Do You Draw Straws? Which Crew Must be in the Lifeboat

On a cargo vessel, there are twice as many lifeboat seats as the maximum crew and passenger capacity. If the lifeboats on one side of a ship are unusable due to damage or excessive angle of incline, there will be enough seats on the usable side. When I was on a ship with one temporarily- disabled lifeboat, part of crew travelled to the next port by airplane, so that this safety law would not be broken. The station bill lists lifeboat assignments and duties for crew and passengers. For simplicity, crewmembers assigned to the working lifeboats would continue to exercise those roles, such as launching or steering away from the ship. If it turns out that only one lifeboat out of four is launchable, and there are not enough seats, there are inflatable survival rafts located adjacent to the lifeboats on either side of the ship. Much better than their World War Two era predecessor that resembled a giant floating donut, these modern models offer the opportunity to stay fairly dry while under a canopy. Here’s an exercise for ethics and ship’s management: who should get the better chance for survival in the lifeboat, and who should be sent to the raft? The lifeboat needs two engineers in case engine or electrical adjustments are required. The shock of a maritime casualty has incapacitated many would-be survivors, so all survival tasks must have two people assigned, to ensure that the job gets done. Lifeboatmen, or “Persons Proficient in Survival Craft”, are officers and able seafarers who are trained in navigating and managing day-to-day life in a lifeboat. Part of this qualification used to require demonstrating competency as a coxswain while rowing a boat with your classmates or shipmates. You can never have too many lifeboatmen on your lifeboat, although each raft should have at least two qualified personnel. Contrary to popular belief, the captain should avoid going down with the ship. The captain is an established authority figure to the crew, but more importantly, someone with celestial navigation skills. (For about 20 years, the US Navy dropped this competency, relying instead on GPS navigation on the ship, or a quick rescue by a coalition vessel if the ship must be abandoned. This competency has been restored.) Always bring a successor as well- the second mate is often the most proficient at navigation, as part of their daily shipboard duties of charting course. A modern enclosed lifeboat, an orange jellybean of sorts, is self-righting, provided that occupants remain seated, and that the lifeboat is not overweight. They also have engines, while rafts require rowing or towing. Inflatable rafts lack this self-righting feature, so anyone who can’t pull the weight of the raft, or the oars should be in the lifeboat. Think exit row on an airplane- children, the ill, and the very elderly. The lifeboat will be much drier than a raft. The chief steward or cook is often delegated the responsibility of managing food and water rations. While a survival amount is pre-staged inside the lifeboat, bottled water and non-perishable carbs and protein will be brought onboard if time permits. The medical officer, if there is one, may bring a go-bag onto the lifeboat. Anyone with metal implants or artificial limbs must ride in the lifeboat, due to the risk of puncturing the raft with sharp objects. Anyone who is not in a survival suit- an orange or red wetsuit issued to all crew- should be in the lifeboat. Negligence should not be assumed- survival suits are mostly kept in staterooms, not workplaces, and crewmembers are discouraged from returning to their rooms for missing items. Most importantly, fill the darn seats. On the RMS Titanic, an Edwardian sense of propriety sent lifeboats away with empty seats. I did this tabletop exercise as Leadership and Teamwork Training as a Third Engineer, but didn’t realize it until now. The scenario was choosing eight people to travel from a disintegrating moon colony in an escape pod. They had to keep it abstract.

The Year of Yes

If I look over the past year, I could tell you that I've broaded my horizons. Not so much through international work travel, since that was already happening, but through journeys undertaken in the United States. What was the reason for doing it now? There was the fear of turning 30 and entering middle age (by some peoples' definition). It felt like the right time to complete items off the bucket list. There is also the fact that the quality of travel and accomodation services are returning to pre-COVID norms; more hospitality, and less travail. Supplementing my actual vacation time, this year I also received weeklong interludes of basket leave - or administrative leave- while awaiting training classes and travel to and from the 5 ships I have spent time onboard this year. In April, I submitted my package for a Chief Engineer's License, issued by the US Coast Guard in Baltimore. In May, I hiked the first 100 miles of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Maryland, with an interesting 5-day Turbo Activation of a reserve ship in-between the two hiking trips. In June, I learned how to dig holes with an excavator. I was surprised the construction equipment company rented it to me without proof of training. In July, I visited Tijuana, as my ship was in San Diego. In August, I drove an electric car long-distance to see the giant rubber duck in Crisfield, MD. This is where I boarded the ferry to Tangier Island, a historic community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. In November, I attended a family Thanksgiving in Seattle. This was the first large reunion since 2019. And I am writing this blog post from Amtrak's southbound Crescent Train, an overnight trip from Washington, DC to New Orleans.

