Nothing beats the human connection, walk into places and meet hiring managers. Or find their numbers and make phone calls.
I’ve never gotten a job from applying online. Or, get your your AS-Deck and go SIU and go from their. I started SIU and sail as an officer now.
Trust me, I know. Me getting my initial job on tugs was a grind. At least you’re working. Keep harassing and something will come up. Call up any previous shipmate. Look at Great Lakes? Lots of companies gearing up for there. Curtin was my other suggestion.
You probably should talk to SUP, SIU, and IBU.
While age discrimination is rampant and socially acceptable, and will hinder hiring at some companies, I do not think there is such a thing as aging out.
HR is totally incompetent and painfully slow at most boat companies. You need to bypass HR by going directly to Captains, port captains, ops managers and owners, if you can. Get someone to hire you, and then tell HR to make it so.
54 is not old for a tugboat deckhand in 2025. If you can do the job, cook, and are easy to get along with, you should have no problems finding a job. A guy with experience actually running passenger boats should be valued.
I sent you a DM.
Ages means expereince in most cases. Work smarter not harder with expereince. Although in this environment hard work sometimes has to be done. Good luck
My current Deckhand is older than you and gets around pretty good. We move oil on an ATB, so not it’s not as demanding.
I seriously want to transition to ATBs from wire. Know three doods work Crowley. I am currently enrolled in Tankship DL Class to get on.
If you lived near Western WA the job to get would be Washington state ferries. I know two people around 60 who got hired as ABs. But there are other ferry services out there, so maybe target them.
I worked the Maui-Lanai’i Ferry for years. Great gig, shitty pay. I am from Bainbridge Island, so I have ridden the WSF System 10,000 x. No offense to anyone out there, but I couldn’t stomach working for em.