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All Hands 2020-1 (UK Spring) P a g e 6

The meal and menu choice was good for the price we paid, the service and correct matching of chosen dish to the
person was much improved on last year with only one or two minor glitches. Credit for organizing such a
successful event must go to Richard Leedham (LeedhamR69) ably assisted by Doug McAllister (McAllisterD86).
There is no doubt that their meetings with the club management in advance of, and just before the event, eliminated
some problems we had last year, for which we are most grateful.
As our Chairman says, we do expect our Officer Cadet guests to ‘sing for their supper’. I am not sure if they had
been forewarned that they would be asked to give a brief profile of themselves and an account of their training to
date. At past lunches all the Officer Cadets acquitted themselves very well and this year’s guests were no
exception. Their backgrounds prior to commencing at the Warsash School of Maritime Science and Engineering
were quite diverse compared with the traditional pre-sea training and cadetship route that many of us followed. I
thought it would be interesting for members to make this a feature of this article so contacted them for a little
more information, they all responded despite being busy with their studies.
Officer Cadet Peter Langan: Peter does not come from a seafaring family but grew up close to the sea in South
Africa where his love of the sea started and where he spent a lot of time in the water throughout year.

He had worked at sea, first doing yacht deliveries from Cape Town and Hong Kong, then worked on a cruise ship
as a shop assistant and finally as a sailing instructor at Club-Med. As fun and exciting as these roles were, they
were very unfulfilling and that is when he decided he was going to follow in his father’s footsteps and become an
engineer, in stark contrast to everything he had done before.
In 2014 he commenced part time study for a Maths GCSCE at Brighton Metropolitan College while working in a
machine shop. He then moved on to an Electrician Level 3 Course and started work with an industrial electrical
company.
On completion of the Level 3 Course he was looking to take a BTEC. For those of us outside of the further
education system this stands for Business and Technology Education Council, a British body, now part of Edexcel,
which awards vocational qualifications.
While investigating the BTEC route he came across an advert for an open day at Warsash which he attended, then
applied and was accepted for the FD METO (Marine Electrical Technical Officer) programme. Peter is sponsored
by MEF (Maritime Educational Foundation) and is employed by Chiltern Maritime. He is currently completing
Phase 3 of his training which is college based. He then goes back to sea in May 2020 for his final sea phase
returning in October for the final shore phase and to prepare for his MCA orals. If successful he commences his
fully qualified METO seagoing duties in June 2021. During his presentation he commented on how high the
standard of learning was in his METO training compared to anything else he had done before and that some
subjects were challenging.

I asked Peter why he decided to switch from a shore job to commence training for a sea career. He wanted to
elevate his electrical knowledge but it proved difficult to get support for this when he was contracted as an installer,
in addition to which his shore employment involved four hours a day travelling.

HV Electric propulsion motor HV Generator Rotor and Field Windings