Are you on two sides of everything? On one hand you’re saying USCG is going too far and also doesn’t have the funding/resources to pull this off. Now you’re asking that they make an example out of a couple people every year? What if they don’t have a couple people every year? Do we just make some up strictly to remind everyone they have to power to fuck up your career?
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Many non-harassers are concerned about false allegations. So are many companies.
The liberal snowflakes that have been brainwashed in college these days are easily “triggered” by innocuous comments in plain language that they misunderstand.
The stories some of the male cadets tell about what it’s like to be in college these days are incredible.
Some people don’t want to be around these snowflakes (of whatever gender), for many reasons.
A few posts up a 1AE was explaining that some officers are afraid to even talk to cadets on his ship.
That leads to the inevitable conclusion that some officers view cadets as unwelcome.
We had a good mate about 10 years ago. When his wife found out there was a woman onboard, she called the company and demanded that the woman be reassigned off the boat. She said there was no way she was going to allow her husband to live in close quarters on a small vessel with another woman. The woman onboard called the wife and explained that she wasn’t a risk to their marriage. The wife told her that when she got married, she would understand. The company said: we don’t allow employees wives to make company business decisions. The wife forced the mate to quit. The next couple of replacement mates weren’t very good. The company never sent anymore women to the boat.
Some people just don’t want the drama or the risk of having women onboard. Anyone that’s had a problem with a woman onboard is now gun shy. Women, and their advocates, would find it to their advantage to understand that, and act accordingly.
Personally, at this late stage of my long seagoing career, I don’t need to worry about any of this.
But of course, I do care about the good health of my honorable seagoing profession.
This is one anecdote, and points more to the status of whatever situation that mate had going on at home more so than an industry wide issue with women onboard.
Which companies? Got any examples where a company has said this? All the guys I’ve worked with that are scared to get a false allegation or scared to talk to cadets have made moves on cadets/women on board. There’s usually some skeletons in the closet and they know they fucked up. Everyone knows who the creeps are onboard. If you’re a good shipmate you want the cadets and tell the creep to fuck off every chance you get.
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As I said above, I agree with William Blackstone, the father of Anglo-American law.
Google him, if you actually want to know something.
In a country of almost 350 million people, we have millions of sex offenders.
With 50,000 mariners, I think the USCG can find one or two actual sex offenders per years.
In another thread aren’t you continuously bitching about the ineptitude and lack of resources USCG has? Where are they getting the resources for this?
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The USCG has prioritized screening out sex offenders that make applications for a MMC, just like the USCG prioritizes drug interdiction.
Didn’t Congress give the USCG a mandate to screen out sex offenders with 46 USC 7511 ?
Or, do you think the USCG is going to ignore that?
They’ll just deprioritize less important functions (like NMC issuing documents in a reasonable length of time.
This is just… insane. This should not be the way you form opinions. Every time we are in a storm should we throw our least favorite shipmate overboard because it worked for Jonah in the Bible?
Imagine if the roles were reversed. Imagine if a man’s husband called a ship and said he had to be placed on a ship with no men onboard so he wouldn’t be tempted, would you think the company would no longer hire men?
Bestie, half of this thread is triggered old men it’s not just the college kids. Honestly I think it’s more likely the 40+ crowd to be threatened by innocuous comments, for example:
“go in there and pee in the cup up to this line, do not flush, do not wash your hands”
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It will be interesting to see how all this plays out.
A few years ago a guy applied to work here as deckhand (fishing vessel, mind you, so no MMC needed).
He managed to get a short interview with HR, during which he blurted out he had been convicted of child molestation. Sentence served.
I hire the mariners but was at sea. When I came back HR warned me this guy might call me. Sure enough he did. I told him I would pass. He asked if it was because of his criminal background. I said, Yup.
He promptly threatened to sue the company, saying it was illegal to deny him employment for this. I said that may or may not be true, but I still wouldn’t hire him. I hung up and waited to be served. Which did not happen. Probably because it would be hard to find a jury to side with a sex offender, so no lawyer was interested in the case.
