I’m from the era where we waited a month to stand in line for 2 hours at a pay phone in port and feed it quarters. Times have changed, now I have no interest in being on a boat without Starlink. And guess what, it’s no problem for me to find another boat that has it.
Going to sea is half our lives and we need it to be as comfortable and convenient as practical. Also the banks, insurance companies and vendors back home all expect us to pay our bills from the middle of the ocean with a click of a mouse. Family and friends are no longer going to accept our being out of touch.
There is no reasonable excuse for a company not to provide Starlink. Cost is not a legitimate factor. A company without Starlink will be a company withOUT crew, or only the most pathetic losers.
It’s NOT recent but ship owners were slow to adapt and lost some good folks in the process.I thought email and communication with home without WOM and others was great. On the other hand it annoyed me to no end to find folks on the internet on watch when there were things to be done. Most were in a supervisory position of sorts. Their time could have been better spent on the job with the people they were to supervise.
I had a discussion with someone about this yesterday.
“Benefits” are enticements to get someone to work for a company, other than pay. The expected “benefits” of a job are medical/dental insurance and retirement plan, administered by an HR department. A lot of thought and effort comes into maintaining them, solely to induce the best sort of worker to sign-on
Increasingly, I think internet access falls under the rubric of an expected “benefit”. For a young person it outweighs insurance/retirement in importance. So, in the future, it would not be unusual for internet access to fall under the administration of the HR department.
Absolutely, these types of things are called fringe benefits. They’re in line with things like bonuses, company provided gym membership, company car, or all sorts of other perks that some companies provide. Basically all the little things out side of the Insurance and Retirement plan, that are pretty universal. A good working environment is absolutely necessary, especially for mariners who have to live there as well. Internet, good food, clean living conditions all add up, but I would never work somewhere that didn’t have those, and I have the bargaining power to choose not to.
I like to keep up with a lot of the people I’ve sailed with in the past, or took courses with. It’s A LOT of people, and exactly about 3 of those people have stopped sailing, the benefits of what we do are just too enticing. One took up welding, another became a lineman, and lastly a shoreside terminal guy. All pretty shitty alternatives, imo. Welding takes years off your life, linemen are also gone from their homes a lot of the year, and shoreside terminal - well you still have to work around this environment. Adding on to that, they have to do that year round! Shipping is the ultimate gig job. It sounds like you’re already treating it as such, as do I. I never understood people who treat this as a real job. I rather have gone to a university for 4 years and become an accountant, sitting in the AC all day not dealing with some of the clowns we encounter out here. All my point was earlier, is that while it makes life infinite times better, life goes on without Internet. Our job is still pretty great even if you took it away. Sure, the money isn’t every thing. A vessel without a gym, I refuse to go on. While money is in the top 5 most important things in life, so is health.
I ran into one middle age mate at MITAGS who sees and treats it as a gig job — shamelessly admits he’s a career second mate (not that there is anything to be ashamed of there) and invested in real estate on the side. He also worked in a cemetery for beer money and a host of other weird jobs all over the world. I have an awful lot of trouble imagining him in a suit and tie in an office job. Very interesting guy… clearly just treating the job and life in general as a big party.
What is the primary reason you’re considering a maritime academy? Asking to go deck or engine is like asking “Should I be a doctor or a lawyer?” Two very different things. Understanding why you’re thinking about going to a maritime academy should make your decision pretty straightforward. Forget about the reading on watch and visiting the bridge to look outside stuff. You do that stuff off watch. Those aren’t factors to be considered when deciding deck or engine.
I don’t consider Starlink to be an employee “benefit.”
I think of it a standard ship’s equipment. A vessel without Starlink is substandard.
I note also that Starlink is an important safety communications device. The Starlink phone is usually more reliable (and a lot cheaper) than the Iridium or Inmarsat phones installed on small vessels. Again, a boat without Starlink is substandard.