Thanks all. Maybe we chat in 3 months. Idk. Sending my paperwork to the uscg today. Paid 95 plus 45 so maybe ill get something good in the mail 90 days from now.
As part of my reply, I provided you with some professional reading materials. One was the Army Crewmanās Handbook which was a partial. Here is a link to the full manual.
Army Marine Crewmanās Handbook FM-55-501 1999 ed Full Manual 731 pages
PM if you have problems with the links. Good Luck
Thanks it opened fine. Thanks for the information.
So i got news today my medical certificate was issued. Is this seperate from also getting my MMC or are they one in the same. Please advise. Thanks for anyone who helps me out because I am kinda stressed about it.
Separate documents, evaluated and processed separately.
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Itās separate. My medical took about a month, the mmc showed up a couple of months later.
Thereās nothing to stress about.
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You donāt need your MMC for the apprenticeship program at SIU (piney point) because they will help you get your first MMC (and later on the upgrades).
If you wanted to join SIU without going to the apprenticeship program you would need your MMC to get a job as an OS. From what Iāve heard OS jobs are hard to find at SIU because students at SIU apprenticeship program have priority for OS jobs for their 60 day and 120 day sails as part of the apprenticeship program. Youāll only ever see an OS job on the board if itās not taken by Piney Point students going through apprenticeship program.
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Not familiar w/ the seminar but probably so. Do not let the Jax SIU crowd influence your planned career path. I will say no more, but you can choose which hall to ship out of, believe Savannah has one. You never let on what career path has been your livelihood till now. you may want to rapidly settle on a niche sector, i.e. research vessels, MSC contract vsls, tankers etc. Try to leverage that experience once you get you start sailing. You are starting later than 90%, so no time to waste. Upgrade as soon as you can. If being an officer is your goal, great; but stay at third longer and really learn it. In your case, staying at third or second may be your best bet. Remember the higher paying ships frequently attract unsavory members who are sometimes not the best shipmates. Read, ask and learn, avoid being outspoken or a sea lawyer (look it up). Once you have a few years underway, try to make it known you are in this career for the long haul till age 67-69. Therefore staying healthy is priority one. Caution at all times, a history of injuries will mark you. SIU demands physicals at 6mo intervals and the USCG at 2 yr, and MSC depending on the contract will demand their own physical bi-annual at 50, annual at 60. Good luck mate.
Well shit. I wish i had looked more into that. I got all the stuff before taking the exam
Ok so my MMC has been issued and should be here within a week or two. I was watching āthe wandering marinerā on you tube to help me make some decisions. He kind of got me discouraged talking about when he got his mmc and went to siu for work and they told him he didnt have a deep sea mmc. That he could only work on lakes and inland rivers. So is that going to be the case for the mmc Iām about to recieve? How do I know the difference?
Plus I dont have money for training or piney point. Like I say 0 experience and I do want to go out on deep sea sailings. Would it probably be in my best interest to join MSC then? I also dont have the money to sit around a union hall in a hotel on my own dime to wait for work. Would like to start asap. With MSC I would get MMC upgrades with time and training right?
Anyhelp or advice is much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Assuming you put down Ordinary Seaman, Wiper, and Food Handler. as the entry level endorsements you applied for, you should be good to go whatever facet of the industry you start in. Not knowing what was told to āthe wandering marinerā it could have been he was lacking some of the other classes needed to sail deep sea. Typically BST and VPDSD come to mind.
I have no idea what sort of timeline is involved from application to on the payroll with MSC.
Iām going to be honest.
Iāve read this thread and I think you need to use a credentialing service. You pay them a fee and they file for you.
Then call sea school and tell them you need to take STCW basic safety training.
All the instructions on obtaining a credential is on the national Martime website. You just have to read.
Using a credentialing service they will tell you what to do any donāt have to read.
At any rate you will not go to work immediately unless you work inland.
A credential is going to take 4-6 weeks and the stcw class is going to take maybe 10 days, which you need before you apply for a credential.
If you had truly read this thread, you might have noticed the OP (@mmonroe194) said his MMC in addition to his Medical Certificate had been issued and likely in hand by now.
Ah, I seeā¦ there was another page
I am interested to see how this went , did you finally get a start at sea. From my experience the hardest part is getting your foot in the door. Once you get a few trips under your belt your ok. But its a risk paying for courses needed if you dont get a start
I have not had much success to be honest. I have a application in to MSC for about a month now. Still says awaiting review. I had put in to a tug company that didnt pay well so declined. I have put in for another tug comapny out of savannah ga and have not heard anything.
I am kind of torn. I spent a year getting out of debt on credit cards from a failed marriage and just completed that so am hesitant to charge them back up for some courses that i could get for free with MSC. Plus from what i hear about SIU is that i go down to Jacksonville pay for a seminar pay dues then pay to stay in a hotel for possibly weeks at a time hoping to get a call for a job and being that i have no experience all the grads from piney point will get the call first.
I am really anxious to leave my current job so i can get out on the ocean. Anyways. Thought i would let you know. Thanks for asking
When you say you put in for a tug company that didnt pay well so declined . Did you decline it?. Sometimes you have to take a hit to get your foot in the door. When I started I was young but started on a trainee rate. You cant expect to be on mega bucks with no experience like , just a thought. Getting the start is the hardest part after a few trips and expereince then you might be able to command a better rate.
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It was 17 an hour for Kirby and they put you were they want you. I get what your saying. I have seen companies closer to me that pay more for a deckhand.
Fair enough, Just sometimes I have heard of people taking low rates to just get started. Am not saying its right and just saying it happens. Hopefully you find something soon