Well shipmates, it looks like we're full speed ahead for another desert adventure overseas. Just like the last two times, theres sure to be large amounts of military equipment and personnel transported via US flagged, Merchant Mariner crewed vessels. Personally im eager to go. I've sailed on government contract before. The pay is j00cy, you get discounts on stuff, and get to see cool foreign places. And when its all over, we can pretend to be veterans like the guys from Gulf War I! You DID remember to check YES in Section IV of form USCG-719B, saying "fuck yeah i want to transport military equipment on MARAD vessels during a strategic sealift emergency!", right?
What? you dont even have Merchant Mariner Credentials? Not even rated Ordinary Seaman? You didnt do something dumb like actually enlist in the military, did you? Imagine getting paid peanuts and eating garbage while we pull 6 figures and eat prime rib and buy all the smokes from your PX. Well, theres still hope for you user. Your friendly Chief here is willing to answer your babby questions on "how do i get on bote" and the likes.
I know theres a good number of Merchant Mariners on this board, we infest literally every thread that has anything to do with non combat ships. Get in here and lets set up our scams to milk MARAD and the Feds for all the glorious war money financed by printing more Fiat fun bux!
These both depend on where u live. If murica it cost money and is time consuming to get the credentials to get started. But worth it once you get established. Also, FUCK A TWIC CARD!
Nathaniel Lee
Ok Swabs, gather round and I'll set you on your way to fortune and glory.
First thing, make sure youre American by the grace of God himself. You *can* sail as an unlicensed seaman on a US flag ship as a foreigner, but you can never be an officer in charge of a watch. Also only 25% of a crew can be foreigners, by law.
Get a TWIC from the government, essentially a federal background check.
Navigate the bureaucratic mess that is all the paperwork and process of getting your credentials from the Coast Guard.
If youre not too retarded and can manage to spell your name properly on multiple forms, you'll get issued a neat little red book like Congratulations! youre now an Ordinary Seaman with zero experience and zero additional training! Almost nobody will want you on their ship, because you dont know dick about shit! Awesome!
Elijah Barnes
>OS But user, I have a captain license
Brody Hernandez
To add on to what he said, get a clearance if at all possible. Military contracts get paid better and usually a better quality of life overall. I even get all my travel paid for. Its pretty comfy.
"But Chief, I went through all that mess of paperwork and fees, and i wont find a billet? Is there any other way?"
Well Swab, there is a way. A way to completely shortcut all the experience and character that you gain by working your way up from the bottom. A direct route to a comfortable life in an air conditioned room turning a little dial every now and then, and a 6 figure salary.
Its called Maritime Academy. There are several state level academies scattered around the country. They are essentially no different from 4 year colleges, except when you get out you have an officer's license and think youre hot shit. Theres also the Federal Merchant Marine Academy, which thinks its the hottest of the hot shit, and graduates are required to serve a term as reserve officers in the USN. All academies have a military structure to various degrees, with uniforms and muster and all that silly stuff. Only the Federal Academy actually puts you in the USN though.
So if youre young and can get financing and have the grades, go to the academy. Veterans seem to get admissions preference and can pay using the GI bill.
But when you graduate and come on board as a hot shit 3rd mate at age 22, nobody will respect you, and you'll spend a decade being laughed at by the hawsepipers (men who wored for the job instead of in a classroom)
Well cap, if your tonnage is more than a toy boat, good on you. Also, stay the fuck out of my engine room. I'll call you on the boat phone if we need to talk.
Can you get on military bases with an MMC? Like just to sightsee not necessarily shop.
Henry Howard
No
Adam Gray
Being a Domer I can tell you deckies know they ain't shit. So many of my shipmates deck side got their 3M then sailed unlicensed. Now, me being an engineer I know I am hot shit. Turned down several job offers before I even graduated.
Thomas Ward
Is CIVMAR worth it or should I just go for offshore when I get out of the academy? t. deckie
No but you can get a military discount at a lot of places because 99% of people have no idea what the red book or merchant marine are. It’s not right, but you can get away with it.
Ian Rodriguez
I FUCKING HAD THE OPTION TO GO TO THE MERCHANT MARINE ACADEMY WHY DID I WASTE IT OH MY GOD.
