[QUOTE=rshrew;57705]Seriously? Right…[/QUOTE]
This is about the towing industry.
I said ‘small OR desperate’ I didn’t say ‘small and desperate’… there is a difference.
If you doubt it, check with ANY of the companies who move over 75k bbl petroleum barges. I can give you a short list off the top of my head.
Bouchard, Crowley, OSG, Penn, Morania, Reinauer, K-Sea/Kirby, Moran, Vane, Andrie, and more i can’t recall right now. KSea ate up a HUGE amount of companies who hired almost exclusively from the 200 ton pool. But their official company policy is New hires = 1600 ton (maybe even ocean.)
I remember seeing a pamphlet put out by Texaco in the '80’s. They were bragging that “All their Masters had ‘at least’ a 1000 ton license at Texaco.” I remember talking with my Captain at the time (he was a Texaco alumni) about this. He said that “Only Texaco has that crazy idea, it will never go anywhere else!” I wish he was wrong. Now all these oil companies want 1600 ton oceans as a minimum to push their oil around.
Inland river work would NEVER hire a mate off the street anyway, too much knowledge is needed for a newbie to stand a watch in river current, traffic and equipment.