Mate < 500-1600 GRT, Revision & Practice Exams

What is the difference between the starboard and port drafts due to the wind or seas called?

1. Trim
2. Flotation
3. List
4. Heel ✓

You are underway on course 050°T and your maximum speed is 13 knots. The eye of a hurricane bears 100°T, 120 miles from your position. The hurricane is moving towards 275°T at 25 knots. What course should you steer at 13 knots to have the maximum CPA?

1. 339°
2. 333° ✓
3. 326°
4. 320°

If the gyrocompass error is east, what describes the error and the correction to be made to gyrocompass headings to obtain true headings?

1. The readings are too low (small numerically) and the amount of the error must be added to the compass to obtain true ✓
2. The readings are too high (large numerically) and the amount of the error must be added to the compass to obtain true
3. The readings are too low and the amount of the error must be subtracted from the compass to obtain true
4. The readings are too high and the amount of the error must be subtracted from the compass to obtain true

An electronic depth finder operates on which principle?

1. Radio signals reflect from a solid surface
2. Pressure increases with depth
3. Sound waves travel at a constant speed through water ✓
4. Radar signals travel at a constant speed through water

To make sure of getting the full advantage of a favorable current, you should reach an entrance or strait at which time in relation to the predicted time of the favorable current?

1. One hour after
2. 30 minutes before flood, one hour after an ebb
3. At the predicted time
4. 30 minutes before ✓

The owner or Master of a towing vessel shall ensure that each person that directs and controls the movement of the vessel can accomplish all of the following EXCEPT _________.

1. enter all required test and inspection results in the vessel's log or other record carried on board
2. reduce speed only where local speed limits are posted ✓
3. adjust speed with due regard for the weather and visibility
4. evaluate the danger of each closing visual or radar contact

Ascending and descending air masses with different temperatures is part of an important heat transmitting process in our atmosphere. Which term is given to this process?

1. Convection ✓
2. Barometric inversion
3. Radiation
4. Conduction

Which agency publishes the Light Lists?

1. United States Coast Guard ✓
2. National Ocean Service
3. Oceanographic Office
4. Army Corps of Engineers

The error in a sextant altitude caused by refraction is greatest when the celestial body is in which location?

1. Rising above 45o elevation
2. High in the sky
3. At or near transit
4. Near the horizon ✓

Which weather element cannot be measured accurately while on board a moving vessel?

1. Visibility ✓
2. Wind direction
3. Temperature
4. Atmospheric pressure

When compared to air temperature, which factor is most useful in predicting fog?

1. Barometric pressure
2. Absolute humidity
3. Vapor pressure
4. Dew point ✓

ECDIS units incorporate Digital Chart Data that utilizes which formats?

1. Imposed viewing formats
2. Both vector and raster formats ✓
3. Vector formats only
4. Raster formats only

Which is a precaution you should take before bunkering?

1. Plug the sounding pipes
2. Close the lids on the vents
3. Plug the vents
4. Plug the scuppers ✓

What can be done to prevent small oil spills on deck from going overboard?

1. Plugging the sounding pipes
2. Plugging the drains and scuppers ✓
3. Closing the lids on the vents
4. Driving wooden plugs into the vents

You are at sea and have received a General Emergency message announcing the outbreak of war in Europe. You are directed to comply with the instructions in NGA (NIMA) PUB 117, Chapter Eight. Which statement is TRUE?

1. You should only enter a port in the danger zone during hours of darkness
2. You should attempt to coordinate with the Shipping Control Team ✓
3. When over 200 miles from a port in the danger zone, you should not darken ship
4. If on a coastwise voyage along the east coast of the U.S., you should put into the nearest port

The vessel shown in illustration D025DG has broken down and you are going to take her in tow. The wind is on her starboard beam. She is making more leeway than you. Where should you position your vessel when you start running lines?

1. A
2. B
3. C
4. D ✓

You are underway on course 120°T and your maximum speed is 12 knots. The eye of a hurricane bears 150°T, 120 miles from your position. The hurricane is moving towards 295°T at 20 knots. If you maneuver at 12 knots to avoid the hurricane, what could be the maximum CPA?

