James Weddell was a British sailor, navigator and seal hunter who in February 1823 sailed to latitude of 74° 15′ S—a record 7.69 degrees or 532 statute miles south of the Antarctic Circle—and into a region of the Southern Ocean that later became known as the Weddell Sea.
The Golden Ocean is a historical novel written by Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1956. It tells the story of a novice midshipman, Peter Palafox, who joins George Anson's voyage around the world beginning in 1740. The story is written much in the language and spelling of the mid-18th century. Palafox is a Protestant Irish boy from the west coast of Ireland, schooled by his father, a churchman, and eager to join the Royal Navy. He learns naval discipline and how to determine his ship's position at sea as part of a large berth of midshipmen on HMS Centurion. His friend Sean O'Mara joins with him, considered his servant initially by officers and put among the seamen, rising in rank as he shows his abilities, to bosun's mate.
A chief mate (C/M) or chief officer, usually also synonymous with the first mate or first officer, is a licensed mariner and head of the deck department of a merchant ship. The chief mate is customarily a watchstander and is in charge of the ship's cargo and deck crew. The actual title used will vary by ship's employment, by type of ship, by nationality, and by trade: for instance, chief mate is not usually used in the Commonwealth, although chief officer and first mate are; on passenger ships, the first officer may be a separate position from that of the chief officer that is junior to the latter.
A second mate or second officer (2/O) is a licensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship holding a Second Mates Certificate of Competency, which is issued by the administration. The second mate is the third in command and a watchkeeping officer, customarily the ship's navigator. Other duties vary, but the second mate is often the medical officer and in charge of maintaining distress signaling equipment. On oil tankers, the second mate usually assists the chief mate with the cargo operations.
The Carroll A. Deering was an American five-masted commercial schooner launched in 1919 and found run aground without its crew off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, in January 1921.
The deck department is an organisational team on board naval and merchant ships. The department and its manning requirements, including the responsibilities of each rank are regulated within the STCW Convention, applicable only to the merchant fleets of countries who have ratified it. The department is led by deck officers, who are licensed mariners, and they are commanded overall by the ship's captain. Seafarers in the deck department work a variety of jobs on a ship or vessel, but primarily they will carry out the navigation of a vessel from the bridge. However, they are usually also responsible for supervising and monitoring any maritime cargo on board, as well as ensuring maintenance of the deck and upper hull structure, monitoring the stability of the ship, including loading and discharging ballast water, carrying out mooring operations, and finally anchoring a ship.
Seafaring is a tradition that encompasses a variety of professions and ranks. Each of these roles carries unique responsibilities that are integral to the successful operation of a seafaring vessel. A ship's crew can generally be divided into four main categories: the deck department, the engineering department, the steward's department, and other. The reasoning behind this is that a ship's bridge, filled with sophisticated navigational equipment, requires skills differing from those used on deck operations – such as berthing, cargo and/or military devices – which in turn requires skills different from those used in a ship's engine room and propulsion, and so on.
Moshulu is a four-masted steel barque, built as Kurt by William Hamilton and Company at Port Glasgow in Scotland in 1904. The largest remaining original windjammer, she is currently a floating restaurant docked in Penn's Landing, Philadelphia, adjacent to the museum ships USS Olympia and USS Becuna.
A sea captain, ship's captain, captain, master, or shipmaster, is a high-grade licensed mariner who holds ultimate command and responsibility of a merchant vessel. The captain is responsible for the safe and efficient operation of the ship, including its seaworthiness, safety and security, cargo operations, navigation, crew management, and legal compliance, and for the persons and cargo on board.
An able seaman (AB) is a seaman and member of the deck department of a merchant ship with more than two years' experience at sea and considered "well acquainted with his duty". An AB may work as a watchstander, a day worker, or a combination of these roles. Once a sufficient amount of sea time is acquired, then the AB can apply to take a series of courses/examinations to become certified as an officer.
Captain Cook Memorial Museum is a history museum in Whitby, North Yorkshire, England. The museum building, Walker's House, belonged to Captain John Walker, to whom James Cook was apprenticed in 1746. Having lodged there as an apprentice, Cook returned to visit in the winter of 1771–72 after his first voyage.
The United States Navy occupational rating of boatswain's mate is a designation given by the Bureau of Naval Personnel (BUPERS) to enlisted members who were rated or "striking" for the rating as a deck seaman. The colloquial form of address for a boatswain's mate is "Boats".
Compadre was an iron barque of 800 tons that was wrecked in the Auckland Islands in 1891.
Sir James Gordon Partridge Bisset, CBE, RD was a British merchant sea captain who served as Commodore of the Cunard White Star Line (1944–47). He documented his fifty-year sea career in a three volume autobiography: Sail Ho! My Early Years at Sea (1958); Tramps and Ladies – My Early Years in Steamers (1959) and Commodore – War, Peace and Big Ships (1961). In addition, Bisset authored Lifeboat Efficiency (1924) which became the primary text used by the British Merchant Marine until the Second World War for instructing merchant seaman in lifeboat utilization and handling, and Ship Ahoy ! : Nautical Notes for Ocean Travellers (c.1930), a treatise on shipboard operations for the edification of passengers. He served in or commanded Cunard liners including Carpathia, Caronia, Franconia, Mauretania, Aquitania, Berengaria, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.
James Cook's third and final voyage took the route from Plymouth via Tenerife and Cape Town to New Zealand and the Hawaiian Islands, and along the North American coast to the Bering Strait.
SS Point Pleasant Park was a merchant steamship constructed for Canada's Merchant Navy in 1942 during the Second World War as part of Canada's Park ship program. She carried a variety of wartime cargoes to Atlantic and Indian Ocean ports until the German submarine U-510 sank her off the coast of South Africa on 23 February 1945 as Point Pleasant Park was sailing independently from Saint John, New Brunswick to Cape Town. Point Pleasant Park was the last vessel sunk in South African waters during the Second World War.
Elizabeth (Bessie) Pritchard Hall was a seafaring woman from Granville Beach, Nova Scotia. She is notable for taking command of a fever-ridden ship in 1870 and safely navigating it through storms from Florida to Liverpool, England.
A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship.
Merchant seamen crewed the ships of the British Merchant Navy which kept the United Kingdom supplied with raw materials, arms, ammunition, fuel, food and all of the necessities of a nation at war throughout World War II — literally enabling the country to defend itself. In doing this, they sustained a considerably greater casualty rate than almost every other branch of the armed services and suffered great hardship. Seamen were aged from fourteen through to their late seventies.
Nautical operations refers to the crew operation of a ship. It is the term used in academic education to refer to the studies of this professional field. Nautical operations refers to all the operational procedures, specific roles of officers and crew members, and regular functions and technical processes, which together shape the structure and functions for the general operations of a ship.
