This video says volumes about the seafaring qualities of our brother mariners…
[video=vimeo;45095252]http://vimeo.com/45095252[/video]
anybody who says one word that US mariners are somehow better than all the others, that we are better trained and more capable is full of SHIT!
my sincere thanks to Rob and the gCaptain crew for finding this and posting it in the news section
[QUOTE=c.captain;73329]This video says volumes about the seafaring qualities of our brother mariners…
[video=vimeo;45095252]http://vimeo.com/45095252[/video]
anybody who says one word that US mariners are somehow better than all the others, that we are better trained and more capable is full of SHIT!
my sincere thanks to Rob and the gCaptain crew for finding this and posting it in the news section[/QUOTE]
Yep, we forget that to the rest of the world WE are the foreign mariners and in many places we don’t have a good reputation, many times due to the snotty attitude some of us exhibit when in other countries or when speaking on the radio to folks from other countries.
We should all keep in mind that we are not just representing ourselves and our profession we are also representing our country.
tengineer
It’s the 4th of July guys come on… USA! USA!
[QUOTE=tengineer;73333]Yep, we forget that to the rest of the world WE are the foreign mariners[/QUOTE]
In most of the rest of the world, American mariners are nonexistant. I once figured of 700 ships in the Port of Singapore on any given day there are probably fewer than 50 Americans on them of something like 14000 men total.
It is this reality that makes me so incensed when the KP sycophantic cheerleader chorus starts singing that the USMMA is the world’s PREMIER maritime training institution…utter and complete nonsense and BULLSHIT I say!
not to mention the 1/3 pay and living conditions that we would throw a fit over. (as compaired to US ships) So I’ve heard.
Also where was his “workvest” ? ? ? I bet he’ll be wearing it from now on.
What is the best maritime training academy in the world?
As a guess, I suspect its probably in Norway.
c.captain- To make this post TODAY hurts my feelings(…sniff, sob); I think your just trying to pick a fight(…dab at my eyes).
I’ll go with tamugly!!!
I’m on my time off, been cooling on the front porch, watchin’ MY flag blowin’ in the breeze, reading a book about US Naval history in the War of 1812.
USA! USA! HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!
[QUOTE=Rebel_Rider1969;73337]not to mention the 1/3 pay and living conditions that we would throw a fit over. (as compaired to US ships) So I’ve heard.[/QUOTE]
Obviously you have not been to Singapore lately…there are few ships in world trade older that 15 years. The US fleet still has many steamships in it built in the 1960’s!
Btw, pay and professionalism do not coincide. That my brother is exactly the terrible entrenched attitude of Americans I called out in the my original post. That just because a mariner doesn’t get the pay of an American does it make him less of a seaman.
[QUOTE=seadog!;73339]c.captain- To make this post TODAY hurts my feelings(…sniff, sob); I think your just trying to pick a fight(…dab at my eyes)[/QUOTE]
No sir…I posted that today because it was in gCaptain news today and to think that I am only picking a fight for posting it shows where your level of thought lies. American’s hiding being some notion that our country is better than all others just because we’re American is terribly narrow minded.
I was highlighting the professionalism of the master and crew of a ship that many Americans would dismiss as “monkeys”. They’re brother mariners regardless of the color of their passports or if the those passports bear the name Mohammad in them.
Our country has some serious soul searching to do in all regards of our society but for us here especially with regards to our place in the world’s maritime industry. Within a single man’s lifetime we have gone from the absolute undisputed top of the heap to a tiny fraction with technolgies decades behind all the other industrialized nations. On this day, we should reflect on that fact and try to understand why this sad reality has occurred and if there is any chance ahead to turn this around. It will NOT be because we are superior!
Ugg, my point was that they work in and live in conditions that most US Marniers would not. I have no dought about their ablities.
[QUOTE=c.captain;73340]Obviously you have not been to Singapore lately…there are few ships in world trade older that 15 years. The US fleet still has many steamships in it built in the 1960’s!
Btw, pay and professionalism do not coincide. That my brother is exactly the terrible entrenched attitude of Americans I called out in the my original post. That just because a mariner doesn’t get the pay of an American does it make him less of a seaman.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Rebel_Rider1969;73342]Ugg, my point was that they work in and live in conditions that most US Marniers would not. I have no dought about their ablities.[/QUOTE]
but, they work and live on ships BETTER than ours.
c.cap- after all these years, you should know me better than that.
