Just Watched Great Lakes Warriors

Professional Mariner Forum
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Well, as someone that started out decking in N.Y. Harbor I saw some shit that was not very safe, to say the least.

The “Captain” on the small assist tug, (Green and A Mass Maritme Grad) could not even get the light tug along side the other tug while under way. He had to let a “Seasoned” Deckhand do it.

Watching them working the winches was a joke and I have spent many long hours at the winch controls in the Northeast.

I was really hoping that they might do a better job but I think that there are not that many companies that would also or even want someone filming everything.

Hopefully it will get better but I am not holding my breath.

It would be great it some of the members that have spent a lot of time working on harbor tugs. It’s a big difference being on a Offshore or an ATB, I have works on all of them. The only thing that I have never witnessed is anchor handling.

So come on Guys lets here some stories about your life on Tugs.

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//youtu.be/DXmdiBtsdBQ

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I am a bunker barge captain at vane brothers in new York harbor. I don’t drop the anchor at all but I used to drop the anchor when I worked for k-sea. I started with k-sea in 2002 as a deckhand and that was a great company to work for then. Now is a different story. I started on barges in 2004. If u are going to learn to be a deckhand, new York harbor is the place to learn.

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Here is the full show for those with no TV.

http://www.history.com/shows/great-lake-warriors/videos/great-lake-warriors-the-lethal-season#great-lake-warriors-the-lethal-season

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I have have had to pull up to an inland rig while it was being towed. It sucks. I was running a small crew boat (42’) and bringing some people out, I would have had to go through the cabin and out the back to get on deck. No bow fendering on this boat so it was very difficult to stay alongside and people just started jumping every time we came up against the rig, only took a few seconds but as they were going for it I had to power into the rig rather than fall off and start over. Really pissed me off.

After that we started docking on the two barges made to the stern of the rig, still being towed. That sucked too. I was young and inexperienced then, now I would have the tugs slow when passengers are involved, you never know what those people will do.

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Just got home and watched it, wow…these guys have a screwed up way of doing stuff compared to west coast style towing.

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I didn’t think it was completely off base. It was too far off some stuff I’ve seen on a hawser boat.

The most realistic part was the crew talking smack about the academy kid for being “book smart but no common sense”.

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Very true there I hope he was struggling to bring that boat alongside for the cameras.

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[QUOTE=rshrew;75360]Very true there I hope he was struggling to bring that boat alongside for the cameras.[/QUOTE]

If hr was doing that for the cameras I feel very sorry for him. That is unless he thinks that he will make enough money doing this show that he will never have to really work again. Let’s see how that works for him because he will forever known as the guy that could not land a light tug alongside. I for one would hate to see him come on at crew change as a mate.

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I saw some dangerious stuff also, tugs leaving the dock with barges is always dangerious. The theme of the season appears to be which fng will make it, I wont spoil that for you. This is made for tv and it looks like porkchop is being made to look worse then he is. Looked like he laid out the chaffing gear perfect to me even though sarges last distance was 4. Sarge was probably po’d cause he didnt take it slow enough over the stern, but thats just sarge takeing care of his baby. You should also know that Eddie putting out the towline could be easily misconstrude, remember when they left it was light out. They were about 4 miles from safe water when they lost a coupler, its not an easy feat to round up broken tow espically when some of it is still on the tow behind you and you have a fng geeting his first taste of weather. At some point you just take what you can get, towline on the short quarter and keep heading to the boat that was sent out to help you thats a half hour away.

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The seasoned deckhand is one of our relief captains, nobodies stupid enough to put a cadet behind the wheel without proper supervision. We dont even need a seasoned deckhand to get a line out in that situation, I would not expect any captain to come out of the cuckoos nest and be able to jump right back into the swing of things. Just keep in mind most of the guys your watching are fng’s.

