Thirty-six months against twelve. The approved-programme route is a third of the sea time — which is the whole argument for the academies, and it is a strong one. The trade is that you must be inside an approved programme. You cannot assemble one yourself out of a good engineering job and a few short courses.
Deck credit — up to 3 months
11.329(b) allows service in the deck department to count toward the 36 months, up to a maximum of 3 months. Three. Not six, not a quarter of the total. Deck credit is different at every rung of the engineering ladder and one number will not cover them all — toward Third Assistant Engineer it is 3 months on vessels of 100 GRT or more; toward the Limited grades and DDE it is 25% or 6 months, whichever is less; toward the STCW Chief 750–3,000 kW it is 2 months; toward the STCW Second in the same band, 1 month.
Look up the number for the endorsement you are actually applying for. Do not carry one across.
The workshop-skills cap
WARNING — NVIC 17-14 caps workshop-skills credit — "should not exceed 180 days" Route (ii) is "a combination of workshop skill training and seagoing service." The workshop half is not unlimited. NVIC 17-14 (CH-8) states that workshop-skills credit "should not exceed 180 days." Six months of bench and shop work, at the very most, against a programme that must still deliver not less than 12 months of seagoing service.
An academy that promises to substitute shop hours for sea time beyond that is promising something the guidance does not support.
How a month is counted — 46 CFR 10.107
- Year = 360 days for the purpose of the service requirements of the subchapter.
- Month = 30 days.
- Day = 8 hours of watchstanding or day-working, not to include overtime.
So 36 months is 1,080 days of eight-hour days — not three calendar years of being aboard. On a two-watch vessel a 12-hour day may credit as 1½ days. Overtime does not count, however many hours you actually worked. The definitions are in 10.107; cite that, not the requirement section, which is written in months and years and never mentions 360.
CAUTION — Get the service letters right the first time Under 46 CFR 10.232(a)(4), an owner may attest to his own service; everybody else needs a letter from the owner or a credentialed officer. The NMC rejects applications over this routinely. Pull the current NMC checklist for the OICEW before you submit — the checklist index is on the NMC site, and it is the document that will actually be worked against.