Hey folks, just FYI, there’s a bit of a buzz inside the DC beltway about a possible development of a second US-flag fleet.
I realize that sounds a bit odd, but I was at the DC Propeller Club Holiday party last night and more than a few people had heard the rumor. The idea, from what I gathered, is to in some way involve other flag states such as Marshall Islands, Panama, or Liberia.
Clay Maitland from the Marshall Islands said that he wouldn’t come within a hundred miles of the idea, and didn’t know the origin of the concept.
I have heard this discussed for years much like Norway has its offshore foreign trading 2nd flag but I don’t see what the point is if the only the master and chief engineer are Amercians and very one else is from the Philippines. Nothing more that the US flagged OSV’s in Brazil or Africa. The US mariner is obviously the loser in the equation!
It COULD be worse. British flag ships don’t have any citizenship requirements. Those few ships flying the Red Duster often have no Brits onboard in any capacity. That said, there are many British officers working with other flags. Both in and out of the energy industry.
[QUOTE=cmakin;126105]It COULD be worse. British flag ships don’t have any citizenship requirements. Those few ships flying the Red Duster often have no Brits onboard in any capacity. That said, there are many British officers working with other flags. Both in and out of the energy industry.[/QUOTE]
It makes me want to scream when I hear the counter-Jones-Act argument that we would just automatically be able to find jobs on foreign flagged vessels. LIKE HELL WE WOULD. THEY HATE US. WE’RE THE MOST HATED MARINERS ON THE SEVEN SEAS. It’s all good and well when that works for someone else’s country, like the British, but that would never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever work for us.
This is off topic, but the mention of Clay Maitland in the original post reminded me of one of the many incredibly stupid decisions by SUNY Maritime.
Clay Maitland USED TO BE one of Maritime’s biggest, if not the biggest, benefactors. He gave lots and lots of money. He’d drop by and drop off a big check just for the hell of it.
Every year he’d buy at least one or two tables at the big fundraiser, the Admiral’s Dinner. Last year, after buying one or two tables, he called up and said he wanted another table. Well, the geniuses in the Development Department, decided that he was out of line. They were quite annoyed at the impertinence of one of their biggest benefactors. They refused. So Mailtand called up and ordered them to refund the money for the table or tables he’d already bought. Then he, and his money, disappeared from Maritime, never to be heard from again.
As far as I know, Maritime has never gotten another nickel from the guy.
We heard about that from the only person over there who had any brains. The brilliant Development Dept. is like a case study in disfunction.
[QUOTE=Rich Bogad;126122]This is off topic,[/QUOTE]
well, I will let you mention Clay Maitland just as long as you don’t bring up his most bloviated self appointed potentate of matters maritime, the right honorable Doctor John A.C. Cartner, PHD.
[QUOTE=PaddyWest2012;126115]It makes me want to scream when I hear the counter-Jones-Act argument that we would just automatically be able to find jobs on foreign flagged vessels. LIKE HELL WE WOULD. THEY HATE US. WE’RE THE MOST HATED MARINERS ON THE SEVEN SEAS. It’s all good and well when that works for someone else’s country, like the British, but that would never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever work for us.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=yacht_sailor;126384]Why is this? Seriously.[/QUOTE]
Well you may or may not have noticed but Americans are pretty universally hated around the world at the moment but that’s not the only reason this industry in particular gets singled out. Some industries have a high rate of international interaction and some don’t. Of the ones that do most are “white collar” jobs and only a few are “blue collar” jobs. In the sense that the maritime industry involves high degrees of physical labor, regardless of the job you hold aboard ship, we are a “blue collar” industry. The other “white collar” jobs with high degrees of international interaction are things like finance, etc… The reality of many blue collar jobs is that there is a high rate of work-related injuries. In some places such things are taken as part of the territory, but what country has the highest rate of work-related injury lawsuits? WE DO. Americans are not trusted by other countries in the maritime industry because we are more prone to cause trouble and start lawsuits than other countries like India and China where their merchant mariners are little better than subservient little sweat-shop workers. This is also why our pay is higher, we fight for it where they don’t, not as much as we do anyway.
Lol i recommend watching them try and moor a ship with wires? LOLz it’s a barrel of laughs. Meanwhile the officer on deck silently watch the deckhands play with a stopper a dozen times, with the captain screaming into a broken radio, or repeatedly part messenger lines, or… They suck! It’ll give a line handler a heart attack!
“Mister pilot I do not trust this you are telling to me!”
[QUOTE=z-drive;126416]Lol i recommend watching them try and moor a ship with wires? LOLz it’s a barrel of laughs. Meanwhile the officer on deck silently watch the deckhands play with a stopper a dozen times, with the captain screaming into a broken radio, or repeatedly part messenger lines, or… They suck! It’ll give a line handler a heart attack!
“Mister pilot I do not trust this you are telling to me!”[/QUOTE]
all too true, but those smelly dot heads work for NOTHING compared to you or I and are willing to sign for a year’s servitude for the pleasure.
[QUOTE=c.captain;126420]all too true, but those smelly dot heads work for NOTHING compared to you or I and are willing to sign for a year’s servitude for the pleasure.
I FOR SURE AIN’T GONNA DO DAT![/QUOTE]
And therein lies the death of the United States Merchant Marine as we know it. May she rest in peace. It’s not that you should agree to work under those conditions, no one should, but the fact still remains that someone else always will agree to do it cheaper than we will and we’ll loose every time. We’re a dying breed, being hurried along to the hereafter by cyanide pills being delivered straight from Washington.
Not necessarily. It just shows how we all have differing levels of experience in the industry. And vastly differing understanding of how working foreign compares to working domestic.
Why do people work 28/7 for tenner cenac domestic? Someone will always do the job cheaper…with a broken stove…and broken A/C…and no crew-change…and the list goes on. There are mariners who will undercut others, foreign or domestic.