Youngest Unlimited Master?

Whats the youngest USCG licensed unlimited captain you’ve ever known to go through the hawsepipe?

[QUOTE=dncartersweatte1993;129196]Whats the youngest USCG licensed unlimited captain you’ve ever known to go through the hawsepipe?[/QUOTE]

I’m sorry I cant answer your question directly because in my own experience I haven’t known too many hawsepiper unlimited masters but I can tell you that I knew an academy grad who sailed almost non-stop for MSC for 5 or 6 years and got his master’s ticket by the time he was 27 or 28. If you’re main interest is the expedient advancement of your license and you don’t mind being away from home for long periods of time then MSC is probably the place for you.

They have more than their fair share of problems but depending on what your life goals are and what kind of a set up you have then the advantages they offer aren’t too shabby. You can stock pile a metric crap-load of sea time and money in comparatively short order and then use both of those things to expedite your license acquisition goals.

Might be a stupid question but, whats the best way to get hooked up with a job with MSC? My plan as of now was to go to the gulf and get on a small OSV as hopefully a 100 ton mate. If that doesn’t work out then I’m going for a AB position. But I have a open mind, the longer I’m at sea the better.

http://www.sealiftcommand.com/resources/now-hiring this should help. Also MSC will pay for some training cost, make sure you talk to them and see if they will pay for anything. Good luck! Use google before you get the pointy stick.

  1. Not a hawsepiper but a Mass grad. Sailed on anything and everything that would use his license.

[QUOTE=dncartersweatte1993;129196]Whats the youngest USCG licensed unlimited captain you’ve ever known to go through the hawsepipe?[/QUOTE]

I think you mean a person with an unlimited license not an unlimited MASTER.

[QUOTE=dncartersweatte1993;129196]Whats the youngest USCG licensed unlimited captain you’ve ever known to go through the hawsepipe?[/QUOTE]

check with captrob or anchorman

I think either of them might be a contender for the title

John Harvey was master at 25 with Sealand, I believe sometime around 1975? He was CMA grad, and had the respect of all his crew on all the ships he commanded.
I sure miss them old school guys.

The youngest that I sailed with was Richie Manchester at Lykes. I believe that he was 32 when I sailed with him in 79. Funny enough, I ran across him a few years back. He was running the Tidewater base in Douala, Cameroon. . . . Mass grad, though.

I came up through the hawsepipe and made U/L Master by 36. I never sailed for MSC. I did spent a lot of time searching for and hopping ships to get the tonnage.

Just goes to show, if you really apply yourself in this industry and you’re not a complete screw up, great things are possible

I’m on track to have the big ticket at age 35, maybe 36 and I’m age 34 now. I’ve hawsepiped all of the way. Jesus, my best years were spent at sea.

Didn’t we have some early 20s masters in the 19th century? Maybe they died off fast enough to move up quick :eek:

33 years of age

Yeah, in the 17 and 1800s you could’ve had 16 year old mates and masters in their mid-late 20s.

I bet the 40s and early 50s had some young masters.

[QUOTE=LI_Domer;129287]Yeah, in the 17 and 1800s you could’ve had 16 year old mates and masters in their mid-late 20s.

I bet the 40s and early 50s had some young masters.[/QUOTE]

I think Nelson had a heavy frigate of his own before he was 30, didn’t he? I’d have to agree with you about the 40’s and 50’s, after what some of those boys went through during the war, I just bet there were a lot of 25-30 year olds floating around out there with unlimited masters licenses. They certainly earned it.

[QUOTE=Bloodyshitcakes;129271]I’m on track to have the big ticket at age 35, maybe 36 and I’m age 34 now. I’ve hawsepiped all of the way. Jesus, my best years were spent at sea.[/QUOTE]
The youngest Master I remember was 30 in 1970. I’ve sailed with a couple of academy grads that were 33 and 34.

I spent my best years at sea also but going to sea back then was fun. I’d been all over N&S America, 2 Panama Canal transits and a few European ports by the time I was 18. Several Med ports and most of North and West Africa by 21. Ample port time. I had my Chief Motor at 33.

Got my UL Master ticket at 35, hawsepipe. Sailed with an academy grad Master who took command at 28.

[QUOTE=dncartersweatte1993;129196]Whats the youngest USCG licensed unlimited captain you’ve ever known to go through the hawsepipe?[/QUOTE]

It may be a pretty old mariner with first hand expereince. I started as 3rd Mate in 1980, and by that time the size of the US fleet and the job market had severely dwindled. On several occasions, I sailed 3rd with a Chief Mate license, everyone else had Master. By the time the last of the WWII era guys retired, there weren’t a lot of jobs left. At that time, you didn’t Chief Mate time to get Master, so it wasn’t uncommon for most, if not all, of the deck officers to hold Master. Sop I sailed with guys who held Master in their late 20s, but never with a Cap[tain younger than late 30s.

[QUOTE=jdcavo;129331]It may be a pretty old mariner with first hand expereince. I started as 3rd Mate in 1980, and by that time the size of the US fleet and the job market had severely dwindled. On several occasions, I sailed 3rd with a Chief Mate license, everyone else had Master. By the time the last of the WWII era guys retired, there weren’t a lot of jobs left. At that time, you didn’t Chief Mate time to get Master, so it wasn’t uncommon for most, if not all, of the deck officers to hold Master. Sop I sailed with guys who held Master in their late 20s, but never with a Cap[tain younger than late 30s.[/QUOTE]

I made a couple trips as second mate where mine was the only license in the rack that wasn’t unlimited master. It wasn’t unheard of to have the captain and all three mates holding U/L master.