Aaron Jones
Lmao u don goofed son
Henry Lopez
FUCKING GOT IN BUT THEN ARMY HAD TO COME ALONG AND PAY FOR ME TO GO TO ANOTHER SCHOOL AND I TOOK THE FUCKING BAIT
Let's be honest, all the MARAD contracted ROS ships are not capable of reliably functioning if anything happens. >Pipes rusted to the point flicking them would punch holes in them. >Every other valve snapping at the stem with the slightest force applied. >Pumps that haven't ran or even worked in 15+ years. >Boiler sootblowers and tubes warped despite the boiler never running. >Officers that can't fix the systems and don't know how the plant works anyway.
t. Cape Isabel
Cooper Bailey
Hey OP, I'm a Maritime Academy grad that's looking to sail as an OS for a couple years until a Junior Supply Officer position opens up with MSC. The problem is that I went the unlicensed route, so I've gotta start at the bottom of the barrel. Totally fine with me, but I'm getting conflicting information about how to begin. I checked the helpful links you dropped off and I'm wondering if it's really that straightforward to get a MMC. I was under the impression that I had to do a bunch of STCW training first, but maybe I'm mistaken. I see places that offer courses for things like Personal Survival Techniques, PSSR, First Aid / CPR, and Basic Fire Fighting, but I'm not sure at what point those need to be completed. Anyway, thanks for the help dude and smooth sailing to you.
Christopher Ramirez
If you graduated from a maritime academy you should have an MMC and a third mate unlimited.
Unless by “maritime academy” you mean some high school program, in which case you’re fucked
Also OP and other MSCfags how’s the WiFi on MARAD ships? OSV companies pay for the lowest possible bandwidth unless the charter specifies otherwise
>youre now an Ordinary Seaman with zero experience and zero additional training What if I'm an ordinary seaman with no experience on a ship, but I've also got a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a couple of professional certifications?
Juan Turner
You’d think so, but not all majors and programs lead to a license. I don’t know why you would want to, but you could go to a Maritime Academy and major in Business, for example, and never get any sea time. Even some engineers go through the academies and choose not to take on the additional requirements necessary to get their license.
Owen Harris
Means nothing if it's not in your MMC
Adam Rodriguez
Meaning I have to have the professional certifications before applying for the MMC?
Dylan Robinson
You might be able to talk your way into an entry level job on a boat, something like cooking on a tugboat, and then spend time in the engine room on your own initiative, get enough sea time for a QMED endorsement, and from there get on a ship. All those training classes you asked about are required for most jobs, but some employers will pay for them. Then again, getting them on your own and getting your Mmc with OS/STCW BST makes you more likely to get that entry level job.
Julian Hughes
how am become merchant marine
David Cook
Read the thread
Oliver Walker
bump for the sea
Leo Wright
Is there anything besides the STCW BST/OS and the training classes that would give a leg up on getting on the boat? Not as an alternative, but in addition.
Nolan Murphy
The Merchant Marine is no joke. My grandmother has a picture on her mantle of a backyard barbecue she and my grandpa had in the summer of 1941, right after they were married. It's the two of them and the dozen or so of their friends who came over. Of them, all of the guys were in the service by a year later, and out of them, the only one who didn't cone back was in the Merchant Marine. It was a *very* dangerous job.
Adam Long
Hazwoper is a good one to have
Camden Russell
What about ABYC technician or wilderness EMT certifications?
Camden Bennett
How many guns you taking on a trip usually?
Jace Lee
Anyone got info for Australians?
Noah Morgan
Depends on the ship. But most likely zero
Luke Harris
So how do you protect yourself then?
Christopher Gonzalez
What do u tho is trying to attack us? Not every boat has to worry about somalians. And only shitty captains have to worry about that.
Luis Perez
Think* But I've been on boats that have been in armed conflict. That was a specialty assignment and not even close to what a normal merchant ship does.
Michael Smith
>not larping with your trusty blunderbuss I thought it was a Jow Forums thread.