Do Leaders Get a Break?

I've been busy over the past week, wrapping up things onboard my ship. My relief is onboard, and I have brought him up to speed on how to do rounds of the engine room and how to log water test results. When I was a Third Enigneer, there was a certain finality to this occasion: detachment from the vessel, and 30 to 60 days of uninterrupted time off. At the First Engineer level, there is a new cross-current of talking to peers- and to the "marine placement specialists" or detailer. The result being alternatives to the 30-to-60 day off routine. So I have to learn to embrace the ambiguity of when I'll get called back to a ship, and when I'll be assigned to Navy Reserve duty. And for the other First Engineers wondering when I'll be available to cover their time off, I can honestly say, "It'll happen when it happens". Happy Easter Season to all!

Vacation Plans from 2019

While on Navy Reserve duty in Naples, Italy, I was able to make weekend trips to the ruins of Pompeii and the town of Kocevje, Slovenia in January 2020. A week later, Italy and the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet began lockdown procedures. That was the last trip for several years. From March 2020, and on paper until mid-2022, my employer enforced a 50-mile restriction of movement. This was a mild limitation compared to the total lockdown of merchant vessels, but did affect my ability to plan for a safe vacation. On return from outside the area, I would have to remain quarantined for two weeks. The message- go big on vacation, or stay at home. I stayed home. If vacation destinations – save for natural wonders - are about the people, then the immediate post-lockdown era was going to be a letdown. To summarize the ennui bluntly, the New York Times stated that hospitality became hostile. There were many underlying factors- from a labor shortage, transportation shortage, and supply shortage to a fickle customer base, and possible owner’s liability for a localized COVID-19 breakout. My impulse during this time was to make myself busier. While working ashore, I took a weekend job onboard a dinner cruise boat in Norfolk, VA; when it was ready to relaunch in the summer of 2021. Before COVID, the vessel had been at the center of the city’s social life; however, I saw that the clientele had changed: suburbanites had become accustomed to entertaining guests in their homes and backyards; and on their personal boats. Perhaps, life for the privileged set became more insular than outwardly focused. For me, planning interesting things to do on vacation seemed daunting, when “everything has changed”. Nevertheless, there are vacation plans from 2019 that are still good to go: a planned hike on the C & O Canal in Maryland, and a visit to the newly-built Christendom College chapel in Front Royal, Virginia. Nature and religion; the two stalwarts in a changing world. We are in what is called the “Fourth Pandemic Year”- the time elapsed since early 2020- now represents 5% of a lifespan. It’s time to live your best life.

Work Hard, Play Hard, Retire Well: The Skilled Labor Shortage Explained

At the beginning of the 21st century, highly-skilled transportation professionals had in their hands a golden bargain that the Greatest Generation fought for and won. In exchange for long periods away from home- weeks or months- ship's officers could retire at the age of 50, with a fully-funded pension. Airline pilots had the same pension by the age 60. These comparatively short career durations, less than 30 years, predictably allowed younger professionals to move into frontline leadership roles, as First Officers and Captains during their family-building years. Ceremoniously, officers of the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association would turn over their Merchant Mariner's License- their meal ticket- when applying for pension payments. There was no legal authority to take away the pensioner's license to work; only a moral one, in that one should not compete against family men and women for work, while collecting a pension. There was a surreptitious feeling among retirees who requested replacement credentials from the US Coast Guard for various retirement pursuits, such as operating their own tour boats. Over two decades, the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots increased to 65; and the American Maritime Officers' (AMO) pension fund was frozen, in exchange for a 401(k) plan. Notably, the AMO continued to allow recipients of pension buyouts to continue bidding on jobs. In comparison to blue-collar work, sitting in the pilot's seat or at the shipboard watch desk was not physically arduous, although work physicals were required. But early retirement was something for family members of airline pilots and ship's officers to look forward to, after decades of missed family celebrations and shift-work schedules: "I know I'm missing Christmas again, but it's only 3 more years to go". These unique jobs were nevertheless wrapped into the greater cultural zeitgeist of "never retiring" among senior workers, and the careerism of middle-class millenials. Retirement-eligible ship's officers continued to hold jobs at the top of each career ladder into their sixties. These jobs remained economically lucrative, even as payscales for new entrants stagnated: "Suck it up, young buttercup, just wait your turn for the big bucks". The COVID-19 pandemic shook up the zeitgeist. Perhaps retirement wasn't so bad, after all. Some of the job perks in the air or at sea, like going ashore in foreign countries, vanished. The ship master's reponsibility for controlling the spread infectious disease, thought to be a vestigial relic of the smallpox and polio era, came to the forefront. Who will fill these senior-level jobs that have suddenly come open? Having gone years with limited prospect of upward mobility, younger officers with transferrable knowledge and skills may have become disenchanted with employment in global transportation, and moved into other careers. What is the price for bringing back the workforce? At the Military Sealift Command, a 50% salary incentive is bending the curve in recruiting Chief Mates back from their shoreside employment. Flagship airlines are coming to accept this price as well, signing collective bargaining agreements that offer double-time pay for weekend work.

