Day in the Life of a Mega-ship Marine Engineer

This is Alan, also known as Ip by his Chinese last name. On the ship we call him IP-man or Ip-man after the famous wushu master. He's the fourth engineer on board the ship tending to the ship's engine. He wakes up at 6 30 to get ready for breakfast and work. This is the standard ship bathroom. Compact, efficient use of space, have all the necessities that a seafarer might need. Engineers, they all wear boiler suits for work even in port and yes our company's boiler suit is in prison orange. We're cool like that. After getting changed, Alan has a standard set of equipment that he carries throughout the day for work. He also neatly put it at the corner of a desk prepared from last night. A torch light, pens, USB, watch, earplugs, camera and his keys. His cabin is on d-deck and the galley aka mess room is three decks below. We can take the stairs or the elevator. Alan opt for the stairs because it's faster. Alan keeps his own sets of plates and cutlery. Optionally we can take it from the public spaces which is washed by the automatic dishwasher after the meal. It's just personal preference. We'll come back and take a closer look at the breakfast later. I don't want to hold up the other crew since there's a line waiting behind us. The first room we walk by is the officer mess room which is for clean clothing only. No boiler suits allowed. So Alan will have to go to the duty mess room which is for dirty clothings or work clothing. Hey Alan, how does the seating work? So while Alan's eating breakfast, let's go check out what's on the menu for breakfast. This is the chief cook. Handmade buns, boiled egg, pickled radish, some canned foods, many condiments for choosing and then mango juice, orange juice, guava juice, pineapple juice and milk. Fried rice, congee, a lot of choices. As you can see the breakfast is not bad, lots of choices. Now I'm gonna wait for Alan to finish his breakfast and then we're gonna head to engine room for the morning meeting and morning risk assessment. The ship's engine room and accommodation is separated. It's a newer design compared to older ships so that the engine is closer to the propellers. Shorter shaft provides less stress and more efficient transfer of power. So to get to the engine room we must go by under deck passage which runs through the whole ship. P deck. It's about a three-minute walk through multiple watertight doors. This under deck passage is shielded from the weather provides a safe passage for the engineer. It also gives access to the bosun store, pilot station, bow thrusters at the forward and steering gear room at the aft. You can see at the side of the passage these manhole covers they lead to the ballast tanks and we're here the engine control room. Some waiting, some chit-chatting, discussion about the daily jobs which is listed here by the department head, the second engineer. This morning meeting is also known as a two-box meeting, a risk assessment where the second engineer will detail the jobs he wants done for the day, discuss the risk, the hazards and also implement any paperwork, any checklists, any permit to work, lock in, lock out as needed. After all this Alan gears up in safety helmet and safety boots and go for his morning rounds. This round is to take the readings of all machinery gauges, all 12 lines of cylinder, the turbocharger and other secondary systems such as the generator, boilers. All these he writes on a piece of paper and later transfer into the official logbook back in the gauges to see if any leaks or anything abnormal. Done and on to the steering gear. Making sure the gauges are at the correct level, inspecting for anything out of the ordinary and putting back some lube oil onto the shaft. Gotta keep the shaft lubed, you know what I'm saying? The steering and main engine runs 24-7 so it's vital to keep it well maintained and check regularly so that the ship can run smoothly. Next up is sounding of the fuel tanks. The sounding pipes are located in various locations, some are even in the engine room such as this one. It's inside one of the cargo holds. The principle is exactly the same as the car's dipstick. You clean it, dip it in, pull up and check the readings. It's important to keep a daily record of fuel tanks so that we know how fuel efficient we are running and whether there's any problems. We also don't want to run a fuel tank dry and have the main engine die out on us. By sounding, the engineer can switch fuel tanks before it's empty. Once that's all done, he goes back to engine room and record everything into the official logbook. This whole morning round usually takes about an hour and a half so by the time you finish it's tea break. The engineers just usually chill and relax around the engine control room, have a coffee, enjoy the cool air conditioning and 10 30 straight back to work. After tea break, the second engineer assigned him to a new job. He's going to take apart one of the main engine fuel pumps and do some maintenance work. To start, he turned off the pump and have to drain out all the residual oil. Oh and this alarm is one of the dead man alarms that's placed everywhere in the engine room. It's extremely loud so that it can be heard over the loud engine. It has different ring tones. This one is someone calling the engine room by phone, probably from the bridge. Anyway, back to work. Pump out the fuel and dump it into the waste oil tank. Most ships nowadays switch to low sulfur fuel oil which has much lower sulfur content than traditional heavy fuel oil for the sake of environmental friendly and regulations. Alan will have to dump out the residual oil into the waste oil tank via this sink. After a few buckets, the fuel has been drained and cleaned. It's time to take it apart. It may look small but it's extremely heavy so we enlisted the help of a chain and blocks. We take it apart, bring it back to the workshop for maintenance and calibration. 