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<p>So a few weeks ago I rejoined my ship as Master and began in all likelihood my final two voyages before I retire. So, during this last week I have been reflecting back (with more than a little nostalgia) on my nearly 33 year seagoing career. I thought I would share with all of you a few of the things Ive seen and some of the changes that have taken place over that time..</p>
<p>Here are some of the BIG changes since I started going to sea..[ul]
[<em>]Ships use to have bigger crews. Crew size on the average freighter was around 40. Now crew size is 20 to 22.
[</em>]Ships were mostly steam powered. Now the vast majority are diesel powered and are highly automated.
[<em>] My first ship was built in 1944 and was barely over 500 feet in length. Now ships are much bigger. Many container ships are post-Panamax size well over 1000 feet in length and over 130 feet in the beam. My current ship is 712 feet in length and has a beam of 104 feet and were considered smaller than average.
[</em>]We use to use a sextant to navigate. Now its mostly all GPS and ECDIS.
[<em>]We use to take more visual bearings. Now its mostly all GPS and ECDIS.
[</em>]We use to do screen head grease pencil radar plots for collision avoidance. Now its all done by ARPA.
[<em>]Drinking was more accepted (and sometimes even encouraged). Now drunkenness or imbibing at the wrong time will get you fired.
[</em>]There werent many women on ships. Back in the day, the only women you saw were in the stewards department or the occasional hooker that snuck aboard while in port..
[<em>]You stayed in port for more than just a few hours. Sometimes port stays stretched on for days or even weeks.
Now with fast turnaround vessels youre lucky to get 20 hours in port.
[</em>]Payroll was done by the Purser (or ashore). Now the Captain IS the Purser.
[<em>]The Coast Guard exams for Mates and Engineers were essay format. Now its multiple choice.
[</em>]Z-cards were permanent.. There was no need to renew them. Now they have to be renewed every five years.
Does anyone remember Z-cards endorsed for emergency service? Pretty soon we will all have a TWIC..
[<em>]You could renew your license in less than ONE hour.. Now it takes forever.
[</em>]There was no charge to renew or upgrade your license.. Now it costs.
[<em>]When I started at the School Ship I was issued a Pickett slide rule. By my second class year I had gotten a $110 four function Texas Instruments calculator. Now computers are everywhere and do almost everything. We do vessel payroll, purchasing and inventory, weather routing, preventative maintenance tracking, etc. all on the computer.
Does anybody know what a kardex is?
[</em>]ISM (International Safety Management) systems.. I wonder if we are safer for having them. Seems like companies just gave us more paperwork to do..
[<em>]Which leads me to MORE Paperwork. Now its paperwork, paperwork, paperwork, paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork.. You wouldnt believe the some of the ridiculous bureaucratic queep I have to deal with on a daily basis
And with the COSCO BUSAN hitting the SF Bay Bridge MORE regulations are on the way.. I GUARANTEE it .. (retirement is looking better and better)
[</em>]Sailors, sitting around at coffee time arguing like a bunch of housewives about which cleaning agent is best for doing bridge sanitary.. No $hit, Ive heard it with my own ears..!!!<br>
It use to be, every hair a rope yarn, every finger a marlinspike and every drop of blood Stockholm tar and all they would talk about were women, wine and song to put it politely..or seamanship stuff. Its a sure sign that the end is near!![/ul]</p>
<p>Things I remember that you dont see anymore, or if you see them at all its very rare. [ul]
[<em>]Ships Carpenters (Chips), non-working Bosuns, Daymen and Pursers. Soon the wireless operators will be joining the list.
[</em>]In the black gang Second Electricians, Oilers and Firemen are a thing of the past.
[<em>]Day working Chief Mates and four mate ships. (although not totally gone)
[</em>]Time ticks, chronometer rate books, hatch lists and cargo gear books.
[<em>]The 2nd Mate winding the ships clocks and getting paid overtime for it.