Could it Work? Profit Share on Vessels

Two hundred years ago, it was common for mariners to be paid not in salary, but in share of revenue from the ship’s voyage. Depending on the trade, a captain might collect a long draw of 1/8^th, and an ordinary seaman perhaps 1/200^th of the ship’s earnings on a voyage.

Looking back to the 1920’s, this practice had become obsolete for the most part. In the whaling trade, this practice continued. Many vessels used in the whaling trade were purchased secondhand. Most trade routes had shifted from sail to steam between 1890 and 1910, leaving many sailing vessels available for reuse in longer-haul trades. Thus, the cost of labor was significant compared to the cost of capital equipment, such as the vessel, sails, and whaling gear. The mariners were an integral part of the value chain, as they sailed the ship and refined whale oil onboard, during their long voyage. In contrast to the cargo trade, where sailing routes were fixed, and cargos assigned by agents ashore; the nature of whaling incentivized captains to engage in the profit-seeking motive of finding the whales, even if it took them far from homeport.

It is still common in the fishing industry to practice profit-sharing, whether it is the San Diego fishing fleet or the Alaskan trade. A small crew works long hours to produce seafood.  

Today, crew costs for a large cargo vessel represents perhaps just 10 percent of vessel operating costs. On foreign vessels, labor accounts for perhaps $1 million for $10 million in costs, not including mortgage payments on the vessel.  Yet labor cost is the realm in which international shipowners try to pare down costs. Fuel costs, on the other hand, can represent 50% of a vessel’s operating expense, and is highly variable. It therefore is impractical to assign the profitability “risk” to crewmembers, when other factors affecting vessel profitability are much more variable than a fixed salary.  

How else can mariners profit from voyages beyond their salary? In sailing ship days, ship’s masters often owned their own vessels; and this owner-operator culture still exists on rivers and bays. Many deep-sea ships are incorporated as their own Limited Liability Company under a shipping firm’s umbrella. Bondholders and bank lenders on ship’s equipment will prefer a fixed return, but preferred shares of stocks in a particular vessel, with dividends paid on voyage earnings, could offer a more entrepreneurial investment for knowledgeable mariners. Currently, this format is not practiced for large ships, although inland boats may be paid for through this “crowdfunded” method.  

Coronavirus: Americans’ Independent Streak Began in WWII

One New York Times commentator suggested that anti-mask advocates would’ve spent World War Two shining their headlight beams into the sky to liberate America from civil defense blackouts. They practically did. Through the middle of 1942, bright beachfront lights illuminated silhouettes of American coastal Merchant ships. The leisure economy was back, fueled by war exports to Europe and Nationalist China, and resort owners were loath to give it up. Americans were offended by the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, but were not yet in the mood for national sacrifice.

 Sheer losses of merchant ships along the East Coast changed the tune. Attacks by Nazi U-Boats began in 1941 before the US entered the War, and peaked in early 1942. Referencing the sinking of dozens of unarmed coastwise tankers, a poster proclaimed to motorists: “Think- Sailors have died to give you this ride”.

Despite the grim loss of life, rationing of coffee, alarm clocks, and sliced bread was lifted quickly upon popular demand. As pointed out by Kelly Cantrell in a dissertation, magazines during the War listed recipes with unrationed substitutes, such as corn syrup for sugar; but also featured lavish recipes- which were practically illegal on the basis of strict ration points. To produce a traditional Christmas feast, it was necessary to pool with another family, stockpile canned goods (against government policy), or purchase on the black market.

In contrast to Britons’ stiff upper lips in the face of Blitzkrieg bombings, Americans have a long tradition of flouting the rules, and it was certainly not limited to members of one political ideology.   

Right to Work: Debate Then and Now

Press rooms in heavily-unionized New York and California have a narrative about right-to-work laws. They say these laws were passed by Southern states in the Jim Crow era to ensure a supply of low-wage African-American labor. Union leaders join in, calling Right-to-Work a right to work for less (SIU).