12 p.m and it's lunchtime. The engineers will first grip out in engine control room waiting for everyone to assemble. They will then use the engine room alarm to notify everyone just in case someone forgets the time and still working. Once everyone's here they will switch to unmanned mode and head back into the accommodation. Back through the passageway up the stairs to A deck into the galley for lunch. The ship is traveling east so this announcement was to alert everyone that today we are advancing clocks by one hour. The world is split into 24 hours time zones and well when the ship is traveling at full speed we'll have to adjust clocks one hour at a time every two days. For lunch it's standard to have a soup, fruits, three dishes and rice. Any leftovers are separated into foot waste bin and everyone washes their own dishes. Some company have a second cook which cleans the officer's tableware but in our company we don't have that luxury so everyone cleans up after Now this is during the COVID-19 time so after lunch everyone will head up to the bridge for temperature testing and recording. We keep a record of daily temperatures just in case any of the ports we arrive at need proof of our health conditions. We stop until 1 p.m so Alan will go back to his cabin and relax a bit. 1 p.m head back to engine room and straight back into work. You'll notice that they always report to engine control room first before starting any task and that's because a sec engineer might just shuffle manpower or have a new task for everyone. He's now assigned to clean out and replace lubricating oil on one of the air compressors. Carefully take out everything, drain out the oil using a suction pump and then clean with a rag. Once cleaned they just put back the new oil. To finish the day off Alan and the other engineers count the spare stores. This is an ongoing process which takes many days to finish. They usually leave it until the end of the day after all the more important tasks are done and continue where they left off from yesterday. The engine room is huge and there's more than a thousand spare parts so they just have to do their best until 5 p.m and then get off work. 5 p.m comes around the engineers will get it back up in the engine control room and return to the accommodation together. Just like lunchtime back through the passenger's way. From 5 to 6 p.m is where Alan will slot in an hour at a ship's gym right before dinner. We're outside Alan's cabin right now this is cabin card he's taking a bath after he's done we're gonna meet up and go for a dinner. Today's Sunday and every Sunday on a ship is western food spaghetti french onion tomato soup garlic bread fries spring rolls prawn crackers. We recently got this Korean style barbecue pan and so the crew is pretty excited to freshly grill their own steak. And for dessert is my favorite Haagen-Dazs vanilla almond. After dinner Alan will usually be back at his cabin on his phone whatsapping his family or play some video games with other crew on his playstation which he brought from home. 8 p.m we go for a daily nighttime engine room rounds. There is three duty engineers who rotate daily on who does the engine rounds. To start the rounds Alan must first notify the bridge that he's doing rounds by calling and that's for safety and security reasons since most of the time he's alone. Because the engine room aren't fully manned during the night they had to check everything before going to bed. All the gauges levels temperature piping and loose items all equipment supposed to be off are powered off any abnormal sound heat noise in the machinery and equipment. The engine room is pretty huge and lots of machinery so that's why it takes about an hour. It's way too long to document all the checks. It's very similar to the morning rounds if you're interested in a first person view detailed full breakdown of what he checks let me know in the comments down below and I'll post it. Just a warning though because it's a first person view you might get dizzy. So this last part is quite interesting not all ships does this depending on the chief engineer but since the accommodation and engine room is separated the chief requires the duty engineer to stay and sleep in engine room on standby in case any engine problems. Because well running from the accommodation to engine room takes time and this is what Alan does he brings a sleeping bag. It's not exactly the most comfortable place since it's right in the heart of the engine room with lots of noise and vibration but the good thing is that the next day he has the morning off so he can sleep in. And that's a day in the life of an engineer leave down in the comments below what you think and subscribe for more no seriously do it subscribe so when the next video come out you'll be notified and I'll see you next time.