I keep hearing people making negative references towards Tidewater. Don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone make a neutral or positive comment about the place. Of all the negative, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a specific reason, reference or situation. Anyone ever work there? Care to elaborate about working conditions and such?
There was already a thread on this issue about 2 months ago, go back and read through it, you will find what you seek.
Talk to Fraq.
I enjoyed my time there, and then they lost the contract in Valdez, and then they lost me.
SCREW THEM!
I started there in 95. Over the next 11 years I bought into all the propaganda and took all the shit that was heaped on my head. I spent the majority of my time on 4 boats that I worked regular. The reasons I moved on from each of the four boats was either it was sent overseas, was in to bad shape to make it through next DD cheaply or an engine or gear blew up. I wasn’t removed because the casualties were my fault. The entire crew was split up to the wind and the vessel stacked in the weeds on Bayou Blue or Larose. Why? They had so many boats if one went down we would go grab another clunker and bring it to life for a year or so. Until the documents expired and it couldn’t get through inspection. Those four boats took up about 7 of my 11 years. The remaining 4 year balance was spent going boat to boat through the entire encyclopedia of mud boats built between 79 and 83. Zapata, Gulf Fleet, Point Marine, Mar Sea, Seahorse and the list goes on and on. Now don’t get me wrong working there allowed my to hone my miracle worker skills. The office would tell us to put red hand and splash zone on everything. Find a thin spot or a leak in the bilge plating every boat came stocked with a pallet of quickcrete to take care of that. All of your grey water drains not working? Pump out the tank take a hack saw cut the bad pieces out and make jumpers out of old 2 inch water hoses and hose clamps. Bow thruster losing oil run it til it breaks. Bow thruster gear box making grinding sounds run it til it breaks. Reduction gear making grinding sounds run it til it breaks. Hey I work 28/14 I’ve been on for 6 weeks! Sorry buddy I don’t have anyone to send. Hey we just found out the boat won’t be in for 18 hours how bout a hotel room? Sorry no can do just sleep in the carry all, but there is six of us oh ok take turns then. Hey I need a vacuum truck? Why? Well the #2 stbd fuel tank rotted out in the passageway and 20k gallons has filled it up and is going over into the engine room now. Well Chevron needs you to make this mud run can’t it wait til you get back in. Well that was my next surprise I went to circulate the mud and well to make a long story short the PTO is gone out. Well I thought y’all just left shipyard well we did but you crossed it off the list. I can go on like this for hours but you get the point. Toward the end we would see all these great press release about new boats being built and man they built some nice ones. Only the select few kiss asses got to be on the new ones. Most everybody else either saw them in passing or sailed on them
long enough to get them to Brazil, Mexico, Trinidad, Africa etc. The recently retired CEO made a statement at an officers meeting right after he came to power. He said there was not enough consistent money in the GOM and if it was up to him we would be an entirely international company. He made good on that promise if they built ten boats at one yard here in the states nine of the boats were promptly sent foreign. Look at their domestic fleet today they have the “state of the art” Damon Bankston, Pat Tillman, Terrel Tide and Lebouef Tide and a few 25+ year old stretched 180’s. This is supposed to be the worlds largest and greatest mud boat company and thats all they can do for a domestic presence? You can say well Gary Chouest ran them out of the GOM. Nope Turdwater had the cash and the credit to put his lights out if they had felt like it. They were used to being the big boys on the block. I was there so I can tell you what the mentality was. Why stress ourselves we let him build them wait til the next bust and buy them for pennies on the dollar to bail him out. Just like they had with every other competitor up to that point. Well we see how that worked out for them. Fuck them and their old broken down badly maintained boats and fuck their operations department too. I got no use for any of those rat bastards either. The only good guy they had in operations left about six months before I did. If he was bailing out the writing was on the wall. I would say things are different now but I got friends on the inside it hasn’t changed and the pay is still subpar.
It used to drive them nuts that the Alaskan contract with SERVS forced them to treat the crews well. Get us hotel rooms, meals, change flights, cold weather gear…etc etc etc. You could smell the teeth grinding in the office over the customer demands for crew considerations and vessel maintenance.
WOW! Hope I’m never desperate enough to apply there!
[QUOTE=Fraqrat;85059]SCREW THEM!
