Able Seamen
Job Summary
Responsible for using emergency, lifesaving, damage control, and safety equipment on a merchant ship, performing general maintenance, repair, and sanitation duties, and standing watch to ensure the ship maintains a steady course.
Primary Responsibilities
- Work on a merchant ship.
- Stand watch as helmsman and lookout.
- Maintain a steady course, properly execute all rudder orders and communicate utilizing navigational terms relating to heading and steering.
- Stand security-related watches, such as a gangway watch or anchor watch while the ship is not underway.
- Perform general maintenance, repair, sanitation and upkeep of material, equipment, and areas in the deck department.
- Maintain ship's metal structures by chipping, scraping, cleaning, priming, and painting.
- Clean, maintain, and repair the hull, decks, superstructure, cargo gear, and smoke stack.
- Perform maintenance on lifeboats, rescue boats and life rafts, and emergency and damage control gear.
- Use emergency, lifesaving, damage control, and safety equipment.
- Perform all operations connected with the launching of lifesaving equipment.
- Operate deck machinery, such as the windlass or winches while mooring or unmooring, and to operate cargo gear.
- Look for obstructions in path of vessel.
- Break out, rig, overhaul, and store cargo-handling gear, stationary rigging, and running gear.
- Navigate ship and maintains visual communication with other ships.
- Lowers or raises lifeboats with winch or falls.
- Use visual signaling devices, such as blinker light and semaphore.
- Gives directions to crew.
