[lancelot9898]

I too read something about Barksdale, the "engineer", as being a handy man and not too familar with marine diesels. However after seeing the interview on the weather channel, I would give Barksdale the benefit of the doubt since IMHO he came across as an intelligent person who would probably do a good job even without the certifications. I was not too impressed by the other two survivors. The way I understand it is that Barksdale was asked to be engineer without much notification by his friend the first mate after the prior engineer left. You would think that the investigation would want to interview the prior engineer, but I don't have that much faith in "investigations". It's cover your ass time.