Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman
Teryn Gilbert, born 1970, is from a Bermuda family of boat-builders and watermen. After serving in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary as a diesel mechanic, he took an engineering degree at the University of the West Indies in St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, and set up as a diesel engineering consultant in T&T in the mid-1990s.
By that time, Penemue's 1960s-vintage diesels really needed replacement, and he was hired for the job. Kessler found that an engineer who could understand what he wanted without having to spell things out was really worthwhile, and made him an attractive offer.
He has a much sunnier disposition than most chief engineers, having regarded his employment with Kessler as a very extended and well-paid adventure holiday. It's occasionally dangerous, but that's OK with him. He has known Penemue's current engines since they arrived for installation, and can get the best out of them. |
Excellent.
If one is born in 1970, can one really become successful engineer and consultant by age 25, even with naval service before the education?
In Iceland, you can start college at age 20* and graduate as an engineer at age 25, but that wouldn't leave
any time for a stint in the military or to gain experience working somewhere after getting the degree.
What kind of history, year by year, are you assuming since the end of compulsory education?
I confess that I have no idea how British or Commonwealth engineers are made or how long the education is, nor, really, what kind of time investment a stint in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary entails.
Of course, Gilbert might be a genius.** Or he might have been born a few years earlier. Which would be more in line with how you see him?
Oh, also, presumably he has hobbies. Did he maybe play cricket in college? Or some other sport?
And, obviously, it's generally considered deeply weird for someone to be happy to live aboard a yacht for two decades instead of marrying and having a family. Has Gilbert found a wife happy to see her husband only very occasionally, did he perhaps marry someone who is also part of the crew*** or is there some reason he is not the marrying kind?
Does he have girlfriends in every port (that actually sounds pretty interesting) or is he not concerned at all with romance?
*Our gymnasiums handle more of the general education that in the US is stuffed into the first couple of years in universities. College education includes no courses not directly related to the degree being pursued.
**In order to have received an offer to be the Chief Engineer aboard Penemue, he'd have to be perceived by Kessler as more suitable than the kind of retired US Navy or Coast Guard warrant officer who could be hired at a salary of $250,000+. Granted, in the mid-1990s, Gilbert might have been hired as a junior engineer aboard and only recently have risen to the Chief Engineer position.
***Given how much Kessler seems to want an old-school household around him, with children of retainers continuing to work for him, a solution that would be very appropriate.