You can also try the union route.
[QUOTE=oregonblitzkrieg;116258]I can either enroll in Seattle, with their deadline quickly approaching, or go to San Fran, rent a hotel and show up every day at the union hall. What would you do if you were me? [/QUOTE]
That would be a tough call. Personally, I wouldn’t move down to SF without first talking with a member (or better yet, several members) of MFOW and getting a feel for the situation there now. Working out of a union hall is a rough way to go (been there, done that)… on the other hand, there’s no guarantee of a job waiting for you if you go the community college route and you may find yourself sitting around the hiring hall anyway.
Why don’t you apply to the 1 year apprenticeship program at Seafarer’s International Union? You’d come out with an AB Special, and it provides you with the STCW and your first job, plus you get paid increasing amounts during the training. You’d get a taste of both deck and engine and decide there what you want to do.
Two minutes on my local craigslist found me an advert. with a smaller cruise ship company (ACL) that plies the coasts and rivers. They probably would take care of your BST. You started your original post saying you’d work on a cruise “slave” ship, but the smaller American companies would pay you a better wage while you get experience. I’ve seen a lot of the common foreign flagged cruise ships dock hundreds of times, and trust me when I say I’ve never seen an American deckhand on a foreign flagged cruise ship. Not even on the Disney ships. The OSs are usually Filipino and their bosses are from eastern or southern Europe. I have no clue why that is. It seems to be some kind of weird rule. I don’t know why the Filipino OSs can’t move up the hawsepipe, or why the eastern European guys never move up to be captain. The captains are usually from northern Europe. This segregation bothers me because it looks like racism, even if there might be some other reason for it. And none of the clueless American passengers ever seems to question the status quo.
The deckhands hired by ACL are required to have nothing. No BST. No OS. The boats are under 100 grt domestic. The living conditions and pay are abysmal. They work a 12 week contract if they make it that long. The company is horrible and don’t give an shit about anybody. If you come onboard this week and they haven’t booked enough passengers to cruise next week, they boot you out on the dock. It doesn’t matter where you are from or where the boat is. I was a mate there for three years and the two reasons I left are pay and how the crew is treated. As an officer we were constantly required to lie bold faced to the crew. Stay away!!!
[QUOTE=captaint76;116628]The deckhands hired by ACL are required to have nothing. No BST. No OS. The boats are under 100 grt domestic. The living conditions and pay are abysmal. They work a 12 week contract if they make it that long. The company is horrible and don’t give an shit about anybody. If you come onboard this week and they haven’t booked enough passengers to cruise next week, they boot you out on the dock. It doesn’t matter where you are from or where the boat is. I was a mate there for three years and the two reasons I left are pay and how the crew is treated. As an officer we were constantly required to lie bold faced to the crew. Stay away!!![/QUOTE]
How is the pay structured? Hourly? It can’t be worse than Carnival.
Very small day rate supported my tips from the passengers that you may or may not get.
[QUOTE=captaint76;116628]The deckhands hired by ACL are required to have nothing. No BST. No OS. The boats are under 100 grt domestic. The living conditions and pay are abysmal. They work a 12 week contract if they make it that long. The company is horrible and don’t give an shit about anybody. If you come onboard this week and they haven’t booked enough passengers to cruise next week, they boot you out on the dock. It doesn’t matter where you are from or where the boat is. I was a mate there for three years and the two reasons I left are pay and how the crew is treated. As an officer we were constantly required to lie bold faced to the crew. Stay away!!![/QUOTE]
I have no experience with ACL but I did work as a mate with another small vessel cruise line. The company, now defunct, was a good one but the pay was abysmal. Deckhands made $150/week plus tips, which were usually $150-200/week. Plus, with the 100 ton limitation there was very little you could use the sea time for. Mates had it slightly better with a daily rate, option to eat passenger food, lounge privileges, free dry cleaning, etc. But again, the sea time was practically worthless. Funnest job I ever had though, and great people to work with. I’m still friends with some of the people I met there.
[QUOTE=captobie;116662] Plus, with the 100 ton limitation there was very little you could use the sea time for. [/QUOTE]
People allways mention this, but it seems to me upon reading the reqs at the NMC, that you can use sea time on smaller vessels for a greater tonnage license as long as you have a certain percentage of time on the larger vessels. True or not?
True. Read the checklist PDFs on the NMC website. Pretty straight forward.
[QUOTE=MariaW;116682]People allways mention this, but it seems to me upon reading the reqs at the NMC, that you can use sea time on smaller vessels for a greater tonnage license as long as you have a certain percentage of time on the larger vessels. True or not?[/QUOTE]
I guess I should clarify, it’s no good if you have a higher tonnage license, I think the max tonnage you can use it towards is 500 (although I haven’t read the references lately, it could have changed). I even checked in to using the time for pilotage, but the only thing I could use it for was towards 10% of the required trips for Tracy Arm in Alaska. 
[QUOTE=“captobie;116685”]
I guess I should clarify, it’s no good if you have a higher tonnage license, I think the max tonnage you can use it towards is 500 (although I haven’t read the references lately, it could have changed). I even checked in to using the time for pilotage, but the only thing I could use it for was towards 10% of the required trips for Tracy Arm in Alaska. :([/QUOTE]
You can have half your sea time for any restricted tonnage license be on your personal 20ft fishing boat. I think the inland aspect is worse than the tonnage for licensing as offshore time is usually harder to get than tonnage.
Since the original topic was slave ships, I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before… 
But have you looked in to MSC? There are LOTS of both pros and cons to MSC that are covered all over this forum, but if free training, a steady paycheck, and more sea time than you ever imagined are what you are looking for they are worth checking out:
I have looked into them, I may send them an application but from what I’ve read it seems difficult to get on with them, I think they takes vets first and with this economy I’m sure there’s a long line of people waiting on the dock for a job, but I’ll try anyway.
They don’t generally take OS or wipers. They take entry ratings in the supply department called Supply Utility (SU). Get ready to scrub floors, toilets and make breakouts for the cooks. Msc sees OS and wipers as " promotions". If you have a thin skin don’t bother applying, the road from SU to deck or engine is long and hard. Just FYI.
I wouldn’t do it unless your days spent as an SU gives you the equivalent sea time an OS earns. Coast Guard doesn’t seem to mention Supply Utility in their reqs at the NMC.
Not sure how SU sea time is counted or how it could be used. But I think one needs sea time as OS to advance to AB? Seems this is the way it was in the past, but I could be wrong it’s been a while.
[QUOTE=Xmsccapt(ret);116946]Not sure how SU sea time is counted or how it could be used. But I think one needs sea time as OS to advance to AB? Seems this is the way it was in the past, but I could be wrong it’s been a while.[/QUOTE]
That was my understanding too. I hope someone can clarify. It would really stink (no pun intended) if you spent years or even 6 months cleaning toilets,not earning sea time, just for the hope of getting an OS job where you FINALLY earn sea time.
Don’t you [B]have[/B] to have a z-card to work as an SU? It would seem that whichever department you are in is where you get your sea time. So if you are sailing on your OS then you are good toward AB, if you are sailing on your wiper then you are good for QMED. Maybe SU falls under Food Handler (Stewerds Dept). Don’t know where you go from there.
I don’t think sea time as a steward counts for any other department. So getting into MSC via SU sounds like a really bad deal. It sounds like you’re better off earning your AB somewhere else before applying to MSC.