I would estimate that 95% of the respondents on here are officers. Either deck or engine. They ARE the guys you will be working with. YOU don’t have a choice who you are going to work with. As a new entry YOU will have to put up an shut up. You probably won’t like some of the answers you get, orders you are given, or jobs you have to do. BUT, whether you have Tats or not is irrelevant. But if you get shitty like on this post, then THAT will likely be the reason why your ‘visible ink’ (or audible bitching) will get you tossed off a boat, passed over for promotion or some other ‘unjust’ reason.
To put it another way; You have to learn why at times to just take the info and run with it, versus sitting back, digging in your heels and going toe to toe.
I realize this is an anonymous forum, so it is easy to dig in for a fight. But maybe (and I am going out on a limb here) you need to learn a modicum of hubris and decorum.
:DI have one and only one tattoo and it ranges over 36 years of my life, a Buzzard on a tree limb with a cloud and sunburst over and a Banner over that with Patience My Ass a hangmans noose on the bottom of the tree limb, at the base of the tree a steers head with horns and between that and the buzzard’s beak an Anchor with line coming off it. I probably won’t get anymore ink but one never knows.
[QUOTE=Capt. Schmitt;57676]On tug boats engineers make decent money but not captain level. In real shipping I believe engineers make more than their deck equivalent. And there are many more (high paying) shore side jobs for engineers. That is probably part of why there is so much demand for them on vessels. When the economy sucks and no one is hiring deck officers, people still hire engineers. Better money and job security. If you like engineering, definitely do it.[/QUOTE]
When I worked for Crowley, I generally got paid more than the Captain. His base salary was about 10 or 15 bucks a day more (it has been over 20 years, so memory fades), but I would make it up with my overtime. To save on Captain’s and Engineer’s overtime, maneuvering was generally during the hours of 8-12, when the Old Man and I were already on watch. I pulled ahead when I had off watch alarms or other issues that kept me working beyond my watch hours. I remember a few times bringing three pages of OT for the Captain to sign and I noticed that he might have two or three lines on one page. We only carried one engineer on the boats, so OT was fairly routine.
I have the word respect tattooed on my hand , vertically aligned with the little finger …which is the only visible tattoo, on back of the neck i have an African symbol for patience , which can be covered and i have mom dad on my shoulders … any sort of problem with my tattoos ???
