Martin Hall

Following my promotion to Lead Deckhand I took on a great deal more responsibility again in terms of leadership. After only one contract as Lead Deckhand I returned from leave to start covering the Bosun in between rotations, again demonstrating my ability and passion to progress in the industry. My role today involves a great deal of planning with the Bosun, Chief Officer and Captain. I am often involved in recruitment and I spend a great deal of my time supervising the work of the deck team and organising workloads. Two of the biggest tasks I have are the delivery of the deck training with the Bosun and Bridge team and also a great deal of stock taking and ordering. I usually take the lead on the deck inventory and this requires a phenomenal amount of organisation and a methodical approach to my work. I also take a lead on working at heights when supervising deck team over the side or up the mast and delivering the training for this. One of the strongest elements of my role is my painting ability. I am often assigned very large paint jobs in the primary guest areas from the Captain and Chief Officer. Where possible, I try to include some Junior Crew for their development however I am very selective on their roles when in the highest visible guest areas.

I had left my previous role as a Senior Deckhand due to the vessel not moving and me looking to earn some sea time. I was also very interested in a new-build and when my Captain moved to a new build and offered me a position, I took it without hesitation! Some thought it was a step back from my Senior Deckhand role, I saw it as a step back to be able to take two steps forward again and this is exactly what happened as within a few months, before the build was even complete, I was promoted to Lead Deckhand after continuing to impress and show my ability, knowledge and ongoing commitment.

Following a successful two years onboard as a Deckhand it was apparent to the vessel that I had shown significant progression and was teaching Junior Deckhands a great deal of skills I had learnt. This earned me a proud promotion to Senior Deckhand whereby I took on a much greater leadership role, especially during guest operations assigning duties, organising work lists etc. This also often involved teaching other crew new skills and quality assuring their work throughout.