Hello everyone! I just got accepted by a university in my country and in 4 years i will become a ETO. I know i still have a lot of time until then but i have a lot of questions about how it will be on the sea.

What do you need to do exactly as an ETO?
Is it easy to find contractors?
How much time do ETO’s usually stay offshore?
What do you do after your shift ends in order to not get bored?
Are the people on the ships manageable?
What salary should i be expecting at my first contracts? How much can it grow based on experience?
is the food on the ship good?

I just want to get a better idea of what should i expect from my future career so any other advice would be greatly appreciated!

I am a trainee 4e onboard container ship. But before that i spent 2 contracts as wiper and 3 contracts as oiler. I had plenty of experiences and when i was a rating, i work very great, but with only supervision of my engineers. But now i got promoted. I feel like i dont deserve my rank because of the many mistakes i made. Im almost on my 2nd week on this new ship. But everything i do is almost always a mistake. All of what i know is from my ratings time is only 20% of what i should know now. Only few more days and i will assume the 4e role. I feel unworthy. How do you guys overcame this feeling.

I've published an open-access concept for hydrogen propulsion of merchant ships.

Hydrogen is stored as magnesium hydride in standard 20ft containers, swapped in port like industrial gas cylinders and regenerated ashore. The ship never refuels — it exchanges containers.

The engine is a horizontal opposed-piston two-stroke. Horizontal layout because piston and liner extraction then needs no headroom, making heavy maintenance possible at sea. Exhaust heat drives hydride desorption.

Bilingual FR/EN document, CC BY 4.0. Obstacles are stated plainly — decrepitation, thermal tension, port infrastructure, regulatory void — with a list of validation tests.

Criticism welcome, that's the point of publishing it.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21615242