Osg

I think everything they run is old Maritrans stuff except their new Delaware River lightering ATBs.

You are correct, the rigs doing the Bigstone Lightering are new. They also have two newer tugs in the GOM but married to old Maritrans Barges.

From what I have been told the Oil Majors do not want to touch the older barges. Unless they really need them, then they don’t care.

I give them two years at the most and all of the Maritrans Barges will be gone.

I agree, but there’s still a lot of atb units with no work, it’s not the the oil company’s prefer atb over a wire tug, its that the wire tugs can’t hold a deliver date , with all the port calls for weather / captains not wanting to sail when its 3-4…

And that… is why I left AMO and let my PIC lapse. Kinda regretting letting my PIC go now but like all things… It seemed like a good idea at the time. Sounds like you’ve had the AMO pigeon hole experience too?

You didn’t put it in continuity? I did the same thing and I think the coasties told me I would have to complete tankship DL class and I could get it back. Not that I ever want to go back to tankers, but you’ll never be without a job if you’re willing to do so I suppose.

Yeahhhhhhhh… that was in the early days of the NMC and nobody informed me that it was possible to just put part of my documents in continuity when they told me they needed my loads and discharges. Otherwise I would have.

I don’t mind sailing tankers, granted the idea of not having to deal with IG, cargo engines, and cargo pumps does entice me. Just passed my 1AE tests last week so we shall sea where I end up.

I hear scuttlebutt that says Vane’s “Tangier Island” has just been sold.

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Tell me about it. $117 a day base as 3rd mate where I was at and dispatch refused to find me anything better.

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Who bought it?

I don’t know. Super secret squirrel stuff.

So these vaunted “golden ticket” 3rd Mate - PIC jobs that the alleged AMO “union” which supposedly “represents” mariners at the tanker companies (Kinder Morgan and Crowley??? ) pay a whopping $117 a day? WOW !!!

BASE PAY… there was overtime too, but that was the base rate… and that was a “sweetheart contract” for a company that crewed MSC owned AMO operated tankers, not a “Golden Ticket” gig. Doesn’t make the pay stink any less though. All but one of that company’s tankers got bought up by MSC and they’ve been stacked in the RR fleets now sad to say. They were really good ships with some cool port calls… just crappy pay.

Union contract pay is not a secret, at least it shouldn’t be.

What do the AMO contracts on the Crowley and Kinder Morgan tankers pay? Base pay? ATO? Overtime? benefits?

They have “super-cadeted” many young, desperate academy grads into PIC holders over the last few years to crew up the new tonnage.

In other words, these jobs don’t pay shit!

Right now the only work out there is on tankers and anything pays more than $0.

Sleeping at home every night, and doing any type of construction, work pays more than many of the maritime jobs available now.

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An overview of the current ATB market, even if slightly slanted.

It is the reduced manning that is still key IMHO.

Shhhhh! Whatever you do, don’t call them “regulation beaters” because that’s just wrong!

But, what about the ATB itself? A talk with the universally recognized authority on ATB design, Bob Hill of Ocean Tug & Barge, reveals a few important points. First, any fears that the traditional (reduced) manning protocols on these vessels might change has been put to rest, especially since the Coast Guard largely ignored that aspect of the regulatory picture within their recently released subchapter M towboat rules. That financial advantage isn’t going to go away.

So there you have it: straight up, with no chaser. The Coast Guard, for it’s part, did in fact roll over very nicely on behalf of the industry and its associated political campaign contributors, and the Congress Critters they bought.

Well done!

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