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Like my captainn told me great lakes warriors should have been on comedy central not history channel… Any one notice captain nice they showed him starting out on the kimberly selvick but for some reason the shots in the pilothouse and the bow and stern deck while trying to round up the tow that broke loose was on the steven selvick. I recall him not even being the captain on the steven when that happened in fact it was a different captain. And why if the weather was going to hell did he leave with the barges and go out. river barges have restrictions on leaving burns harbor. was the coast guard notified of this incident.

The m/v john m. selvick is a piece of garbage that is old riveted hull that leaks like a son of a gun. in the winter we have to keep day and night shift to watch the bilge otherwise she will sink. It is not built like a tank as it says in the promo. thing should be condemned.

Why did that guy let the captain on the john m. call him a fat ass. And why did fat ass have such a hard time bringing that little tug up alongside another tug. Aint like a pilot boat going alongside a huge ship trying to hold in place to get a pilot up a ladder. And really thats the only excitement this show has to offer. Rather watch paint dry

Oh ya they didnt metion the seasoned deckhand on the small tug has had a captains license for quite a long time,

Chicago is the best place to start out as a deckhand or captain. Get a taste of both worlds. The brown water and blue water. deckhands constantly throwing lines,tying barges, building tows for the river, working the fleets, setting up docks all day long, towing multiple barges on the lake. not just hook up to a barge and sail for weeks. anyone can do that.
You wanna see real captains hit the river systems, pushing tows the same size and 10 times bigger up and down the mississippi with currents and winds, making tight bends. inches are enough in the river, you get in open water some of these guys freak out if you get within a half mile of one another.

Welp just hope this show doesnt give the rest of us a bad name, and make the world think were all a bunch of idiots

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Maybe they will stick some money into the tugs if they make any from the show! Or towards some dental insurance!

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View Chicago Tribunes story.

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I hope so…

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[QUOTE=boatdriver;75675]Any one notice captain nice they showed him starting out on the kimberly selvick but for some reason the shots in the pilothouse and the bow and stern deck while trying to round up the tow that broke loose was on the steven selvick. I recall him not even being the captain on the steven when that happened in fact it was a different captain. And why if the weather was going to hell did he leave with the barges and go out. river barges have restrictions on leaving burns harbor. was the coast guard notified of this incident[/QUOTE].

They did hack that to crap, and very badly, thats not any of our guys fault, but I do beleieve they said it was a different captain and a different day. Did you see over 4 foot, I didnt, or did that overly dramatic voice over trick you?

[QUOTE=boatdriver;75675]Chicago is the best place to start out as a deckhand or captain. Get a taste of both worlds. The brown water and blue water. deckhands constantly throwing lines,tying barges, building tows for the river, working the fleets, setting up docks all day long, towing multiple barges on the lake. not just hook up to a barge and sail for weeks. anyone can do that.
You wanna see real captains hit the river systems, pushing tows the same size and 10 times bigger up and down the mississippi with currents and winds, making tight bends. inches are enough in the river, you get in open water some of these guys freak out if you get within a half mile of one another.

Welp just hope this show doesnt give the rest of us a bad name, and make the world think were all a bunch of idiots[/QUOTE]

It is a good place to start and if your gonna stay on deck its not a place you want to stay at, imo your better off on the river, much easier. I make dockings by inches everyday, all day, we aint rideing through sandbars its all steel and concrete for us! Ive been doing this 16 years, and not just for selvic, let me tell you a story about today, I thought it was just another one of those days in Chicago, but the look on my first captains face makes me think I’ve just started becomeing immune to these types of things. A wizard came through this morning and brought some heavy rain and upto 70 mph gusts, glad i was fueling at the time. Anyways cap comes upto me and says start he boat barges broke lose and we gotta get em, sorry cap takes a half hour to build air, so i build air and start up well to late someone already got them, he wants to go take a look says they blew into a bridge. IT WAS AWESOME!!! A whole stack of covers gone and the ones that were still there were mangled to crap, but the best part was the catwalk from the bridge was still stuck into the cover of the other barge. I’m just chuckling in amazement when I look up at the wheel house and my caps eyes are just huge. He is a well seasoned guy too, hes been all over the river and worked for all the big companies. All he can say is this is bad. So iI play it low, not even close to the worst thing Ive seen hitting a bridge, Ive been assisting ships on more then one occasion that have hit them. Anyways we put them to the shipyard and go pick up my scheduled cap for the day, a pure Chicago boy. Immediately go check em back out, he has to see this…we loved it, even got pictures of me standing on the catwalk . Is this the type of stuff you see down there?