1. 89 miles
2. 96 miles
3. 105 miles
4. 117 miles ✓

On a chart, the characteristic of the light on a lighthouse is shown as flashing white with a red sector. Which is TRUE of the red sector?

1. It indicates a danger area ✓
2. It indicates the limits of the navigable channel
3. It is used to identify the characteristics of the light
4. It serves no significant purpose

Which position includes the effects of wind and current?

1. Estimated position ✓
2. Dead reckoning position
3. Leeway position
4. Set position

The southeast trade winds actually blow in which direction?

1. Southeast
2. South
3. East
4. Northwest ✓

Your vessel is participating in the Voluntary Observing Ship Program, you are preparing WS Form B-80 as seen in illustration D041NG below. The sky is overcast, and the anemometer indicates that the apparent wind is from 144° relative at 8 knots. You are on course 162°T at 15 knots. How should you encode group Nddff?

1. 01615
2. 91521
3. 81408
4. 83322 ✓

What is published by the U.S. Coast Guard?

1. U.S. Coast Pilot
2. Nautical Charts
3. Tide Tables
4. Light List ✓

The apparent wind is zero when which situation exists with the true wind?

1. The true wind is from ahead and equal to the ship's speed
2. The true wind is from astern and is twice the ship's speed
3. The true wind is from astern and equal to the ship's speed ✓
4. The true wind is zero

Which term is given to a radar display which is oriented, so that north is always at the top of the screen?

1. Composite display
2. Unstabilized display
3. Relative display
4. Stabilized display ✓

Which radar control reduces weak echoes out to a limited distance from the ship?

1. The receiver gain control
2. The sensitivity time control (sea-clutter control) ✓
3. The brilliance control
4. The fast time constant (differentiator)

Where can data relating to the direction and velocity of rotary tidal currents in a U.S. Atlantic Port be found?

1. Tidal Current Tables ✓
2. Nautical Almanac
3. Tide Tables
4. Mariner's Guide

Which is the nomenclature for the metal plates that cover the top of the hawsepipe on a vessel?

1. The buckler plates ✓
2. The footings
3. The plugs
4. The stop waters

On a ship's crane, the load chart relates the allowable load to the combination of the boom length and __________.

1. load radius ✓
2. winch speed
3. boom strength
4. cable strength

Your tank barge requires repairs that include welding. Who normally would issue a gas-free certificate?

1. The ABS marine surveyor
2. The port engineer
3. A certified marine chemist ✓
4. Any Coast Guard marine inspector

Which term defines the process of dividing the total volume of the ship in cubic feet (after omission of exempted spaces) by 100?

1. Light displacement
2. Bale cubic
3. Gross tonnage ✓
4. Net tonnage

According to Coast Guard Regulations (46 CFR), when loading, or discharging oil in bulk at a dock, which of the following signals must be displayed?

1. A red flag (day), red light (night) ✓
2. A signal is not required for discharging oil, only gasoline
3. A yellow flag (day), red light (night)
4. A green flag (day), green light (night)

To determine the number of able seamen required on an inspected vessel, you should check which document?

1. Load Line Certificate
2. Certificate of Inspection ✓
3. Operations manual
4. Safety of Life at Sea Certificate

Close link chain of not less the 3/4" (or the wire rope equivalent) is required for lashing deck cargoes of timber. What size flexible wire rope would provide the strength equivalent to 3/4" chain, using a safety factor of 5?

1. 9/16"
2. 1" ✓
3. 1 1/4"
4. 1 3/8"

What is the FIRST action to take if you detect oil around your tank vessel while discharging petroleum products?

1. Shut down operations ✓
2. Have the pumpman check the discharge piping
3. Try to find out where the oil is coming from
4. Call the Master

Which is TRUE concerning the vapor pressure of a substance?

1. The pressure is not affected by temperature
2. The pressure increases with the temperature ✓
3. The pressure may increase or decrease as the temperature rises
4. The pressure decreases as temperature increases

Which causes spontaneous combustion?

1. An outside heat source heating a substance until it ignites
2. The conduction of heat through a wall of material to the substance
3. A chemical action within a substance ✓
4. All of the above

Distress signals may be __________.

