You are aware that ships on automatic don't even have people
on the bridge to hear it, right? Call 'em on the radio on 16
and see if you can raise 'em.

Larry... I spend a considerable amount of time on a small container
ship that runs from the West Coast to several regular ports of call in
the South Pacific. It takes us almost thirty (30) days (most of which
is sea time) to complete a round.

Any how... while at sea... even though we are on auto pilot... we
*always* maintain a bridge watch 24 hours a day. The Master and
the two senior deck officers maintain shifts inorder to do so. Theo-
retically... an A.B. is on the bridge as well... but they are never
present... unless we go off A.P. then they assume the helmsman
duties.

Never the less... the watch is kind of a joke... especially way out
to sea in very lightly traveled shipping lanes... such as ours.

Note: We maintain an approximate heading of 202 degrees from
the time we leave the Golden Gate to outside of Papeete.

Often as not... the bridge duty officer is preoccuppied with constant
paper work and on going questions that are generated over the air
waves by the charter much less the ship's owner. The VHF unit may
or may not be on...and if so... the squelch threshhold level is set
so high... that an outside party would have to be right next door...
to break through.

So the laypersons perception of a typical bridge watch... the duty
officer walking around with binocular in hand... constantly scanning
the surrounding seas about him... tain't necessaryily so... at least
when far out to sea.

A MOB situation is even more distressing (no pun intended). Beside
not having the time to constantly view the immediate area around the
ship... spotting such a victim is not that easy. From the heights
of the bridge your are but a small speck in the ocean to the naked
eye... and it would probably be just pure luck to be observed.

Just my two cents worth... relative to manned bridge watches.

Bill