I recently had to do something I have not done before. I fired my mate. He claimed employment with ACBL but I’m not sure. He could not dock a light 100 foot tug.b
We had a minor spill while fueling and he refused to come out of his stateroom. We reached the entrance to Norfolk and he declined to enter the harbor because he was afraid of the activity on the shipping channel. We were towing a light 190 foot barge.
Has anybody experienced really bad performance like this recently?
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I’m surprised the office allowed you to “fire” him at all generally they just shuffle crew around esp if you don’t have a paper trail of write ups to back up the action.
Most Mates come out with a license with zero experience so you have to train them up man. But that begs the questions…How much time have you given him behind the wheel to learn the vessel or have you been bothered to try to mentor him at all, that’s kind of your job…
Was it made clear what his duties are via the the station bill, what do you consider a “minor spill”?
Do you really wake people up off of watch to clean up a splash of fuel in the containment made while disconnecting a hose? Odd.
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If it wasn’t an emergency (and assuming from the sound of it that he’s the only mate so working 12 hour days) then he wasn’t legally allowed to help because that would put him over his 12 hours.
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The rest hours rule excludes drills or emergency responses for the safety of the vessel, Mariner is to be given compensated rest hours…fwiw. Albeit he said “minor” so who knows what that means.
Which is why I specifically said “if it wasn’t an emergency”.
It doesn’t sound like an emergency to me. 
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Il
I’ve worked for some bizarre, bad managing assholes captains over the years but can’t recall refusing an order from any of them. Doing a shitty job or pretending like I didn’t hear or understand possibly but never refused. That’s a write up or firing offense by itself. Maybe the guy wanted to get fired or wanted to set some outlandish boundaries about his position on board? It happens.
Is he a new mate or one with some experience?
I would also be interested in knowing which company this is, because that could explain much as well.
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He claimed to have substantial experience in the Gulf. I’ve just never seen a wheelhouse guy who was afraid of being in the shipping lanes
The reason I posted this was to find out if this was a one off experience or if other captains are having this problem
I thought ACBL was a towboat (line-haul pushboat) company?
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I run a small mom and pop tug in NY harbor. 90% of the time, it’s just me. a couple of trips a year we exceed 12 hours, so I get to hire a mate.
I have had a few that obviously embellished their experience. I usually work around them and then lose their number after the trip.
Twice I have had to let the guy go in the middle of a trip.
One guy came recommended, union guy from New Bedford. Not only did he embellish his experience, but he must have forged his TOAR, he could not steer a light tug, nevermind dock, or make up. There was no way I was giving him a loaded oil barge to go through Worlds End or in the Upper Hudson.
Before I was captain we had a guy that was a tankerman that managed to get a license with his seatime. We had to let him go after he almost killed us all at IMTT.