I am currently in the final week of phase three of my cadetship and have been at the Warsash Maritime Academy since October 2009.

Leading up to Christmas we studied the art of meteorology, passage planning, stability and cargo operations. Cargo operations was the most practical one, with cadets having the opportunity to use the software ‘cargo max' to try and load the theoretical ship MV Warsash with a large quantity of ferronickel.

This gave us the opportunity to bring together our knowledge of bending and sheer force with the challenge of loading ships to stay within a safe parameter.  We also had the fun task of carrying out a cargo plan for a general cargo ship, a complex puzzle that absorbed many an hour of my life. Who wanted 300m³ of sardines anyway?

After Christmas we were getting closer to the next sea phase but before we got there we had command management, marine operations and shipboard management. The law content of the marine operations I must admit mainly went over my head, it felt like a whole different language, but hopefully I took out the main principles, which will aid my career at sea.

Command management was broken down into a ship handling project and a man overboard project. The man overboard project grabbed the attention of the majority of the course, with many a late night Facebook update exclaiming anger at how this unfortunate theoretical passenger fell off the cruise ship in the first place - conspiracy theories abounded.

Around Easter, the cadets from my course were given the opportunity of taking their signals exam, I found myself deciphering messages left on white boards by other cadets, making flash cards and discovering what sets of flags meant after seeing them for years and not knowing what they were saying. At this time, we were also starting to find out about the different ships we will be going on for our next sea phase. I am still waiting confirmation of where and when I am heading and what ship I will join, but for me that is all part of the fun.

At sea we are expected to carry on with what we had learnt during our previous trips, but also to develop our knowledge to a more in depth management level, and produce reports and projects to back this up.

I am enjoying my cadetship very much and recommend it to anyone thinking on going to sea. I only wish my college had not been so focused on sending students to university, because if I had fully known about cadetships with the merchant navy I am sure I would have made this decision a lot earlier.

Till the next time

Cadet Ross Jamieson

For more details Merchant Navy cadetships, see warsashacademy