[</em>]The 3rd Mate winding the chronometers on the forenoon watch. (7 ½ half turns counterclockwise)<br>
[<em>]Yard and Stay rig, Burton blocks, Gin blocks, Jumbo booms, Stulken booms, Ebel rig, Frisco rig, orlop decks, upper tween decks, lower tween decks, schooner (midship) guys, vang guys, preventer guys, rigging vises, broken stow, cargo holds sheathed for ammo loads, the long hatch, sweat battens, barrels stowed bung up and bilge free and hot to cold ventilate bold, cold to hot ventilate not. Now its all 20, 40 and 45 ft containers loaded by shoreside gantry cranes.
[</em>]the Pilot rules (special inland rules of the road).
[<em>]CW and Sparks listening for the ships call sign transmitted by Morse code on the daily message traffic lists and NO email, satellite phones or GMDSS..
[</em>]Working out sights using H.O. 214, H.O. 249, Ageton (H.O. 211) Dreisonstok (H.O. 209), Marcq St. Hilaire, and being taught Todds Method and spherical trigonometry at school. And no Skymate Pro computer program kiddies..
[<em>]Loran A, Loran C, Decca and Omega. Its all DGPS now.
[</em>]Waiters in the Officers Saloon. Now its all cafeteria serving. (no more screwed up orders though)
[<em>]S.U.P sailors wearing Lundberg Stetsons, Hickory shirts and Frisco jeans.
[</em>]the N.M.U. Does anyone know what that stands for? (and no, it doesnt stand for Negros, Mexicans and Undesirables as they use to call it in the old merchant marine)
[<em>]Passengers on freighters. 12 to be exact..
[</em>] Paul Hall milk. Does anyone know who Paul Hall is? How about Joe Curran?
[<em>]Shuttle ships, foreign legion runs, jungle runs and American Mail Lines C5s sailing for India and Bangladesh with handshake cargo.
[</em>]Magsaysay Street in Olongapo (Subic Bay) Philippines, the Mosquito Bar in Bangkok Thailand (one of the wildest gin mills in all of Southeast East Asia), Texas Street (before the Russian invasion) and Green Street in Busan Korea, Snows and the Cape of Good Hope bars in Kaohsiung Taiwan, the Lagaspi Rose Garden, Harbor Light and Shamrock bars in Manila and Quinns. If youve got to ask where Quinns was located you truly arent a Shellback
[<em>]Going ashore and throwing back a Singapore Sling at the Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, a gin and tonic at the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo Sri Lanka and a Pisco Sour on the terrace of the Simon Bolivar Hotel in Lima Peru.
[</em>]One year shipping articles (hide the ships fire axes!!), Shipping Commissioners, Crews signing on and off foreign articles overseas in front of the U.S. consul and 6 month dispatches.
[<em>]The double bubble war zone and ammo bonuses.
[</em>] Bucko Chief Mates. Big Ted Dobbs comes immediately to mind.. and to me as a young deck cadet he was larger than all life.
[<em>]Captains that drank heavily. Cowboy Conners (he was crazier than a chain locker rat) and Stan the Man Wazilewski come immediately to mind! But they were but two among many!!
[</em>]Super Chiefs.. Tom McAuliffe, Mike Tobin, Max Davis, the Blakesley brothers (Greg and Gary), Trey Palmer, Cecil Ray and Jon Eaton.. (guess how many Kings Pointers in that group)
[<em>]Sailing with mates that had actually been on the Murmansk Run and had been torpedoed during WWII. One 3rd mate I sailed with was even in Montevideo the day the German Battleship GRAFF SPEE was scuttled. Another had been through the typhoon in WestPac that hit the U.S. Third Fleet in December 1944 and another had been at Pearl Harbor on the USS HONOLULU that fateful day in December 1941. I even had a retired Navy Captain passenger who was the Officer of the Deck on the battleship USS CALIFORNIA on that infamous morning. All of them had some of the most amazing sea stories!!
