Daily Journal

September 15, 2004:
Aboard the R/V Wecoma: The Crew

Doug Beck, Able Bodied Seaman
Doug lives with his wife on the Siletz River in Newport. He has been a Merchant Marine aboard the Wecoma for the past three years. He is an AB (Able Bodied Seaman) and does a variety of tasks on the ship. Some of these include running cranes and winches, and helping the helmsmen and scientists do their jobs. He is also a rescue swimmer and nozzle man on the fire crew.

Before becoming a Merchant Marine, Doug worked on commercial and charter fishing boats.After the fishing industry dropped off, Doug began looking for a position with more stability. He was hired by OSU (Oregon State University) as security watch on the Wecoma. OSU then offered Doug the option of going to school to earn his Merchant Marine License to take an AB position.

Doug needs math to plot positions, determine volume of water aboard ship, and statistics involving the crane such as length of the boom and how much weight the blocks can lift.

Bob Ashley, Chief Engineer
Bob lives with his wife in Newport. He has five grown children. Bob joined the Navy at 16 years of age. He served in Vietnam on board a heavy cruiser. After he left the military, he worked in mills and construction, but the sounds of the sea kept calling him back. He joined the Oregon State University ship crew and has been with the Wecoma for 15 years.

As chief engineer he has a variety of duties to perform; he is responsible for mechanical, electrical, and air systems. He is also responsible for making the hydraulic lifts work and, last but not least, he is responsible for the water maker. It isn't possible to bring all the water needed on a research cruise so the chief engineer makes sea water into fresh water using a device that pumps in sea water, vacuum seals it and then it is boiled and left to condense. The water that has evaporatd becomes fresh water.

Bob uses math every day in his work; he must track fuel on board and fuel consumption, he also must know how to calculate weights, volumes for fuel and ballast. He also uses estimation to determine fuel needs during variable sea and weather conditions.

Aaron Reid, Assistant Cook
Aaron's home port is in Newport, Oregon. Prior to his life as assistant cook on board the Wecoma, he worked as landscaper, a caterer, and a cook. He has been with Wecoma for two years. He has always enjoyed cooking, even as a child, and learned a lot about cooking from watching his mother cook. He prefers to cook without recipes and sees it as a creative endeavor.

His responsibilities include helping to prepare for breakfast, lunch, and dinner when he is at sea. While in port, he checks inventorty, creates orders, and helps with shopping. He really seems to like his job because he gets to travel and particularly enoys viewing sea life, the colors on the water and the horizon. He says, "These colors are not in the Crayola box."

He uses math every day and says that "math is the universal language," and that you cannot travel without it. He uses measurements for recipes and for menu planning, and to estimate how much food to buy.

He would like students to know that they need to have a "can do" attitude. You then will have great satisfaction. He also said that "what you gain intellectually is yours for life, and no one can take that away." He said we should be like the little engine that could and to keep telling ourselves that we can.

Now, here are two math problems for you to solve:

This ship usually travels at 12 knots. 1 knot = 1.2 miles/hour. How many miles/hour would the ship be traveling while it is going 12 knots?

The Wecoma, while traveling across the sea at 12 knots uses 1,700 gallons of diesel fuel per day. The ship holds 57,000 gallons of fuel. How many days can the Wecoma travel before running out of fuel?

Sea Lion who came to visit.

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