If youve seen anything in this show so far that freaks you out, you aint been doing this very long…of course there going to make mistakes there FNG’s!!! If you ain’t a fng now when you were you looked like an idiot also, I know I did.

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I’ve never towed in the Great Lakes so tell me if I’m out of line. It seems like they are proud of the amount of marine incidents they have been in or associated with… If such extreme weather conditions exist why don’t they take more precautions in securing barges, adding surge gear, not sailing into unfavorable conditions, needlessly putting your men at risk, etc.? Those days of being a ‘cowboy’ should be over as those incidents are the reason I have to go to required safety classes on my time off instead of spending it with my family. This show is retarded and I guess the only true reality show anymore is Cops.

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Amen to that! Well stated my friend. Hopefully this show will be a one season wonder and leave our lives forever…

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i have some unbelievable sea stories about my time with “Selvic” but i guess my post ain’t gonna make it pass admin because they are more worried about getting sued by a dirtbag than letting a man speak his mind or tell the “real truth” about Selvic or any other company for that matter.

all depends wx you are a gcap admin guy or boat crew or whatever status you need to cuss, talk trash, call names, and get away with it on this site.

I have looked around for an alternative to gcaptain but there are none unfortunatley.

I would even be willing to kick a few bucks a month in to be a member of a maritime forum that is on a foreign server where you can exercise your right to free speach and talk all the trash you want to without being censored or fear of being sued (as long as you don’t use your real name that is).

I do not have the time or know how to build such a website or free forum but if anyone has a link to one that i don’t know about or anyone is willing to start one then let me know. I will kick in a few bucks to help get you off the ground.

Then i will finally be able to tell “my story” in my own words no matter the consequences or what shitbag company threatens to sue. how you gonna collect on a server with a .ru or .se web address? good luck.

I think gcaptain started out with a good thing but it has become all about the money and they “don’t need those kind of posts” on their website.
Well, sorry but the truth hurts sometimes and i can take as much as i dish out. such is the way of the world.

I will be surprised if this one makes it past admin. And even if it does I know that a hundred other fellas are gonna trash me for saying that gcaptain is not “the bomb”.

In all the times that i have gotten on gcaptain not once have i gone to any other links other than the “forums”. I can go to workboat.com, The Waterways Journal.com, Professional Mariner.com, etc, etc if i want to get industry news or read other articles.

If i want info or want to put info out there then i used to go to gcaptain forums but now that posts have to be “reviewed” before they get put up I am looking for an alternative.

I know i am not the only one that feels like this and i think that gcaptain is making a mistake in not letting guys speak their minds. Good or bad.

The threads that spin out of control always get taken down or locked out.

gcaptain should not be held responsible for any opinoins expressed by an annonomys entity posting on their site.
What ever happed to disclaimers? FTW.

It’s too bad. a good “free” forum turned out to be a PC cronney website.

just one mans opinion.

trash away gcaptain regulars.

ps sorry about the shitty “speeling” didn’t run this one through word first and the spell checker option is not working for me because again i am not a computer geek and i don’t know how to do all the advanced stuff that makes me look really smart on here

guess maybe i should have started a different thread titled “A free speach alternative to gcaptain” but again that thread would never get posted either. at one time it would have but not now. too bad.

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Warriors or Hillbillies?