Double Duty

One fun thing about military life is the duty watch.

Basically, every military installation is constantly manned; during non-working hours they have a certain minimum manning level which must be maintained.  These required positions are for security, safety, and command.

For Canadian warships, at least of the class I’m on (Halifax-class CPF), the following positions are required:

• Officer of the Day, reporting directly to the Captain, is in command of the ship whenever the Captain is not on board.  He is responsible for the overall safety of the ship, and is generally in the hot seat if anything goes wrong.
• Duty Coxswain.  The supervisor of the duty watch, and in charge of all NCMs in the Coxswain’s absence.  Taken from senior members who have “graduated” from Quartermaster.
• Duty Technician.  Responsible for the technical status of the ship.  If anything changes with the machinery, he’s the first to be told.  He’s supposed to be able to fix most commonplace problems, or else know who to contact.  Taken from senior members who have “graduated” from MCR watchkeepers.
• Quartermaster.  Responsible for controlling access to the ship.  The QM stands at the brow, or bridge onto the ship, checks IDs, and generally ensures that people who shouldn’t get onboard don’t.  He’s also generally the first point of contact for anyone coming onboard for work, or messages from other ships.  Taken from non-engineering trades.
• MCR Watchkeeper.  Monitors all the machinery states and alarms.  Generally, if the onboard systems detect any problem, he’s the first one to know.  On the Halifax-class CPF, the MCR is the one place onboard that is always manned, whether the ship is alongside or at sea.  Watchkeepers are taken from engineering trades.

Everyone on duty is also responsible for responding to emergencies, including fighting fires or floods, rescuing unexpected swimmers¹, clearing casualties², etc.

Since I’m a member of the CSE department, I’m considered an engineering trade, thus an MCR watchkeeper when I’m duty.  This means that, when I’m duty, I spend 12 hours of the day in the MCR monitoring status boards and listening for alarms.

Occasionally, instead of a normal “wakey-wakey” on the PA system, we get a fire or flood alarm.  This is generally caused when the Sea Training section comes onboard with their clipboards and smoke machines to make sure we’re paying attention.  I’ve been fortunate enough, so far, to not have this wakeup.

Duty watches are scheduled to give us as much time as possible between duties.  The time between depends on the number of people available, taking into account the number of people posted onboard, those on training, those on leave, etc.  Currently that gives us a rotation of a couple weeks (more or less).  However, it’s possible to trade watches with another member.

I was duty on Friday.  Which means that I’m onboard from 7:00 Friday morning until 8:00 Saturday morning.  Then, because I didn’t look at the calendar closely enough before agreeing, I’ve taken a duty watch on Monday.  The two ends of a weekend, I get to spend away from my family.  Not as bad as being at sea for months on end, but still a pain in the ass.