There’s been a fair bit of discussion lately about the legitimacy of the international fugitive sometimes referred to as “Captain” Paul Watson.
Some people truly believe in what he’s doing, others find it bizarrely entertaining, and still others absolutely abhor the guy and consider him a terrorist.
Like, people really, really, HATE him.
Whatever you believe, the debate will certainly continue until the last episode of Whale Wars, or until “Captain” Watson ends up behind bars.
I put “Captain” in quotation marks to highlight a furious debate that continues on gCaptain…
What is the prerequisite to be considered a “Captain”, and does Paul Watson meet those criteria?
Personally, I think he’s a total joke and will likely end up hurting or killing someone by accident. However, he is the guy in charge of a ship at sea, so unfortunately, I would have to say that he is a Captain. Not a captain who I think deserves to wear 4 stripes on his sleeve though, that’s for damn sure.
Personally, I believe the good Captain Crunch to be the more legitimate of the two and probably more competent as well!
[B]Early and personal life:[/B]
"According to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Paul Watson was born in Toronto to Anthony Joseph Watson and Annamarie Larsen, and grew up in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. After working as a tour guide at Expo 67, the World’s Fair that took place in Montreal in 1967, Watson went to Vancouver.
According to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, in 1968 and the early 1970s, he joined the Canadian Coast Guard, where he served aboard weatherships, search and rescue hovercraft, and buoy tenders. He signed up as a merchant seaman in 1969 with the Norwegian Consulate in Vancouver and shipped out on the 35,000 ton bulk carrier Bris as a deck hand. The Bris was registered in Oslo, Norway and manifested for the Indian Ocean and Pacific trade."
[B]Activism:[/B]
[B]Early years
[/B]"In October 1969, Watson joined a Sierra Club protest against nuclear testing at Amchitka Island. The group which formed as a result of that protest was the Don’t Make a Wave Committee, which evolved into the group known today as Greenpeace. Watson sailed as a crewmember aboard the Greenpeace Too! ship in 1971 and skippered the Greenpeace boat Astral in 1972. Paul Watson continued as a crew member, skipper, and officer aboard several Greenpeace voyages throughout the mid-1970s.
[B]Watson uses the title “captain” although, as of November 2007, he had never been licensed as a ship’s captain.[/B] In January 2012, Watson relinquished captaincy of the Steve Irwin. The organization and its activities to halt whaling are the focus of a reality TV series, Whale Wars, airing on Animal Planet.
[U]In 2010, Watson personally received more than $120,000 from Sea Shepherd[/U]
[B]Australian visa issues:[/B]
“In October 2009, [U]Watson, who carries a US passport[/U], complained to media outlets about having his request for an Australian visa denied. He states that the Australian government was attempting to sabotage the upcoming 2010 Sea Shepherd campaign by denying him entry into the country. Watson and several other shipmates were also unable to join the Steve Irwin on its promotional tour of Australia until they were able to provide documentation from the governments of the United States, Canada and Norway, exonerating them from previously claimed acts of violence, specifically claims by Sea Shepherd of intentionally sinking a ship in Norway. [U]In January 2013, Paul Watson was presented with an Aboriginal passport by the Krautungalung people of the Gunnai Nation[/U].”
