with the two
watch system, either
watch can
handle a departure or arrival without any changes of system.
Example: the
starboard watch has the
watch, it is 7 a.m. and we are
sailing. The
starboard watch takes her out and within the
starboard watch (which is in two parts)
stands 3 hour
sea watches, one part in the
bridge. The other part on
admin lines. The
ship sails along,
schools run, actions go on happening. First, the whole
ship's
company is divided in half. One half is called the
starboard watch. The other half is called the
port watch. These
refer to sides of the
ship. So the
starboard watch berths and musters on the
starboard side. The
port watch berths and musters on the
port side. When one of these has the duty it is of
course all over the
ship and the other
watch is "below" (off duty). This is the way they are stood in
harbor. When the
ship goes to
sea, the duty roster and
time does not
change. But the
watch that happens to be on duty takes her into or out of
harbor and at
sea stands the
bridge and
admin watches. This is possible because each of these halves is again divided in half. This gives us
starboard watch 1st part,
starboard watch 2nd part,
port watch 1st part,
port watch 2nd part. Thus each of these contains 1/4 of the
ship's
company.
(FO 895)