Bambi Roper, Tell me she’s not old and fat
What I meant was, Please tell me she isn’t old and fat. It is so friggen cold, the only thing keeping me warm is thoughts of her and a strippers pole.
I guess I should change feet again …
If Suzi has no life it is her own fault. If your wife lied to her then perhaps your dismissal was justified. In my case, I reported a safety violation to the office that was committed by the other Captain on the boat. He got wind of this, fed her a bunch of lies, and I was dismissed based on pure fabrication. It was retaliation pure & simple. And, she fired me the week of Christmas. The rest of the crew onboard could corroborate my position but she did not want to hear any of it.
I spoke with the Port Captain that same day & again, he confirmed my suspicions.
I don’t want to get into a pissing match over someone as insignificant as her & I don’t want to convert this thread into that. So this will be all I’ll write about this subject.
As far as the Oil patch being 24/7 - 365, I think that goes without saying. Been doing this for over 20 years and it never stops.
Bambi Roper??? Never had the pleasure of meeting her.
Pure and simple…If you wanna work in the Gulf you have to eat fecal sandwiches sans the bread… Captains dont get paid for being competant, quite the contrary,I can tell you from my tenure I made my money not from delivering cargo but from taking care of loose ends that were not due to anything I had the authority to fix. I once told a port captain, who was a blithering idiot and had never worked on boats before,his dad was a gynecologist, that all I needed was a book of P.O. numbers, and Id never bother him again. So much for Chuck.
[QUOTE=skycowboy;24677]the boat business in the Gulf is twenty four seven three sixty five
And that is why my old company didn’t call a Captain to tell him his wife had died. They didn’t have any relief for him. He found out on his own 3 days after.[/QUOTE]
People like that don’t deserve to have employees…
I can agree with that somewhat… taking up the slack everyone else leaves is part of the job. And I’d be happy to eat the sandwich if I had only been given the opportunity to do so. Having a hatchet job done on you is a different story.
And in all my years I’ve seen maybe 1 or 2 Port Captains that were worth a damn at anything. My worst fear is being blackballed by this company.
[QUOTE=Xtracho;24330]Be aware… GOL has been mentioned as a good company to work for… but my experience with this company is quite different. I lost my job with them based on fabricated comments made by another captain. None of these falsehoods had anything to do with my job performance, safety, or ability to operate the vessel. Nonetheless, the personnel manager accepted these falsehoods as truth without ever giving me the opportunity to refute them, even though I had witnesses to confirm that they were lies. If you go to work for GOL be prepared to toss your individuality to the wind, forget your personality exists, and become a working robot.
This personnel manager even referred to the boat crews as “boat trash”.[/QUOTE]
Gotta love those “Right To Work” states.
Yeah… it’s an antiquated policy that allows employers to abuse and mistreat their employees without repurcussion. In my case, I reported a safety violation to the office which was ignored. So the company decided that the “whistleblower” had to go.
“At will employment” is just legal servitude by another name.
“…I reported a safety violation to the office…”
What happens on the boat… stays on the boat.
I agree wholeheartedly with that… unfortunately the other captains were office bitches… running off at the mouth like adolescent children. This Captain had been warned repeatedly about his ignoring safety regs on board the vessel. He would smoke in the machinery space (void room) below decks, be on the back deck in bare feet, and be underneath lifts without a hard hat/steel toes. So, you tell me… do I let the guy continue to be stupid, or let the office know before he kills himself or someone else? Personally, I would rather the guy be called down by the office than have to fill out accident/fatality reports for the Coasties.
“unfortunately the other captains were office bitches… running off at the mouth like adolescent children.”
So you decided to run your mouth and bitch to the office.
Yup…must be easy being an armchair judge on your little “island” or whatever it is. When the captain refused to observe the regs over and over again I decided that I had no other option. But hey, never mind that I was trying to keep him from hurting himself or other crewmembers. Not to mention that the violations could result in the vessel being dismissed from its charter. Just little things like that.
That “what happens on the boat stays on the boat” crap only goes so far.
would agree…particularly if lives and livelihoods are at stake…there are “creative” methods dealing with these situations…such as taking digital pictures and e-mailing them anonymously to mangement…have heard of that happening…no individual is exempt anymore including the Captain!!
Anonymous sending of pics would have been quite difficult seeing as how there was only a crew of 4 and the vessel, well, is totally recognizable. My mistake was assuming that the office would back me up and correct the issue. Also, if, God forbid, anything did happen it was [I]my[/I] license that would have been up for grabs from the Coasties. Don’t like it when my livelihood is at stake because of someone else’s stupidity.
Your license? I thought you were bitching about your captain. Why would your license be in jeopardy? A guy like you’ve described will eventually go out on an injury. You would have gotten a promotion probably.
Because I was the Master of the vessel I was reponsible for my crew and their safety. The vessel is crewed by 2 Captains… a Master and a 2nd (this guy), Engineer, and Deckhand. Maybe my license would not have been in jeopardy. But I’ve been around long enough to know that I did not want to find out the hard way.
A promotion? LOL… that’s the last thing I would have been interested in. I was more concerned that this guy, as intransigent as he was, would kill himself or someone else.
I agree that sooner or later we’ll be reading his obituary if he keeps up with his lack of regard for his safety and that of others.
“…must be easy being an armchair judge on your little “island” or whatever it is.”
Nothing “armchair” here, I’m afloat.
What part of “island” has you confused?
In hindsight would you do it all the same? It seems from your statements your actions were ineffective. You lost your job…he kept his (or got yours), the safety issues are still being violated.
First of all… apologize for the sarcasm.
In hindsight? Yes I would do it again. I can’t control how the company reacted or what the consequences were. If they prefer to ignore the obvious and retain someone as unsafe as he was (or is) then that is something I have zero control over.
I acted correctly IMO. Second guessing does absolutely no good.
Perhaps others would disagree and allow such egregious behavior to continue, turning a blind eye, until the obvious occurs. I prefer not to allow that possibility on my watch.
Losing my job? Unfortunate for sure and something I never would have anticipated. Just like you (probably) I have a family to feed and bills to pay. But my conscience is clear.
So why didn’t you take responsibility, document the issues and kick his butt off the boat?
Whining to the office afterwards is hardly taking responsibility for your crew and their safety.
[quote=Steamer;25224]So why didn’t you take responsibility, document the issues and kick his butt off the boat?
Whining to the office afterwards is hardly taking responsibility for your crew and their safety.[/quote]
I certainly agree with that, but I’m totally confused on a previous post of having two Captains. That’s a new one on me.
LOL…this is ridiculous. “Whining to the office afterwards” is hardly what happened.
The same day the incident occurred (literally within hours) it was reported during a daily status phone call. We were 100 miles offshore at the time so getting him off the boat was not an option at the time. I told the office he should be replaced when we made port.
Two captains on a vessel? That’s new to someone? We ran Master, 2nd Captain, Engineer, Deckhand. That’s unusual? Not in the oil patch it isn’t.
Since it appears I’m going to be emasculated regardless of how correctly, per company policy and the situation at the time, I acted. This will be the last I’ll post on this subject. Feel free to second guess, criticize, personally attack and insult to your heart’s content. Believe me, I’ll be happy to read them all!