Now, because of this law I would tell a guy like him I’d pass simply because he was a dead-end. It would be legal to hire him as an entry level position on a fishing boat, but regardless of other reasons , it would be a waste of resources. Since he could never get a credential and advance to AB or QMED he would be deadwood.
(The reason I didn’t want him is simple. I’ve learned over the years that crew get resentful when you put guys with significant criminal records in their midst. Some would quit if I put a child molester aboard.)
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Good guys don’t want to work and live with miscreants on a small vessel for months at a time.They cause low moral and turnover.
The quality of the crew depends on the area of the country, type of vessel, management of the company, and wages paid.
One of the reasons that I prefer to work for well managed small companies in Alaska that pay good wages is the quality of the crew.
The type of crew is also the reason that I prefer not to work in the Gulf oil patch.
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You misconstrue everything I say, you must be a woman.
I like how you were able to make a judgement call based on what you felt was right for your crew. I’m sure some of who I work with too would quit if there was a child molester aboard.
I work union and I don’t typically know if a person has a criminal record unless they personally tell me or someone else tells me.
The only thing I fear is the government growing this list of crimes to include other non sex related crimes and restricting people who have the potential to go to sea and turn their life’s around.
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That’s telling.
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It’s a paraphrase of one of the recent cartoons in the cartoon thread.
sigh I really didn’t want to do this, but y’all are leaving me no choice, it’s just going around and around with the same strawmen and ad hominem arguments being repeated.
@cajaya tell us what your thoughts are about Title 46, and if it will make a difference please.
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Why would you do such a thing?? What did we ever do to you?!!??!??
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I think this may be a big part of why no admin want me to be a moderator on here…
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Thank you and thank you again for being a voice of reason on this thread.
Sorry @tugsailor, I think you are wrong. I’d guess that I’ve worked on more ships with more women than most here and guess what…it’s totally fine. Better even, since a lot of guys behave intolerably when there is no one from the opposite sex around, though why is a mystery to me.
Your story of the wife that made the mate quit because of a female crewmember is just another story of blatant sexism, it makes no difference if it was perpetrated by a woman or not.
On my ship no one gives a shit if there are female crew aboard, they are welcome if they do their work, and frankly they’re welcome enough if they don’t. Lord knows we put up with plenty of insufferable males that are incompetent and a pain in the neck, yet they are still here.
Two of my favorite shipmates, both highly experienced and very skilled, are politically conservative. Both of them are perfect gentelmen and also are concerned about false allegations. Everyone else I know doesn’t give it much thought (or maybe isn’t brave enough to say so??), and is happy to stand by their actions in the company of female crew. I think the risk of false allegations is far overblown. It pains me that this fear will further damage what little mentorship and on the job teaching happens on ships. I think this is the most effective form of training and it’s a huge loss if people quit doing it out of fear; that is certainly something that needs to be addressed.
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Nope. Been there, done that. If they can’t do their job and pull their weight then they must go.
I worked on a tug with a female deckhand on the opposite watch. I was getting woke up multiple times on my off watch to go do her job. After a few days of that I told the captain it’s her or me.
She was gone the same day.
Agree on all with the defining term “convicted” of a sexual assault/crime The confusion comes in play when in the Sison case, the accusation was made but no criminal charges ensued, the question is asked, why was he not referred to the DA, federal I assume, for criminal charges? If he was never convicted then on what basis is the USCG barring him from future maritime employment? Based on an allegation? Really. I can accuse the master and C/M on the ship I work on of the most outrageous sexual attacks on my person, does that mean the USCG will ban them from maritime employment based on my accusation without a conviction…ouch! Without a conviction, or even formal legal investigation, hopefully the new statute lacks the authority to liberate you from your MMC based on an accusation or am I misreading? In the case of Sison, a high probability is he was guilty and surrendered his MMC and stopped his seagoing livelihood in a plea bargain of sorts to keep from being criminally prosecuted. If that is the case, the KP midshipman was legally mistreated in not having her attacker criminally prosecuted. I get that. But no one should be threatened or pressured into giving up their seagoing career if they are not guilty, however I can see that happening especially to someone with a checkered career or previous run-ins with law enforcement.
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