Question 53 CEL01 - Chief Engineer - Limited

The Correct Answer is A ### Explanation for Option A (Correct) The situation described involves a critical operational safety parameter—the availability of emergency maneuvering power—that directly impacts bridge decision-making, especially when entering restricted US navigable waters. The Chief Engineer's Night Order Book (or standing/special order book) is the formal, documented, and required method for the Chief Engineer to communicate important operational status changes, special instructions, safety precautions, and limits of machinery availability to the engine room watchkeeping personnel and, implicitly, to the bridge via formal handover procedures. 1. **Formality and Documentation:** Writing the instruction in the order book ensures it is formally documented, acknowledged (usually by signature of the engineers reading it), and serves as a permanent record. 2. **Required Reading:** Watchkeeping engineers are professionally obligated to read and comply with the contents of the order book at the start of their watch, ensuring the instruction is reliably passed down through the watches. 3. **Bridge Communication:** While the instruction is directed at the engine room crew, a critical machinery unavailability, especially one affecting maneuvering (like a main generator being down), must be communicated to the bridge (often via the deck log or direct verbal communication from the duty engineer to the OOW, referencing the written instruction). The order book ensures the instruction to pass this crucial information is officially made. ### Explanation for Why Other Options Are Incorrect **B) The request would be written as a note posted on the No.2 SSDG panel of the main switchboard.** This is a maintenance notification (informing engineers the machine is down), but it is a poor method for ensuring the bridge is formally informed of a maneuvering limitation. A note on a panel is temporary, easily missed by the wider engine team, and provides no formal mechanism for communication or acknowledgment by the bridge team. **C) The request would be written as a note posted on the first assistant engineer's stateroom door.** This addresses communication with one specific officer (the 1st A/E), but it fails to ensure that the instruction is disseminated to the bridge immediately, documented officially, or communicated reliably to the watchkeeping engineers who are responsible for operational communication across the vessel 24/7. **D) The request would be made of the duty engineer orally assuming that the word shall be passed on to his or her relief.** Relying solely on verbal instructions for critical operational limitations is unreliable. Verbal communication is prone to misinterpretation, omission, and lack of documentation. Professional marine practice requires critical machinery status changes and special maneuvering limitations to be documented formally (usually in the log book, order book, or via official written messages/memos) to ensure continuity and accountability, especially when entering restricted waters.