I had asked, if I get a dispatcher, and if I have any input in where they send me. As in, could I ask my dispatcher - I don’t know what you call the person who gives you your assignment, and I didn’t know if you could ask them to go anywhere specific - to put in such and such fleet, or port or ship. I was told no to the input part, but nobody wanted to elaborate, which is pretty fucking rude honestly. I clearly don’t have any gov or military or bluewater context, to back-up my questions. I wanted to know if I was permanently assigned to a port, and if so that I had to “ride over” on ANOTHER ship, DURING my LEAVE - working on that ship until it reaches another port - in order to work in that other port, over my next deployment. I didn’t know yet that the MSC are floaters, that ships have no assigned crews, that everyone’s basically tossed around like boatwhores.
I had read over at Quora, in an old thread there, that mariners were basically given a “home port,” a port they’d more than likely work from until they left, and they could be assigned to any ship in the fleet that port’s part of. So, if I was sent to a port in Naples’ fleet jurisdiction, whichever one that was, I would most likely get assignments, in that part of the world. That doesn’t seem like an unreasonable assumption, at all. It would make sense for mariners to be shuffled around within those fleet commands, or whatever their website calls them, it doesn’t make sense that the entire MSC is all floaters. Anyway, that’s great, because I want all the training and money I can horde.
I do my research here, asking questions in the forum they belong to. If you can’t add anything but noise, don’t respond. I don’t know what more to tell you.
Thanks. A tour is 6 months underway? Or about a month underway, and the rest shore duty? I’ve read that most assignments are slow, most of a mariner’s time is spent working on shore, and if you’re lucky you get three or four weeks underway, so getting underway for endorsements takes a long time. Are the new ships big enough I’d get my own cabin?
As an OS, not sure about your own cabin but you do get your own chair on the bridge; usually a nice soft leather one with a wide open view out the windows so you can call out traffic.
PS - Just kidding. You have a steep learning curve ahead.
What questions do you want me to ask? The answer is none. All you’re going to do is call my questions shit, because somebody told you the same thing once, about your stupid questions. Will I get to decide what port I work from, will I have a home port, will I have a regular ship, will a dispatcher generally assign me to a single fleet? All stupid questions that nobody should ever ask, because we all know nobody ever wanted to know where they’ll work. Nobody likes that. Can I bring my own rain gear and extra boots? Also stupid. My boots will never get soaked, and nothing beats rain gear that makes you sweat all the water out of your body, so you’re better of working in the rain without it anyway. Why wouldn’t I ask if the new, bigger ships are big enough so crew get their own cabins? Who wouldn’t want their own cabin?
Will a ship in SEALOGEUR fleet go to SEALOGPAC fleet during deployment? Do they actually go around the world, or remain in their fleet’s waters?
“I had asked, if I get a dispatcher, and if I have any input in where they send me. As in, could I ask my dispatcher - I don’t know what you call the person who gives you your assignment, and I didn’t know if you could ask them to go anywhere specific - to put in such and such fleet, or port or ship. I was told no to the input part, but nobody wanted to elaborate, which is pretty fucking rude honestly.”
There is no elaboration to “no”. The answer is no, you cannot request specific locations. Only specific ships (and even then it’s not garaunteed, your detailer will not give a shit where an OS wants to go)
“I clearly don’t have any gov or military or bluewater context, to back-up my questions. I wanted to know if I was permanently assigned to a port, and if so that I had to “ride over” on ANOTHER ship, DURING my LEAVE - working on that ship until it reaches another port - in order to work in that other port, over my next deployment. I didn’t know yet that the MSC are floaters, that ships have no assigned crews, that everyone’s basically tossed around like boatwhores.”
I think you should have asked this before joining up, but that’s all in the past. Many ships have homesteaders, crew who do what’s known as “ship’s funded leave”, which allows you to go back to the same ship after you go on vacation. Many of your Philippino brethren in MSC will homestead. There are perks to it, if you like the vessel.
If I were you I would have stayed on the river, I’ve been having the time of my life sailing the Ohio, Cumby, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Peak comfy
A tour is four months underway. You WILL be overdue, so unless you can convince your chief mate to give you ship’s funded leave right at the four month mark, you will be likely be onboard for six months. The entire time you are there, you will work on the vessel. The only time you will be off the vessel will be if it goes on the blocks, in which case you will be in a hotel. This could last a while, I stayed at a really nice one in Singapore for a couple months.
No, no, no (unless you do ship’s funded), no.
As an MSC new hire, you have waived all your basic human rights. You are no longer a human, you are a number. However, you are a number with a pretty decent paycheck for an entry level position (assuming you grind for that overtime, luck out with ammo pay, etc). The best advice I can give you is
to not get stabbed (it happens there, and nobody gets fired for it, just moved to a new vessel)
if a cook offers you sinigang, say yes because it’s quite good
come back piss drunk every night, everyone else will, so you might as well take advantage of it before you inevitably quit MSC for a real job where their ships don’t have entire lifeboats filled with people capsize and go overboard
