You don’t even need seatime to keep your license current, only to upgrade it. Without seatime though you will have to retake a bunch of STCW classes, and then a take home license exam every 5 years to renew.
Only if you need your STCW endorsements, If not, you can let them lapse and reactivate them later by meeting whatever the requirements are for renewal at the time you want to re-activate them…
For the national endorsement (license) you can renew without sea time by completing an open book test at home. However, without appropriate sea time or refresher courses some of your national endorsements may lapse, e.g. Radar Observer or Tankerman.
What would you have done?
Would of gone into finance, with a minor in CIS or some computer tech/programming. Put those two together, would of built financial models for the hedge funds in the early 2000s, then switched over to startup land, been a free agent acquiring shares/% of startups that i helped build and grow.
It has been interesting reading the responses and people keeping it real; the good and the bad. I graduated CMA in the mid 80’s (ME) and didn’t last very long on ships but it was a great experience I will always be thankful for. You learn a lot at these academies. Good luck with whatever you decide.
I mean, yea, 20/20 hindsight and all.
I appreciate y’all for all this help/advice, I was not expecting this whatsoever. Great introduction to this page!
One thing I am curious about, especially for those with the more negative responses. Was maritime something you wanted to do as a kid? Like was there a moment in your teens/early life where you decided you wanted to sail for a career, or did y’all just get into it for the money and the time off?
I’m just curious if this was a dream career gone bad for y’all, or if y’all got into it because you were told it’s cool or the money is good or something,
It’s not a bad career at all. I commercial fished before transitioning to tugs (I didn’t go to an academy) and it has been a wonderful career. But it isn’t easy. At the end of the day it’s a job, like anything else. Nothing beats the sunrises and boat handling but missing out on holidays and/or being gone when your spouse is having a hard time gets old after a while. A big part of what you get paid for is the time away from home.
If you start to look around and talk to people, you’ll find that very few people end their career in more or less the same place they started. Life changes, interests all change and that’s not a bad thing so I think for the maritime industry, people just move on. You might find you love it and want to make a career out of sailing and you might find that you can’t stand being gone after a few years. You won’t know until you try.
But I will say that if you decide to attend an academy, I would commit to sailing for at least a few years after. The ROI is there but you have to work on your license. If you’re unsure, get a job as an OS and see if you like it. You’re young so a year spent as a deckhand on a tug or OSV or whatever won’t set you back at all. If you’re just looking to get a college degree, go to the best school you can get into that you can afford.
You won’t know until you try tbh and while it’s good to get varied opinions, ultimately you need to be the one to decide what’s best for you. And stick to it. Doesn’t have to be forever, but see it through long enough to make an informed opinion about your next move. The worst thing you can do is second guess what you’re doing and waiver. Commit and see it through long enough to make a rational decision about your life. At the end of the day, count your blessings. If you go to an academy, you’ll more than likely be employable making close to if not six figures with significant time off. Consider yourself lucky because there are billions of people in this world that would love to have that opportunity…
Absolutely. I’ve committed to it, like I said I’m starting my schooling this fall. Just got my acceptance letter earlier this week actually. Just like any big decision or change in life, it’s just a little nerve racking is all, but I am also very excited for it.
While everyone else I knew in high school wanted to go be engineers/lawyers/doctors, I was the only weirdo I knew who wanted to go drive ships for a living 
And again, still holds true today!
This is the part I feel the OP is misconstruing some of us saying the money isn’t what it used to be. The money is still good, its just not as eye opening as it once was in relation to the effort you are putting in. The premium paid was for the hardship of leaving your home for long periods. Now there is just the hardship without the premium, or at least what once was. Pensions and fringe benefits have dwindled along with it. That is what some of us (me at least) are attempting to get across. Anyone who has done this job long enough has heard from the “old timers” that the writing is on the wall that the end is near, yet the industry continues to chug along.
Just always remember that labor costs are pretty much the only thing shipping companies have control over and they will consistently try to minimize them as much as they can.
I agree with you on all counts. Just wanted to point out you can do boat handling and still go home every night when you’re ready to. The wages on small boats seem to be increasing decently as well.
Also, even if the shipping industry takes a shit, the skills you learn working at sea transfer to land well. You develop planning skills, critical thinking, emergency management, leadership, maintenance, logistics, etc. a lot of guys I talk to paint themselves into this “I drive boat good” corner when in reality driving the boat is the fun/easy part of a more complex job/skill set. Shipping also gives you the time off to learn other skills and get qualifications in things that interest you. It is what you make it, its definitely a very good place to start.
Agree 100% on this. Never stop learning other things, non maritime focused. Use the time to off and even onboard to learn new things. Shipping helped me do that, pay for my MBA and now I make more than I ever did sailing as a Captain.
One addition to the original question of “Is There A Deck Officer Shortage?” should include the phrase “…if we need to mobilize for a strategic sealift”.
Last I heard, admittedly almost a decade ago, was we did not have enough qualified mariners to man the government owned/chartered vessels AND maintain any kind of rotation for the existing commercial fleet (coastwise/foreign/Lakes/inland). Ratings, officers…they can sail the boats, but the bench sure isn’t very deep. I believe I mentioned before that of something big and bad ever happens, there will likely be waivers for those not holding STCW or an ocean license. Let’s be honest, if we get to that point, I suspect the ships will sail and PSC inspectors will be told to go pound sand as the US government wants cargo delivered now.
We shall see …
There isn’t enough of a shortage that companies need to significantly raise wages.
There are enough jobs available for any warm body with a license that wants to work.
Anyone with skills and a decent reputation is getting new job offers, and “do you know anybody” calls.
There is a pretty good reserve of guys who are retired or otherwise don’t want to work, but they can be tempted to work occasionally for better money.
The licensed deck officer job market is more or less in balance. There is a bit of a shortage of engineers.
While the academies produce more new grads (1500 a year?) than deep draft shipping needs. The smaller vessel market needs much more than 1500 new officers (especially hands on deck officer who can actually run a boat) each year.
As the last of the baby boomers die off, there are not enough younger guys to replace them, and significant shortage of mariners will develop.
I dont disagree, but who decides whats safe at that point? We’re already pretty minimally manned in a lot of situations, sailing short, and its not even officially WWIII yet. Should war break out we can threaten current crews ala the Bouchard situation circa 2020, but I can never seem to find a Mechanism that would require me to come back to work instead of getting a job on land.
As noted, I tapped out early for a shore side job in my late 20’s but found the education to be very good, at least back in the 80’s. I keep in touch with many of my classmates and have always had a lot of respect for the ones who stayed in the maritime world.
It’s not easy to become a Captain, Pilot, or Chief Engineer and the work is not for the faint of heart. Some of the smartest (hands on and theoretical) engineers I have ever met were marine engineers, and I spent the last 30 years working shoreside with engineers from the best universities out there as a comparison. Same goes for running a 1K ft ship at the bridge.
You are all doing things many others couldn’t.