Do you all realise you have joined the most dangerous profession in the world?.....

Friday 15th September

Today we had the morning off, other than the muster for roll call which is done every morning at 0830. After lunch we had a lecture on ship and port operations, we learnt about the structure of ships and how different lengths require different build techniques, we were shown some slides of dry docks (Grandad if you read this I think one of them was Richmond dock in Appledore as the new bridge over the river could be seen in the background) some of them had ULCC's(Ultra large crude carriers) in them which are the most massive things I have ever seen. They can be up to 450M long. We learn about the flammability and Volatility of different fuel cargoes including crude oil, methane and diesel oil. We were also told how dangerous these are if they come into contact with people. They are all given a minimum PPM (parts per million) rating which states how much of the product may be present in the air before it is safe for humans to go in. eg Petroleum has a ppm of 300 so its relatively safe whereas benzene (which is present in most fuels) has a ppm of 1, so don't go near it!! However we were told that we will not have access to these products when on board. - Unlike when our lecturer first went to sea (he is now a retired captain) when it was a regular occurrence for crew to be ill from effects of the cargo. We also learnt that the LNG (liquefied Natural gas) carriers transport their cargo in liquid form at -160 degrees C or there abouts. This means that if you were to dip your hand in it then it would drop off! There has never been an accident with cargo spill in an LNG carrier (In over 5000 voyages) and so they are amongst the safest vessels in the world. - this is because they took data from all crashes at sea and placed the tanks in such a position that they could not be penetrated if the vessel was to collide. Of course avoiding collisions will be quite a major part of my job once qualified. I also heard today that I may get my own cargo watch during my first sea phase, overseeing the loading or unloading of crude or refined oil products. Anyway I have just read this back to myself and it seems really boring for someone else to read. Sorry!
Oh and one of our tutors cheerfully told us that we have joined the most dangerous proffesion in the world with more deaths per merchant seaman that any other jobs. So I recon we'll all be paying attention at the safety courses!