Who is a Ship Superintendent?

A ship superintendent is a person who is in charge of ensuring that the necessary repair works on a ship are being executed properly, especially during the dry dock of the ship.

A ship superintendent’s role and scope, when it comes to the shipping industry, is huge and requires alertness and vigilance because of the great responsibilities that come with it.

In simple terms, a ship superintendent can also be referred to as a supervisor or an overseer. He or she is the one who has the documents that specify the necessary repairing and conditioning required for a ship and is the one who has to ensure that the repairing and reconstruction of the ship is being carried out properly in the allocated shipyard or dry dock.

Ship Superintendent Job Description

The job of a ship superintendent is not an easy one. He is the one who will be blamed primarily in case there is any problem with the ship when a voyage is about to be undertaken or if the ship is at sea and encounters any problem.

As an overseer, a ship superintendent has to be constantly in touch with the ship repair company for updates and progress on the repair work. This continuous diligence ensures that the ship repair company does not take any extra time and thereby incur any extra costs for repairing.

A ship superintendent is generally assigned to a particular shipyard, where he is provided with the paperwork of the ship that needs immediate attention. After getting all details about the repairs required by the ship and the paperwork, the ship superintendent, also known as ‘ship sup’, takes care of all the proceedings right from the time the ship comes to the shipyard until the time all documents verifying that the maintenance of the ship has been carried out effectively are handed down to the concerned authorities.

However, it has to be noted that the profession of a ship superintendent is not something that one can easily apply to. There are specific institutions that provide superintendent training.

These institutions provide superintendent training to aspiring candidates on various subjects like how to respond in emergencies, document verification and processing, how to survey the extent of damage to a ship, cost efficiency and maintaining effective budgets, etc.

These points are important because only when such training is provided can a candidate be proficient in the shipping industry and prove to be an asset to the ship owner.

Experience is also an important factor when it comes to ship superintendents. The more experience a professional has, the better it will be when the supervising duty is taken into account. An experienced person will have a better practical idea about the duties that the profession involves than an inexperienced person. This point is therefore considered very relevant while hiring ship superintendents.

There is no denying that the profession of ship superintendent is unique and offers a lot of opportunities. As out-of-the-box professions go, there is no doubt that being a ship superintendent is one of the most prominent choices of all the other marine jobs present in the market today.

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About Author

Zahra is an alumna of Miranda House, University of Delhi. She is an avid writer, possessing immaculate research and editing skills. Author of several academic papers, she has also worked as a freelance writer, producing many technical, creative and marketing pieces. A true aesthete at heart, she loves books a little more than anything else.

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