Khaled, Junior Engineer Officer
9 June 2006
When the ship becomes as home for you it means you are having a good time with good friends.
That's how I feel on the British Trader, just like home.
To be honest I had a bad feeling just before I joined Trader because it's my first trip as an engineer officer, not just that it's also a new ship to me, but all my bad feeling disappeared just few hours after I joined.
After I met the Captain and of course the chief engineer I went down to the engine room. Once again I had the same feeling as before I joined because I was shocked when I saw the control room runs only by a few computer screens. I have never seen one like that ever before. Not just that, the engineers were busy doing trips and alarms for the main boiler, so all I had to do was watch them.
After they done with the boiler I went with the 2nd engineer around the engine room which gave me a bit more confidence. Yes, it's a new ship to me but I think they all have the same basic principles or methods but with different arrangement.
That’s what makes me confident about myself, to prove that I can be a better engineer in the future. I found out that the knowledge and experience should improve the engineer quality, and that’s exactly what I am doing here on the Trader; building up my knowledge and the same time doing what I am asked to do as junior engineer.
After almost two weeks, I had my first time as a duty engineer. That was a very nice start for a first day as duty, because I had to wake up in the early morning for standby and shut down the main engine, but by the end of my duty day I felt that I did some thing well.
I've been here for almost one and half months, nobody can imagine how fast this time runs here!
All I can say is live your life as you used to, no matter where you are, it's simple but sometimes not easy.