I recently had a conversation with this guy I was telling him that I was trying to go to school to be a merchant seaman he told me why do you want to be a merchant seaman longshoreman make more money and come home every night …I want to know if there’s any truth to this. What’s are the pros and cons of a merchant seaman vs longshoreman… thanks for your feedback and time I appreciate
[QUOTE=Slash;79627]I recently had a conversation with this guy I was telling him that I was trying to go to school to be a merchant seaman he told me why do you want to be a merchant seaman longshoreman make more money and come home every night …I want to know if there’s any truth to this. What’s are the pros and cons of a merchant seaman vs longshoreman… thanks for your feedback and time I appreciate[/QUOTE]
If you can become ILWU regular member, it’s better than seaman for money and for going home everyday thing.
But it is very hard to become one.
The money part is questionable. How much do they clear in a year? How many days a year do they work?
Certain oil patch wages may be competitive with longshore pay now, but generally, longshoremen have always made a lot more money than most mariners.
I am currently a casual longshoreman on the west coast have been for 7 years I work on my time off in the oil patch I am not in the union. They pay the full time guys great money and great benefits for the minimal work they actually do. If and when I ever get offered a full time gig on the waterfront I would really contemplate leaving my current job(mate on OSV) I would be taking a pay cut but just going home every night pays for its self. A starting full time guy could expect to make 80k working 5 days a week. Once you get into the heavy equipment, foreman, or clerking positions you are as good as gold making BIG money.
Going home every night is a bit of a stretch I believe. Vessels don’t work 9-5 then knock off until the morning. The longshoreman work around the clock while the ship is in port. If there’s a long turn around, there will be 2 crews. From my understanding, the pay after like 1800 goes way up. So people work all night then sit in the hall for most of the next day looking for more work. If no work comes then I guess they go home at night. But it seems to me they may actually work more than we do. Like all jobs, the higher your rank, the better the pay. Some of the crane operators make very good money.
In port of LA/LB there are 3 shifts 0800-1700,1800-0300, and 0300-0800 nonstop till the ship is offloaded and back loaded the 2nd shift guys make ×1.3 3rd shifters make ×1.8 normal wage.
I know the contracts in Norfolk have changed since I last talked to a longshoreman, but from what he told me you get normal wages from like 08-18 and from 18-08 you get like 2.5 time normal wages. He said his normal wage was somewhere around $20 an hour and at night he was around $45 an hour.
[QUOTE=ryanwood86;79672]Going home every night is a bit of a stretch I believe. Vessels don’t work 9-5 then knock off until the morning. The longshoreman work around the clock while the ship is in port. If there’s a long turn around, there will be 2 crews. From my understanding, the pay after like 1800 goes way up. So people work all night then sit in the hall for most of the next day looking for more work. If no work comes then I guess they go home at night. But it seems to me they may actually work more than we do. Like all jobs, the higher your rank, the better the pay. Some of the crane operators make very good money.[/QUOTE]
Anyone can be a longshoreman, and there are good jobs at good pay in almost every port. It is a shore-going job, though, with benefits and drawbacks like every shore-going job. But, not everyone will make it as a merchant seaman, for it is not so much a job as a life. And, it is a life at sea, no less, leaving little time for shore-going pursuits like a family, at home most nights, week-ends, birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, rearing-raising children, etc. etc. And you have to love being at sea while working at a demanding job, sometimes in harsh conditions, and occasionally working and living in in close proximity with people you might not choose to be with on shore; and where there is little room for mistakes and where you always subject to the will of the Master and Officers and the whims of the sea. The pay is not bad, especially as you work your way up. I came up through the hawse-pipe as many others have, putting in my 2160 days and many thousands of miles at sea as an Able Seaman, before being eligible to sit for the 3rd Mate’s exam and then putting in another 2160 days at sea as a 3rd, then 2nd, then Chief Mate before becoming eligible to sit for Master.
Samuel Johnson (English 18th C) on sailors: “Going to sea is like going to prison with a chance to drown.”
Arthur Biser (English 19th C): “The navigator is the priest of sailor’s religion, first conducting mysterious rites with sacred objects, and then prescribing the correct path for salvation”
Kenneth Graham (English 20th C) from The Wind in the Willows - Ratty to Mole: “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats”
I would be content to spend the rest of my life on the bridge-wing of a ship looking out over the sea. And believe me, there is nothing as exciting as getting a ship underway for sea. The cargo is on board; the longshoremen are put ashore; the lines are singled up and the brow is brought aboard. The tugs are made up, bow and stern and the bosun is at the windlass as the mates direct and A/B’s bring the heavy lines aboard and stow them for sea. The engineers are down in main control standing by the telegraph and the Master and pilot are on the bridge with the helmsman and 2nd mate. Last line is aboard, 3 blasts on the ships whistle, the helmsman puts the wheel to port, the Captain gives the order to telegraph “slow ahead” and the ship springs to life as it moves away from the pier, slowly at first and then gathers speed as it heads for sea. It does not matter if it is a 10 meter fishing boat or a 350 meter container ship, for me it is always the same. Going to sea. Nothing like it!
Captain Dave Condino, Master Unlimited/Oceans, 2012
Longshoremen have may ways of turning 5 man jobs into 17 man jobs, and turning what should be straight time work into overtime work. When a container is shipped from Yokahama to Long Beach there is more labor cost in unloading and handling the container in Long Beach than there is in loading it in Japan and paying the ships crew for the transit. Longshoremen get grossly overpaid in relation to mariners.