I once had a brown nose junior engineer on an MSC oiler who would run to the chief and report “The 12-4 watch was sitting down on the rag cans on watch.” The junior was on the 4-8 and saw us sitting down when he came down relieve the watch. Back then it was the chiefs orders to “stand your watch.” The chief comes down out of the blue and says to me he will fire anyone sitting down on watch. We suspected the rat was this guy (junior) who had Shemp Howard comb-over and one leg shorter than the other. The next day I said to my oiler, “I hope the chief doesn’t find out we burned up his lube oil pump,” and “the rat” was within hearing distance. That chief engineer came down huffing and puffing (he smoked 2 packs a day) and came up to me asking about a burned up lube oil pump. I said, “Your pump is fine, we were just looking for the ships rat.” I know you folks have some stories better than mine.
I hope that “rat” is skulking around the docks with “squealer’s scars” today and that “chief” paid dearly for his two pack a day habit! “Stand” your watch bullshit!
C.captain cannot abide those types of men at sea…they all need a swift kick to the BALLS!
Am I wrong, but is there more backstabbing bullshit on government ships than commercial?
There are certain disagreeable elements at Marad who like cheese and have long tails. Age is catching up with them, fortunately.
WTF?
Here is a screen shot from a real live steam ship video, you will see a First Engineer, sitting on his tired ass. After 10 hours of repairs to a failed Fire Pump, the First (today, who even knows what THAT means) was on the throttles.)
In case you missed it here is a short segment of the voyage ( I have posted this before). and there I am sitting on my tired ass waiting for more bells. We worked!
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Enjoyed the vid. Thanks.
Those 24 hour days as 1st, oh how I miss thee. I maneuvered into Portland, OR. (16 hours) then did an eight hour COI with USCG then the company brown nose chief says, I’m going ashore how about working on that fire pump tonight. I told him I’d get right on it. Boy did I sleep good after that hot shower. The chief might have stubbed his toe in his birkenstocks if he knew I blew him off. Beware of anyone calling themselves “The Chief of Choice” at any company
[QUOTE=Too bad steam is gone;95851]Those 24 hour days as 1st, oh how I miss thee. I maneuvered into Portland, OR. (16 hours) then did an eight hour COI with USCG then the company brown nose chief says, I’m going ashore how about working on that fire pump tonight. I told him I’d get right on it. Boy did I sleep good after that hot shower. The chief might have stubbed his toe in his birkenstocks if he knew I blew him off. Beware of anyone calling themselves “The Chief of Choice” at any company[/QUOTE]
Been there, Too bad steam is gone, but never as Chief. When I was C/E the First and I were a team as we were with the entire ER crew. There are folks reading this who know. Hard, to believe, so long ago!
[QUOTE=Sweat-n-Grease;95860]Been there, Too bad steam is gone, but never as Chief. When I was C/E the First and I were a team as we were with the entire ER crew. There are folks reading this who know. Hard, to believe, so long ago![/QUOTE]
Amen.
From what I hear those days are going quickly and I am glad I am not a part of it. Especially in the drilling business these young guys are sticking each other in the back trying to make it to the top by any means necessary in some cases according to what I hear. The money has corrupted what little morals they possessed. Some of my young friends [less than 40 years of age] tell me stories that sound like something out of a TV series not an engine room of real engineers. As I sit listening to their stories I wonder where their gonads went. Not too many years ago such things would have resulted in an ass whipping at the very least but now it is like middle school girls on an episode of Survivor Island. Glad I am not there any more, wouldn’t make it most likely anyway as I believed your work spoke for you and not your BS.
I was Chief on a ATB running in the GOM that was in pretty rough shape to put it mildly. The Chief that I replaced was more into B.S. than keeping the vessel in good running condition. Well, there was a AB/T that while he was a good guy would RUN to the wheel house and tell the Captain everything that he heard.
This Captain was getting on me to have the A/E clean more. Now at that time we both were up in port doing repairs almost all of the time (24 hours +). I swear if you turned your back something would either fall off or burn up. Every time we would hit port there was something that needed repair, you know little things like cracks in the hull or fuel tanks, cracked heads. The list could go on forever but you know how lazy Engineers are and I am known for getting a little testy when I am over tired.:mad:
So, I started feeding little bits of B.S. that I knew would go straight to the Captain. Once the Captain thought he had enough “facts” to write me up for not cleaning he called me up to his lair. You should have seen his face when I looked at him and said I don’t know where the hell you heard that. He then Ran not walked down to the E.R. to inspect.
He wanted to upper Fiddly’s cleaned (they had not been cleaned in years! He started bitching about this the very first trip that I was on this rig), he had his pet AB/T go into one of the Fiddly’s and take a rag to clean a little of one area between the frames. The only time to do this would have been underway. The weather had been really bad with at least 15-20 foot seas, so I was not about to tell anyone to put themselves in harms way by having to work up there and logged my concerns, so I went up there (in my spare time HA HA. when I should have been getting some rest) and cleaned that frame plus the one on either side of it.
He ran right into the Port Fiddly to see if I had “cleaned” well he saw the areas that I cleaned and looked at me and just walked away. Needless to say we watched what we said around that AB/T after that.
Another boat had a C/M on it that bitched every time there was no cold bottled water. Well I caught the AB/T refilling old water bottles and gluing the tops back on so they would click when opened just like a new one. This C/M drank water like this all trip and never knew it :rolleyes:. I was really careful to stay on the good side of that AB/T, 
I am sorry that I was so lazy, but I was tired. . . . oh, wait. Cracked heads? Nah, we may have had lots of problems on the SEA SKIMMER, but that wasn’t one of them. . . . .
