Officers Duties (Important Tread!)

[UKönig]

Originally Posted by jaxa

I've read somewhere, that first watch started at 12/24.00 to 16/04.00 (commanded by 1WO), second from 16/04.00 to 20/08.00 (commanded by 2WO) and third from 20/08.00 to 24/12.00 (commanded by 3WO, who was Obersteuermann).

You're probably right about the watch times, numbers aren't really my strong suit. Besides which, these are the officially posted times; once you get out to sea and the patrol starts to get going, the Captain has the authority to alter the length of time each watch spent on duty.
For example, a normal bridge watch lasts 4 hours, but when waves are high and weather is bad, the shift may be shortened to 2 hours, so that the men don't get beaten up too badly by the nasty weather. Captain's discretion.
Engineering crew stayed on duty for 6 hours each shift. If the Captain split the watch duty time into four, then the LI could assume command then as the unofficial 'fourth watch officer', but in general, the LI either worked in the control room or in the Diesel room, if combat action really started to mess things up back there.