Asking for a friend and not a joke.
Gay couple looking for a boat in the New York area where both could work.
A. Licensed engineer, tug and diesel background
B. AB Tankerman with small barge experience
Situation there are in is ending soon, mom and pop going out of business.
Any leads appreciated.
I’m not sure your query is a common enough scenario as to elicit much feedback. Couples of any variety working together on commercial vessels seems pretty rare. Although I have worked with a husband/wife Engineer/AB on a ship before (MSC), so obviously it does happen, and the Captain was fine with it. Not New York area, but nonetheless.
I always thought the benefit of going out for a hitch was to have some time away from ones partner…
I worked on a ship 30 years ago where the galley hand was married to the oiler. They shared a room. Nice people.
What was more disrupting was the captain sleeping with the female deckhand. She terrorized everyone on the ship. She might as well have been the captain. Thankfully she was promoted to mate and went to another ship.
I sailed with a CE married to the ship’s cook. I wished I could do the same but my wife is about as salty as Paris Hilton.
This might be worthy of a different thread, but when I first started sailing in 1987 there were ships out there where the Captain brought his wife aboard.
Which brings me to barges. When I got onto tugs, most of the old covered barges were already gone. There were a few around but I cant say if any of them were actually in use for cargo. Anyway its my understanding that back in the day these were manned by families. The family lived on the barges and operated and maintained them, as well as made income. My first engineer I worked with, had worked under a captain that was born on a barge, and he died behind the wheel of a tug.
Via you tube I still see this going on in Asia. Like the sand and rice barges in the Mekong and the Junks in China.
I suppose containerization and more modern methods have put a lot of them out of business.
They can try most of the New York companies. I suspect most of the oil companies would not allow them to sail together if they’re married, as they don’t normally allow familes to work together. I do recall some older brothers that tanked together though, so it’s worth asking.
My grandmother-in-law was a child in the 30s. She apparently grew up living on a barge in Hoboken for part of her childhood. Luckily she still has great mental capacity for her age, I’ll have to ask her more about it, but I don’t think any of that type of lifestyle lived past the 40s and 50s.
I was wondering these guys found a new berth yet. Any updates?
They are both still at the same company, they will probably be there until they go out of business, which could be any day now.
I don’t know about on the boats, but I can think of a couple of company offices where a gay couple would fit right in.
Alex?
No, Steve I thought Alex was already done.
