There was a lot of counter-piracy operations needed, for example off the coasts of Somalia and Nigeria, at the time. However once you’ve completed the ship’s security assessment and instructed the on-board crews on how to improve security of the ship, for the rest of the assignment it becomes quite boring as you are there like a guard dog staring out into the oceans.

I didn’t find it stimulating so I decided to start using my time off-duty to study engineering with the Open University. I graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering. Then in speaking with some engineers on board they told me that if you have a degree you can do a fast-track course which takes from a year to a year and-a-half instead of a three to four year cadetship for an Engineer Officer of the Watch (EOOW) licence.

I approached various providers of cadetship training and got an offer from SSTG amongst others, and decided to go with SSTG as the package they provided was extremely good. My sponsor was MEF (Maritime Educational Foundation).

I had a really interesting range of different types of vessels for my off-shore training. This included the off-shore jack-up vessel Seajacks Kraken; the Trinity House flagship Patricia that works around the coasts of England and Wales maintaining navigational buoys and off-shore lighthouses; the Irish ferry Isle of Inishmore; and P&O ferry Pride of Canterbury.

Having such a good variety of ships to work on gives you a far more varied skillset rather than just being a ‘one trick pony’. This opens your horizons and gives you confidence to go elsewhere.

Editor’s note: At the time of speaking Lee was applying for his first qualified engineering position and had a choice of offers he was investigating.

My realisation that working at sea gives me the enjoyment of getting away and travelling to nice destinations around the world – and getting paid for it – is a real plus! And these include places in the world I never thought I’d see.

And when you are at sea being paid you are saving so much money because when you are onboard for months you’re not spending! And if you’re smart with your money you can benefit from investing it.