A newfound interest in becoming a merchent mariner

Maritime Employment
21

[QUOTE=Nelson Delmar;190191]Don’t listen to these cranky old fucks (c.captain). Its the same words told to me when I was young, by a bunch of old timers. I’ve had a great career and always had work. From my perspective there are lots of jobs if you are willing to do the work. Get your credentials and start knocking on doors. Start with Crowley.[/QUOTE]

Start with crowley? really? That would be the worst place for an entry level person to look, considering they want all their applicants to have every endorsement known to man…and then that isn’t even good enough.

To the OP, you can spend aeons looking through old threads on here to get the info you want, for your own situation. I suspect the reason why some folks like c captain have given you a little grief is because they get a little irritated with answering the same questions over, and over, and over again. The information is here and has been discussed in depth.
You’ll probably come across information regarding the current plight of the maritime industry, which is discussed often. Jobs are not aplenty right now, especially for entry level personnel. One of the many questions you will need to ask yourself is if you really want to invest the time and money when opportunities are far from being abundant. Good luck.

22

The juxtaposition of old-timers advice, Crowley, and jub hunting, reminds me, had an onion tied to my belt.

I was in Ballard in 1985, I had just gotten my unlimited third mates license (non-academy route) and I was looking for work, I was looking everywhere I could think. One day I got spiffied-up and with resume in hand I went in the Seattle Crowley office.

I was shown to an office and I handed the guy there behind the desk my resume (which I had spent hours on). He glanced at it (just long enough to see CMA wasn’t on there), and then tossed it back across the desk and then started berating me. He told me I had a lot of nerve coming in looking for work when so many regular crew members were laid off waiting for work. Etc.

Yikes, I have to say I was a little gun shy for the next couple days.

So between that, repeatedly getting told there were very few jobs available and a bank account running low I was getting a little discouraged. But it was always the younger mariners that told me there were not many jobs out there (my sister told me “tell them you only need one”), the old-timers always said same thing, you gotta be in the right place at the right time.

So a couple weeks later I was Borgie’s Place on Ballard Ave, the place with the pictures of crab boats on the walls and a chart of Alaska under acrylic on the bar, having a beer, not even a cold beer, Borgie’s beer was never very cold, and one of the regulars there, a guy called Shorty said that he knew of a ship that was looking for a mate.

So I went down to the Trident Seafood dock the next day and after a one minute interview (have you been up the Inside Passage?) I went to work that morning. Stayed for a couple years, till they went out of business.

Thing is any of the guys laid off from Crowley could have taken that job but I doubt if they would have wanted it. For one it was not a good job, low pay, no benefits, long hours, hard physical labor, for another they likely did not want to be at sea when Crowley called for them to come back to work.

Anyway, right place right time, also it helps not to have any other skills or good job prospects which lowers the opportunity costs of taking a job no one else wants.

23

I would learn to play a few tunes on the piano and find a good New Orleans whore house who still employs a piano player.

24

[QUOTE=Kennebec Captain;190231]The juxtaposition of old-timers advice, Crowley, and jub hunting, reminds me, had an onion tied to my belt.

So I went down to the Trident Seafood dock the next day and after a one minute interview (have you been up the Inside Passage?) I went to work that morning. Stayed for a couple years, till they went out of business.

Thing is any of the guys laid off from Crowley could have taken that job but I doubt if they would have wanted it. For one it was not a good job, low pay, no benefits, long hours, hard physical labor, for another they likely did not want to be at sea when Crowley called for them to come back to work.

Anyway, right place right time, also it helps not to have any other skills or good job prospects which lowers the opportunity costs of taking a job no one else wants.[/QUOTE]

As a twenty something, my first job actually getting paid to work on the water was to run a 39’ commercial salmon fishing boat from the Fraser River in BC (after bottom painting the wooden hull in the yard, unpaid) up the Inside Passage to the Canadian side of the Nass River, run it for six months while the owner handled the nets, and run it back down to its home dock on the Fraser River. The big catch was that the pay would come from when the fish were sold to buyers in northern BC. No such thing as watches, I stayed up 24 hours and more when needed, dollar signs dancing in front of my eyes as I relied on the owner’s promises. Long story short, I made peanuts. I probably would have made more staying home and collecting welfare. The point is I learned a lot and had an adventure most people can only fantasize about. I kept plugging away, made a career and eventually a decent living as a merchant mariner and was happy and had fun doing it. I remember parts of that trip up the Inside Passage, the fishing and the trip back down the outside of Vancouver Island like it was yesterday.
How bad do you want it, Brandon?

25

[video=youtube_share;MEhI7EQXth4]http://youtu.be/MEhI7EQXth4[/video][QUOTE=Traitor Yankee;190236]I would learn to play a few tunes on the piano and find a good New Orleans whore house who still employs a piano player.[/QUOTE]

26

If you can swing a beat like that do the world a favor and keep your hands away from moving parts, don’t touch any tools heavier than those a jeweler might use, and don’t go to sea.

27

No one ever killed the fiddle player

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[QUOTE=Nelson Delmar;190241]No one ever killed the fiddle player[/QUOTE]

Hell, the piano player in Lonesome Dove had to kill himself!

29

Again, thanks for all of the replies! I have done much more research through this forum as well as alot of research on the Internet so I do feel bad for sprouting up yet another thread on the same old topics. Anyways, with little work to be had and not living near a coast, it sounds like maybe looking into Piney Point could be another option. Heard something about tongue point as well. Would anybody recommend this as an option even with the state of the industry? Sounds like I’d atleast aquire some sea time (do they count the days at sea during phase II?), etc. Are they even accepting applications? Heard something about they were doing some type of revamp of the whole thing.

30

Hey Kid, I did some Googling and found out what a BSL was. It is a BULLSHIT License!

31

Yea, I didn’t do my fair share of research before I first posted…whoops

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[QUOTE=BrandonLawhorn;190254]Yea, I didn’t do my fair share of research before I first posted…whoops[/QUOTE]

“whoops” he says! NO SHIT SHERLOCK!

33

Go to SUNY and do their graduate degree with license option. You can get financial aid since it’s a higher degree, you get a master’s in business in case shipping doesn’t work out, and you get a 3rd Mate Unlimited. Plus, by the time you graduate the industry would likely be in a better place as far as hiring goes.

34

Commission in the coast guard.