Entry & progression
One year. No examination. Second Assistant Engineer is the shortest, quietest step on the ladder — 46 CFR 11.514, and 11.903(c)(9) says there is no exam.
NOTE — 46 CFR 11.514(a) — verbatim "(1) One year of service as an Assistant Engineer, while holding an MMC endorsement as Third Assistant Engineer; or (2) One year… which includes — (i) a minimum of 6 months of service as Third Assistant Engineer; and (ii) additional service as a QMED, calculated on a two-for-one basis."
The two routes, plainly
- Twelve months as an Assistant Engineer while holding Third Assistant Engineer. Clean and obvious. Serve the year in an endorsed officer capacity, apply.
- A year that includes at least six months as Third Assistant Engineer, with the remainder made up of QMED service counted two-for-one. Two days as a QMED buys one day of credit.
Route 2 exists because engineering berths are not always available in the grade you hold. An engineer who gets six months as Third Assistant and then has to take a QMED berth is not stalled — the QMED time still moves them, at half rate. Twelve months as a QMED on top of six months as Third Assistant gives six months of credit, making the year. Half speed is not no speed.
What you get
- No tonnage limit. Second Assistant Engineer, like every grade on this ladder, is scoped by propulsion power only.
- Your horsepower limitation carries forward. If your Third Assistant ticket was limited to 6,000 HP, so is this one, unless you have bought the limit back under 11.503(c) with service on vessels of 4,000 HP / 3,000 kW or more.
- The one-third mode rule runs again (11.502(a) — "all original and raise of grade").
- Minimum age 21. The 19-year-old concession applies to Third Assistant Engineer and stops there.
WARNING — STCW Second Engineer Officer is NOT the US Second Assistant Engineer This is the single most common error in the whole pairing, and it mangles everything downstream.
The STCW Second Engineer Officer is the number two of the department — in American terms, the FIRST Assistant Engineer. The proof is in the regulation: Table 1 to § 11.327(d) admits a First Assistant Engineer to STCW Second Engineer Officer with zero additional sea service.
A US Second Assistant Engineer also reaches STCW 2EO with no additional service — but the rank correspondence is with the First. Get this backwards and you will build the whole pairing table upside down.
Where it takes you on the STCW side
Under Table 1 to § 11.327(d), a national Second Assistant Engineer needs no additional sea service for the STCW endorsement as Second Engineer Officer on vessels of 3,000 kW / 4,000 HP or more — a management-level endorsement. That is a significant thing to hold, and you got there without sitting a second exam.
CAUTION — The hidden gate — your national HP rating NVIC 15-14 requires that a Chief or Second Engineer Officer applicant "must hold or qualify for a national endorsement for at least 4,000 HP." Your national ticket has to be rated 4,000 HP or better or the STCW III/2 will not follow.
The kW ceiling on the STCW side and the HP ceiling on the national side are the same wall in two units. NVICs are guidance, not law — but the NMC applies them. Verify the current NVIC before you plan around it.
So: a year of service, a stack of sea letters, and a grade. It is the easiest rung on the ladder. Spend the year making sure the vessels you serve on are the ones that clear your horsepower limitation — because the next rung is the one with the exam on it.