I started there in 95. Over the next 11 years I bought into all the propaganda and took all the shit that was heaped on my head. I spent the majority of my time on 4 boats that I worked regular. The reasons I moved on from each of the four boats was either it was sent overseas, was in to bad shape to make it through next DD cheaply or an engine or gear blew up. I wasn’t removed because the casualties were my fault. The entire crew was split up to the wind and the vessel stacked in the weeds on Bayou Blue or Larose. Why? They had so many boats if one went down we would go grab another clunker and bring it to life for a year or so. Until the documents expired and it couldn’t get through inspection. Those four boats took up about 7 of my 11 years. The remaining 4 year balance was spent going boat to boat through the entire encyclopedia of mud boats built between 79 and 83. Zapata, Gulf Fleet, Point Marine, Mar Sea, Seahorse and the list goes on and on. Now don’t get me wrong working there allowed my to hone my miracle worker skills. The office would tell us to put red hand and splash zone on everything. Find a thin spot or a leak in the bilge plating every boat came stocked with a pallet of quickcrete to take care of that. All of your grey water drains not working? Pump out the tank take a hack saw cut the bad pieces out and make jumpers out of old 2 inch water hoses and hose clamps. Bow thruster losing oil run it til it breaks. Bow thruster gear box making grinding sounds run it til it breaks. Reduction gear making grinding sounds run it til it breaks. Hey I work 28/14 I’ve been on for 6 weeks! Sorry buddy I don’t have anyone to send. Hey we just found out the boat won’t be in for 18 hours how bout a hotel room? Sorry no can do just sleep in the carry all, but there is six of us oh ok take turns then. Hey I need a vacuum truck? Why? Well the #2 stbd fuel tank rotted out in the passageway and 20k gallons has filled it up and is going over into the engine room now. Well Chevron needs you to make this mud run can’t it wait til you get back in. Well that was my next surprise I went to circulate the mud and well to make a long story short the PTO is gone out. Well I thought y’all just left shipyard well we did but you crossed it off the list. I can go on like this for hours but you get the point. Toward the end we would see all these great press release about new boats being built and man they built some nice ones. Only the select few kiss asses got to be on the new ones. Most everybody else either saw them in passing or sailed on them
long enough to get them to Brazil, Mexico, Trinidad, Africa etc. The recently retired CEO made a statement at an officers meeting right after he came to power. He said there was not enough consistent money in the GOM and if it was up to him we would be an entirely international company. He made good on that promise if they built ten boats at one yard here in the states nine of the boats were promptly sent foreign. Look at their domestic fleet today they have the “state of the art” Damon Bankston, Pat Tillman, Terrel Tide and Lebouef Tide and a few 25+ year old stretched 180’s. This is supposed to be the worlds largest and greatest mud boat company and thats all they can do for a domestic presence? You can say well Gary Chouest ran them out of the GOM. Nope Turdwater had the cash and the credit to put his lights out if they had felt like it. They were used to being the big boys on the block. I was there so I can tell you what the mentality was. Why stress ourselves we let him build them wait til the next bust and buy them for pennies on the dollar to bail him out. Just like they had with every other competitor up to that point. Well we see how that worked out for them. Fuck them and their old broken down badly maintained boats and fuck their operations department too. I got no use for any of those rat bastards either. The only good guy they had in operations left about six months before I did. If he was bailing out the writing was on the wall. I would say things are different now but I got friends on the inside it hasn’t changed and the pay is still subpar.[/QUOTE]
Come on now Fraq, why don’t you tell us how you really feel, only don’t hold nothing back this time buddy.
Fraq. Your 100% correct I was there in 95/96 too. Was sold in the HOS deal. Reading your story is going to give me nightmares tonight. Thankfully ECO called within a year and I got out.
Wow, Fraq, sounds like some of my own old TW stories. “Nah we don’t need any welders, hey chief mix me up a five gallon bucket of splash zone. Sea Tide isn’t scheduled to be hauled out for a year and a half” -Don Sutton, 2005 in response to me telling him about the thirty foot crack under the water line I could stick my pinky in.
Everyone who worked there has a Turdwater story. The cool thing is no one would throw a bullshit flag and say it was just a sea tale. It could be the most unbelievable whopper and people would buy it. How many times did you ask for a vacuum truck for the bilge and were told to just suck the water from under the oil. Problem was it was 70%-80% oil.
Worked on Sun Tide and Atlantic Seahorse in Cook Inlet '93. Both boats were old workhorses that were rode hard. I wasn’t on Sun Tide when it got up current of the Arco jack-up rig and got pinned against one of the legs. Interesting work in 7 knots of current but didn’t care for the 60/30 rotation.
[QUOTE=salt’n steel;85335]Worked on Sun Tide and Atlantic Seahorse in Cook Inlet '93. Both boats were old workhorses that were rode hard. I wasn’t on Sun Tide when it got up current of the Arco jack-up rig and got pinned against one of the legs. Interesting work in 7 knots of current but didn’t care for the 60/30 rotation.[/QUOTE]
I find it hard to beleive that any DP boat can withstand a Current of 7 knots…
[QUOTE=youngpup;85367]I find it hard to beleive that any DP boat can withstand a Current of 7 knots…[/QUOTE]
although 7 knots on the bow and 120 knots of wind on the stern may be possible…
My time at Tidewater was way before DP. We live-boated up to the rig which lowered hawsers down to us to tie stern off to. You watched the current and cast off before it turned direction and put you in a blow-on situation. Nikiski dock was 3 old liberty hulls that were filled in. Northern lights were spectacular and tracked Tote ships doing 26 knots with current.
[QUOTE=salt’n steel;85335]Worked on Sun Tide and Atlantic Seahorse in Cook Inlet '93. Both boats were old workhorses that were rode hard. I wasn’t on Sun Tide when it got up current of the Arco jack-up rig and got pinned against one of the legs. Interesting work in 7 knots of current but didn’t care for the 60/30 rotation.[/QUOTE]
That’s why the all the platforms, and almost every rig, in Cook Inlet are set up so that the cranes are on the sides that the current flows past (not directly up current or down current).
Never work up current of rig in Cook Inlet.
The Sun Tide and Atlantic Seahorse are (or were) late 1970’s (pre-DP era) boats. Its been a very long time since I worked off the same dock as the Sun Tide. The Sun Tide and Moon Tide were among the biggest and best boats of their day. If DP had been invented back them, none of us had ever heard of it.
I don’t know anything about DP, but I do know something about Cook Inlet. I suspect that DP would probably be a great advantage in Cook Inlet.
ya know this reminds me of the book “the grapes of Wrath” the chapter on a okie used car lot, the lines the salesmen would use to woo people to buy otherwise cars that would sputter to death 5 miles down the road, and thier cheap attempts to fix up the car enough or spiffy it up enough to get it sold…for those who read it great book, to those who havent…read it!