200455 Discrimination

Discrimination
MARS Report 200455

I work as a Mate in West Africa on board a multipurpose platform supply vessel. The company has a fleet of MPSV equipped with class 1 DP system with all European Officers (Captain, Chief Officer, Chief Engineer & 2nd Engineer), three dual (Engine/Deck) Cadets and a West African Mate and some West African Ratings. The company does not carry any senior local Officers regardless of qualification or experience.

Except for the Captains, the European Officers don't understand much basic English. However, I consider even the Captain's level of understanding of the business to be unacceptable. The Cadets hardly understand the simplest level of English for communication. To my greatest surprise, one of these cadets kept a full 4 hour watch alone, while I, as a Mate, had to keep watch with the Captain. In fact this Cadet was without a Certificate of Competency and has spent less than four months at sea. In addition, he wouldn't be able to either understand or respond to a PAN or security call. Recently, the Master was relieved by a bilingual (English & French) East European Master and I voiced my concern that the ship/crew should not be put at risk because of racial discrimination.

This problem was actually checked and I was then allowed to take the watch alone. I succeeded because it was a new Master. In the past, efforts by other Nigerian Mates often resulted in the Masters sending negative reports about the Nigerian Mates' professional knowledge to the office. Such negative reports eventually cost some of them their jobs because the reports were usually based on prejudice. I have written this in good faith (confidence) as I have a continued watch-keeping arrangement on other vessels and hope to use the Nautical Institute Journal to share my experience with other professionals.