Marine Engineering and Ship Systems
Marine Engineering and Ship Systems tests the master's oversight of propulsion, auxiliary machinery, steering, electrical power, fuel and pollution-control systems. The master need not repair machinery, but must recognise failure modes, redundancy and operational limits.
Core rules
- Main diesel engine performance is quoted as specific fuel consumption (SFOC) in g/kWh at a stated lower calorific value.
- Cooling has LT and HT circuits; purifiers remove water and solids; fuel viscosity and temperature control are critical.
- SOLAS requires main and auxiliary steering gear, regular testing and emergency power arrangements.
- Bilge, ballast, fire and oily-water separator systems must be operable and recorded; UMS alarms need testing.
Worked example
An engine develops 8,000 kW at 180 g/kWh. Fuel mass flow = 180 × 8,000 = 1,440,000 g/h = 1,440 kg/h = 34.56 t/day. For a 10-day passage the base requirement is 345.6 t. Adding 15% reserve gives 397.4 t. The reasoning: multiply SFOC by power, convert grams to tonnes, then multiply by days; the reserve covers weather, manoeuvring and off-design load.
Traps
Using kg/h as t/day without conversion; ignoring SFOC reference conditions; assuming the emergency generator can carry the whole ship; and treating steering gear tests as a once-per-voyage formality. Oily-water separator discharge limits and ORB entries are frequent cross-domain traps.