Crowdsourcing the Answer

There are facts, and then there is reality. What do things look like on the deckplate of a ship, rather than from a textbook page? This is where internet forums play a big role. What does it feel like to work for a certain company? What is the likelihood of making the estimated salary? Is the mariner shortage real, or just a concern for low-pay employers? With a few general inquiries that I just listed, I could spend an hour or more browsing the maritime forums of Reddit, GCaptain, and even Service Academy Forums. While crowdsourced answers may not be definitive or scientifically rigorous, they do paint a broad picture, providing a qualitative view of the world. Right now, I am participating in a Turbo Activation, where old vessels are brought out of laid-up state and into operating condition at sea. While it took until thr last day, we crewed all the maritime officer billets, although I must say that the wages offered for the two-week excercise is enough to bring mariners back from their vacations. What is the real state of the maritime industry? One hypothesis is a happy equilibrium of demand for good-paying work, and a healthy dearth of interest in low-paid work. In other news, we hit a recent readership record with the last blog post, "Boston and the Sea". Hope to keep this trend going.

Boston and the Sea

I recently made a trip to Boston. While I could’ve spent a week or more visiting the usual tourist sites, I was out to answer a question: why seafaring? Why didn’t the maritime culture dissipate in the Bay State like it did in other upwardly-mobile, increasingly-educated locales? For this adventure, the MBTA’s Regional Rail system, and occasionally Boston’s subway (The “T”) connected me to various points in the Boston area. My first destination took me 30 miles inland from Boston’s North Station. I travelled up to Lowell from North Station in order to visit Jack Kerouac’s gravesite. As I was carrying my suitcase and backpack, I didn’t want to roll a mile to the cemetery. Instead, I settled for the park named in the author’s honor. Although new investment is freshening the city’s facades, Lowell spent decades a tired factory city, and the buildings showed this experience. Perhaps even then, Jack Kerouac found more opportunity on the road, and at sea as a merchant mariner. Quincy was my next destination, just south of Boston. Here was the home of museum ship USS Salem (CA-139). A heavy cruiser, the ship was built at Quincy’s Fore River Shipyard at the end of WWII, sailing just a decade in active service. Mariners, both active and retired, serve as volunteers doing the important work of chipping and painting; as well as higher-skilled tasks such as maintaining the ship’s electrical system. A ferry, one of many running frequently in Massachusetts Bay, would take me back to downtown Boston. My next day started in Boston Common. As I was crossing a footbridge, I noticed a plaque memorializing a young man who died in Vietnam; he had worked the lagoon’s swan boats as a high school student. I was impressed that this busy, world-class city, could take a moment to remember one of its working-class youth. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, the Commonwealth Museum, and a University of Massachusetts campus are located on a peninsula known as Columbia Point. The state archives was dedicated by Michael Dukakis, who took credit for the “Massachusetts Miracle”. I am too young to remember a time prior to New England’s economic pivot from small-scale manufacturing to education and healthcare. Perhaps this was another piece of my puzzle: In the last half of the 20th century, a sole breadwinner could live an upper-middle class lifestyle anywhere in the United States with union-propelled American seafaring wages; and relatively isolated from local economic conditions. Nearby is South Boston, or Southie, traditionally Irish-American working-class community whose cold-water beach is known as the “Irish Riviera”. While bar-hopping college-educated professionals now blend into the Southie environment, the area used to be synonymous with trouble. Despite the environment, strong family ties persisted, and educational attainment was encouraged. There was a strong draw to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy (some 50 miles south), and thence to sea. Legend has it that upwardly mobile “Southies” made their home in shoreline suburbs south of Boston. But this answer isn’t quite straightforward, as I learned on the train to Scituate. This line was abandoned for 50 years, and when service was restored against local opposition in 2007, ridership fell short of MBTA expectations. These residents were neither trust funders nor the 9-to-5 commuter crowd. Who were they? Retirees, perhaps; but one could look up to banners on the lampposts, bearing a compass rose and geographic coordinates. These small towns purposefully continued to orient themselves towards the sea. I rented a car for my last day in Massachusetts, driving by Plymouth Rock and Buzzard’s Bay, home to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Rick Gurnon, a previous President of the Academy, had spearheaded a transformation of the physical campus, adding green energy education (including a windmill) and a police training program (Emergency Management) to the maritime institution. The student body remained rooted; in the parking lot were pickup trucks and modest sedans. Approaching New Bedford in the morning, I was stopped at a drawbridge, but unlike my Virginia usual, I wasn’t upset with this affair. Instead, I observed that the town still has a good waterfront industry, with finishing boats and ice houses. I arrived at my destination, the New Bedford Whaling Museum. New exhibits are added regularly, but the mainstay is the half-size replica ship Lagoda, built in 1916 at the end of the whaling era. By this time, foreign crews were working these vessels, to include the Portuguese. Towards the end of the 19th century, whaleship owners diversified the local economy, building on the industrial base of whale oil refining and harpoon making. Whale tails can be seen on shop logos, harkening back to the town’s adventuresome days of sail. The race was on. I had a dinner invitation in Boston, and it was noon. On the drive back, I would settle for seeing the US Naval War College, in Newport, RI, from afar. I went by Roger Williams University, Rhode Island’s sole law school, and one of the nation’s premier Admiralty Law programs. In Providence, I stopped by Marvin’s Pizzeria for a good slice. The Narragansett Brewery and Gift Shop is located at India Point Park, a former ship anchorage. One thing you will not find is the traditional lager that serves as the beginning to many New England stories. In good time, I returned the rental car to Motor Mart, a 1920’s-built garage at the edge of downtown. All bags packed, I took the subway to Cambridge, and found that “two girls were waiting for me” at our restaurant. I knew them from the US Merchant Marine Academy.