Give me a manned barge or give me death. Love, your sweat pants wearing tankerman:joy:
. All jokes aside ATBs are great. In the next 30 years 90% of the tug industry will be ATBs and tractor boats. Just the way the industry is going. I worked in a few ATBs and loved it but now I’m on a manned barge…
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Glad to hear you enjoyed your time on the ATB’s? What were some things you learned about them that you didn’t know before boarding them? And how come you say 90% of the tug industry will be ATBs and tractor boats? May I asked why you are on a manned barge now? I would like to work on the ATB tugs, so any insight/advice would help
That’s just the way it’s going. Everyone that’s building is building ATBs and tractor tugs (aside from the inland push boats) the wire boat is slowly dying. Learned to multitask on ATBs. Doing ballast while cargo, making rounds on all the running equipment, yada yada. I loved it. The company I worked for is scrapping their fleet cause of age so I went elsewhere and the company I work for now has manned barges. I’ll say this and most will agree…like any vessel the crew makes it or breaks it. You get a few good guys together and it’s great even if the unit is a little old and beat up. I’ll take that over a brand new unit full of assholes. Long story short, be a good shipmate.
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It’s too bad more people didn’t get to enjoy the single hull rusted out shitheap manned barge experience begging a tugboat so you could get laundry done, maybe get water, shit in a paper bag or 5gal pail, pretty good chance your partner could barely read or hadn’t showered in a week. One of the best stories was the one guy jerking off next to the other guy with a glow in the dark watch on. Anyone who hasn’t done at least 3 renewals has no clue how cleaned up the industry is now from what it was, ATB’s got rid of alot of the trash.
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I’m pretty sure there’s still a few Bouchard barges that operate on all of the above.
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I’m not convinced that unforseen new regulations won’t eliminate the niche ATBs fill (i.e. avoidance of tankship regulations, lower manning). Already, Ballast water management changes have effectively doomed some vessels to early retirement, for example.
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