Your first real paying job on a boat... (or ship)

1973 @ $25 a day on production/standby boat GOM.

1975 - Seaman on USCGC Gallatin.

First commercial job was 1985, in Seattle, Marine Power and Equipment tug, don’t recall the name, shit pay. Only worked there a couple weeks then jumped to Reidel Offshore’s Siegfried Tiger.

Deckhand/Janitor on the Spirit of Norfolk dinner boat $6.25 an hour. I worked there for 6 years and topped out at $7.50 an hour as “Chief Mate”. It was fun and a good college job. I also ran as the capt on the little downtown ferry for a few nights a week for a while. That was $11 an hour.

It all started in the spring of 1971, as a 15 year old deckhand on the party boats “Florida Girl” & “New Florida Girl”. The pay was 35 cents per passenger and the New FL Girl could carry 90 passengers for $31.50 per day.
During the summers it would be full loads nearly every day, about $800 per month was killer money for a kid. I paid my own way during the summer, bought my own school clothes, own gas and car ins, dental work, etc. all year. I also worked on the sport fishing boats “Mariner” and “Bonanza” occasionally.
This was all in Destin, FL for Dave Marler boats. I didn’t just learn to fish, there was some deck seamanship involved and I learned to be a helmsman not to mention just how to “work”.:cool:

I was always fascinated by the skipper peering into his loran receiver to get a fix on his favorite spots and occasionally he would use his RADAR to slip through the jetties during poor visibility. I wanted to DO THAT. After HS I joined the Navy and became a Quartermaster. The mysteries of navigation were revealed.

I took my wife on that tub back in 1999 for anniversary dinner. I did tip appropriately.

1982- I was ten years old and a full share Deckhand on my dads commercial fishing boat. I made great money just never saw it. The money I earned went on a ledger that my father controlled. When my brothers and I would fuck up at school or at home. My dad would fine us and make deductions accordingly on the ledger. At the age of 15 I started to get paychecks and was making serious money putting meat in the box. I never did see that money from the ledger but I did learn some very marketable skills

Fall of 2002 I started as a deckhand on the education/research boat Earl L. Milan as a student worker at Texas A&M University at Galveston. (No, I was not in TMA) The pay was $5.25 per hour, I believe. In the summer of 2003 I took a job as a deckhand on the party fishing boat Texsun II for Williams Party Boats. Pay was $60/day plus tips for a 12 hour trip with up to 65 passengers on a 65 ft boat. It was hard work, long hours and I would usually catch myself falling asleep driving to and from work everyday. I stuck with it through the summer, chalked it up as a good experience and swore I’d never do that again. I spent the next three summers there slinging fish,cleaning puke and racking up sea time.

10 years later I still go back and run the boat sometimes just for fun (and money).

I never got any tips. That was the waitstaff who got those.

[QUOTE=Jeffrox;145911]It all started in the spring of 1971, as a 15 year old deckhand on the party boats “Florida Girl” & “New Florida Girl”. The pay was 35 cents per passenger and the New FL Girl could carry 90 passengers for $31.50 per day.
During the summers it would be full loads nearly every day, about $800 per month was killer money for a kid. I paid my own way during the summer, bought my own school clothes, own gas and car ins, dental work, etc. all year. I also worked on the sport fishing boats “Mariner” and “Bonanza” occasionally.
This was all in Destin, FL for Dave Marler boats. I didn’t just learn to fish, there was some deck seamanship involved and I learned to be a helmsman not to mention just how to “work”.:cool:

I was always fascinated by the skipper peering into his loran receiver to get a fix on his favorite spots and occasionally he would use his RADAR to slip through the jetties during poor visibility. I wanted to DO THAT. After HS I joined the Navy and became a Quartermaster. The mysteries of navigation were revealed.[/QUOTE]

Thank you for reminding me how my hands hurt from electric reels hooks, shocks, catching water (rope / bucket) and Dave’s ice house raids. You didn’t learn nothing from “Red”? lol

1997, 4.5 months as 3/M on MOC car carrier “Overseas Joyce.”

Captain on the first voyage had a wonderful nickname of “The Anti-Christ.” He really never spoke to me at all over those 45 days, but he wasn’t a tyrant by any means.

