1 day as a student machinist

Ship: Johann Smidt
Date: 03.04.2026
Position: North Atlantic
Nautical position: 41′ 55,6′ N 024′ 46,2′ W
Etmal: 140nm

Hello dear readers,

today I’ll show you what my day as the chief looked like. My day started at 7:30 a.m., just in time for breakfast, as I had to discuss Johann Smidt with the main chief immediately afterwards. It was up to: Auxiliary diesels wait and like every day the clock lap (writing down operating hours in the engine room) and Lenzen.

But then came a not so good news that nobody likes to hear. The toilets are clogged!! That’s when we thought for the first time. But unfortunately that is also one of the tasks of the machinists. So I went to get the tool out of the engine room. We first tried to loosen the constipation from above with a spiral, but after 20 minutes we noticed that it didn’t lead to anything.

So it was said: Open the floor flaps and check the pipe. Unfortunately, the shit was so deep that we had to look more closely into the pipe through a flap. So I could see with my own eyes how a lot of shit bubbled out of the depths of the pipe. A remarkable sight that I will probably never forget.

After we had a disgusting smell throughout the ship, we continued with the actual exciting tasks of a machinist. maintenance of the auxiliary diesel. One-hour procedure: Pumping out the oil, changing the oil filter, changing the two fuel filters, checking the air filter and the belt, cleaning the collection tray and the engine. After that, everything has to be started and checked. And for all those who don’t know what Lenzen is, that’s pumping out the waste water tanks.

That was a daily routine as a student machinist.