You'd get fired. I like money. I can play with my guns in my off time
Ryder Bennett
not merchant marine but i am in import/export dealing with CBP.
so which one of you squealed on the ship carrying a literal ton of cocaine coming into philly? fuck you, that ship had some of my stuff on it and now everything is being examined.
Oliver Richardson
Sadly. This is why I don't like nogunz professions.
Joshua Carter
Daily reminder the Merchant Marine had a 3.9% casualty rate in WW2 compared to the Marines 2.4%
Josiah Kelly
Impressive. Meanwhile the Norwegian merchant marine had 10% deaths. The number would have been far higher if combat wounds were included. The England-Murmansk route sucked.
Chief I just got out of the USMC as a grunt. I hate community college, I’ve completed 1 year of and am ready to go to sea. I am a pretty good welder arc, mig, tig.
If I follow your guide and get my ordinary seaman but am unskilled what do I do to get a job?
Luke Hill
What if we don’t want to go Officer route at a maritime academyHow does a unskilled ordinary seaman work his way up from the bottom?
That horizon doesn't look flat. I can't tell if that's my eyes playing tricks on me, or the natural shape of a giant body of liquid in constant motion.
Nolan Gray
If you are a US citizen with a clean criminal record and you jump through all these hoops and pay the relatively small fees you can get a shit job and work your way up.
REQUIREMENTS Minimum Eligibility Requirements: Must be a United States citizen of at least 18 years of age and possess and maintain:
U.S. Passport with a minimum of seven months of expiration date. Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) and/or Department of Defense (DOD) Common Access Card (CAC) with a minimum of ten months remaining of expiration. United States Coast Guard (USCG) Merchant Mariner’s Credential (MMC), with a minimum of ten months remaining of expiration date.
Jason Jones
If the PMC’s on board don’t stop them just camp in a corner until one comes by you then beat them with a wrench or something and take their gun. Someone pls answer this.
Zachary Gutierrez
OP here. I have answered this already, but since youre apparently prime OS material ill repeat it for you again very slowly:
Someone linked MSC above, that is a good option, especially if you have veteran status because you get hiring preference. The downside is, its very similar to being in the military, youre required to sign a contract for 2 years minimum IIRC, and you go on deployments for 6-12 months (half or more of the fleet started doing 12 month rotations last year as a "trial program" because MSC basicaly admitted "we're really bad at actually holding up our end of the agreement when you get 3 month rotations, your relief almost never arrives on time, so we'll just change it to 12 months lol hope u like it, because you have no choice" But yeah MSC is a good way to get a lot of sea time on big ships. Unfortunately from what ive seen the deck department is almost entirely blacks who complain about uniform and grooming standards...
Otherwise, as i said already, get your STCW BST and make sure its on your MMC, then search everywhere for jobs on tugboats or river towboats. Get your foot in the door cooking (cooks usually work deck too) and work your way up. Once you have enough experience to get AB, you'll have some job mobility. Ferry systems like NY or Washington state are a good option too, though theyre union government bureaucractic nightmares.
Sebastian Robinson
Make sure to flex on your nation's USMC equivalent whenever possible
Gabriel Smith
I was on MSC and there was like 1 officer in deck department that was black amongst the 11 or so ships we had in the lagoon (mps2)
John Cooper
We've been, for the last 15 years or so. Afghanistan is an interesting place.
Brody Fisher
It's not all noguns. I've been on anti piracy missions before. Just gotta find a platform you want
Do you need to keep a residence ashore when your in port or is there some kind of BEQ or barracks? A young guy without a family could save a lot of money if he stayed at sea a lot (zero living expenses)
Joshua Adams
> A young guy without a family could save a lot of money if he stayed at sea a lot
This is a legitimate thing done by a lot of young guys i know. They sleep on the boat or in their truck/van when ashore. There are a few "sailors houses" scattered around the country in old major sea port cities that provide cheap rooms if you can show proof of being a merchant seaman.
I never salied MSC I just know things ive heard and read. MSC ships can have a small detachment of Marines on board for security. They also may issue sidearms to certain officers. Small arms training is available to officers who are members of the various major unions like SIU ad MMP. The MSC pay isnt great compared to my company but i guess if you get the overtime hours you do ok.
