Yup, just on Empress Katerina.  Having qualified there, and been certificated, though, will make it easier for you to qualify more quickly on other vessels.  Watch qualification in my Traveller universe is much akin to that pursued by Navy personnel in the "real" world.  I served in the US Navy aboard an attack submarine, and believe that life aboard a starship would be much like life aboard a submarine, and for many of the same reasons relating to crew and ship safety being of paramount concern.

So how would someone go about getting certification that is recognised beyond the immediate ship??

There are certifications that issue inherently from having certain basic maritime skills at +1.  Watch qualifications are different from ship to ship.  Transferring to a ship of the same or similar class would mean faster qualification on the new vessel.

Transferring from, say, the Empress Katerina to another Far Trader might be something of a let-down (Empress Katerina is rather special, after all), but you'd be watch qualified in under a week after some perfunctory checkouts.

Transferring to a Gazelle Class Destroyer might entail a longer re-qual period, just because so many systems would be different.  Make sense?

(I was qualified in Submarines, but would have had to re-qualify on watches had I transferred to another boat.)

Fascinating stuff, thanks for all this.

Navy huh? Sweet! I was army for 8 years.

I did the Navy thing as well although on a nuke cruiser.

I was in the scouts as a kid, if that helps?? (Feeling slightly in awe of people right now)

In reply to Marc (Blackie) DuQuesne (msg # 31):

Sweet! Thanks for serving!

Not everyone CAN serve Levi, sad you didn't get to. It's an awesome feeling!
This message was last edited by the player at 12:13, Mon 27 July 2020.

The Scouts are good, both kinds!  :)

Heheh... True. Looked at joining the RAF when I was a kid, but it was never a career path I ever really followed.

Now I'm doing something that is even riskier than being on active service - I teach teenagers!! Saying that, one of the best teachers I ever met was a PE and Maths teacher, and former army. Great level of discipline in his class, used anecdotes from his time in the service and the kids really respected him. Once he finished answering the usual "did you shoot anyone" and "what battles you been in" questions.

In reply to Levi Stensgaard (msg # 35):

Some memories are better left there, some people can talk about it, some can't. I was a cub scout!

In reply to Harry McStubbin (msg # 36):

You English Levi?

I get your meaning. Reckon at least half of the anecdotes he used were fictional, the rest... Who knows??

Yup, I'm English. A Geordie in fact, so far enough North to be closer to Edinburgh and the Scottish government than I am to London and the British.

Cool! ;-)

A Geordie?

TLDR; friendly, decent people born in Newcastle upon Tyne in the Northeast of England.

Sorry for length of this - started writing and couldn't stop. I'm proud of where I'm from and who I am!!

A Geordie is a native of Newcastle upon Tyne in the Northeast of England. When the rest of England was conquered by the French, we were the cool kids and were conquered by the Danes and Vikings who settled here.

You can still hear their influence in our regional dialect. We say yem or ohm instead of home, ganning for going, claggy for thick and sticky, clarts for muck (mud usually), heed, hinny, oot, howay, aye, and so on. People often think that it's the Scottish influence on our culture, but they like us have a mixture of Gaelic and Danish influence, more akin to the Irish Gaelic tribes than the southern English (or Mercian) tribes. Only our dialect is closer to Danish than Gaelic.

Go 14miles south where you hit Sunderland, our "hated" rivals. Similar accent, but there's is significantly different - noticeable only to those born in our region... They're the Mackems, so named because they used to build the ship hills and we'd fit them out at our yards - so they'd make them and we'd take them, hence the phrase Mackem and Takem.

Another 20miles and you have Middlesbrough, the city of the Smoggies. Other places nearby we have Reivers, Sand-dancers, Monkey-Hangers... All of whom are seen (or heard) as Geordies, but who aren't true Geordies.

Then there's football - or soccer as you heathens call it. Real football, where you use your feet to kick the ball to each other rather than throw it, and we're the Magpies of Newcastle United. Sunderland are 2 full divisions below us, so our usual heated rivalry is somewhat muted at the minute. We're passionate about our football, we have black and white blood in our veins.

In real terms, our economy was always based on shipbuilding and mining for tin and coal, but those industries have died a death up here in my lifetime, meaning higher unemployment and less money (80% of the UK's wealth is in and around London, and Newcastle is a small city compared to other southern cities like Birmingham, Manchester and Coventry - so we're not high up on the list of cities to invest in). But outside of small rural communities, we're one of the (if not the) friendliest cities in the UK. We still hold family values highly, look out for one another and value the sense of community that larger cities have lost.

We love our little luxuries. Despite not having much money we celebrate life, usually enjoy drinking and smoking (if that's your thing) and on the little things in life - mostly social in nature.

There's a reason why the Geordie accent is used as a voice-over in a lot of adverts to sell products. We are viewed as friendly, honest, trustworthy and down to earth. However, the few Geordies that we've exported to the USA usually come with subtitles!!

There you go, a short (ha!) synopsis for you.

You sound like us in Pennsylvania. Our coal and oil were killed by the left who want it dead completely now. And 'football' was called soccer by the English FIRST! We just adopted the term. We don't have much and family is high on the list, though the left is trying to destroy God and family, so sad.

Was always told by friends we were.more like people from Maine, but with no reference to go on (other than my friends who were from Maine) I wouldn't dare argue for or against!!

And you mean Association Football that became soccer that then returned to its roots of football?? Yup, we termed it soccer then rebranded it again. Only you lot must have missed the memo (Or have already created your own sport called football, and didn't want to rebrand that in order to rename soccer)!!

Anyway, you're right. There is and always will be a north/south divide in the UK, and I don't mean England/Scotland. It's a bit daft that Londoners think the north starts in Watford which is... What?? 20miles north?? While we're 270... So same as you - industry cut, jobs lost and because it would take major investment to train the population in whatever industrial sector they were trying to establish... Well, it's just easier to spend the money elsewhere. Besides, the northeast is notorious for voting labour, so when labour are in power they don't invest up here as they try to bribe the southerners then when the Tories are in power why should they spend money in Labour's heartlands as we'll never vote for them.

Well, until the last election that is. But that's another story!!

In reply to Levi Stensgaard (msg # 43):

Thank you for the education on Geordies!  It sounds like a wonderful place although I doubt I'll ever get there.  I've been as far north as Birmingham on business and thought the Black Country accent was rough (we spent some time talking to an old time tool maker and literally had to have an interpreter!) but I imagine your accent is just as strong if in a different way.

The regional differences in the UK are truly fascinating.  I always enjoy learning more about the local histories that don't come across in the homogenized BBC or London-centric shows and news.

My extended family are deep southern Illinois; coal miners and farmers of deeply German stock.  I always had fun with my cousins, aunts and uncles in the summers as a kid.

Oh, and being taken to a pub and eating faggots!  Yum!

In reply to Marc (Blackie) DuQuesne (msg # 45):

Why would you eat cigarettes? That's what a faggot is isn't it?

Meatballs made from pork offcuts and offal, mixed with herbs. Delicious, but not something we eat all that often. Serve with thick gravy, fried onions...

In reply to Levi Stensgaard (msg # 47):

Awwwww!

Just delicious. Like dinner kebabs, don't ask what's in them, just enjoy the moment!!

In reply to Levi Stensgaard (msg # 49):

It was delicious!  I ate it on a dare in a pub after a pint or two.