Watson took courses in archeology, linguistics, and communications at Simon Fraser University, known among students at the time as Berkeley North.[B] (He never finished a degree.)[/B] [U]In 1968, in need of work, he skipped a semester to join the Coast Guard, and for several weeks he served aboard a weather ship. He enjoyed the experience enough to enlist, in 1969, on a Norwegian cargo vessel for eight or nine months. Periodically, during the next five years, he left Vancouver for stints in the merchant marine.[/U] While at sea, Watson travelled to Southeast Asia, where he watched, from a distance, the bombing of Vietnam; to the South China Sea, where he suffered horrendous weather (“I read Conrad’s ‘Typhoon’ during a typhoon”); to Iran, where he says he was detained and interrogated by the Shah’s security agents after photographing a military installation (“I was tortured some, nothing too heavy, simply bamboo slivers under the fingernails and a few strokes with a lash”); and to Mozambique (“When I was finally able to see my surroundings, I panicked. I was on a bed in a hut”). Watson possessed what George Orwell once called a “lonely child’s habit of making up stories”; through embellishment, he used his adventures to construct an indomitable persona
[B]Several years after ramming the Sierra, Watson gave himself the title of captain, though he does not have a captain’s license.[/B] [I]“He loves to dress up in uniform, as ‘Captain Paul Watson,’ and suddenly there’s enough gold braid on his shoulders to skipper the Queen Mary,” [/I]David Sellers, an old friend and former Sea Shepherd crew member, told me. In the eighties, Sellers and Watson fought so bitterly over the seaworthiness of Watson’s ship that they did not speak for fifteen years. (Sellers, a licensed captain, had insisted that it was not safe for ocean travel.)[B] Many of Watson’s colleagues from the seventies and eighties no longer work with him; they have grown tired either of the campaigns or of Watson’s style of leadership—“anarchy run by God,” a longtime volunteer called it. “He doesn’t like people who disagree with him.”
BTW
Can we compare these three statements from above, about Paul Watson’s Early Years?
1st: “[/B]According to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, in 1968 and the early 1970s, he joined the Canadian Coast Guard, where he served aboard weatherships, search and rescue hovercraft, and buoy tenders. He signed up as a merchant seaman in 1969 with the Norwegian Consulate in Vancouver and shipped out on the 35,000 ton bulk carrier Bris as a deck hand. The Bris was registered in Oslo, Norway and manifested for the Indian Ocean and Pacific trade”
[B]2nd: “[/B]In 1968, in need of work, he skipped a semester to join the Coast Guard, and for several weeks he served aboard a weather ship. He enjoyed the experience enough to enlist, in 1969, on a Norwegian cargo vessel for eight or nine months. Periodically, during the next five years, he left Vancouver for stints in the merchant marine.”
[B]3rd: [/B]"In October 1969, Watson joined a Sierra Club protest against nuclear testing at Amchitka Island. The group which formed as a result of that protest was the Don’t Make a Wave Committee, which evolved into the group known today as Greenpeace. Watson sailed as a crewmember aboard the Greenpeace Too! ship in 1971 and skippered the Greenpeace boat Astral in 1972. Paul Watson continued as a crew member, skipper, and officer aboard several Greenpeace voyages throughout the mid-1970s.
[B]How can you enlist in the Coast Guard for a few weeks, then ship on a Norwegian merchant ship and then go back and forth between the Canadian Coast Guard, Norwegian Cargo Ships and the early formation of Greenpeace???[/B]
[B]Several years after ramming the Sierra, Watson gave himself the title of captain, though he does not have a captain’s license.[/B] [I]“He loves to dress up in uniform, as ‘Captain Paul Watson,’ and suddenly there’s enough gold braid on his shoulders to skipper the Queen Mary,” [/I]David Sellers, an old friend and former Sea Shepherd crew member, told me. In the eighties, Sellers and Watson fought so bitterly over the seaworthiness of Watson’s ship that they did not speak for fifteen years. (Sellers, a licensed captain, had insisted that it was not safe for ocean travel.)[B] Many of Watson’s colleagues from the seventies and eighties no longer work with him; they have grown tired either of the campaigns or of Watson’s style of leadership—“anarchy run by God,” a longtime volunteer called it. “He doesn’t like people who disagree with him.”[/B][/QUOTE]
HMMN? This last paragraph sounds familiar, I wonder if he is related to walbridge somehow?
[QUOTE=Kennebec Captain;101372]I think the Canadian C.G. is civilian, you don’t enlist you just work for them.[/QUOTE]
That is correct.
