5/23/2020 Duties of 2nd Engineer on Ship

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Duties of 2nd Engineer on Ship

By Hiteshk | In: Marine Careers | Last Updated on September 6, 2019

One of the most important positions in the hierarchy level of maritime professionals working on the ship is
the position of Second engineer. As the position comes under the management level category, second
engineer’s job is not only limited to carry out his own duties but also to look after the entire operation of
the engine room and other technical aspects of the ship.

The 2nd engineer provides utmost assistance to the Chief engineer for running the ship
efficiently. Moreover, second engineer is also in-charge of all the operational engineers and the crew of
the engine room. He ensures for their personnel safety and routine duties. He also plans the overall
maintenance of all the machinery present in the engine room of the ship.

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Duties of 2nd Engineer

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A brief description of the duties of second engineer is as follows:

Safety

1. Safety of Personnel: Second engineer is responsible for risk assessment, briefing and safety
training of the entire engine crew, especially for the junior engineers and fresh crew.
2. LSA and FFA: He is responsible for operation and maintenance of life saving appliances and fire
fighting appliances.
3. Emergency equipment: All the emergency machinery and equipments under SOLAS are
responsibility of second engineer.
4. Rest hours: The rest hour of all the individual working in the engine room has to be taken care of
by the second engineer as per STCW.

Pollution Prevention

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1. Pollution Prevention Machineries: He is the person in-charge of Pollution prevention equipment

onboard like OWS, Sewage plant, incinerator etc.
2. Oil transfer: He is responsible for all oil transfer operations carried out onboard including
bunkering.
3. Pollution prevention plan: He is responsible for implementation of SOPEP and other the
equipments involved with the same.
4. Sludge and bilge: Second engineer has to keep the engine room bilge clean of oil and oily water.
All tank parameters are to be recorded for sludge and bilge system.
5. Regulations: All the rules and regulation related to MARPOL has to be applied and implemented
by the second engineer.

Engine Room Management

1. Responsibility: He is the in-charge for managing the engine room staff and carrying out duties of
the engine room.
2. Assistance: He directly reports to the chief engineer and also becomes the in-charge of the engine
room on his absence/behalf.
3. Job distribution: He distributes and assigns duties to all the engine crew members and acts as
supervisor to them.
4. Housekeeping: He is also the in-charge of engine room housekeeping and engine room garbage
management.
5. Spares and inventory: Second engineer is responsible for storing all the spares properly and
keeping and maintaining record of the spares’ inventory.

Operation and Maintenance of Machinery

1. Engine room and deck machinery: The second engineer is responsible for the maintenance of all
the engine room and deck machinery.
2. Safe operation: He is responsible to make sure all the machineries and safety systems are working
safely, efficiently and within the provided parameters.

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3. PMS and BMS: Planned maintenance system(PMS) is to be implemented by the second engineer
and in case of any breakdown maintenance (BMS), should be immediately taken care of by him.

Documentation

1. Record keeping: Different records of the engine room have to be maintained and updated
regularly. This is the responsibility of the second engineer. A few examples of important records are
log book, bell book, Saturday or Monday routine book etc.
2. Spare Inventory: All the spares for engine room machineries like pumps, auxiliary engine etc are to
be stored and inventory to be maintained and updated regularly.
3. Oil inventory: The quantity for oil present in the tanks for machinery operation like lube oil, fuel or
diesel oil etc has to be recorded in an oil record book. A track for the next bunker order also needs
to be maintained.
4. PMS: The planned maintenance system paper work like updating the maintenance data etc. is to be
completed under the second engineer supervision.

Training

1. He is responsible for familiarising the crew member with safety features of the ship such as
emergency escape, life boat, sopep etc.
2. He should supervise the engine crew for training them to operate pollution prevention machineries
like OWS, sewage plant etc.
3. He is responsible to train the crew members for various emergency situations like flooding, fire,
pirates attack and abandon ship etc.

This is a general overview of the duties of second engineer on board a ship. Second engineer is the most
influencing personality in the engine room and needs to have great leadership quality apart from stoic
and cool mindset.

You may also like to read Challenges of a job at sea & Shipping Jobs: A Field of Great Opportunities .

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Comments

Jim says
FEBRUARY 15, 2012 AT 3:46 PM

-What Gas used in the A/C plant.,Freon 12,Carbodioxide,Nitrogen,or Freon 22.

– Why Steering gear system fitted in Aft of the ship

Please let me know as soon

thanks

JIM

Gerardo sierra says

JUNE 6, 2014 AT 10:38 PM

ms/miss my name is Gerardo Sierra i am a second engineer and i want know if you have
opportunity to work with you’ll please let me know as son as possible how i can do to get job
with you’ll thanks also i am from Honduras i am ready to star work any time

Jagdishchandra says
MARCH 27, 2015 AT 9:54 PM

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5/23/2020 Duties of 2nd Engineer on Ship

Complete an overhaul report for an auxiliary engine

sunday adu says

AUGUST 21, 2015 AT 6:41 PM

I have laernt more ideas adding to my experience thanks for those acticles

Md.Nasiruddin Shaikh says

DECEMBER 21, 2015 AT 8:49 PM

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for marine job seeker

sanjeevasagar says
JULY 5, 2016 AT 7:02 PM

hai iam an 3 rd year mechanical engineering student i wanna become marine engineer so
plese send detail information to my email about subjets

Anish says
JULY 7, 2016 AT 11:34 AM

@Sanjeev: you can find more details here: https://www.marineinsight.com/careers-2/how-to-

become-a-marine-engineer-after-doing-mechanical-engineering/

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