Chief Officer
The Chief Officer is a member of the crew of a ship. He (or she) is the head of the deck team, and in that capacity he is responsible for directing the crew, together with the Boatswain he plans the maintenance, and divides the work among the sailors.
Together with the Second and Third Officer, the chief divides the navigation watches. Normally a C/O is on watch from 04:00 to 08:00 and from 16:00 to 20:00 ST. As those times match with Nautical Twilight, he does most of the Celestial Navigation with the Sextant.
Cargo operations is the biggest job of a Chief officer. They have to plan all the movements on and off the ships, in which order things to load to fit the most on the ship. And they have to calculate the ship's stability in every step of the operation, especially when lifting cargo with ship's cranes. To make sure the ship stays up right, and has enough stability for the next voyage.
Together with the Captain the Chief Officer is the medical team and most likely to do the first first aid in case stuff happens.
And finally the chief is also the teacher and/or mentor of any deck cadets/trainee's a ship might have on board.
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