As a wife of one of the Mariners effected - let me just say I take great offense to your ”Be an Adult” “you are a fool” “comment. These men and their families are under enough stress they don’t need fellow mariners being unsupportive. And you have no idea what they do or do not have in reserves and you have no idea that prior to all of this Some vessel crews were sent home for 10 days with no pay just a couple of months prior to the non payment of payroll starting which would had cut into those reserves. And us personally almost at 2 months of no pay (last p/r 12/24)
You have no idea if any of these men and their families are spend thrifts or if they had a situation that required them to use some or all of their reserves prior to the non payrolls who knows certainty NOT you, maybe just maybe they saw the writing on the wall and where looking for other employment and now they are stuck on a ship, or maybe they where working extra to build up or add to the reserve. Bottom line you have NO idea, I have no idea. And unless I missed it, I’ve not seen one mariner on any of the effected vessels on here whining or complaining or even hinting to the fact that they don’t have money to get home or that they can’t pay their bills because they didn’t have a reserve. I’ve seen a lot of assumptions and speculation.
And with that being said from everything that I am reading on this thread they cannot legally leave the ship until when? 24 hours from now 24 months from now we have no idea. So six months of reserve money potential could not be enough and let’s top it off with an entire fleet needing jobs and from what I’m seeing there isn’t enough available jobs for the amount of mariners that are now in need.
yes I am a very frustrated wife not just for my husband but for the rest of the fleet. I’ve been reading this thread for information and the support that’s been given to the men and their families has been greatly appreciated.
Bouchard always payed very well for every position. A mariner who made that money for an extended period should have a years worth of liquid assets saved up. Bouchard pays very well and operates in a fundamentally volatile space that depends on price spreads on oil and gas. The whole oil and gas industry has a HISTORY of going boom and bust. Acting like you have a job at the Staten Island Ferry and not saving as much as you should is your problem and nobody else’s. What’s the history with this company? Fool me once…shame on me, fool me twice…I think your comments about not being enough jobs are wrong. Lots of people have moved on and those on the remaining units are probably the minority.
mariner wife,
Well said and I believe most of us on this post believe the crews are getting a pretty bad deal here. I am also sure the reason they are not posting here is the almost guaranteed retaliation from BTC. There are some great companies that work in this industry. BTC is not known by many many mariners as being one of them.
I agree that Bouchard always payed very well for every position. I personally know nobody that has a years worth of reserves in the bank six months yes but not a year.
I was not asking for anybody’s sympathy and I didn’t say it was anybody else’s problem I was replying to the gentleman that made the comment about being an adult and being fools I as a wife in this situation took offense to that
And we’ve only been fooled once We won’t be for the second time.
And thank you for the information about the jobs that did make me feel better so I do thank you for that, though he is one of the minority.
Now for him to be able to get off the ship legally.
I am not a mariner I don’t know how the industry works however I’ve been getting quite the education.
And I am not looking to get into a pissing match with anybody I just responded to something I took offense to.
Thank you Schoonerman
Yes I am seeing that BTC is not one of the beloved companies 
The Coast Guard holding unpaid crew aboard by threatening to take legal action is not sustainable in the long-term.
When it will get resolved is anybody’s guess. I’d guess not too long after open of business this Monday, maybe a day or two?
We should clear some things up. The Coast Guard is not forcing crew to remain aboard. The COPT orders have been to the masters and to the company, and the only stipulations I’ve seen is that the master can’t leave his boat at anchor without the proper manning aboard.
This means any crew are free to get off if they can find a willing relief (not likely at this point) or they can always resign and disembark when the boat is next at the pier (this seems to be the most likely outcome if BTC doesn’t come up with cash to meet payroll). I doubt that any master is willing to keep his boat at anchor indefinitely if his crew isn’t getting paid. This situation will resolve itself by the end of the month in my opinion.
So the master is the captain? If so, who know when my husband will be legally free to leave.
Please correct me if I’m incorrect
Yes, the captain of the boat is called a master in the industry and is in charge of all of his crew. Since he is in the same predicament as the crew, I’m sure he is going to be actively working towards a resolution in the best interest of the crew. He would be in constant contact with the BTC office and should be in the best position to know if cash will be coming. If not, he should be working on a plan to tie the boat up.
You are correct. The master/captain, interchangeable terms, is in command of the vessel and crew.
I’ve been with this company for over 20 yrs. I don’t need outside opinions on what should be, could be or will be. I know what I know. The only”ONLY” good thing about bouchard was the daily rate and travel. Nothin”NOTHING” more. WHOOPTY DOOOO… yeah a decent pay. Right along with not knowing each passing day if you had a job with the company tomorrow. Their policies looked immaculate on paper. However, those policies were shit in practice. Their policies were more flash than bang. Hence why the company is where it is today. In the situation it is in today. So if you haven’t actually experienced working for “ this “ company. Dealing with it’s internals BS. Your opinion is moot at best. If you can’t be supportive. Then your here to waste everyone’s time including yourselves.
Wrong… a lot of those barges are not gas free. And their COIs state that there must be a PIC on board. If anchored, PICs assigned to that barge can’t leave. They can only only only only if they are docked. The dock hold licenses. But they do hold endorsements and those can be revoked.
I’ll assume you don’t much about Bouchard and it’s inner workings.
And I assume the 20 years you’ve spent at BTC has made you fit right in with everything wrong about the company
Flyonwall
Well said, Thank you!
Boat is tied
But my understanding from previous posts with all of the Coast Guard lingo even though it’s tied up the captain cannot leave the ship if that’s wrong please tell me
There is no constant contact with the office they are getting next to zero information
Marinerwife your best bet if you can’t afford an attorney is to contact your congressman or senator and ask them how the USCG can expect someone to work without pay. Also contact your local newspaper and explain the situation. One thing government agencies can’t stand is bad publicity. Be a pain in the ass and demand answers. Your congress critter is supposed to work for you, insist on an answer. Good luck !
Not really
But I’m getting quite educated
My congressman or New York’s where the company is?
Your congressman that represents you and your family. You’ll probably get some staffer on the phone but demand an answer within a limited time frame like 48 hours. Tell them to call you back ! Call your senators also. They have staff to handle these things but if you aren’t demanding they’ll talk nicely and do nothing.