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Editor's Note: CR4 would like to thank Mark State for providing this information, and for writing a description for the Marine Engineering user group. Cheers, Mark!
The Scope of Marine Engineering
Although best known for
ship design, building completion and field testing; the field of Marine
Engineering encompasses all human/aquatic interface engineering activities.
Wherever mankind meets or employs the enormous aqueous environment of the world,
there you will find Marine Engineers, often joining with other engineering
professionals to investigate, resolve, and design solutions for pertinent engineering questions.
Shore protection; undersea
construction and mining activities; docks and piers including bridge piers;
i.c., e.c. (nuclear and boiler steam) turbine, SWERF and hydro station
operation; pneumatics and hydraulics design and applications; sea life and
oceanic studies; liquid and steam transport; aquaria and aquaculture systems;
HVAC; spill control; aqueous waste and purification; flow and flood control;
canals and locks; Naval architecture (hull-sail-propeller- technical testing and
design for water transport and other aquatic emplacements); technical crew
operations specializing in every type of propulsion, cargo transport, and
variety of ship; all aspects of shipyard and port operations; and marine law and
forensics are a few of the major areas of activity encompassed by the
profession.
Marine Engineering Education
Marine Engineering
education can be obtained in both higher education facilities and the military,
with provision made for basic accreditation through sea-going employment
apprenticeship and correspondence-courses. 'Hands-on' aspects of training
include precision machining, welding, sea rescue, advanced fire fighting skills,
and in some countries e.m.t. training where the engineers at sea are co-opted as
ship's medical officers. International treaty enforces a common education in a
common language – English - worldwide because this is a portable profession.
No academic upgrading is required to gain professional recognition by any
country in the world.
All Marine Engineers –regardless of whether they are
employed at sea or not- are ships' officers; are able to be licensed to captain
vessels up to 100 meters in length; and are required to attend constant
upgrading courses in order to retain and/or advance their professional level of
standing, which ranges from 'fourth class' (Marine Engineering graduate with
minimum required sea time and certificate of competency examinations) up to
'first class' (salty with graduate-level written and oral examinations in
applied
mechanics, thermodynamics, electrotechnology, and naval
architecture). In
popular science fiction, spaceship engineers of the future are based upon the
Marine Engineer model.
CR4's Marine Engineering User Group
The logo for CR4's Marine Engineering User Group is an interlocked
geometric shape in a Greek key design representing technical husbandry, and is
often embodied in first class Marine Engineering officer uniform's epaulettes
and jacket sleeve designs, the final design depending upon navies or employer
companies.
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Re: What is Marine Engineering?
