Agreed! He certainly doesn’t have to participate the way he does for us. He has never once given me any false information with licensing.
Depends on what was in those tanks. I’ve had tanks cleaned in Fourchon and the guys there were not prepared for black oil on a barge that size. It took them ten days. It was ridiculous. Clean Waters in NY would have had us in and out. I’m sure HOS will take any money they can get to tie up at their pillings in floatation canal. There are no line handlers though and it is a bitch trying to get lines on the piles with a boat hook and tossing 8-10inch lines. We have had to drop our rescue boat and send guys out to try and help but they are high enough off the water to still not be easy to get too since they don’t have a ladder and platform for someone to stand on.
I agree why are people beating up on these Bouchard boys?we are all in the same industry and us crew must stand up for us crew!! Don’t beat up the mariner for the crimes of the land jobbers.Might instead offer to give a helping hand to a fellow mariner.
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Well the good thing. The vessel is tied up and the crew can walk off without going to Leavenworth
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I don’t think anyone is beating up on the crews at this point. I’ve sailed with quite a few of those guys at one place or another. Morty and co. are the principal cause of this fiasco.
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No ones beating these guys up… but it is Bouchard so…
It’s honestly a shame and hopefully it works out, alot of great equipment going to waste, was talking to a crew member here who’s an ex recent captain, it’s not as bad as the rumor mill makes it out to be.
Ain’t too good right now. They are not in a happy place.
Can you share what we’re missing? I mean it sounds and looks pretty bad right now.
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I guess you have to fully understand the shore-side work culture at BTC. NOTHING and I mean NOTHING happens that Morty does not have complete and absolute control over. Vice Presidents have to sign out at the receptionist desk to use the restroom. He is the head of every department. You do not hold a meeting with direct reports without his knowledge and approval and most likely participation. Although the USCG and ABS are culpable for allowing the conditions at BTC exist for many many years, Morty is solely responsible for the current state of the company.
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Rather than standing on your soap box (more likely sitting behind your desk in your air conditioned office) and telling us what is unacceptable for unpaid crews to do, how about you tell us how unacceptable it is to do what Bouchard has done. …
It’s people like you/attitudes like yours that caused unions to be formed in the first place.
I think due to the length of this thread different people are responding to different points.
I’m up here in Maine and don’t have a good handle on what’s going on except what I see here.
Having said that; I agree with @NWWaterman that bailing off on fake sickness or other ploy might not be the best move. If a crew member wants/needs to get off maybe better to just give sufficient notice to the company and CG, see what the response is then decide what is the best move.
That’s evidently what happened down in the Sabine Anchorage, four crew got off and were replaced. They told the CG they were going to get off.
Recovering lost wages is another issue.
Having spent a little time inside the Melville asylum, you are 100% correct. It took a long time for kharma to catch a person who has negatively impacted so many lives that it is impossible to tally. It is a shame he will affect so many on his way out, but this is his final masterpiece.
I’m a union ATB captain at another (reputable) company and have two ex-BTC crewmembers on my crew so I’m well aware of the horror stories there.
Call it me standing on a soap box or not, but as Kennebec Captain mentioned, I’m not for many of the things that were suggested early on this thread to the crew essentially abandoning a non-gas freed tank vessel at anchor.
BTC has operated in an unacceptable way for a long time. This situation shouldn’t be surprising to anyone. Non payment of wages is obviously a huge problem but I truly believe will be resolved positively for the crews one way or another. There is a legal process to get this done that the crew needs to follow (and getting legal representation is the first step in that). Pontificating platitudes as suggested in other replies will not help that process.
In the meantime, as credentialed mariners, yes we do have a certain duty to not allow for creating a significant risk to the public and other mariners by just bailing off a non-gas freed tank vessel at anchor. Having spent much time anchored off Sabine, Aransas, Galveston etc, depending on many variables, it can take daily attention to maintain an inert condition with good positive deck pressure. The risk is real.
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At no time did I suggest the master and crew abandon their ship to the whims of nature. Anyone who would do that is criminal.
That said, as long as there are lawyers and lobbyists who can manipulate a situation and get away with it they will. Frankly the crew didn’t stand a chance against all that money.
It’s at that point the crew (or some future crew) may have to consider forcing the CotP into resolution. Even the possibility that a crew might do something desperate (hunger strike or something) could convince a CotP that impressing a civilian crew onboard without pay might not be an acceptable course of action.
When a company and the USCG expects a crew to be fearful, compliant and obedient then why resolve an issue at all? The lawyers and lobbyists will take their sweet time and work out the best deal for their client (as is their duty).
Bouchard Girls/B295 scheduled to be towed out of the Miss River tomorrow by the same tugs that towed the Donna/B272 to Fourchon earlier this week.
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What a beauty Donna is.
It really is state of the art.
If what Schoonerman says is correct, then BTC is a one man band with add on’s.That sort of management cannot function in a large company.
The present situation is the end result of choosing to not deligate. Sad, because in the end the company will fail and a number of good people will get hurt.
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It is correct
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