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Old 25th January 2021, 20:47
Makko Mexico Makko is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Posts: 967
Tom,

Yes, X 2nd Eng means extra second. I expect that he was onboard just as that, an additional 2/E, given that the vessel was twin shaft. It is my understanding that, in days of yore, on twin plants, there were more engineers in the engine room given the additional maintenance load. Even in my time, with majors on the gennys every five hundred hours (there were five on the RoRo's!) we were stretched and a little exhausted at times!

I don't know what the B94 or B103 imply but, at a guess, it would be the "official" ships seal for GC, probably delivered to the ChStwd or RO as part of the "voyage kit".

By my time, although the stamps had disappeared and the discharge book did not have a column for "conduct", we used to have an interview with the ChEng at the end of our stint and he would share with us the content of our individual conduct report which we had to sign as accepted and it was then sent on to India Buildings.

There was only one bar steward that I came across, who had written scathing reports on everybody!

One of the stewards even caught him "leaving a jobby" in my bog so that I would fail Captain's inspection! On that ship, they were saltwater toilets and the plumbing would discolour and there would be caked salt for even the most minor of leaks. Apart from keeping my cabin tip-top, I had cleaned the pipework up so that it looked totally shipshape. This consientious effort had apparently riled the ChEng, why, I know not. (It was actually related to me, a lot later, by the Master.)

The 2/E had a "quiet word" with him, basically reading his horoscope for him. The reports were torn up, sent over the wall and rewritten, in the presence of the 2/E, to ensure that the bitter man did not have his way. We then had to attend our interviews and sign our reports as accepted. I read mine and fixed the ChEng with a steely stare, thanking him for his glowing report! I never ran into the creep again nor did I ever hear anything about him.

Best Regards,
Dave
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