I was also the MED PIC. My AB kept complaining of irritated sinuses and occasional bloody noses, but I could never figure out the problem, much less treat it. He ultimately got an NFFD in Toyohashi and flew home to Jaxville. The crew had to go clean his room and I think pack up some of his clothes.

The first thing they noticed when they went to his stateroom was all the rolled up towels on the deck by the door, the second thing they noticed was the pile of hose-mccann sound powered phone parts he had been stealing from the E/R, and third thing they noticed was the all the cans of paint thinner he had been huffing over the last couple of months.

It was a very long 135 days. Just the usual car carrier / prison ship liner service. I worked nearly endless OT and made (total pkg) about $7000/mo. Great first job.

Came home with a few sea stories, lots of good experiences, more confidence as an OICNW, health benefits, and what I thought was the world’s biggest bank account.

Straight into the Navy out of HS in '84 for six. First ship was Aug '90, the Coastal Eagle Point, the T2, ex Esso Baltimore built in ‘62. Ball bustin’, bell to bell, 8 am till dusk. Sailed as an Ordinary, though I had time for AB. Damn glad I did. Had an old (68 y/o) Portuguese bos’n, Jose, who taught me most of what I know today in being an AB. Ran black oil in the wings and asphalt down the middle. That deck was so damn hot in the summer. Early '91 found me in the GOM for a short bit. Only time I ever got seasick was on a JE Graham standby utility. Did a trip on a Tidewater boat out of Morgan City and Cameron, and we couldn’t leave the boat. Did another trip on the Bengal Seal with Seal Craft or Fleet, can’t remember. In Fourchon, we would tie up as close as we could by the convenience store that catered to rec fishermen so we could walk less than a block(shouting distance) from the boat for A 40oz, the captains gift. We couldn’t go further away from the boat and someone had to stay onboard for the radio. Then, got smart and joined a deep sea union.

Got out of high school in 01’, had a book in the local operating engineers union waiting for me. Got laid off before christmas and was talking to my uncle, he worked for Gellately at the time. Went to work for Poling on the Caddell a few trips @ 126.00 a day. Pushing rocks around now and I kind of like it. The plan was for me to go shoreside at somepoint, but the ex-wife took that dream along with the house and 1/2 of my future paychecks with her in the divorce.

Didn’t live near the water when I was of working age. Does being the evil cadet count as a real job? I know that I always seemed to work my ass off. First ship, PRESIDENT EISENHOWER, summer of 78. . . . engine cadet at around $11.50 a day as I recall. First “real” job, then on the SEALAND MCLEAN, Day Third. With vacation time and OT (lots of the latter), about $240 a day. That was some real green back in August of 81. . . .

Jan 1977
BoTruc23
Morgan City
O.S. no Z-card
$26 a day

After the USCG. Took a job with Whitestack(Turecamo) in Charleston as a relief deckhand doing harbor work. Started out making $75 a day. That was in 96.

When I made the jump to the oilfield, I took a job as a deckhand for $75 a day. That was in 2012 on a utility boat with my 100 ton license. But they didn’t want anything to do with a 19 year old captain, and I was hungry, so I hopped on.

Started hamming on a small construction tug in high school, made a few $ here and there by didn’t really do a ton of long days or hard work either. Definitely skipped a few classes to make a tide though. I think I just like the sound of air starters. First real job out of maritime was a training monkey mate at $280 a day on a a rust bucket tug, circa 2007.

I started working offshore at the age of 18. That was in 85. I worked as deckhand on 230 ft seismic vessel. Moved up from deck to 1600 master. Worked in North Sea, Brazil, Africa and Mediterranean Sea. Start out pay back then was $40 a day. Now look what a deckhand makes now.

Summer of 2003. I was hired as a cook/deckhand up in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, on the Tug Sag River.

Worst f’ing experience of my young life! I was the third cook on the tug of that season, which only last’s 90-110 days between break up and freeze up. The old man was a goofy SOB.

But, I was hooked on tugs!

First job out of boot was the USS Vulcan (AR-5) in 1981 working as a Hull Technicial in the Shipfitter Shop. Looking at my totals for that year is showing $7,855. That’s a whopping $164 a week. And after 11 years my gross was $16,445. FTN!
As a civilian the next year on a catcher-processor out of Dutch in '92 as a QMED-Assistant, my pay almost tripled. Oh happy days!