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All Hands 2020-1 (UK Spring) P a g e 13

The maritime industry and careers at sea sometimes seem to be like a ‘best kept
secret’ – how easy was it to find information about officer cadet training?
The recruitment process is fairly simple, once you know what’s to be done. For
those who don’t know, there are three areas you can study as a Merchant Navy
officer cadet: deck (which is what I’m doing), engine, and electro-technician.
Unlike university applications, you apply to a shipping company for a cadetship and
if you’re successful they’ll choose which college you go to. You can request a
specific college, but some companies may choose to send you far away to prepare
you for being away from home, like you would be at sea.
Being away from home for the first time, for some, can be quite daunting. Were there any activities to help
you get to know others in the cohorts when you got to Warsash?
Every phase one cadet has to live on campus; this not only make it easier for us all to get to know each other, but
it’s also normal to share cabins on board ship, so it gets you used to sharing a sleeping and living space with
someone. On the first night we arrived there was a band put on in our campus bar.
We had morning muster every day for the first few weeks which took place at 8am and involved everyone in the
phase. Our first week was induction and was mostly introductions and safety presentations, but our first Friday
was the day we really got to know each other better, starting with paintball and ending with a night out in
Southampton organised by Solent SU.
How did you find your first sea phase? Was it what you expected?

I think my sea phase was both exactly what I expected and yet completely different. Coming from a seafaring
background I’d been told many stories about what life at sea is like, so I did have an idea of what to expect.
I was on two ships during my sea phase, spending about three months on each. My first ship was the Trinity House
Vessel Galatea, which is a buoy tender operating around the UK coast. The second was Condor Ferries’
Commodore Goodwill, a ro-ro freight ferry operating between Portsmouth and the Channel Islands.
My time on the THV Galatea will always stay with me. The crew made me so welcome, especially as I was
extremely nervous about being on my first ship. I worked with both the officers and the crew while on board, all
of whom were very happy to teach me and answer any questions I had.
There are many moments that stick out, ranging from hanging off the side of a light vessel in the middle of the
Dover Strait in a four-metre swell, to helicopter operations off Lundy, Eddystone Lighthouse and the Isle of May,
and surveying a fishing vessel that had sunk the night before in the Dover Strait.

The two ships had completely contrasting environments, primarily in terms of crew nationality. I had no issues
with this, especially as I adore learning about different languages and cultures, but it did prove to be harder
circumstances to work in, with language barriers and different views coming in to play.
The number of female ship’s officers is still very small, although we are seeing more women enter the
industry. What advice would you give to any aspiring female deck or engineering officers?
Do it! And stick with it! I’ve seen both positive and negative aspects of being a female at sea, from being treated
slightly better than the male cadet I was with because I was in the minority – not in the sense of respect, but
because those providing training wanted me to succeed more as I was female and I was proving that females can
be officers – and good ones at that.

4 Bibby Line Ltd. – Sourced by Chris Clarke (ClarkeC59)
4.1 Brief History of Bibby Line Ltd.
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Whereas so many traditional British shipping companies were unable to stay in business through to the 21
century, by diversifying and adapting to the changing needs of commerce, Bibby is one of the very few which
survived to this day. A brief history of the company follow whilst a nine-page detailed history is available on the
Red-Duster website at http://www.red-duster.co.uk/wp/category/bibby-line/. Other sites include the Bibby Line
Group Website and https://www.benjidog.co.uk/allen/Bibby2.html
The Bibby Line was founded in 1775 and initially invested in sailing ships that served ports and peoples located
around the Irish Sea. John Bibby was a manager whose belief in offering quality service to his passengers and
reliability to his shippers paid off and by 1836 the company owned 18 ships and traded far afield, including to