I’ve been talking to a few gents long retired from the game and noticed a common theme from their shipping days (early 1960s to mid 1980s) that came out when discussing the 719K and obtaining MMCs today.
Two of these men were unlicensed and went into the NMU after completion of schooling aboard the John W. Brown and remarked that the school was “great about getting you your Z-Card without hassle” as going there off the street to apply was usually met with fairly stiff resistance. They said the officials asked you for proof of intent to hire by a company, but when you went to a company and asked for intent to hire they would ask if you had your seaman’s papers. The other gentleman was a hawsepiper and finished up his career licensed after years with the SIU and made similar remarks about the CG making it quite difficult to obtain these documents well into his final years at sea for young bucks looking to ship out. Even in my earliest days (well over 20 years ago) it was pretty simple to get your Z-Card and begin applying for work at a time when there were far fewer jobs on the board all the way around, and it remains easy to get these documents today.
What about those days made them protective of issuing documents to folks who wished to ship out to the point of implementing Catch-22 measures to keep you sidelined unless you had an “in” with the industry?
The Z-Cards were free. They didn’t want to have to issue them to everyone that wanted a free US Government issued ID, but was not really planning to sail.
It was easy for most people in coastal towns to get a letter from tugboat companies, etc.
Also, with a Z-Card anyone had access to free medical care at the Marine Hospitals (the quality of care was poor).
The Z-Cards became freely open to everyone without question after they started charging a fee. Then they just wanted to sell Z-Cards for money. Also, by that time Reagan had closed the Marine Hospitals.
It was definitely a catch 22 back then. 1965 my dad got me a job as an OS with Foss in Seattle, He was a retired Master there. The CG would not issue a Z card without employment and Foss would not hire without one. Foss wrote a letter to the REC saying that they would hire me if I had a Z card so I got one that way, Did not know what I was in for! A wood Miki Miki ocean tug towing an oil barge out of Dutch Harbor, My dad’s old run. Gone from April till the ice came into the Western Alaska rivers and harbors about November or so.
At almost 16 YO not my cup of tea. Kept sailing both military and civilian till my retirement due partly to Agent Orange exposure and other factors.
I could see that — these two dudes were saying the NMU had literally dozens of open board jobs free for the taking but the Catch-22 made it to where guys voiced pretty vocally to the REC how fucked up it was that they were being held back from obtaining these documents, to no avail. I don’t know if the NMU helped youngsters out who really wanted to sail by writing letters — but the high school was able to hack through that red tape and nonsense pretty easily.
I doubt it was being “protective” as much as it was just being bureaucratic. Somone had to make the form and they thought it would be a good idea to weed out any folks that just wanted an ID without any interest in going to sea.
Remember, the whole process was free back then.
So I laughed when you said “it remains easy” to get these documents today. Not so easy in my mind. Just a different set of hurdles.
True, I agree with you — it’s death by paperwork and long waiting periods but at least no one stands in your way as a gatekeeper demanding proof you have a job lined up that requires the very documents you’re applying for to obtain.
It’s much worse now. The USCG was really fast, the only delay was the fingerprints and FBI check. The local police chief had to fingerprint me several times to get a set of prints that the FBI would accept.
Now the FBI is relatively fast, and the USCG is so slow that it might as well not exist.
I was surprised how many of these older guys believe the USCG is so bitter about having to tend to our needs that their mismanagement and inept handling of basic paperwork is deliberate. I wouldn’t go that far — but more than a few think this and their constant reinvention of our documents/licenses to the point they resemble Denny’s place mats is due to a disdain for the responsibility.
There is no glamour or glory in doing the paperwork for mariners. Who do they show in the recruitment photos, a helo door gunner or a West Virginia paper shuffler?
I met a pilot that started out working on Miki tugs. I think it was when Sause had them. He said his first day, he reported aboard, put his sea bag in his state room, looked up at the ceiling and noticed it was covered with sheets of plastic. When he asked what was up, they told him “The wooden decks leak, so the plastic keeps your room relatively dry. The water just runs down the plastic, finds its way into the bilge, and we just start up the pumps once and awhile.”
I got a letter of intent on
Farrell Lines letterhead in 1979. My uncle was a Purser for them. I was in and out of the Albany, NY CG building in less than an hour. My Dad gave me $100 for NMU dues I I hitchhiked to NYC every week for 3 months without a job. I went over to Bayonne, NJ to the old MSC office and the lady gave me an application. It took them most of a year to hire me, but I have been sailing ever since. One more year to go!
Ah, those days! I worked shoreside for APL and was selected to go to sea as a Purser on the PRESIDENT CLEVELAND. This was in December of 1961. I had no Z card so started the process and as I remember as well as the USCG requirements I had to submit a couple of lettters of recommendation also. All worked well and fast as I joined the ship on Jan 2nd and sailed foreign two days later as a very proud, excited and GREEN Jr/A/Purser #5 with a USCG waiver for both my Z Card and Staff Officer"s Certificate of Registry! Got the actual documents upon return to San Francisco after the 42 day trip. Ah yes, those were the days.
Yes, I was deployed to Vietnam twice from 71- 73 after serving in Yokosuka, Japan as a tugmaster while in the USN. I then enlisted in the CG for 20 years and commanded a buoy tender & ice breaking tug and served aboard 3 other ships in Alaska. The summer I retired I worked the Exxon Valdez oil spill aboard a tug. I then was Mate & Master aboard coastal & ocean tugs in Alaska and the West coast.
I’m all done now!