Still, the opportunity for a formal education was available to me. I could have gon to Massachusetts Maritime and gotten a degree. I simply chose not to. Fact is, I just stumbled into my career. I needed a job, was offered one, took it and rode it out.
Early on I found it agreed with me. I suppose if I knew I would have wound up doing what I do I might have opted for school.
One of the advantages to being a maritime academy graduate is you have a degree in something useful to fall back on if you want to come ashore. I recently met a kid that's going to the California maritime academy and he has an interesting plan. He's studying oceanography and wants to activate the reserve Navy commission he will get through the academy and be a Navy oceanographer. Sounds reasonable. I imagine the Navy can put his newly acquired skills to work.
Over the years I've had a couple of port captains that were academy grads and they seemed OK. It's a shoreside job and pays the bills. Of the two that come to mind, one went to SUNY Maritime, the other went through the Coast Guard academy. the latter took the port captain job after he retired from the Coasties as an O-5.
Both of these people worked at sea earlier in their careers. They took their degrees ashore, probably because they wanted a normal familly life.
As I sit here mulling this over I have come to the conclusion that in my case a degree would have been a waste of time. On the other hand, had I gone bust on a physical or had something else change my life along the way I would have had nothing to fall back on.
It's really kind of a wash.
One thing the academies ought to do is offer more than the bachelor's degrees. I believe Maine Maritime has an associate's program but what they also should do is offer a series of shorter courses on basic entry level skills taught by industry veterans.
About 30 years ago I got tapped out to give a 3 week course to entry level people and I did OK in that I taught them a few things. Later I reported that one of the students was an accident looking for a place to happen and they ought to drop him. They refused, he got hurt and sued and I kept my mouth shut until the Fickle Finger of Fate pointed my way and I quickly pointed out that I had recommended getting rid of him early on and that they had ignored my recommendation.
Still, the course I taught really didn't get cooking until I talked a tug skipper into putting us to work. We fired up the tug and started moving barges and that's when the students really started learning. It became a real world experience.
One of the things I said often enough is "I taught you how already. Now just do it."
They'd stop for a second or two and reply, "Oh. OK. I see. THAT'S what you were referring to!" and they'd jump to it like a crackerjack. I got very little "I don't understand" from any of them except for the wannabe accident.
That three week course got about ten or twelve people started. Some of them left the industry early on deciding for a shoreside lifestyle, others stuck with it.
About ten years after I ran the course I ran into one of the guys that was working shoreside. He told me that he has used a number of the small skills I had taught him.
I think that the maratime academies ought to run a couple of entry level courses for people to learn the fundamentals of both being a deckhand on a tug and a basic hands on tankerman course.
The Seaferer's Union from all accounts runs a pretty good school down in Piney Point, Maryland. I see they have a 38 hour class in running tank barges and have heard some of the course is hands on, loading and pumping water which sound like a pretty good deal.
They also have a basic cadet type program there and crank out some pretty good entry level people.
Back to college. I have done well without a degree and I do not know what I would do if Mr. Peabody stuffed me into the WayBack machine and took me back to the day I graduated high school.
Right now I'm sitting here with and all's well that ends well attitude but I think that it would have been OK to have a satety net that a degree would have provided.
Incidentally a degree out here is not a guarantee to success. Over the years I have seen a few academy types replaced by people with no college background. In one instance it was a King's Pointer replaced with someone that hadn't finished high school. Still, most of the degree guys out here park their sheepskin at home and come out here and do an excellent job.
As I wind down on my career I still have not made up my mind what I would have done if I stepped out of the WayBack machine on June 6, 1969.
One thing getting a degree would have done is kept people off my back which is something I had to deal with until I was about 40.
One thing. I never drag my family into this blog but this is an exception. It was my wife that got the 'When you going to get your degree' people off of my back.
Back in the 90s the Coasties were still using the old pre WW2 format of keeping licenses and documents seperate. Now all Merchant Marine credentials are together on what looks like a red passport.
Licenses were 8.5x11 certificates and documents were on a wallet sized card, often called a Z-card. The biggest lettering on my actual license read 'US Merchant Marine Officer'.
The USMMO part has been helpful a couple of times when dealing with a rare pompous idiot hiding behind one of the old uninspected towboat licenses. The USMMO part means it's a license to run an inspected vessel. The old uninspected licenses were pretty much issued to tug skippers early on when licenses became mandatory for tug operation.
I was dealing with a cranky old tug skipper that babbled about his license. I shot back, "MY license says 'US Merchant Marine Officer' on it. Yours doesn't. Now let's get back to work." Several jaws dropped when I said that and one tug skipper blushed beet red.
When I first licensed in January of 1991 my wife burned off a couple of copies and handed one to my mother and said, "Here's his degree. It took him more time to get this than it does a bachelor's degree and he will never be without a decent job so long as he keeps it."
Mom had it framed and hung it on the wall somewhere which was fine. What was more important is I never heard another word about getting a degree.
In reality, my license itself has not put a whole lot of money in my pocket. Virtually all of my career has been made with the endorsements on my document, mainly the Person in Charge dangerous liquids and Able Seaman unlimited. endorsements.'
An AB/Tankerman ticket is what has made my my career. The rest my paperwork is additional but good to have because early on someone told me that if I could get a license to drive a battleship then get one because it adds to your resume/portfolio and makes you more employable.
To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this:
http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY
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