Ok thank you
OK so hereās a question why doesnāt the Coast Guard put one of their paid employees on these ships that are docked and Allow these captains to get off the ships to find gainful employment.
My dad and my nephew were both in the Coast Guard and I always had a lot of respect for that branch of service along with all the others but that respect is starting to waiver with the Coast Guard
No one is more sympathetic to unpaid marinerās that are being falsely imprisoned by the USCG on unsafe and insolvent vessels than I am.
Iāve posted some useful suggestions, like how to use your MOPS license insurance, and NI membership, to get free, high quality, legal assistance. Iāve talked about the advantages and disadvantages of staying. LEAVE. Iāve suggested how to pressure the USCG to release the crew.
In over 50 years of going to sea, I have been on a few insolvent vessels. Iāve chased dead beat owners and deadbeat unions for my pay. I have arrested vessels. I have been unable to afford the bond to arrest vessels. Iāve gotten paid in full, paid in part, and not paid at all. Iāve had lawyers handle it, and Iāve had to do it myself. Iāve been stranded to hell and gone away from civilization and had wait 5 days for the next $1000 flight (that I had to pay for). I have been there, done that, and then some.
However, I have never been falsely imprisoned by the USCG on an unsafe and insolvent vessel. Iāve never heard of it before either. Thatās a new one.
If there is someone else that is more sympathetic to unpaid marinerās being falsely imprisoned by the USCG on insolvent vessels, God bless them.
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Ask your senator or congressman.
Marinerwife, this site is composed of members that have collectively multi-million perhaps days at sea and vast amount of experience in the quirks of the industry. I donāt believe any of these ladies and gentlemen approve the BTC events. I have been through similar situations, but not nearly as radical as this one. Especially a Jones Act carrier in the good ole USA. I hope this gets resolved soon, as do you. Perhaps some of the comments on this site offended you, this site wonāt solve your problem. But trust that most of the people commenting know the business well and are offended by the ill treatment of ANY employer. Some nuggets of good information have been thrown out to you and yours, none meant to offend, but from people who have hard earned experience.
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Bouchard gave out $1,700,000+ in political contributions in 2016 . Iām sure that wonāt make any difference though.
Bingo.
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20 years of working at Bouchard must be really hard on a guy. I cannot see how the few extra dollars would be worth it.
You can not create a more childish response than those 2 right there. Borderline forum trolling.
The fleet side of the business does and has done the best they can with what they have and what is sparingly provided by the shoreside of the business. Are you insinuating that the fleet side of this is the main cause for what is happening? What a display of true ignorance!!!
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I think theyāre suggesting that if you were dissatisfied with how the office handles things, you wouldāve voted with your feet a long time ago.
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People naturally adapt to the work environment.
I know I do. When I work for a professional company, I become more professional. When I work for an unprofessional company, I become more unprofessional. When I work for a nice guy, I become more of a nice guy. When I work for a jerk, I become more of a jerk.
Maybe Iām just an oversensitive type, but I cannot imagine spending 20 minutes adapting to Morty.
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Most of us in the business that BTC is/was in knew Morty paid very well, but not the preferred company to work for due to the many obvious reasons. When the overall business took a downturn as it does from time to time, a few of my very talented shipmates hired on at BTC, Bear in mind this was over 20 years ago. I cannot count how many times on my fingers or toes they were fired and hired back either same day or shortly thereafter. These were very seasoned and well respected mariners that spoke up for themselves and their crew. They were not used to his berating behavior nor his ability or willingness to maintain his vessels . It is a relatively small world when it compares to those operations. We do trade info amongst our small community. Unless your husband was totally off the the grid, he knew what he was getting into. I do hope this quagmire gets worked out
Flyonwall,I know your situation kinda sucks right now. I donāt believe anyone suggested the operators of the vessels were the main cause of the problems at BTC. We as operators of the vessel have a duty to report to the owners what the vessel needs. It is always frustrating when those requests fall on deaf ears. It has happened time and time again not just at BTC. It just seemed to happen so much more at BTC. I agree with a prior poster, vote with your feet. On a side note, how many times did you get fired over your 20 year career with BTC?
The āno true Scotsmanā accusations have been flying fast and furious in these Bouchard threads. Lots of blaming the victim. Pretty low if you ask me.
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Thatās not part of the CGās mandate. If I had a spouse stuck in this position, I would try to get some momentum going by alerting the biggest news media I could reach. If a local reporterās article gets picked up by the wires, itāll spread like wildfire and people will pay attention.
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Bothā¦ I might add that CNN has been known to do interviews if itās a slow news cycle that piques their interest too.
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No where on this site is anyone blaming the"Victims". Morty is the root cause and the administration he created. It is well known among the industry, and most if not all mariners that chose to work there knew it was a shitshow that payed well. They chose to work there for many reasons only known to themselves. All they wanted was a job to pay their bills. Anyone blame them for Mortyās mismanagement? NO āLots of blaming the victimā is not accurate. Some decent advice has been put out there.
Even your local news could give a feeler to the bigger sites.
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I call BS on your statement. Plenty have intimated or outright stated the crew deserved what they got for their employment decision.
āThey knew what they were getting intoā
āShoulda had money saved upā
āKind of their fault for working for Morty and enabling himā
Eff right off! Ya damn know-it-all Swammiās!
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Ok Guys/Gals, Before I go on my tangent I do want to thank all who have had words of encouragement and advice. I read everything, thank you it is greatly appreciated.
Iām just a wife trying her best to figure this out, trying to understand what her husband is truly going through, what if anything I can I do to help, something/anything. Iām worried for my husband but Iām also worried about every person out on these vessels.
With that being said, we have established at nauseam how BTC is a less than desirable place to work, and how volatile management has been over the years. However, this is not in anyway the character of these seaman. Did they choose to work for this company? Yes, was it because of the moneyā¦possibleā¦from all the stories Iāve heard it clearly wasnāt the warm and fuzzy feeling they would receive from home office, or maybe it was because it was at the time the only job available, thereās a 100 reasons for why one works for the company they work for and no one reason is right or wrong it just is what it is.
So coming on here and basically saying yeah I feel for you but, you got what was coming to you because you worked for this company in my opinion is not the least bit helpful, these guys are the Victims not the problem.
Saying, just walk off the ship, wipe your hands of them, ect clearly isnāt the answer. Everything Iāve read and what my husband has shared with me, If the master leaves and and something happens and the vessel causes any harm to the environment or to nearby equipment, ect the master is then in jeopardy of losing his license (Livelihood), federal charges ect. So, that clearly isnāt going to make the situation any better.
Hindsight is 20/20, if they all knew a month or so ago what they know now Iām sure everyone would had done things differently. As I said I read all of the postsā¦Nowhere did I see anyone say "Hey BTC crew members the company is going upside down, Unless you want to be held hostage by the USCG, you might want to get out now! Nope I didnāt see that anywhere.
So, please unless you have some HELPFUL information, like job openings that arenāt posted on the job sites, how to help these Captains legally get off these ships, similar situation and how did you get it resolved, I heard this blah blah.
Isnāt there a brotherhood out there where yāall look out for each other support one another? If not, maybe yaāll need to work on thatā¦
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