With all the talk about School Ships being used while pier side, I just wanted to put my 2 cents in.
I worked on the Empire State as Chief Electrician for two years and cruises, 88 and 89. This allowed me to stay close to NY Harbor during the 333 I must admit that I really enjoyed working with and trying to show the Cadets how real life was out side of school.
Anyway, what I did see was so much fighting between the Ship and School. Little things such as being told to secure power to decks where shoreside instructors were going to be holding classes plus much more BS. I remember talking to several 1stâs about this over coffee or beer (after work) only to be told yep, you would have thought they would have worked together but nope for the most part it was a Them against Us mentality. The losers in my opinion were the cadets. While, I was not there when they activated the Ships for Marad, I did hear about the bitching that the Captain and CE did about having to âLetting THEIRâ go out with those DAMN Union Crews on them!
In a perfect world having a ship at each school is a good thing but letâs face it how much is really learned on said ship while they are dead ship tied to the dock? I only saw a handful of well liked cadets that were given the chance to do more than clean and paint.