An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir April 2018 www.dfmagazine.ie 18 | LÉ Samuel Beckett is a fine ship. She represents the first of her class and already in her four short years of service she has trav- elled far and wide and has been involved in several substantial and difficult operations. Yet despite all her exceptional engineer- ing, her advanced technology and her substantial firepower; she is but an inanimate collection of steel plates, electronic cables, and marine fuel oils; rendered redundant in all her marvellous so- phistication without a crew to provide her with muscle and blood. Without the crew this wondrous craft would never weigh anchor or slip from a quayside. LÉ Samuel Beckett has a remarkable ability to respond quickly to any of the vast range of tasks that can be required of her by the state, and this is one of the primary reasons for having a standing armed naval force, equipped with modern patrol vessels, crewed by highly trained and highly motivated personnel. The Naval Service is divided into four major branches of spe- cialisation: Executive (commonly referred to as Seamans Branch), Engineering, Logistics, and Communications, with commissioned and enlisted personnel in each branch. Onboard the ship a distinct command structure exists, which is often confusing to those on the outside looking in. However, it has served the Navy well, as the command and control structure of a ship is vitally important; there is no room for confusion at sea, where is an ever-present danger to life and limb as soon as that first foot is laid upon the gangway, and as one gets under- way, that danger only increases. The main body of the crew are the enlisted personnel who will be the focus of this article and they are, as we will see, a diverse team. Each crew member has many different roles and sailors can work very long hours while at sea; a seaman can expect to be awake, in uniform, and working for at least 100 hours per week at sea. It is an arduous task, with physically demanding work and certainly isn't for the fainthearted. L/Sea Donnach Curtin has managed to fit a remarkable amount into his seven years' service. After initial training, he chose to join the Executive Branch and after completing his first two-year sea rotation onboard LÉ orla, he came ashore to serve in the Fishery Monitoring Centre (FMC). While serving in the FMC, he kept advancing himself and completed a Swimmer of the Watch course, a driver's course, a Landing Point Commanders course and also his career courses, including the Potential NCOs course. Shortly after he completed this 26-week junior leadership course he was promoted and moved on to become an instructor in Seamanship Training, based in the National Maritime College of Ireland (NMCI). Asked about the high points of his career so far, he says: "While I was on the orla I had been involved in the Tit Bonhomme search after it sank, and I was present for the search for Rescue 116 in Co Mayo. However, we deployed on operation Pontus at the end of 2016, and this was the highlight of my career so far. I feel that mission encompassed everything that we have trained for. The experience of seeing the whole crew working together to save lives and protect people; that, for me, is the reason I joined the military." A/Mech Robert Mulqueen joined the service after doing his leaving cert in 2016 and completed the 20-week basic military training that transforms civilians into ordinary seamen (O/Sea). Robert's class were then the first to undertake the new six-week

• Cover