Actually it's CAPTAIN Piccolo, thank you very much.

The Coast Guard changed the license format some years ago but there is an old certificate type hanging on my wall. The other kind is in my travel bag.

It says: License to U.S. Merchant Marine Officer on it along with the various motor, steam and sail vessels I am authorized to operate. To put a fast point on it, I am Captain Piccolo.

I don't sail as an officer on the authority my license, I sail under the authority of my document as a rating. My choice.

I did not have rich parents with political connections so King's Point was not an option, and neither were any of the state Merchant Marine academies. I earned my license as what is called a 'Hawsepiper'. 

After I moved from Alaska to where there are no commercial fishing jobs I found the opportunity to sail on tugs as an ordinary seaman.

As soon as I got aboard the tug I started scouting around and seeing what I could do to increase my short money wages.

The opportunity was there and I went for it.

In a little less than a year I was no longer an ordinary. I was an Able Seaman with a Tankerman's endorsement and I was off the tugs and onto an oil barge moving oil. My income had more than doubled.

A couple months after that I sat for my Captain's license and became Captain Piccolo. I sailed on my license a couple of times but opted to stay on barges moving oil. It fit me better. There was less stress and it is actually kind of fun and the money is pretty good. I'm reasonably content.

There were six of us that were hired together. Over the years some of us run into one another. Let's look at the six.

Two have left the industry for greener pastures, leaving four of us still sailing. I have done what I am doing so that leaves three to account for. One has done quite well and is running a huge tug for another company, leaving two to account for.

The remaining two are still entry level ordinary seaman that are miserable and behind my back call me a brown noser and a kissass because I have gotten ahead and they have not after more than a quarter century in the industry.

Let's look at those two and look at the difference between us.

On my first trip I spoke with captains and crewmen and found out the options I had in the business. The didn't, being satisfied to watch TV and loaf during their off-watch times.

The captain and mate let me have the run of the books and other publications on the tug and I spent my off watch time with my nose in a book. When the trip ended and I was at the office I wandered in and asked a port captain for some advice and he handed me several books to study and told me there was opportunity. I took the books home with me and studied at the kitchen table.

I also sent out copies of sea time request forms along with an SASE to every single skipper I had ever fished with in Alaska.

Mutt and Jeff were spending their off time at the club putting dollar bills into Bubble's thong or pounding down draught beer at Moe's.

When I returned to work after my three weeks off I returned the books and was handed another pile of books. I was told to keep about half of them. It should be carefully noted that all of this cost me nothing. The port captain said he was glad to help.

After my second tour on the tug I requested a letter of service. When I got home there were several sea service forms waiting me and it was road trip time to the Coast Guard exam office where I sat for and passed my lifeboatman endorsement. I was still an Ordinary but had the hard part of the Able Seaman's test behind me.

Meanwhile Mutt and Jeff were smokin' and jokin' and when they found out I was a Lifeboatman they laughed at me and said I was wasting my time. Meanwhile Bubbles at the club got richer. 

A month later the company opened a tankerman training program for tankerman and I applied but found out I was ineligible because I had not worked there long enough. I asked to take the basic math test saying that the next time the program opened it would save time. They agreed.

I sat down and carefully worked each problem several times and wound up getting 100%. Based on the fact that I was the only person that took the test that maxed it I was granted a waiver and a month later I was in the classroom. Note that I was being paid to attend class.

When I finished the classroom part I went to the Coast Guard exam center and tested not only for tankerman but also for Able Seaman. I had studied for AB on my own at home and during off watch.

I took a battery of tests, did well and now had an AB/Tankerman ticket. and following a couple of training tours I was released and my paycheck instantly doubled. Mutt and Jeff said I was a brown noser and a kiss ass. 

Two months later I arranged all of my sea time and other paperwork and sat for a limited captain's license. I was now Captain Piccolo.

While I only sailed on the license a couple of times I keep it renewed in case I want to use it for something. I sail under the authority of my AB/Tankerman's ticket and I have had a pretty good career.

I found a spot, saw opportunity and took advantage of it.

Mutt and Jeff after over a quarter century are a pair of very bitter men that constantly gripe that it's not fair that they are still chipping paint, mopping floors and cleaning heads. Yet neither of those two have bothered to take advantage of the opportunities open to them.

Meanwhile Bubbles has taken the money they put in her G-string and went to hairdresser school and has since opened her own styling salon. 

I wrote this because someone was pointing out the age old wage disparity situation where the CEO makes a bundle and the lower entry people make very little. 

People with brains and initiative generally don't last very long in entry level jobs. They take the initiative and go places.

People may laugh at working at MacDonald's but it's a lead pipe cinch that many managers and franchise owners started out flipping burgers for peanuts and are now doing pretty well. 









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