Basic Coast Guard Course

Introduction

The Coast Guard Basic Cadet Course is designed to provide you with information on 3 subjects related to the Coast Guard as well as one subject related to the ROTTWEILER Corps to give you the information you need to be successful as a ROTTWEILER Coast Guard cadet. The information provided on this page will prepare you for your course test.

Each lesson below will cover one of the 4 subjects and there will be questions on the test which reflect on each lesson, so make sure to pay close attention. 

Once you are ready, click on the TAKE THE TEST link, and you will be directed to the Basic Coast Guard Course Test. Once you have completed the course test, you will be notified by email of your results on the test and whether or not you have passed. In order to pass the test you must get a minimum of 7 out of the 10 questions correct.

In order to be promoted to Ordinary Guardsman(CG), you must pass this course. 

Lesson One: Coast Guard Duties

The Coast Guard is a maritime service found in many countries around the globe. Each country utilises its Coast Guard in a different way, depending on the size of its fleet, the geographic location of its supporting nation, and the government department it belongs to.

Coast Guard organizations can range from globally operating vessels with full time uniformed crews and self-defence weapons systems, to volunteer-led charitable coastal organizations.

Regardless of the size and status of the organization, many Coast Guard agency’s have shared aims and duties.

I. NAVIGATIONAL MAINTENANCE & SAFETY

A critical part of navigation is the ability to locate navigational points of interest and reference, such as shipping channel markers, navigational buoys, and lightships. In bad weather, buoys or markers may begin to drift, causing a potential hazard to shipping, either by risk of collision or risk of endangering safe navigation. 

The Coast Guard may employ specialist vessels, such as buoy tenders or lightships to carry out routine maintenance or oversee the repositioning of drifting buoys, thus ensuring that all vessels can navigate safely and accurately through their area of responsibility.

II. MARITIME SAFETY

Imagine you were driving your car down the motorway through the rush hour at high speed and you had a cracked windscreen, a tail light was out, and your wing mirror was hanging off. The police would pull you over and give you a talking to, because the significant lapses in the safety mechanisms in your vehicle would make you a danger to your fellow road users.

Just so, the Coast Guard may contact a vessel transmitting through their area of responsibility who is practicing unsafe standards of navigation or seamanship. This could include, but is not limited to;

• A vessel not adhering to ‘Rules of the Road’.    

• A vessel acting suspiciously.    

• A vessel underway despite an obvious lack of lifesaving equipment (such as life rafts, life boats etc).    

• A vessel underway despite an obvious lack of anchors (vessel might have cut both anchors away for some reason).    

• A vessel not radiating on AIS (Automatic Identification System) when operating within port limits.   

• A vessel not responding to legitimate calls on radio.

Likewise, the Coast Guard may have the power to board a vessel causing a threat to maritime safety to investigate the cause, and may even ‘impound’ the vessel and confine it to port until the issues are resolved.

III. SEARCH & RESCUE

The bread and butter of the Coast Guard. If a ship goes down in a storm, if an aircraft is ditched at sea, if a swimmer is dragged out to sea, if a person falls overboard from a ship, the Coast Guard will go out in any weather, utilizing as many assets at its disposal, ranging from its own vessels to CG helicopters and patrol aircraft, to even ordering vessels in the area to support the search.

IV. ICE MANAGEMENT

In the more climatic geographic regions, the Coast Guard may be responsible for managing ice formations. This could include the deployment of an ice breaker to ‘cut out’ a vessel from the ice, or routine patrols to prevent the formation of ice through vital shipping lanes.

This is just a general overview of some of the duties that may be exercised by the Coast Guard, often they do much much more, but each Coast Guard agency is different.

Lesson Two: Navigational Markings

Whether you are at the helm of a 500 tonne fishing trawler, a 5,000 tonne Coast Guard Cutter or a 60,000 tonne aircraft carrier, it is imperative to know whether your proposed navigation track is safe, suitable and logical.

If you were in a car and there was danger up ahead, signs would be posted to warn you of such a danger. Likewise, if you were looking for a specific exit to leave the motorway, there would be signs to inform you. The same can be said at sea, but instead of signs, buoys are used. Buoys are floating structures, often anchored to the seabed, which are recorded on navigational charts in a fixed position and provide reference points for navigators whilst also providing instructions or warnings.

The most common buoys can be divided into three categories;

CARDINAL MARKS.

These buoys are yellow and black in design, with a conical arrangement on the top. There are four cardinal marks, one for the four main points of a compass (North, East, South and West), each with a different configuration of yellow/black bands and flashing white lights. These buoys indicate a danger is present in the area (usually the reciprocal direction of the named buoy) and which direction has the deepest, safest route.

• NORTH MARKER - Indicates safe water to the north of the buoy (danger to the south).     

• SOUTH MARKER - Indicates safe water to the south of the buoy (danger to the north).     

• EAST MARKER - Indicates safe water to the east of the buoy (danger to the west).     

• WEST MARKER - Indicates safe water to the west of the buoy (danger to the east).

LATERAL MARKS

These buoys are often found to identify the limits of a shipping channel. They can be different shapes, from a pillar shape, to a floating barrel shape, to a circular shape. They are different colours, depending on the geographic region. In Europe, Asia and Oceania, they are either red (for PORT markers) or green (for STARBOARD markers). They are the reverse in the Americas and Far East (red for Starboard, green for Port).

As a general rule, the direction of buoyage is to be adhered to by vessels inbound to a port, and they should keep their port side to the port buoys and starboard buoys to their starboard side. This allows for safe navigation in and out of port by vessels in a main shipping channel.

OTHER MARKS

There are many other buoys, the details of which can be found in navigational manuals and on charts. The most widely seen buoys are;