Stacking the deck, and the captains who do it.
I sailed on a ship, that had a new captain hired off the street, from his first hitch, he kept bragging and talking about bring a mate he knew from his previous company to the vessel, which after a 2 rotations he eventually did, someone lost their job so that he can have his “trusted mate” on the ship. eventually the control issues became so rampant that the majority of the mates on board had come directly from his past company and past experience.
I was wondering what the crowd hear thought about that nonsense…
My opinion is simple, you get what you get and you learn and train to trust the people around you, you can help out one or two guys you know with jobs but ONLY hire people you have had past experiences with leads to mistrust among those who you did not bring over, it shows a abuse of power and favoritism among the crew, and lets not kid our selves its based on a personal opinion nothing professional, it is the very core of unprofessional behavior and attitude. It shows a lack of trust, and a lack of respect to professional mariners who may not have had the opportunity to sail with you in the past but are deserving of the opportunity you deny them. I had never seen anything like that before…