1. red flares
2. sound signals
3. smoke signals
4. Any of the above ✓

What power source actuates a solenoid valve?

1. Mechanical force
2. Electric current ✓
3. Hydraulic pressure
4. Air pressure

The vessel shown in illustration D025DG has broken down and you are going to take her in tow. The wind is on her starboard beam. Both vessels are making the same amount of leeway. Where should you position your vessel when you start running lines?

1. A
2. B
3. C ✓
4. D

Oily rags stored in a pile that is open to the atmosphere are a hazard because they may __________.

1. deteriorate and give off noxious gasses
2. attract lice and other vermin and serve as a breeding ground
3. spontaneously heat and catch fire ✓
4. None of the above

Which type of EPIRB must each ocean-going ship carry?

1. Class A
2. Class C
3. Category 1 ✓
4. Class B

A fire of escaping liquefied flammable gas is best extinguished by which action?

1. Interrupting the chain reaction
2. Cutting off the supply of oxygen
3. Cooling the gas below the ignition point
4. Stopping the flow of gas ✓

Your vessel has been damaged and is partially flooded. The first step to be taken in attempting to save the vessel is to __________.

1. pump out the water inside the vessel
2. establish flooding boundaries and prevent further spread of flood water ✓
3. calculate the free surface effect and lost buoyancy to determine the vessel's stability
4. plug the hole(s) in the outer shell

Which categories of NAVTEX messages may not be selectively rejected through receiver programming?

1. Navigational warnings
2. Weather warnings
3. SAR information
4. All of the above ✓

A self-righting survival craft will return to an upright position provided that all personnel __________.

1. are seated with seat belts on and doors open
2. escape from the craft
3. are seated with seat belts on and doors shut ✓
4. are to shift to one side to right it

Which is TRUE of echo-sounders?

1. They measure the average depth from waterline to hard bottom
2. They measure the actual depth of water below keel ✓
3. They measure the actual depth of water
4. They measure the average depth of water to soft bottom

What does a Doppler log in the bottom return mode indicate?

1. The speed over the ground ✓
2. The depth of the water
3. The bottom characteristics
4. The velocity of the current

Which list of clouds is in sequence, from highest to lowest in the sky?

1. Stratus, cirrostratus, altostratus
2. Altostratus, cirrostratus, stratus
3. Cirrostratus, altostratus, stratus ✓
4. Altostratus, stratus, cirrostratus

The needle of an aneroid barometer points to 30.05 on the dial. What does this indicate?

1. 30.05 millibars
2. 30.05 millimeters of mercury
3. The barometric pressure is falling
4. 30.05 inches of mercury ✓

What is NOT a characteristic of cardinal marks?

1. White lights
2. Yellow and black bands
3. Square or triangular topmarks ✓
4. Directional orientation to a hazard

Which item in illustration D034NG below shows an occulting light?

1. A
2. B ✓
3. C
4. D

When do Spring tides occur?

1. When the Sun and Moon are in quadrature
2. When the Moon's declination is maximum and opposite to that of the Sun
3. When the Moon is new or full ✓
4. When the Moon is in its first quarter or third quarter phase

Which of the following is associated with consistently high barometric pressure?

1. The horse latitudes ✓
2. The doldrums
3. The trade winds
4. The prevailing westerlies

According to Buys Ballot's Law, when an observer in the Southern Hemisphere experiences a northwest wind, where is the center of the low pressure located?

1. South-Southwest ✓
2. East-Northeast
3. East-Southeast
4. West-Southwest

Your radar displays your ship off center. As you proceed on your course, your ship's marker moves on the PPI scope while echoes from land masses remain stationary. What is this display called?

1. True motion ✓
2. Stabilized
3. Off center
4. Head up

Aneroid barometers are usually calibrated to indicate atmospheric pressure in which units?

1. Inches of mercury and centimeters
2. Inches of mercury and millibars ✓
3. Inches of mercury and millimeters
4. Feet of mercury and millibars

Which cardinal quadrant is represented by the topmark in illustration D024NG below?

1. Northern
2. Eastern
3. Western ✓
4. Southern

On November 1st the zone time is 1700 EST (ZD +5) in LONG 75°W. What is the corresponding zone time and date in LONG 135°E?