I’ll agree with your point tomorrow.
Today it’s USA! USA!
And I’ll amend my earlier post to say it’s a book on US Maritime history and 1812, not just Navy history.
The greatest damage was inflicted by American privateers manned by merchant seamen.
Enjoy the day!!
[QUOTE=seadog!;73346]c.cap- after all these years, you should know me better than that.
I’ll agree with your point tomorrow.
Today it’s USA! USA!
And I’ll amend my earlier post to say it’s a book on US Maritime history and 1812, not just Navy history.
The greatest damage was inflicted by American privateers manned by merchant seamen.
Enjoy the day!![/QUOTE]
No worries mate…
As I write these posts I am also watching “The Revolution” on History Channel and all time sitting offshore somewhere in the GoM. Aren’t satellites a wonderful thing!
Did you know that almost all communications satellites are AMERICAN MADE!
A happy 4th to y’all…
When I came ashore and started working for ABS, I had much the same reaction with regard to “foreign” mariners. Very often I was the only one from the US involved in a ship repair, and that includes work here in the US. Same holds true now with insurance work. I have always been of the opinion that for a training institute like KP to be relevant in today’s maritime world, it HAS to embrace the fact that most (and by a HUGE margin) mariners are NOT from the US. I believe the entire maritime academy system and MARAD are not serving the mariners in this country very well at all. Many of the statements above are correct. Living conditions on foreign flag ships are often better than their US counterparts, dependent on ethnic cultures toward hygene of course. Other nationalities manage to supply vessels with their officers, independent of the flag of the vessel. It was and is a very rare thing for me to find US mariners among the crews of foreign flag vessels outside of the offshore industry. THAT is not a good thing.
US mariners are the best… paid.
[QUOTE=PMC;73398]US mariners are the best… paid.[/QUOTE]
Compared to third world countries that may be true but comparing total compensation to some countries’ pay that just isn’t so. Last I heard the Japanese were the highest paid and the Norwegians don’t do bad at all, especially considering their schedule. Japanese captains are revered in their country and in some other countries becoming a mariner is a very competitive ordeal.
On another note; an interesting exercise is to calculate your pay as if you were under the US wage and hour law. 40 hour work week, 1.5 times pay for all hours over 8/day or 40/week etc. Sure you get more time off but you gotta remember you work as many hours a year as the 9-5 bunch. I figured it up once several years ago, discovered that the damn plumber my wife called was making more than me and got to go home at night. 
[QUOTE=cmakin;73396]It was and is a very rare thing for me to find US mariners among the crews of foreign flag vessels outside of the offshore industry. THAT is not a good thing.[/QUOTE]
I have been told point blank that the reason many offshore companies still want to pay premium to have European officers on their vessels in the GoM is because us Americans can (and likely will given the chance) sue for damages under the unseaworthiness doctrine in the Jones Act. Even though an American mariner might cost less in wages, taxes, travel, etc… the companies consider the risk too great and also appreciate the professionalism of the Europeans more. Of course, this is in direct circumvention of legal statute but who the hell cares? Laws are made to be broken and as long as the cops (the USCG in this case) are all asleep, why the hell not get away with everything you can?
This is a tired old saw though and I am sick of fighting it alone…Been to the Coast Guard and all I got was a yawn and a shrug! EFF THEM! The only way to turn this one around is in a Federal Court but who will pay the legal fees? No law firm gonna take in pro-bono and without damages to collect, why would they want to touch it without billing by the hour upon hour upon hour? Just like the man said in the song…the companies got the gold and the mariners got the shaft!
Losing battle, but US companies have done a few things. 1. There are Americas running Island Offshore vessels in the North Sea and a US construction vessel is being built (keel to be started with next two months) that will be more capable than any foreign flagged vessel in the gulf. Over 500’ from what I was told.
The sad reality the companies don’t seem to know is that most of us don’t really want to sue our employers even if we are injured…we just want to be treated fairly is all but that it’s the lawyers that want to sue. I’d say that the majority of injury cases don’t lead to litigation but those that do cost the companies and their underwriters a boatload because the lawyers know they can soak it to them. Unfortunately we “ALL” get smeared in this very ugly process.
madre de dios!