In my 40 plus years of sailing there has never bee a shortage of officers, just a shortage of officers that are willing to work for the pay and benefits offered. Most competent engineering officers I have known can transition to a shore based job easily. The job security is better and the benefits too.
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The Drewry report is about worldwide shortage:
It is not about any US shortage (if there is one)
The foreign officer crewing agencies seem to still act like jobs are gold and people to fill them are a dime-a-dozen.
I canât say I blame them, I wouldnât want to be conscripted cannon fodder for the MIC either.
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Are you sure that Drewry doesnât know what they are talking about?
Which " foreign officer crewing agencies" are you refering to? There are obviously some outfits that is less than sincere.
The majority of Shipmanagers are either hiring direct, through their own crewing agencies, or from reputable sources in the country of origin of the officers and crews.
PS> Many Shipmanagers run their own training centers, or sponsor local academies.
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The Polish government are issuing certification to Ukrainian seafarers so that they can continue working at sea.
The Ukrainian maritime administration has basically been shut temporarily. The Ukrainian government would probably want the seafarers to join the army so why would they issue them certs to keep working at sea.
A lot of them are living in Poland and Bulgaria etc because of they went home they would have to join the army.
This is what they have been telling me for over a year and a half.
Canada is also giving them certificates as a way of easing their personnel shortage.
A lot of American companies still act like officers are a dime a dozen, and we are lucky to have jobs.
There are lots of jobs, but most of them are not paying what they should. There is a shortage of jobs with good pay that matches the job market.
Companies are busy now and making a lot of money, but they would rather tie up boats for lack of crew than raise wages.
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Major difference between covid âvaccineâ and all those others. Its not safe or effective and should NEVER have been allowed out into the general public and would not have been except for politics.
YES it is a major reason a lot of us are not working as we would like to be.
You have a difficult decision to make; take the vaccine or starve.
Unless you have a family, the choice is yours alone.
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Iâm really trying hard not to laugh at all the Covid vax refusers crying about not being able to ship. Iâm guessing none of them sailed on GOCO ships in the early 2000âs when we were required to get Smallpox and Anthrax vaccinations.
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Amen!
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I was a Vax refuser once (before SARS COV-19 existed);
Arriving at Kinshasa, DRC (then Zair) sometime in the mid-1980s I was informed that my Yellow Fever vaccine was less than 3 months from expiring and I needed to get a shot to be allowed entry.
I explained that I was in transit to Cabinda but that didnât help. I was taken to a âDoctors officeâ to get my shot.
One look at the âDoctorâ and his equipment and i decided that the risk of getting AIDS was much larger than getting Yellow Fever, so I offered a bit more than the cost of the shot for him to just stamp my yellow card.
BTW; When I got home I did get a shot, so my career as an âAnti-Vaxerâ didnât last long.
PS> I have had the COVID-19 shot + 3 booster shots and expect to take one more booster before winter. (No, Iâm not looking for a job, nor suffering from any side effects)
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Ah, so itâs not just Nigeria with that scam. I had a copy of the âPort Health Officerâ stamp made up for when I had new guys show up that made it to the boat without being hit up for that dash. Saved a whole lot of headaches when silly season was in full swing.
In Nigeria silly season is from 1st Jan. to 31st Dec. 
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You canât mask the fact heâs a real shot in the arm for the forum. Heâs injected the vax âfactsâ into 3 threads at the same time. After that you just have to be immune to this line of thinking.
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But guyyssss, WeRe ThE hIgHlY TrAiNeD #MRUICAN 
mErChAnT mArInE.
All this supposed training and regulation is the justification for the Jones Act⌠are you suggesting⌠Jones Act Bad? Are you suggesting that if we slumped to the level of the requirements of the flags of convenience like not requiring our chief mates to be able to define âAdmiralty coefficientâ that one time, we wouldnât suffer a massive loss in a safety record or performance overall?
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While itâs supposed to be a benefit that the JA provides, it was never meant to be the justification for its existence.
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Whenever I hearof the Covid vaccine as an excuse for not working my first thought is that person is either lazy or ignorant and itâs best they stay off any ship, who knows maybe they didnât take a polio vaccine. Geez if I refused vaccines I would have never been allowed in elementary school much less allowed to work on ships all over the world. If there are many mariners who have refused a simple vaccine and created jobs for other mariners. Good! Bring in the brighter minds.
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