The Canadian Coast Guard is a civilian organization that offers what we would call “civil service” employment within the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (sort like like NOAA in the US). The Canadian Coast Guard Academy is in Sidney, Nova Scotia (affiliated with Cape Breton University). The students are paid to go to school and are guaranteed employment in the Coast Guard upon graduation. The graduates also receive licenses as ships officers.
Transport Canada regulates transportation, including maritime transportion. They issue seaman’s documents, and conduct port state control in Canada. They do a thorough job, but they are exceeding polite and friendly.
The Royal Canadian Navy is a branch of the military, what Canadians call “Forces.”
[QUOTE=catherder;101394] I’m sure he’ll benefit and even profit handsomely from being labeled a pirate.[/QUOTE]
Now that he is a certified real “pirate,” Watson will have Hollywood starlets throwing themselves, and their cash, at him. Ladies love outlaws. Why is life so unfair!
[QUOTE=tugsailor;101425]Now that he is a certified real “pirate,” Watson will have Hollywood starlets throwing themselves, and their cash, at him. Ladies love outlaws. Why is life so unfair![/QUOTE]
Oh come on, they already throw more leg at him than a Chicago meat packer. I keep telling you guys, just get yourselves a fancy schmancy uniform with gold braid, and drop a few names, and maybe some rohypnol in the drinks, and you too will scooooooore!
[QUOTE=catherder;101433]Oh come on, they already throw more leg at him than a Chicago meat packer. I keep telling you guys, just get yourselves a fancy schmancy uniform with gold braid, and drop a few names, and maybe some rohypnol in the drinks, and you too will scooooooore! :)[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the tip. I am off to rent a costume and stop by the QVC. . . .
The courts, and many of you “People”, know the Japanese doing research is a tremendous Lie! They use the whales for meat. Japan, makes millions of dollars off of this.
Its all about the money, isn’t it boys??? People like Captain Watson, are Brave, unsung heros! You other people are vampires, who suck the life out of life!
The U.S. courts should investigate the legitimacy of these lies, concerning Research!
Shame, on the U.S. courts, and all the people that support its decision. Karma, will come around to get all of you!
[QUOTE=Justice for Whales;150849]The courts, and many of you “People”, know the Japanese doing research is a tremendous Lie! They use the whales for meat. Japan, makes millions of dollars off of this.
Its all about the money, isn’t it boys??? People like Captain Watson, are Brave, unsung heros! You other people are vampires, who suck the life out of life!
The U.S. courts should investigate the legitimacy of these lies, concerning Research!
Shame, on the U.S. courts, and all the people that support its decision. Karma, will come around to get all of you![/QUOTE]
Whether that’s true or not does not justify the actions of these people. Also, they don’t only attack whale vessels.
[QUOTE=Justice for Whales;150849]People like Captain Watson, are Brave, unsung heros! You other people are vampires, who suck the life out of life! [/QUOTE]
is that IT? Am I really just a toxic vampire when all along I though the only reasons the ladies run away screaming is because of my foul breath.
Now where is my PHAVORITE PHAT PHRAUDULENT PHUCK hiding at? Here Captain Hero…I’ve got some lovely herring for you if you come out wherever you are.
As far as seafaring goes, Paul Watson is a clueless schmuck! He is a disgrace to true seafarers. I have AB’s working for me with more nautical savvy. And when I have spoken to people who watch this garbage and think that, this is how it is out here and that he is some great Captain that they glorify, to the likes of Nathaniel Bowditch or Thomas Reed, it just makes me sick! This guy is living proof that if you lie and whine and cry hard enough that some idiot out there will give you money and attention. Paul Watson and his sailing band of idiots can all go to hell!
[QUOTE=Nautical Wheeler;152884]This guy is living proof that if you lie and whine and cry hard enough that some idiot out there will give you money and attention. Paul Watson and his sailing band of idiots can all go to hell![/QUOTE]
Watsoon et all wouldn’t qualify as prison grade asswhipe… Not gritty enough!
