Capt. Thomas W. Nichols Retired

I would like an opinion. I lost my job as a supply boat captain July 2010. BP spill was still ongoing. I was in port fourschon LA. when my engineer pumped main engine oil change over the side from a full waste tank. About 200 gallons. Coast Guard was busy with BP, and I did not get a citation from them. We cleaned up most with booms and absorbent pads. The rest dissipated. Chevron fired the boat and the owners fired the entire crew. Normally this would not be a problem. Jobs usually are available, but not this time. The spill from BP and the moratorium stopped new jobs availability. Long story short I lost my carrier and got no help from any of the settlement folks. Denied 3 times. Should I be compensated by BP settlement funds? Capt Nichols

First, sorry for your loss of job. From what it sounds like, your engineer pretty much cost all of you your license. As far as collecting from BP, I think you have a better chance suing your Engineer. Proving that you lost your job because of the BP spill, or saying that you could not get another job because of the BP spill would be hard to prove. By your own admission the company fired the whole crew due to the oil being spilled from your vessel. This proves no link between the actions of your engineer and BP.

Then you would have to prove that it was because of this that caused you not to find work elsewhere. There were Thousands of people affected by the moratorium. Why not sue the government or the obama administration for forcing a moratorium on us. It is more the moratorium than the explosion.

Another thing that will be asked is, why is it with all of the mariners who were impacted and who were able to find jobs soon after, that you never did? In fact about 6-9 months after it was all said and done, we experienced a boom with wages almost doubling. There were some officers here who received a 70% pay increase because we were so short handed for qualified personnel. If you chose another profession since then, and refused to return that was your choice. They cannot be held accountable because you decided not to come back in almost 5 years.

[QUOTE=TWN17817;155120]I would like an opinion. I lost my job as a supply boat captain July 2010. BP spill was still ongoing. I was in port fourschon LA. when my engineer pumped main engine oil change over the side from a full waste tank. About 200 gallons. Coast Guard was busy with BP, and I did not get a citation from them. We cleaned up most with booms and absorbent pads. The rest dissipated. Chevron fired the boat and the owners fired the entire crew. Normally this would not be a problem. Jobs usually are available, but not this time. The spill from BP and the moratorium stopped new jobs availability. Long story short I lost my carrier and got no help from any of the settlement folks. Denied 3 times. Should I be compensated by BP settlement funds? Capt Nichols[/QUOTE]

I don’t think you should be compensated by BP. You (and the crew) were let go because of an individuals actions. That had nothing to do with the DWH spill. While things were slow for a while, drilling in the GoM bounced back and was going like gangbusters until recently. If you didn’t get a job then that had nothing to do with BP though you may have been tainted by what happened on your vessel.

I assume once the spill occurred you contacted the USCG and company to report the spill and terminate the engineer in question. If not the actions of Chevron and the company appear to be justified.