Nils Larsen: What Does a Sea Captain Do?
Nils Larsen: What is a Sea Captain?
According to Nils Larsen, a ship captain leads an entire vessel ranging from a boat to a huge cruise liner. As a vessel commander, s/he must have lots of experience with ships and how they operate. All in all, s/he is in charge of water vessels in bays, rivers, coastal waters, oceans, and lakes.
Nils Larsen: What Does a Sea Captain Do?
Nils Larsen explains that there are different kinds of captains. For instance, there are charter boat captains, tug boat captains, ferry boat captains, and ship captains. Although they appear to be different, ship captains’ responsibilities are more or less the same.
Here are the duties of a ship captain:
- Typically, lead the crew vessel
- Determine the ship’s speed
- Set the travel course
- Use depth-measuring equipment
- Calculate the vessel’s position
- Docks and undocks the vessels
- Use compasses, charts, and plotting sheets
- Assigns and monitors duties carried out by all crew members
- Ensures all equipment is in good condition
- Follow environmental regulations within their location
- Document regular logs throughout the journey
- Check everything happening on the vessel
- Supervise passengers and crew members boarding and leaving the vessel
- Meet local and international customs and inspections
Nils Larsen: The Ship Captain’s Right Hand: Mates and Pilots
A ship captain doesn’t work alone but has mates and a pilot, but mates perform the following duties:
- Manage and track the dock crew
- Inspect and maintain equipment inventory and other repairs
- Oversee the ship’s operations and navigation when the sea captain is off-duty
- Pilots steer the vessel in and out of berths, etc.
Nils Larsen: Do You Quality To Be a Sea Captain?
Ship captains, pilots, and mates spend long days on the water on vessels on inland, lakes, rivers, and the open sea. Because of this, they must have vocational training or an associate degree. Mates, on the other hand, should have a high school diploma.
In addition, a ship captain needs to have a good amount of experience on board. S/he should have a license from the Coast Guard for vessels registered in the U.S.
Nils Larsen further states that these personality traits are critical if you want to answer a ship captain’s call.
- Be an enterprising person; you’re optimistic, confident, energetic, adventurous, etc.
- You must be dominant, motivational, and persuasive
- A realistic attitude is also crucial, and if you top this with thriftiness, genuineness, persistence, stability, and independence, you can be an effective ship captain
Nils Larsen: Norwegian Sea Captain
You can’t talk of Norwegian expeditions to Antarctica without mentioning the name of Nils Larsen. As a native of Sandar, Norway, Nils Larsen saw himself scaling the educational heights when he graduated with a master’s degree. After being employed by a shipping company, he, later on, became a famous whaler.
Not only did Nils Larsen captain several ships under his control, but he also worked as a first mate on Norvegia expeditions to Antarctica. During this scientific exploration, Norway annexed Bouvet Island and Peter I Island. So, as lady luck smiled on Nils Larsen, he was the first to leave his footprints on the island.