[QUOTE=Tugs;96023]I was Chief on a ATB running in the GOM that was in pretty rough shape to put it mildly. The Chief that I replaced was more into B.S. than keeping the vessel in good running condition. Well, there was a AB/T that while he was a good guy would RUN to the wheel house and tell the Captain everything that he heard.
This Captain was getting on me to have the A/E clean more. Now at that time we both were up in port doing repairs almost all of the time (24 hours +). I swear if you turned your back something would either fall off or burn up. Every time we would hit port there was something that needed repair, you know little things like cracks in the hull or fuel tanks, cracked heads. The list could go on forever but you know how lazy Engineers are and I am known for getting a little testy when I am over tired.:mad: [/QUOTE]
Tugs, in my day no Captain would think of ordering the Chief around. Usually the Chief and Captain got together for a few cold ones at the end of the work day and before evening meal. Discussions were held about ship’s business and other topics of seamen’s interests. Not posting this was always the case but from my experience it was more the rule than the exception. I believe, looking back, MSC was the exception.
How times have changed!
[QUOTE=Sweat-n-Grease;96043]Tugs, in my day no Captain would think of ordering the Chief around. Usually the Chief and Captain got together for a few cold ones at the end of the work day and before evening meal. Discussions were held about ship’s business and other topics of seamen’s interests. Not posting this was always the case but from my experience it was more the rule than the exception. I believe, looking back, MSC was the exception.
How times have changed![/QUOTE]
Maybe egos weren’t so big then or perhaps common sense was more common.
[QUOTE=Sweat-n-Grease;96043]Tugs, in my day no Captain would think of ordering the Chief around. Usually the Chief and Captain got together for a few cold ones at the end of the work day and before evening meal. Discussions were held about ship’s business and other topics of seamen’s interests. Not posting this was always the case but from my experience it was more the rule than the exception. I believe, looking back, MSC was the exception.
How times have changed![/QUOTE]
A good relationship between captain and chief is very important. In fact if the four top people, the Capt, C/E mate and 1 AE are good and can work together you’ve won 90% of the battle.
K.C.
[QUOTE=Kennebec Captain;96074]A good relationship between captain and chief is very important. In fact if the four top people, the Capt, C/E mate and 1 AE are good and can work together you’ve won 90% of the battle.
K.C.[/QUOTE] Then we won’t have to grease the old man’s hot water line to his shower daily, only when he is an ass.
[QUOTE=Sweat-n-Grease;96043]Tugs, in my day no Captain would think of ordering the Chief around. Usually the Chief and Captain got together for a few cold ones at the end of the work day and before evening meal. Discussions were held about ship’s business and other topics of seamen’s interests. Not posting this was always the case but from my experience it was more the rule than the exception. I believe, looking back, MSC was the exception.
How times have changed![/QUOTE]
The problem on AT/B’s are a lot of the Tug Skippers came from smaller Tugs where the Chief did not have as much equipment to maintain. Plus as much as I hate to admit it there was / were a lot of Chiefs on boats that only carried one engineer that were pretty lazy, hence the term Galley Chief because that’s were the chief spent all of his time. I wish that I could have sat that long on any of the rigs that I worked on!
[QUOTE=cmakin;96029]I am sorry that I was so lazy, but I was tired. . . . oh, wait. Cracked heads? Nah, we may have had lots of problems on the SEA SKIMMER, but that wasn’t one of them. . . . .[/QUOTE]
cmakin anybody that was able to keep the Sea Skimmer running for any length of time needs a medal or something. I completely understand why you were tired. Glad I only relieved big T a couple times on that tub.
I’ve had, for the most part, an excellent working relationship with captains. One outstanding exception was a captain on an old notch tug/barge unit. He was a reformed drunk and too old for sex. The only pleasure he had in life was seeing just how far he could push people. The CM tried to mimic him. We had an old suck-a$$ OS on board and went through at least a dozen good ABs in 6 months. One crew change, an AB reported aboard that was well versed in dirty tricks. It didn’t take long for the captain and CM to start their same old bullshit giving the AB a hard time. After about 10 days, the captain seemed to come down with a dose of the scours as we entered each port. The OS was blamed for not washing the dishes properly. During crew change, I caught the AB putting eye drops in the captain’s coffee cup. He just smiled at me and said “ I found the CM’s address and signed him up on a porn mailing list”. (before the internet) I’m glad I didn’t piss off this guy.
Never piss-off those who make and serve your food - never.
When the meal is very good be sure to say your thanks.
[QUOTE=ChiefRob;96278]cmakin anybody that was able to keep the Sea Skimmer running for any length of time needs a medal or something. I completely understand why you were tired. Glad I only relieved big T a couple times on that tub.[/QUOTE]
I learned more in the 4+ years I ran that thing than I did in 4 years at school. Probably the biggest lesson was to not get complacent when things were running well; that was not the normal condition for that beast.
[QUOTE=Tugs;96168]The problem on AT/B’s are a lot of the Tug Skippers came from smaller Tugs where the Chief did not have as much equipment to maintain. Plus as much as I hate to admit it there was / were a lot of Chiefs on boats that only carried one engineer that were pretty lazy, hence the term Galley Chief because that’s were the chief spent all of his time. I wish that I could have sat that long on any of the rigs that I worked on![/QUOTE]
In the years that I was on an ATB as Chief, I really only had one Captain that I really didn’t get along with, and that was only sporadically. Thing is, he really had (or still has, I believe that he is still sailing) some serious mental issues. He will remain nameless, but geez, what a piece of work. Of course, this was back when there weren’t that many ATBs working.