[</em>]And of course brontosaurus, tyrannosaurus rex and terodactyls roamed a still cooling earth.[/ul]</p>
<p>Unfortunately over the past three decades Ive also watched the deep water U.S. Merchant Marine shrink..
Since I entered the California school ship in August of 1972 the companies that are no longer operating, (or are no longer operating under U.S. Flag) are as follows:
[ol]
[<em>] U.S. Lines
[</em>] Delta Lines
[<em>] States Lines
[</em>] Moore McCormack Lines
[<em>] Prudential Lines
[</em>] Pacific Far East Lines
[<em>] American Mail Lines
[</em>] AMPAC
[<em>] Cal Mar Lines
[</em>] Hudson Waterways
[<em>] Keystone Shipping (Tanker Company)
[</em>] Marine Transport Lines (Tanker Company)
[<em>] Trinidad Corporation (Tanker Company)
[</em>] Lykes Lines (gone for all intents and purposes)
[<em>] Victory Carriers (Tanker Company)
[</em>] West Coast Shipping/Hendy-Union Oil (Tanker Company)
[<em>] Ogden Marine (Tanker Company)
[</em>] Texaco (Tanker Company)
[<em>] Gulf Oil (Tanker Company)
[</em>] American Trading and Transportation (Tanker Company)
[li] Sun Oil (Tanker Company) [/ol]</p>[/li]
<p>Pretty sobering list eh?</p>
<p>To those of you who read and post here, a word of caution as you see the U.S. flag fleet dwindle. Without a deepwater U.S. Merchant Marine it gets harder to make an argument for a U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
This is especially true since this country also has five Maritime schools all turning out officers that are paying their own tuition. Tuition which helps to greatly offset much of the government funding burden for maritime education.
So remember to let your congressmen and senators know that we need American flag shipping and that you support any legislation that will help strengthen it. This is really important for those of you living in the non-maritime states. Otherwise you may find it will all go away and then you might as well shut the KP gate in 08 or become a just another school with an NROTC program (USNA-Lite?).</p>
<p>I have a lot of great memories .. sitting in marlinespike class at school with needle and palm, sail twine, bench hook and some No. 4 canvas, sewing together my sea bag. (I have it with me and Im going to carry it down the gangway for that final time).. As a young 3rd Mate standing bridge watches on warm nights while dodging bunga boats off the Philippine coast, sitting in the Masters office on the SS PRESIDENT MADISON my first day as Captain, walking the Bund and Nanjing Road in Shanghai, joining my first ship the SS MAYAGUEZ on the blocks at the Hong Kong Unified Dockyard in Kowloon, Hong Kong, BCC (British Crown Colony), being 4 x 8 watch 2nd Mate on the SS SEALAND FINANCE <a href="SL7">/b</a> running up the Japanese coast at 31 knots toward the turn off Mikimoto Jima, lining up the **MV PRESIDENT ARTHUR to make a southbound approach near Amazon Maru Shoal in the Malacca Straits as a northbound gas (LNG) ship squeezed me over toward the rocks.. My grommet was puckering that night!! However, the best memories are without a doubt , of the many fine shipmates I have had the good fortune to sail with. I raise my glass in a toast to all of them </p>
<p>I drank my beer and stowed my gear with the men of the Merchant Marine.. But
.
Im glad Im almost done.. Im having a much much harder time recognizing the business I started in over three decades ago. Many of my old friends and shipmates are gone. They have either quit, retired or gone on to Fiddlers Green. So I think its about time for me to also ring it off and put it on the jacking gear and get the hell out.<br>
Where did the time go..?? It seems like just yesterday I was graduating
Only 5 more Fire and Boat drills left
. :D
35 days and a wake up
So, AMF..
It used to be fun boys and girls, but more and more it just seems like work.. So Steady as she goes and keep er headed between the anchors. Hope to see you all in the funny papers and hopefully not in Lloyds List or in a newpaper picture on the wrong side of the table at a Coast Guard hearing.. DD1</p>