Can you provide a bit more detail on your “work” cruises?
What do you actually do on the ship on a daily basis? How many actual days on the ship each time you go? What is the salary range? What do you do with your days when not not on a cruise?
I’m quite fascinated with all the hidden gem careers out there.
Thank you for sharing.
Auditing in the maritime industry is related to the International Safety Management code. The ISM Code is essentially the maritime equivalent of ISO 9001. It came out of an accident on board a RO/RO ferry in Europe where the incident and its 193 deaths were traced to an individual not following company policy.
ISM Code
Herald of Free Enterprise disaster
There are external audits by the certifying body, the vessel's flag state or their recognized organization (RO), and there are internal audits where you audit yourself.
Vessels get external audits twice in a five year period and internal audits every year.
Offices get both external and internal audits every year.
There are also special audits where concerns come up in between the periodic audits. It may be that information is reported by the class society, Port State Control detention, or just the accumulation of an outsize number of deficiencies in reports over time.
As an external auditor for a flag state, our cargo ship audits were typically a single day and done in port only. I have been told by RO auditors that external audits of passenger ships are typically on board during a cruise since a single day is simply not enough.
For internal audits, the company gets to determine the specifics of the scope and breadth of the audit so they can vary widely. I have heard of anything from 1-3 days for cargo ships and 7-10 days for passenger ships. Who does them also varies widely by company and can be determined by things such as fleet size and area vessels are operating when the audit is due. You may have shoreside employees such as superintendents taking time from their regular duties to do the audits, some companies justify full time auditors, and others hire outside parties to do their internal audits for them.
During an audit, an auditor will typically spend some time inspecting the ship. You are not looking for specific deficiencies but get a sense of the overall condition and looking for evidence of continuous and ongoing maintenance. An auditor will spend a lot of time interviewing various crew members about their jobs, what they do and what they dont do. Essentially an audit is comparing what I see and hear against the company's policies and procedures. The goal is to verify that the vessel is complying with said policies and procedures.
Between audits there is a lot of reporting and prepping for the next one. Anything I want to write up I have to be able to cite the appropriate and applicable section of the regulations or policies, the specifics of what the regulation/policy says, and what I saw that is not in compliance with the regulation or policy. I have to be able to defend my report if someone like the vessel or company disagrees and wants to appeal my findings. After that it is time to start prepping for the next one. I will research the history of the vessel such as previous audit/inspection reports, class survey reports, what is happening elsewhere in the fleet, new regulations or policies, etc.
Personally I love the mix of "office" and shipboard work, I love meeting the crews, and I love spending time at sea. That's what makes it fun, but I get the most job satisfaction out of leaving each ship a little better than I found it, teaching the crews easy ways to ensure compliance, and overall helping to ensure they all go home in one piece.
