I couldn’t agree more sir. Had a few masters that gave me a shot. Most if not all are sadly departed. For what it’s worth, payed it forward whether they were academy grads or not. Once you step on board, you are among equals. No free pass no matter where you came from.
Exactly. These were the tasks laid out in the cadets record book which had to be signed off by the master as having reached a satisfactory standard. The fundamentals of ship handling were studied during the courses for mates and masters but practical tuition depended on the trade and how fortunate the mate was to be with a master who took an interest in passing on his knowledge.
I said it therefore it is true.
You’re part of the problem, no one was even going off at KP for quite a few posts, until you stumbled along. Did your last sentence make you feel better?
(never mind, no one really cares.)
BULLSHIT! Plenty here care and are with me the KP is STOOPID! But who am I to say having graduated from there? 36 years after graduating I can see with crystal clarity all the fallacies, propaganda and outright lies we were fed then and I cannot even begin to imagine what they do today? At least in the early 80’s before Ronnie Raygun took a blowtorch to the US Merchant Marine there still was a fleet in being and we had good prospects to work in our chosen profession. Now with a fleet 1/4 the size as it was then, how on earth do they tell the babies that they will be preeminent in getting jobs when there are no jobs to be had and frankly I know of no places where KP’ers are even given any preference in hiring. Used to be TYCO but any others out there anywhere?
The USMMA management cares for one thing and one thing only, the funding they get from Congress so they can keep sucking sweet momma’s milk from that great pink Federal government tit and then collect a very nice pension later on. The administration, staff, faculty…frankly the whole miserable lot of them! And they will do and say anything to ensure that that flow of milk never stops and that requires endlessly telling lies to ever single student so they don’t get wise to the reality of the place and burn it down to the ground!
I graduated from KP a couple of years back and the vast majority of students I knew are doing pretty well. I had a job sailing on my license a few months after graduation. currently still in a permanent position on a US flag vessel.
good for you but I am surprised considering the huge surplus of qualified people out there. would think any recent academy graduate to be struggling to get that first opportunity with the industry in such an anemic condition…I gather you are an engineer?
Nope…deck. Many of the people i went to school with(also deck) are sailing as 3rd on US flag vessels. a few i know are sailing on foreign flag osv/gas/floaters etc. I did get shut down some at first though. The first places i went looking after grad were Noble and transocean, never got a chance at either. but this was before the market crashed.
Glad you are back Ccaptain, I believe I have sailed with persons of your disposition. I learned a few things whether you wanted to teach or not. Thank you sir. USMMA is alive and well.
Maybe a constant radius and constant RoT would be more properly be considered piloting technique rather then shiphandling.
I was happy with a green mate that stayed the fuck away from a collision and called me if he/she had a problem. They have already been taught rules of the road, OJT works for me.