Cadets Journal

All cadets in BI had to keep a daily journal, these are the published Notes on Keeping a Journal

NOTES ON KEEPING THIS JOURNAL

As part of your training you are required to keep a daily journal which is to be produced each week for your Commander's perusal. An entry should be written in for each day and the only periods exempt from entry are those which you spend on leave, although the fact that you were on leave should be recorded.

Matters of a strictly private and personal nature should not be written in this journal.

The kind of matters upon which you should write are as follows:-

• A record of how each day is occupied, including off duty time;
• A particular type of cargo carried;
• How a particular task or operation was carried out;
• Ports called at and any particular points of interest that you noticed in them;
• Abnormal weather conditions or other natural phnomena encountered;
• Descriptions of any piece of equipment, machinery or instruments fitted in your vessel;
• Any Unusual incident experienced, either by yourself or the vessel in which you are serving

These entries should not necessarily be confined to the bare facts but should be enlarged by explanations or any impressions you have gained from them. The importance of sketches cannot be over emphasised and they should be used when possible to illustrate suitable entries.

On appointment to each vessel your first entry should contain a brief description of he vessel and the trade in which she is employed. You should also record the names of the Commander, Deck Officers and other Cadets.

The journal is to be kept in a legible hand writing and is to be neat and clean. The name of the vessel should be written in the top left hand corner of each page and each entry should be headed by the date and either the name of the port or the port to port passage applicable at the time.

The blank pages are to be used for sketches but if they are not so used, they should be used for writing matter and not left blank.

These journals will be inspected from time to time at Head office and unless otherwise instructed you bring your journal with you on each occasion you report to this Office.

NOTES FOR COMMANDER

It would be appreciated if, by comment and direction, you encourage Cadets to maintain this journal in an interesting and informative manner and endeavour to discourage the dull and dreary record which sometimes is presented as a journal. If a Cadet's training is properly organised there should be no items constantly repeated and keeping a journal should be of great value to the Cadet in developing powers of observation and constructive criticism.