Interesting to note that presently Msc is not able to provide timely reliefs is at an all time low. Even masters and chief mates are overdue, unheard of in the past. Oddly, COMSC comes out with a directive to reduce the rig teams at the same time to save operational cost. Strange that this seems to dove tail nicely into the fact that Msc cannot keep the ships manned.
The good news is that almost anyone can get hired by Msc, the bad news is Msc cannot keep crews even in such a poor economy. Must be a reason? Think management would take a look at why? Nope, certainly not their problem. They will keep employing more and more shore side billets and request more and more of the ships to support their cush shore side jobs. Msc is terminally top heavy and getting more so. A true sign of a federal organization that has grown dysfunctional. Here is a sign: recently an Msc ship arrived in port for a one day load and go after a month at sea. The office wanted to send out people to hold EEO, sensitivity, payroll, work place fairness training etc. Great idea! Here we have a crew who’s only focus is getting a beer, the master’s focus is loading the ship and the office wants to send someone to hold group classes for the crew ( simply to support another shore sider and a check list). Yea, and they wonder why people walk. Amazing.
Im supposed to be interning with MSC, actually thought id be there by now, I wonder if this explains why it seems to be taking longer than normal to get my ship assignment. Originally, I was supposed to leave by July 4th…
They had this strange relief priority order going for a long time. I think it’s still in place:
First fill any critical needs
Second fill vacant billets
Third relieve any overdue
Forth revive those with relief requests
Last assign augments where possible
The kicker to this was people figured out they were not getting relieved so they created reasons to get off for medical, family or professional reasons. This left a vacant billet that would get filled before the guy months overdue. So the guy months overdue created a reason to get off…
My last ship saw ABs 76 days overdue. That’s 76 days past the 60 day notice we give them to find a relief. One-hundred and thirty six days to find a relief? Horseshit! Those ABs were not relieved, the captain just let them go (creating an open billet…). Not quite the bad 'ole days but still bad.
There was a four month pilot program put in place that reordered the relief priorities so overdue were filled before vacancies. How stupid. It should have been like that from the start.
What moron runs a company like that?
No, it just means they are unorganized as per the norm. With Msc you can never mix cause and reason. There is never a reason for this action on that, simply reaction to situations. Generally no one seems to be in charge, or making intelligent decisions based on reason or common sense. It just rolls on no matter what. Sort of like a wagon rolling down hill and the one person that knows where the beak is located is off duty.
[QUOTE=Xmsccapt(ret);51836]No, it just means they are unorganized as per the norm. With Msc you can never mix cause and reason. There is never a reason for this action on that, simply reaction to situations. Generally no one seems to be in charge, or making intelligent decisions based on reason or common sense. It just rolls on no matter what. Sort of like a wagon rolling down hill and the one person that knows where the beak is located is off duty.[/QUOTE]
I’ve heard that unless your single and living out of your seabag, forget working for MSC. You will come home far beyond your intended rotation date to a strained relationship /marriage, a pet that won’t recognize you and the phone will be ringing from personnel asking how soon you can come back. My hat’s off to all retired MSC that made it work.
Exactly right. Unless you are one of the few that work the game and remain " office boys" or stay on us coast based ships for your career. Presently Msc has at least two sea going chief engineer billets sitting behind a desk for years doing nothing more that sit on blue ribbon panels and make work for themselves while getting sea pay. One has been shore based so long that he had problems renewing his license.
I left msc in disgust after 17 years, in 1997. Glad to see that the more things change, the more they remain the same.
Sea dog , you and I would have walked in the door at about the same time them. Yes, sense then nothing ever got done to better Msc. Oh, there have been many study groups, and a number of COMSC admirals, some good most bad that have come and gone. Msc does not listen to their employees, management thinks they know what’s best for all. As the shore side " support" grows and grows there are more and more shore positions to support from the afloat side. A true government program that does not function. Still, the usn needs Msc due to the fact they no longer go to sea for a living, and hence Msc continues to exist even thought it fails on many levels, mainly personnel issues. More and more the masters are tasked with levels of paper work, demands from the office, shrinking crews due to reduced manning or simply cannot get replacements, often are asked to sail not only short, but with untrained crews, and then have the same demands placed on them by the usn that remains clueless regarding logistics. Not the place to hang a license these days.
can’t we just privatize MSC? why not? really, why not?
a well run non union maritime shipping company would do wonders with the MSC fleet: think Seacor Holdings, Helix ESG, or many others.
save us tax $$ too…
One small issue… War reserve assets. All NFAF are WRA. Add to that, the union nor any company possesses the personnel to man and operate the ships as unrep ships. As odd as it is, Msc does save tax money. The usn used to run the unrep ships. They cost more to run then, were always broken, or stuck together from collisions, etc. ( could it be ran better - YES! ). It’s a double edged sword to be sure. I was involved in a GAO study some years ago. After all said and done Msc was the best bang for the buck, better than the usn and any contract operator available for the duty. The issues with Msc are not the ships or the people that work on them. The issue and where they really need restructuring is shore side. Just too much dead wood there, usn retirees making a living off the backs of mariners, along with high level GS and SES ratings doing nothing to better Msc only padding their nest for a high three retirement. Msc needs to get as far away from the usn as possible, no COMSC, no area commanders etc, just simply logistics. Like the RFA ( UK royal fleet aux, the msc of the UK for those that dont know) does, just have the usn tell Msc where and what they want, meet there, and be done with it. No further contact other than planning until the next event. The RFA learned this years ago but Msc never did.
I don’t believe the unions can’t man unrep ships. Many current MSC mariners would simply register with the unions and go back to work. Plus the unions are full of former MSC who know the jobs.
Start with the oilers and tugs. Leave the ammo ships for last. As you pointed out, if the Brits can do it so can we.
That’s just the point, the Brits didn’t do it. The RFA is just like Msc in that it is MOD like MSC is DOD. They don’t want union halls manning the ships due to them being war reserve assets. It could come to be, especially if Msc continues to to have problems manning ships. The sad thing is that even of they did, the shore side would continue to retain large numbers of personnel to " support" the ships, and that is where the cuts need to start, on the shore side, not the ships. Msc problems have never been on the afloat side of the house, the problems are and always have been management. ( and the lack of leadership ) . What the brits did right was move away from the Royal Navy within their own organization. They are in charge of their own shop. The commodore is a senior RFA captain, not some Navy admiral that will only be there for a few years and has no knowledge base of the issues. That is what the RFA did that Msc could never learn nor pull off.