have been a motley crew.
While I worked barges it should be noted that they were generally run by a crew of two. I've served as a captain and a mate running them and worked with whoever I was sent to work with off and on.
I was generally assigned to a specific piece of equipment and enjoyed a regular work companion for most of the time.
Still, once in a while I'd either need another crewman or fill in here and there with whoever they assigned me to work with.
I've worked with Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, a gay guy, a lazy, pimpy black, a white drug addict and others. The pimpy black guy and the drug addict did not last very long. The black guy left to do something else and the drug addict got picked up in a random drug test and it was adios for him. I heard he later got into a lot of trouble back home afterwards. I got his home address and for a couple of years sent him a coloring book at Christmastime as payback for the trouble he caused me.
I had one specific Black guy that worked with me briefly that was totally brilliant and I wish I could have worked with him some more. I also had a Jew that had a pretty good brain.
Most of the Hispanics and Asians I worked with over the years were work addicts that kept themselves damned busy doing things to make things nicer.
I was never assigned a woman which isn't surprising as women on the barges are extremely rare. The handful of woman that enter the industry generally gravitate toward the tugs.
I had a friend that worked with a woman for a while and he reported she was OK but said he had to have a quiet talk with her and tell her to wear a bra when she was off watch as he said she was too distracting to customers. Apparently she was rather topheavy. He said she didn't bat an eyelash and went along with it without question, much to her credit.
Actually, and especially on the barges, the guys were, for the most part pretty professional and had no problems working with a woman. The main problem that surfaced was with the wives.
I remember one of the guys on a tug that said that if his wife ever found out there was a female deckhand on board she'd drag him ashore. Same thing held for a lot of barge guys and a number of tug guys. The problem wasn't generally with the guys, it was with the wives.
Much to Mrs Pic's credit when the subject came up at home she said she didn't care who I worked with so long as I behaved myself and stayed employed.
I think the worst one I worked with was the drug addict. He was a real slob and I finally resorted to letting him got to bed when he left the galley a mess and then after he was asleep I'd wake him and tell him to get up and clean up his mess. He learned but it took some time. He was gone after a couple of tours, someone else's headache until he popped hot on a drug test.
One of the best ones was a Black guy I mentioned earlier that was pretty damned good at predicting politics and picking winners. Early on during the primaries he said that the only person in the Democratic lineup that Trump could beat was Hillary.
His reasoning was completely dispassionate and leaned toward neither party and knew how to keep his feelings on an issue out of it. He understood geography and demographics a lot better than I do. I never did find out how he personally felt on any particular issue and never did ask. It was none of my business.
One thing about working with an assortment of any people in any workplace is to find common ground and at sea it was generally pretty easy to find one. We were all there to make a living as painlessly as possible and that was about it. Of course there were a few exceptions. The junkie was there simply to feed a drug habit and another guy I knew was there to finance his alcoholism. While I said the junkie didn't last long, neither did the rummy.
Still, for the most part, the majority of my time was spent working alongside two individuals. To me having a solid relationship with a coworker meant a lot more than getting on a bigger piece of equipment even though it often paid a little more.
I wasn't there to get rich or become a big shot. I simply wanted a good, solid bill paying paycheck and a good partner. Another thing I wanted was predictability and stability.
The barges are kind of a gritty world and a smart cookie finds someone they are compatable with and sticks with them. You have to remember that on a 3 week on/off tour arrangement you are spending half of your life with someone and it sure as hell helps finding someone you are compatable with.
Of the two I served with for long periods, one was a high school dropout and the other had a degree from an Ivy League school. Both of them were fun to work with and knew their stuff and I'm pleased that things worked out as well as they did.
Mostly I worked with men and some pretty good women.
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One of the first things I would tell a new guy was
"Under no circumstances are you to wake me up if you have a spill, break something or make a big mess. I am going to have to face the office and have to explain things and I am going to have to have aall the sleep I can get. I will be facing several people sitting at a long table and they will have rule books, pads and pens, snacks and drinks and I will he in front of them with nothing but my wits."
I continued. "The time to wake me is before something happens so I can come out and we can take care of things and prevent something bad from happening. Simply shut down the transfer and wake me. I will never be angry with you if you do even if it's over something you think is stupid. If you don't wake me and something happens I am going to be really pissed off."
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One time someone woke me and said that he was stripping a tank and that the cargo wasn't moving. I opened one eye and said, "Close the crossover and it that doesn't work wake me up again."
A couple of hours later when I woke up and wandered into the galley, We were underway. He saw me and sheepishly apologized for waking me, explaining he should have known better. "I'd have been mad if you didn't wake me," I replied.
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