Experience Qualifications of Officers Eliminated.
Resolved, That for the present and until further notice, sections 20, 21, 23, 26, 31 and 32 of Rule V, General Rules and Regulations applying to Lakes (other than the Great Lakes), Bays, and Sounds, be struck out, and local inspectors notified that hereafter in issuing licenses to officers of vessels within this classification they may exercise the judgment and discretion vested in them by the law, without regard to the experience required by the rules and regulations the sufficiency of such experience to be determined by the local inspectors when the candidate applies for examination.
CHAPTER XVII
THE WATCH OFFICER
The Officer of the Watch or the Watch Officer, as he is usually termed in the Merchant Service, is the deck officer who has charge of the vessel while under way at sea. On other occasions, if stopped through trouble, or because of communication with other vessels, or on occasions requiring special maneuvering, as in coming in and out of port, rescues at sea, etc., the Master assumes full charge.
The Watch Officers. The watch officers are usually the Chief, Second and Third Mates, on vessels of moderate tonnage. In larger craft different watches are arranged. Then the Chief Mate may stand no regular bridge watch, and the Second, Third, and Fourth Mates take this duty.
In some liners it is the custom to style the watch officers, all "second" officers; namely Senior, Junior, and Extra, Second Officers. These are usually all master mariners. Junior officers of the watch are also on the bridge, attend to the conning of the course, the working of navigation and bearings, and the keeping of the bridge log, which is signed by the senior watch officer at the end of the watch.
Importance of Watch Duty. For a long time a slipshod method of keeping watch prevailed in certain steamers, the outgrowth of second-rate sailing-ship practice, where thrifty, but ill-informed, masters, insisted on their watch officers keeping "busy" during the day.
It was thought advisable by these gentlemen to have the officer on the bridge "with nothing to do" attend to a bit of sewing on canvas, or help out with the painting, and what not. Of course such masters were doomed to the scrap heap where they belong. A few miles added to the coal bill, through slovenly daytime steering, with kinks in the course as well as in the seams sewed by the misused officer, soon brought about reform. Added to this a certain danger, such as running down submerged hulls, and the like—with the thing happening once or twice, helped to wake up owners. Also, the bumping of two of these "economical" (and lubberly) craft, may have helped too.