[QUOTE=Fraqrat;159361]Ok scooter I apologize you’re right, you’re always right. I forgot all about the bitter defeat of Captain Jebidiah Chouest’s ironclads at the Battle of Cut Off. No one thought Admiral Joe Foss could get his Union ironclads that far up the bayou.[/QUOTE]
So that’s where the term coon ass navy come from. Thanks for clearing that up Fraq. I always wondered.
Yes I had no idea all the great civil war battles down on the bayou. I’m still piecing together the stories of Ezekiel LaBorde and Hezikia Calias. Then there was the French Privateer DuChein De Guidray who stopped Joe Foss’s retreat from Dulac by setting his blockade at Cocodrie. Who knew the Union had such a tough time gaining a foothold in this area. As a friend said they are mere footnotes in history but they will have their day.
still Admiral Foss struck quite a dramatic pose lashed to the rigging of his flagship while his cajun foe threw their exploding crawfish at him
Ah yes the exploding crawfish. A devastating tactic they dreamed up at the Gamble at Grand Isle. But that’s another story…
[QUOTE=Fraqrat;159447]Ah yes the exploding crawfish. A devastating tactic they dreamed up at the Gamble at Grand Isle. But that’s another story…[/QUOTE]
not nearly as deadly as the Nutria grenades which were later introduced to the battlefield
Ah, the little known history of the bayous during the Civil War. But does anyone know what involvement, if any, Commodore Crowley’s fleet had in all this?
[QUOTE=LI_Domer;159413]It wasn’t unions that killed it. It was the failure of the U.S. government to support the industry especially amongst the rise of FOC.[/QUOTE]
Still, you’d think the last 20 years in GOMEX were impossible without collective bargaining pressure, at least according to the union apologists. Joe Boss being a remorselessly greedy bastard who is trying to continually eat your children. So how did a situation arise where non union labor experience runaway wage growth for that long? It certainly wasn’t because of a few clowns throwing leaflets out of a pirogue.
[QUOTE=The Lash;159460]Still, you’d think the last 20 years in GOMEX were impossible without collective bargaining pressure, at least according to the union apologists. Joe Boss being a remorselessly greedy bastard who is trying to continually eat your children. So how did a situation arise where non union labor experience runaway wage growth for that long? It certainly wasn’t because of a few clowns throwing leaflets out of a pirogue.[/QUOTE]
Joe doesn’t eat children but he does poison our pets!
BAD, EVIL JOE!
C. Captain lost many of his hardest working hamsters to the Joe Boss.
[QUOTE=The Lash;159460]Still, you’d think the last 20 years in GOMEX were impossible without collective bargaining pressure, at least according to the union apologists. Joe Boss being a remorselessly greedy bastard who is trying to continually eat your children. So how did a situation arise where non union labor experience runaway wage growth for that long? It certainly wasn’t because of a few clowns throwing leaflets out of a pirogue.[/QUOTE]
No clowns in pirogues needed. Simple supply and demand would explain rising wages in an expanding industry.
In order to created sufficient incentives to attract working mariners wages likely would have to be at least as high or higher then prevailing rates in other sectors.
It takes more bread to hide the rot within…
Have wages in the GOM been higher then union wages for 20 years? I thought its been only the past 5 years or so.
Probably just the last three or four years for big pay in the GoM.
Lots of companies, elsewhere pay more than union wages. Its often cheaper and easier than putting up with union BS. Also, in some areas unions have had more and more problems supplying enough credentialed mariners at low union wages
The big wage spike came in Dec 05. Just a few months after Katrina hit. At that time, I was making more as the Master on an OSV than the Master of the Ship I worked for at MSC 4 years earlier of the 61,000 ton+ ship.
[QUOTE=NYBoatman;159507]Have wages in the GOM been higher then union wages for 20 years? I thought its been only the past 5 years or so.[/QUOTE]If we suppose that in 1995 the average wage of a mudboat captain was $170 per day, and if we also suppose that the average wage of a mudboat captain in 2015 is $880 per day, then that works out to a 9% increase per year for 20 years. That’s quite a trend.
[QUOTE=The Lash;159528]If we suppose that in 1995 the average wage of a mudboat captain was $170 per day, and if we also suppose that the average wage of a mudboat captain in 2015 is $880 per day, then that works out to a 9% increase per year for 20 years. That’s quite a trend.[/QUOTE]
Holy hell, are those numbers anywhere near accurate? Only very occasionally in this business do I ever hear about a 9% increase in any year, never mind over 20. No wonder people went flocking down there.
I made $180 a day with my first DDE license in 96. Fast forward to just prior to Katrina and I was at $330 a day. We were still in the post 911 bust so at Turdwater we had taken a 6% cut sometime during that period. So we were making $310ish. From about February of 06 until leaving Turdwater for HOS in Septemeber that year I went from $330- $525 a day. Every hitch when I called in for crew change it was “be at the office for 0200 oh and you get another $50 raise”. We got random raises and by the beginning of 2012 I was around $665. Then in April '12 we got the big raises and now…
[QUOTE=Fraqrat;159537]I made $180 a day with my first DDE license in 96. Fast forward to just prior to Katrina and I was at $330 a day. We were still in the post 911 bust so at Turdwater we had taken a 6% cut sometime during that period. So we were making $310ish. From about February of 06 until leaving Turdwater for HOS in Septemeber that year I went from $330- $525 a day. Every hitch when I called in for crew change it was “be at the office for 0200 oh and you get another $50 raise”. We got random raises and by the beginning of 2012 I was around $665. Then in April '12 we got the big raises and now…[/QUOTE]
And to think that when I worked at Crowley (in 82 - 84) I got $160 plus OT. . . but the OT was pretty darn good. Not bad for a 23 year old punk. . . .
My first job in the Gulf was as on OS on AHTS which paid $40 a day.
I know im a few days behind but these old crusty red boats i work on dont have sat internetz but this made me lol. The chief is looking at me like im crazy.