Brothers ? What have you had to sell to make a bank payment , or to pay for medical treatments for your family that are no longer covered ?
I may be way out of line for even participating in your bullshit post , but there are a great many of us that are on the “tuff” side of things at the present , and we do not like to be poked or have our " professionalism " Questioned .
You are far from a " brother " , what ever it is that you do .
You struck a nerve with many . That was obviously your intent .
I stick to my original comment on this post ; “” What Fraqrat said only with both hands “” . Until you have spent some time in the patch , Whether it be the GOM or the northern frozen mud , you will not know what the word brother means .
John
I was not trying to exclude any others that are feeling the strain as well
. I have nothing more to add , and will refrain from commenting on the
matter further to prevent myself from appearing as ignorant as the OP
Thanks
Mike
I’m lucky to be born a white baby boomer, where bad language in the workplace was the norm. But after 40 years of working with non native English speakers who don’t find it necessary to use bad language to express themselves, I find little reason to recruit people for marine operations, based purely on native English language skills. In fact, I prefer to recruit Asian seamen than whites. They don’t get into drunken fights and they show up for work on time.
Agree, I never missed the bitching, complaining and drunkenness of some crews.
But if you understand a bit of Hokkien and/or Cantonese and have sailed with Chinese crews, they certainly know how to swear.
PS> On a drillship I was on we had to send a Driller off because he kept on swearing at the Thai Roughnecks. The final straw was when he threw his hardhat on the floor and stomped on it as well as swearing. A big insult for Thais.
They downed tools and assembled in the Mess room dressed up in their best, demanding transport ashore. As we were drilling off the Andamans that was not possible, with the first crew change charter flight still 10-12 days away.
I stepped in to negotiate through one of the interpreters we had on board. They demanded that the Driller should come to apologize in person, in which case they would have “gained face” to where we would have lost all control.
Eventually it was agreed that I could apologize on his behalf and guarantee that he would not do such a thing again. The rest of the Expat crew would stop using foul language at them as well. That would have established an acceptable “balance of face” , which is important in Asia.
Just as this was agreed and they were preparing to get back to work, the Toolpusher came into the Mess room and announced that he demanded to know if they were going back to work.
We finally had to send the Driller into Port Blair to wait for the crew change charter flight there and the roughnecks had taken over as “bosses” on the floor.
Luckily this was my last trip on that ship, since she was sold to a Scottish company who had their own Captains and Ch/Eng.s already onboard, while the rest of the expat crew would stay.
I’ve always read every post before commenting but only 50% this time, … the quick answer to this one is the guy needs to spend a few years at sea, and i mean sea days here!
Captain,
You are 100% correct. A true professional shouldn’t feel any need to post their name calling, belittling, and as you said: ‘emotional havoc’, etc.
Earlier on this site, someone picked up on a bad experience my wife and I had out to sea and chose to rip me 9 ways to Sunday, as though that would help anyone. It doesn’t. And posting nothing but ‘school yard’ banter, surely diminishes the gravitas of being a professional, whether as a Captain, or deck hand.
I respect your post wherein you stated the better, more appropriate manner of conduct, befitting professionals.
Have a good day, sir.
Sincerely.
Doug Sabbag
Captain, S/V Triumph
Most of the rips, mine included, were due to your post-action attitude towards the ones who saved you, Doug. We could have had a much more meaningful discussion had you brought it in from a different tact and not automatically assumed the Captain and crew that ‘did’ save you and your wife were cold hearted jerks simply because they chose to proceed in a manner not to your convenience.
That’s what caused the rips, your poor attitude. Three years later and based on your fresh posts on the subject it looked to me like you had refused to try and learn one thing regarding the perspective of the professional mariners who saved you and your wife.
There’s also hundreds more lifeboats that are launched empty (because it is dangerous) during drills, which also fail. You only hear about it through your colleagues and internal company notices. The boat gets wrecked, no one gets hurt, and it probably isn’t publicized. Its not a rescue boat, mister. All the Caps Lock and self-righteous bitterness in the world isn’t going to make it into a rescue boat.
If the captain that saved you was my captain, I would definitely make him cookies on his birthday. He’s a hero. You’re a victim.
