Nautical Institute Queensland Branch

A Maritime Career Path Example Marcus Barrett

I was born in England in the early ‘70s and grew up in Birmingham, a city which is geographically the furthest English city from the sea. A career in ships and the sea seemed a bit of an illogical step to my teachers and my parents but I was determined to see the world and have someone else pay for it. Whilst I was a teenager I was an average student at the local Grammar School. The teachers and careers advisors basically encouraged everyone to continue on to university but I wanted something different although I did not really know what. One day I went to a careers convention at an exhibition centre in Birmingham to try and get a few ideas. There was a man stood by a model of a ship so I went over to enquire what his company was all about. He told me he worked for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) which supplied warships of the British Royal Navy with stores, fuel, ammunition, and fresh water whilst at sea. He showed me a couple of videos and gave me some pamphlets to read. I put them in the bag with all the other pamphlets I had collected around the careers convention and off I went. Once I arrived at home my parents were obviously interested in what I managed to find out. I think they were concerned that I was going to end up pushing trolleys in the local supermarket car park for the rest of my days and encouraged me to follow up on a few of the jobs that had been advertised. I applied for two sea-going jobs and was interviewed for both. I was lucky enough to be offered a cadetship (basically an apprenticeship) with both the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and British Petroleum.Now I faced a decision and with the help of my Uncle who had been a ships Captain with Shell, I decided to go for the RFA. Only a couple of months later I was on the train to Warsash College near Southampton in the south of England to start my life as a seafarer. I did a 6 week induction course which focused on safety skills such as fire-fighting and how to launch and drive lifeboats. I was also instructed in how to be an officer and what to expect at sea. At the end of the 6 week induction I was flown out to Cyprus for my first trip at sea and that was the start of what has been a varied and interesting career ever since.

	At the age of only 19 I was the oldest in my group and was amazed to discover that I could have gone to sea in exactly the same position at the age of 16. I completed my 3 ½ year cadetship in 1995 and then went to sea as a Third Officer. My first watch on my own was navigating a 30000 tonne tanker through the Dover Strait (the busiest shipping lane in Europe) at night so I was really thrown in at the deep end.
It was then that a friend of mine phoned me up one day and asked if I wanted to go on a 3 month holiday to Australia. I had 3 months paid leave ahead so accepted and flew to Sydney about a week later. We travelled through New South Wales and then arrived in Brisbane. I was introduced to a girl and then we started seeing each other and before I knew it I was living in Australia and flying back to the UK twice a year to join ships. I spent 2 years as a Third Officer and then was promoted to Second Officer. I went back to Warsash College to continue with my studies. I passed my Chief Mates Certificate and was well on the way to becoming a Master Mariner.

The RFA has to work closely with the Royal Navy due to the nature of its business. As such, RFA officers not only do the standard Merchant Navy studies but also a lot more training especially with regards navigation and warfare. I had enjoyed the navigation as I it was by far the most exciting part of the job and very rewarding. The RFA has a slightly different way of doing things to the Merchant Navy in that as an RFA navigator you get to pilot ships in and out of port and berth them alongside as well.

There is nothing that matches the job satisfaction of piloting a vessel through busy and confined waterways and then berthing it alongside as well. I was selected to do the Royal Navy Navigating Officers course in 2000 just after I had married on the Gold Coast. It was 7 weeks of intense training which saw me piloting warships around very constricted waterways of England at speeds of up to 30 knots (about 55kph). At that speed every thing happens really quickly, especially as you are in charge of a multi million pound warship, at speed, being propelled by 2 Olympus jet engines (the same engines which used to power Concorde). I did very well on the course and went back to sea as the Navigator of a ship. I did this for about a year and then went back to Warsash College again to complete my studies in Nautical Science. I passed my exam and was then qualified as a Master Mariner – legally allowed to take charge as the captain of any ship on the oceans of the world and I was only 29 years old. A few months after becoming a Master Mariner I was promoted to First Officer and felt my career was going really well. I was only 30 years old, was being paid well ($120,000AU per year), and was on a leave ratio of 4 months on a ship and 3 months paid leave off. However, things were to change in 2003 with the outbreak of war in Iraq. I was appointed as the Navigator and Operations Officer of RFA Sir Galahad, the replacement ship for the original Sir Galahad which had been sunk during the Falklands War in 1982. It was a very stressful period for me. I had a very demanding and responsible job to do and my wife back in Brisbane was pregnant with our first child. One day, the captain called me to his cabin and explained that the ship was going to go to Kuwait to pick up a cargo of Humanitarian Aid and then take it through a mine swept channel to the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. I was told to go and plan the entry and exits from these ports and about 3 days later the ship entered the mine swept channel. The channel was only 100m wide so with a ship that was 160m long I would have been unable to turn around if there had been a problem. The pilotage lasted nearly 8 hours and the crew were at Action Stations manning the ships defensive weapons for the whole time. The captain told me that I would also berth the ship in Umm Qasr and as I made my approach to the berth discovered about 100 members of the press lining the jetty filming and taking pictures. It was after the Iraq War, when I finally made it home for the birth of my son with only days to spare after being at sea for 77 days that I decided that a change in career was probably a good idea with my new found responsibilities as a father. I decided to take my studies further, completing a Post Graduate Certificate in Applied Navigation through the University of Plymouth in England. This year I have started a Diploma in Port Operations by distance learning and after 9 years commuting back to the UK twice a year I thought it would also be beneficial if I was to achieve a Certificate of Recognition for my British Masters Certificate. So, in October this year I went to the Australian Maritime College in Launceston for a few weeks to study Australian laws and procedures. I have now passed my exam here in Australia, resigned from my job in the UK and hope to find work as a Marine Pilot. Eventually I see my career heading into Port Management or Marine Accident Investigation as both of these areas interest me.