What the argument comes down to is a debate on whether the Closed Shop should be allowed. In a Closed Shop, employers are bound by union contract to only hire members. In contrast, in an Open Shop, employers may control the hiring process. A Right-to-Work state prohibits the Closed Shop.

Right-to-Work laws emerged shortly after World War Two, from Texas to Virginia. These laws would later be passed in the Mountain West. In the North, union loyalty remained strong among blue-collar Whites. African-Americans fought to join unions, which controlled hiring on lucrative, blue-collar middle-class jobs. Many of these involved contracts for immense public-works projects of the era. 

However, until the 1960’s, the Federal government tended to view labor unions as private associations exempt from due process. This held true even if the union held Closed Shop privileges. In some cases, racial discrimination was written into union by-laws; in others, nepotism ensured that sons and nephews of members filled the entry ranks.    Immense pressure by African-American groups upon City Halls, with sympathy from upscale Whites, wedged a token opening for minorities to join labor unions as equals. Furthermore, the Eisenhower administration considered using proposed national Right-to-Work legislation to right a civil wrong. In the South, unionization of railroad employers often led to a loss of skilled jobs for African-Americans, according to then-contemporary Herbert Hill.

Right-to-Work need not be the death sentence of labor unions. Unions which provide value to members, and to employers, will always be in demand. At OSG, a major ship-owning company (pre-2013), Licensed Deck Officers voted to disband its collective bargaining agreement. This was a move discouraged by the company, as the union representing the company’s mates provided surge labor, training, medical services, and a retirement plan. The company couldn’t imagine life without its labor unions. For disclosure, I am a proud, dues-paying union member.

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Note: Janus vs. AFSCME concerns a different issue. This decision has been criticized as one enabling “freeloaders” to collect the benefits of membership without paying dues.

References:

“Labor Unions and the Negro”, Herbert Hill. Circa July 1959. Found on commentarymagazine.com

“Why Are Anti-Union Laws Called “Right To Work”?, Brian Palmer, Slate. 12/12/2012.

Greta Thunberg's Expedition

Greta Thunberg, 16, made Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. Good for her, and I mean it. While Time Magazine and most people, from Brazil to Israel, are focusing on her climate-change advocacy, I’m honing in on her recent maritime accomplishment.

Scandinavians have a good relationship with the oceans. Since Leif Eriksson and his Vikings made a transatlantic voyage, citizens of the Baltic Sea have dominated and improved the maritime arts. Norwegian-born Andrew Furuseth (1854-1938) spearheaded legislation for the benefit of American merchant mariners. Scandinavian merchant ship officers and crew were a common sight in ports around the world. Britain, France, and America had colonies and overseas territories as natural customers for their merchant fleets; Baltic ships sailed not for empire, but for trade. In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Pacific Ocean onboard Kon-Tiki, a primitive raft.  Scandinavian mariners have disappeared in the past quarter-century, displaced by ship’s crews from the Philippines and India.

This summer, Greta Thunberg and her father sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in a solar-equipped sailboat. Modern navigation and life safety equipment made her voyage less perilous than her Swedish ancestors. Nevertheless, it is an uncommon feat, which puts her in the realm of modern explorers.  

In the age of low-cost jet travel, crossing the Atlantic Ocean by sea has become a lost art. During the “Atlantic cruising season”, the summer months of placid waves, Cunard Lines alone sails the once-renowned Southampton, UK to New York City route. As late as the 1960’s, a variety of passenger ships crossed the Atlantic, year-round: Pounding through Winter North Atlantic’s 40-foot waves is the exact definition of “buyer beware”, a trip for brave and hearty souls to endure. By sailing for the Mediterranean instead of the North Sea, I have not done a true Winter North Atlantic run. The experience, however, is what put “hair on the chest” of classmates who made container-ship runs to Belgium in the middle of winter.   

Scandinavians Built the Modern Maritime Industry

The Danish conglomerate AP Moller Maersk dominates sectors of shipping ranging from the offshore oil industry to massive container ships. This portfolio includes some American-crewed vessels under its subsidiary Maersk Lines Limited.  Kongsberg, based in Norway, builds training simulators for aspiring ship’s masters and harbor pilots. Norway’s Bergen Marine has built ship’s diesel engines since World War Two, decades before American shipbuilders transitioned from steam to diesel propulsion. Swedish company GAC, a ship husbandry firm, negotiates with beady-eyed port officials around the world on behalf of ship-owners. Germany’s Fassmer builds modern enclosed lifeboats: SS El Faro, an American steamship lost in 2015, did not have this lifesaving equipment. The International Maritime Organization, which has in essence propagated maritime safety regulations since 1913, is based in London. Not quite Scandinavia, but near the North Sea.