Changes in the training of merchant navy engineer officers

Contemporary design philosophy is concerned with the aim of achieving and maintaining optimum efficiency of a ship as a whole unit through the use of automatically and remotely controlled equipment working on an integrated basis ie automation. This philosophy with its concept of centralization of instrumentation and control underlies issues of great import to British shipping. Its implications are profound and far reaching; posing problems as well as promising great benefits to an industry delicately balanced economically, and consequently extremely sensitive to any factor likely to increase ship utilization. Accepting as a basic premise that automation implies management, then as the degree of automation increases the managerial content of the engineer officer's duties will also increase. Furthermore it is an accepted fact of experience that the full potential of automation can be achieved only to the extent that ships' officers are capable of quickly analysing, assessing, and placing the correct interpretations to correct a developing situation. This demands that engineer officers possess, not only a high technical competency to understand the complex machinery and the sophisticated equipment controlling it, but also that they must have the professional competency to administer an efficient overall control.