Found a great lady…of course we were both older and previously married, but during the interwebs app pre-meet I just said “Hey, full disclosure; I am Mariner. I am gone just shy of half the year, I usually can call/text after watch, I spend a lot of my home time hunting/fishing…let me know.”
The response? “Employment is sexy, you can spell/punctuate, and I appreciate the honesty.”
End of story? We have been together 6yrs and got married last fall. If someone can’t accept the job; f’them. There are lots of good dating/life partners out in the world.
Depends on the individual, I’ve seen some pick it up in a few weeks, others are not made to be boat handlers. Is a ferry boat deckhand who did nothing but walk around the boat for 365 days ready to be a 100T captain as soon as they pass their 100T test?
If you are “qualified to be issued”, you have it with minimal paperwork. If they didn’t “check the box” when they applied for their 3/M, the school dropped the ball on getting them every ticket they earned for their tuition.
You’re not “qualified to be issued”, you are “authorized to serve as”. An academy graduate cannot apply for Master 100 GRT and have it printed on their MMC.
Master is printed on their MMCs under the National Capacities. Its not just under the authority of the Third Mate. In fact its listed before “Third Mate”
They are already 100t Masters. And if the school messed up and didn’t get it on their license, the day the kids graduate they can send in for 100t as per:
It has been brought up in a number of times in other topic threads…The MEBA has a defined benefit plan. There is also a MPB (Money Purchase Benefit) that companies make contributes into. And there is a 401K Plan if you want to make 401K contributions.
A 3M is able to sail as master without it being printed on their license and usually that means the USCG refuses to print it because it’s not necessary. I guess it’s good that they changed their policy and are printing it because I imagine many employers would insist on seeing Master 100 GRT printed on there.
Sure it is. I know 2 Port Captains that left sailing to work shoreside and had no other experience. One was even a hawsepiper with no degree. Both make 6 figs. As mariners its easy to think job requirements are non negotiable as the ship can’t sail if you don’t have the right license and endorsements. However, shoreside everything from pay to job requirements is negotiable.
My point is that if NYC Ferry is prepared to hire a Captain who’s only maritime experience is being an academy grad (100t), then why can’t an unlimited bridge officer serve as a 1600t Captain after 4 years of school, AND a year of being a bridge officer, PLUS 2 more tests? https://recruiting.ultipro.com/HOR1007HORNB/JobBoard/a448900a-12b4-425d-93aa-3ae28b272df1/OpportunityDetail?opportunityId=8111da5d-4881-4747-a9ba-61cb8fcb9fd8
Maritime school doesn’t teach boat handling or piloting. And they teach you to call the Capt when in doubt! If these guys are ready for Captain in the pilotage waters of NYC Harbor, why isn’t the same guy with another year of officer experience ready for 1600t master? Btw there are graduates from Schuyler that went straight to NYC Ferry as Capt, so this is not hypothetical
I know many 3rd mates that drove a yacht club launch or captained 100T ferries, without having Master 100T actually printed on it. When I graduated they did not print that additionally on it, but most of the employers knew the correct CFR, usually any gruff came from long time 100T caps that never advanced beyond that.
There is a joke that I cannot quite remember about the second mate knows this and the master knows that, but the third mate knows everything.
A new third mate may think he knows everything, but he is not allowed to do much except watch the autopilot steer down the line on the ECDIS out in the middle of nowhere, and call the captain if he sees another vessel with less than a two or three mile CPA, sees fog, or whatever. He does not supervise shit.
New third mates hold a watch under the master’s supervision with a lot of limitations. They are “on training wheels.” The master decides how capable they are and how short a leash he needs to keep them on. For some the leash gets longer pretty quickly, some take more time, and some get sent home at first good opportunity.
Same on a tugboat. When deep sea jobs were scarce we used to get a lot of recent grad third mates. They had to start out as deckhands and earn a shot at sailing mate. Most did fine, but none of them were ready to be a mate right out of the box.
If these guys are ready for Captain in the pilotage waters of NYC Harbor, why isn’t the same guy with another year of officer experience ready for 1600t master? Btw there are graduates from Schuyler that went straight to NYC Ferry as Capt, so this is not hypothetica
Ehh, sorta. I mean they’ll hire an academy grad but they all start on deck unless they have significant former boat handling experience – even then they have to move through a pretty thorough training program before getting checked off.
I honestly have an easier time imagining a green 2/M/1600 Ton Master faking it till he makes it on a supply boat running back and forth to a rig than some kid coming out of an academy, going directly to the fast ferries without the skills and then trying to keep the schedule/not crash making 72 landings in 6 hours in a 3 knot cross current.
Which is a type of defined contribution (DC) plan.
His initial post cited an AMO advantage to be that their members would retain their DC plan contributions if they left that union, thus implying that was not the case at MEBA. This falsehood was cleared up in the posts that followed.
I’ve never seen standing orders that say “call me if you see a ship with a CPA of less than 3 miles” as opposed to “minimum CPA is 2 miles, if you cannot keep a 2 mile CPA call me”. Everyone calls the captain when they get in fog/reduced vis. It’s always in the standing orders. You want to wake up in the middle of the night to the fog horn with no warning? What about the deck ops? Putting things over the side, laying cable, mooring ops? It’s not hand lines on ships, it’s winches and stoppers.
Like what? The standing orders are the same for everyone. There isn’t a “3rd Mate Standing orders” and “everyone else”
Sailing tugs and sailing deep sea are drastically different. You make this very clear any time you try and talk about deep sea shipping.
You’re not going to get that job without significant shoreside experience. Nobody is walking down the gangway to that desk.
For the folks - and this means Engineers, too. Folks are people, and Engineers are. Really - thinking that they want to move shoreside: consider at least starting an MBA. Although I’ve long held the position that if you’re not in a job where your employer will pay for an MBA then you don’t need one, this might be the exception to the rule.
Between the time off and better and better internet onboard you should be able to chip away at it. Just make sure you do it through a school that at least has a library and a crappy D-1 basketball team. Football not required, but no Strayer, no Phoenix. Old Dominion has a Maritime, Ports, and Logistics program that would give you a chance to try some graduate work in an area you’re familiar with. Not sure they still offer it but they did have a Graduate Certificate program made up of four maritime classes.
No MBA is going to turn you into the next Gates, Bezos or Cuban but a halfway decent one will fill in some of the gaps that we all have/had coming out of an Academy. You’ll be able to tell a cash flow statement from a balance sheet from a P&L, and know in what order stuff should be listed on them.
More importantly it should:
differentiate you in the market (unless you ALL follow this brilliant and free advice!). Not ton of Thirds or Seconds with MBAs out there.
give you something memorable to talk about when you get asked about juggling competing priorities. “There I was in the Malacca Strait, the radar looked like the mushroom field in Centipede. Cargo was starting in four hours and my final paper was due in 12…”
give you some sense of what happens in “the office.” That can really help you, especially if you stay in a maritime or technical field. Lots of people have the tech skills, but if you also understand why finance or accounting (not at all the same), HR or some other department is asking what sounds like a really stupid question, and are in the small minority of technical people that don’t tell them to go F themselves and then hang up the phone, you will stand out.
Yeah thats not a port captain job you posted, thats the port Captain’s boss. I understand the requirements are soft requirements, but a deckie doesnt meet any of the requirements.
