The complete chief officer 20 accommodation and catering

20 Accommodation and Catering On a small ship, the 'department' could well be just the Cook In this situation, the deck department will take over the accommodation cleaning and often will peel the potatoes at night! The small size of the crew will allow far more flexibility with the storing and it is common on these ships for a monthly allowance to be paid for the ship, that the cook can spend where and when he pleases This generally ensures, provided the ship is making frequent port calls, that the food is fresh and of better quality than that supplied by chandlers If the order is big enough, supermarkets will often deliver to the ship On small ships a trip to the supermarket may be better On larger vessels the department has to be more formally organised, with work schedules and management Too often this now devolves on the Cook, simply by the company changing his title to Cook/Chief Steward as if a title is going to make him into a Chief Steward The Cook will often be a good cook, but will not necessarily understand the running of a department, so you could find this becomes your responsibility You may find there are no work schedules and that considerable time is wasted, which is something you must deal with carefully and with a light hand 110 The accommodation is the area most likely to be neglected by the company and the technical department superintendents, with some accommodation and fittings unchanged until the ship is scrapped, sometimes some 30 years later Your department is responsible for the fabric of the accommodation and this includes the carpentry, plumbing and electrical fittings Common sense dictates that there will be limitations to what you are capable of doing You will notice very quickly that, when there is a problem with the engineering or navigational aspect of the ship that is beyond the capacity of the ship's staff to deal with, shore labour is called in to assist However, if you call for shore labour for a problem with the accommodation it is a totally different story, even though you not have the expertise to change locks, repair doors or even anything beyond the basic rudiments of plumbing and carpentry I once joined a ship where all the lavatories/W.C.s had been locked except one The company's technical department would not allow shore labour for accommodation repairs and so, as things went wrong, they were simply shut down When I spoke to senior management about the problem they were very upset at such a situation and immediately authorised the necessary repairs Everyone onboard is entitled to well maintained clean accommodation Power points must work, cabin doors must lock and keys must be available Curtains must not be rags and carpeting must be clean In other words, regardless of the company, think 'hotel standard', and work towards this 111 20.2 Cleanliness The accommodation will be your home for some months, but for the crew it might be home for a year or more The cleanliness of the accommodation is not only important for those living in it, but also for the appearance and presentation of the ship to the visitors that come onboard in various ports If you are in charge of the catering and cleanliness of the accommodation, have crew use quick dry instant shine polish then indent for kraft paper and seal this down with tape over the decks before arrival in every port In this way you preserve the condition of your decks from unthinking visitors with dirty shoes Another tip is to purchase plug-in air fresheners as they are far more effective than sprays Try to keep visitors away from the living quarters as much as possible Where this is unavoidable, put notices up reminding shore personnel that this is your home Ample door mats are essential and not the cheap bristle kind that sheds the bristles to block scuppers! Make sure they are rubber backed to avoid slipping For some odd reason, many modern ships have scuppers in the accommodation many decks up, maybe the naval architects' 'how to build a ship' books have yet to be updated! Of course, what happens is that no one puts water down them and they smell To prevent this I suggest sealing them up, unless you want to implement a strict regime of pouring disinfectant down them every week It is not always the shore people who dirty the accommodation and you might have to educate the ship's personnel as well One of the perennial problems on a ship is that of officers and crew keeping their dirty boilersuits in their cabins Most ships have lockers for working clothing to be stored in and I advise that you insist they are used Oily boilersuits not only cause dirt on the cabin bulkheads but also cause bad smell through the accommodation, so there is justification that they should not be kept in cabins 112 A weekly essential Ensure that the weekly issue of soap and towels is rigidly kept to and that the bed linen is changed at the same time If there is steward service in the officers' cabins ensure that this is completed properly Having said that, it is not easy for a steward to clean a cabin if the occupant is dirty and untidy in his habits There could well be times when the steward is perfectly justified in not coping with a particular cabin 20.3 Bedding This is possibly the most neglected area on merchant ships today Thousands of ships are sailing around with mattresses 20 years old or more Stained and torn sheets are often the norm and laundry discipline non-existent While SOLAS deals with all other aspects of safety, and Port State Control and Coastguard officials visit and inspect the ship, no one bothers with the accommodation If you find a poor situation, you must immediately indent for new mattresses and bedding linen If the Master does not this, you must ensure that a strict inspection regime is in place and that the crew regularly wash their bedding Watch out at inspection times for a counterpane being pulled over dirty bedding 113 New mattress? I once joined a ship that we were taking back from a company after a long bareboat charter The mattresses were teeming with lice and had not been changed since the ship was built 15 years before The port where we were situated had to send down a special 20.4 The Messrooms fumigation team to take them ashore and burn them The crew messroom tends to be used as the general lounge area as well as for meals, even if the crew have a separate lounge There is nothing wrong with this, particularly if the lounge area is 114 clean, as crew wearing their working clothes throughout the day are not going to change to sit down for a cup of tea If the catering department does not clean this area, the Bosun should determine who does Owing to the different departments using the messrooms and other crew public areas, it is usually a fairer system to establish a rota so that each crew member and department shares the responsibility The crew public rooms are for crew use and are not a canteen for the shore labour, who will gravitate towards these areas if they can get away with it Keep all shore personnel out of the accommodation unless they have an official reason to be there Prior to arrival, post notices on all the entrance doors stating that only ship's crew are allowed in the accommodation area without official permission This will at least cut down the traffic 20.5 The Galley A place to be wary of as it is the lair of the Cook who is, for all intents and purposes, the most important person on the ship, and knows it The galley is the one place where cleanliness and hygiene have to prevail Most cooks realise this and each evening have the galley washed down It is an area that requires your attention, even if just to pass through, letting all know it is being watched Clean clothing is essential as is hand washing and towels, preferably paper towels from a dispenser Once again, you may have to indent for aprons, trousers, shoes and hats 115 Accommodation and Catoring I have only been on one ship without cockroaches and that was a ship that had never been east of Gibraltar Almost every ship, including tramps, bulkers, tankers, container ships or cruise ships, has cockroaches Once they have established themselves the only way to remove them is to a complete fumigation of the accommodation which, because of the need to remove the crew and all stores, is something very few owners will consider Sometimes just keeping control will be all that can be achieved You can generally get local fumigation onboard, if you push hard enough, and this might just keep them under control if done regularly and properly Doing this, while maintaining excellent hygiene in the galley, messrooms and food stores, leaving no food out there or in the cabins and carrying out standard onboard spraying, should keep them within acceptable limits As they inhabit spaces behind the bulkheads, particularly 116 in the galley, you will need to have holes drilled in the bulkheads at regular intervals to get the chemicals inside Ensure that you have a proper spray system as the cans of spray are only effective for cabin use 117