Fairly early on in my career I had to deal with a tough call and I did it well.
When a tankerman signs on the Declaration of Inspection he becomes the legal person in charge of the operation. Nobody outranks him. He is entirely responsible while he is signed on watch. Period.
No and, ifs or buts.
Now, of course the company expects that the tankerman will obey the barge captain to the very letter but when push comes to shove and the laws under the Code of Federal Regulations come up there enters the zone they don't want to enter.
They have promised their barge captains to support them but on the other hand, the barge captains are supposed to obey the rules and regulations.
This idiot didn't know how it worked and figured he was God.
Anyway, I was topping off the tanks late one night and something turned dark somewhere. I turned around and noticed that the 'Christmas tree' of overfill lights and the alarms had been turned off. I instantly called the dock and told him to shut down and close his valve. The instant that was done I headed back and saw the barge captain standing over a tank valve.
I demanded to know what he was doing and he explained he was overfilling the tank because he was having some kind of contest with the relief captain as to who could cram the most cargo into the tanks.
I told him I had shut the transfer down when I saw the lights turn off and he got rather angry and tolds me to tell the dock to start up. I told him to sign on the DOI first. Then I said the rest of the transfer was his and I walked away. He demanded to know where I was going and I said I was going straight to bed after I had signed off on the DOI.
I listened to his threats for a moment or so and did just what I said I was going to do. I signed off and went to bed.
It was kind of lucky for me the trip was winding down and we were relieved when we got to the dock the next day to discharge. He was livid and accused me of disobedience and probably mutiny and piracy on the high seas on top of that.
My attitude was 'Yeah, whatever'. I knew I was on solid ground. I had the backing of the Coast Guard, the customer (who considered an alarm going off to be a big thing) and the union (Who was frankly useless) but knew they would be forced to back me.
We were relieved when we got to the dock and hopped in the van who took both the tug and barge crew back to company headquarters. The instant we arrived the captain told me he was 'taking me upstairs' to report me to he port captain.
This guy, who was a lot bigger than me actually held me by my collar like a Keystone Kop taking a burglar to jail as we went up the stairs! I put on a sad, hungdog look with my lower lip sticking out about a foot, pouting. I was having a hard time keeping a straight face.
Halfway up the stairs a friend of his stopped and asked us what was going on and he explained that I had disobeyed him when he had shut down the alarms and he was reporting me for disobedience.
His friend went into shock and explained how he was just going to get himself likely fired because the alarms were not to be shut off under any circumstances.
Of course the big lummox let go of my collar and stammered that I was trying to get him fired. I shot back that I was simply going to let him fire himself. I walked down the stairs, headed to my car and went home.
I don't know who said what. Maybe it was the friend of the idiot, maybe it was one of the tug guys but someone had said something to somebody because I had been home close to two weeks and I got a call asking me to work with Buck for a tour but come in a week early.
Buck was an old sweat that worked like a dog but muddled his way through calculations and paperwork. He was a crackerjack on deck but almost functionally illiterate. He was barely able to muddle his way throght calculations and paperwork. His basic seamanship was excellent.
I jumped at the opportunity because a couple of tours with him I'd learn a lot AND come out a hero as likely I'd be doing the calculations and paperwork.
I worked with him the better part of a year and came out asked to take a captaincy which I refused.
Instead I accepted an invite from a guy I worked with as a trainee and we stayed as a unit together for about ten years. I kept refusing promotions because I was having too much fun at work.
As for the idiot? I think he eventually left the company to work somewhere else.
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