Can I join merchant navy as a lawyer? I have completed BBA. LL.B. Which course should I choose to join merchant navy?

I think merchant navy companies advertise their vacancies for law posts and mostly international law would be wanted. Cases like north continental shelf and lotus case, contracts, international private law etc. But, as a deck officer I don't think we have those options.

0 Upvotes 0 Upvotes 0 Downvotes

• • Report Abuse
• Comment

Hi Ivana, Merchant navy has two departments. One is deck side which looks after navigation ( taking the ship from one point to another or in layman term 'Driver' of the ship) and cargo operations. Another is engine side which looks after engine, other machineries and all other technical aspect of ship (in layman term u can say they are like 'mechanic' of the ship). The minimum eligibility for both departments is to have decent score in PCM and more than 50 marks in English in 10th or 12th standard. I don't remember the exact marks which should be there in PCM but I think above 70 percent should be enough. Then to join deck side you have two options. Either you do one year diploma in nautical science and do 18 months of training on ship or you do 3 yrs BSc in nautical technology and 12 months of training on ship. After you complete your training you have to do various short term courses and clear exam of 2nd mate. This exam is conducted by govt of India and various other countries as well like UK, Singapore, New Zealand etc. If you give exams from India it will take around 18 months to 2 yrs but less money will be required to clear this exam. If you go in some other country, time required will b less but overall it will be very expensive. After clear this exam, you get certificate of 2nd mate and now you can sail on ship as deck officer. After further sailing and giving more exams you climb the promotion ladder and in 10 yrs or so, depending on type of ship, you become captain of the ship who is the head of deck department and overall in charge of ship. Now coming to the engine side. Here again you have two options. After 12th, either you do 4 years course in Marine engineering or you do 4 yrs course in mechanical engineering and further one yr course of GME which is basically to convert a mechanical engineer to a marine engineer. Directly doing marine engineering is better but it is costlier than the latter. A third option of doing 3 yrs diploma in engineering is also there to join engine side but there are much more hurdles in that option and I will suggest you not to go for that option. Now after doing either of the first two options, you go on ship for 6 months of training. After completing this training, you do various courses and give class 4 exam conducted by govt of India and other countries as well. This takes around 9 to 18 months if you do from India and around six months if you go somewhere else. But again in India it is much cheaper.

0 Upvotes 0 Upvotes 0 Downvotes

• • Report Abuse
• Comment