1. 0700, November 2nd ✓
2. 2200, November 1st
3. 2200, October 31st
4. 0700, November 1st

If you are the Master of a towing vessel who’s only working radar no longer functions, what must you do?

1. Notify the Captain of the Port (COTP) if you cannot repair it within 96 hours. ✓
2. Notify the Officer in Charge of Marine Inspection (OCMI) if you cannot repair it within 48 hours.
3. Moor the vessel until it is repaired.
4. Anchor the vessel until it is repaired.

Isobars on a weather map are useful in predicting which element of the weather?

1. The relative humidity
2. The dew point
3. The temperature
4. The wind velocity ✓

Entering from seaward, what do triangular-shaped daymarks mark?

1. The starboard side of the channel ✓
2. The centerline of the channel
3. An obstruction where the preferred channel is to starboard
4. Any special purpose areas

At evening stars, the first stars that should be observed are those with an azimuth in what quadrant?

1. Eastern ✓
2. Northern
3. Southern
4. Western

What is a common unit of measure for atmospheric pressure?

1. Cubic Feet
2. Inches ✓
3. Degrees
4. Tons

When cold air displaces warm air you have which type of front?

1. A cold front ✓
2. An occluded front
3. A warm front
4. A stationary front

The largest waves (heaviest chop) will usually develop where the wind blows __________.

1. at right angles to the flow of the current
2. against the flow of the current ✓
3. over slack water
4. in the same direction as the flow of the current

While proceeding up a narrow waterway you observe a vessel berthed in the river with slack mooring lines. Which is the most prudent action to take FIRST?

1. Contact the moored vessel
2. Reduce the speed of your vessel ✓
3. Give 5 short blasts on the whistle
4. Call the US Coast Guard

When is it recommended that seawater be used for drinking?

1. Under no conditions should seawater be drunk ✓
2. If gathered during or immediately after a hard rain
3. Only at a maximum rate of two ounces per day
4. After mixing with an equal quantity of fresh water

As soon as the officer in charge of the vessel has taken steps to stop the discharge of oil or oily mixture into a U.S. harbor, what must they do FIRST?

1. Rig a boom on deck
2. Inform the Environmental Protection Agency
3. Contact the Coast Guard ✓
4. Alert the fire department

Which topmark shown in illustration D023NG below identifies an isolated danger?

1. A
2. B ✓
3. C
4. D

When compared to a high-expansion foam, a low-expansion foam will __________.

1. be more heat resistant ✓
2. be lighter
3. be dryer
4. cling to vertical surfaces

You are releasing carbon dioxide gas (CO2) into an engine compartment to extinguish a fire. In which situation will the CO2 be most effective?

1. The compartment is closed and airtight ✓
2. Air flow to the compartment is increased with blowers
3. The compartment is closed and ventilators are opened
4. The compartment is left open to the air

On a passenger vessel over 400 gross tons, in which section are the routine entries recorded in the Oil Record Book?

1. An Oil Record Book is not required on this vessel
2. Part I (Machinery Space Operations) ✓
3. Part II (Cargo Oil/Ballast Operations)
4. Part III (Emergency Discharge/Spillage)

The wind has caused a difference between drafts starboard and port. This difference is known as which of the following?

1. List
2. Trim
3. Heel ✓
4. Flotation

A buoy having red and green horizontal bands would have which light characteristic?

1. Morse (A)
2. Composite group flashing ✓
3. Quick flashing
4. Interrupted quick flashing

The boom indicator tells the operator at what angle the boom is compared to the __________.

1. horizontal position of the load being lifted
2. horizontal position of the boom ✓
3. vertical position of the boom
4. vertical position of the load being lifted

What is one of the main purposes of dunnage?

1. To support weakened bulkheads
2. To provide ventilation and drainage for cargo ✓
3. To act as ballast for light vessels
4. To secure the tarpaulins in place

What is the purpose of the tricing pendants?

1. They provide suspensions for the manropes
2. They hold a lifeboat next to the embarkation deck while loading ✓
3. They control the fore and aft motion of a lifeboat during lowering
4. They control the outboard swing of a lifeboat during lowering