A Mariner’s Notebook – Page 27 – Professional Mariner

23 Nov

A good TWIC experience

Professional Mariner StaffA Mariner's Notebook

I am writing this mostly due to the horror stories I have been reading about applying for and receiving TWIC cards. My experience was completely the opposite. I went online and filled out the application two weeks before I was to rotate offshore for one month, and made the appointment to apply for the following week at the Tampa office.…

29 Sep

Records of Tug & Barge Companies of WWII Era

Professional Mariner StaffA Mariner's Notebook

I am trying to locate names and addresses of companies that owned tugs & barges that transported coal to various ports along the east coast during the WWII era. We usually loaded coal at Norfolk, VA and carried it up north to these ports: Baltimore, MD; Bangor, ME; Boston, MA; Fall River, MA; Hoboken, NJ; New Bedford, MA; New Haven,…

24 Sep

Mariners need to be able to defend themselves against pirates

Professional Mariner StaffA Mariner's Notebook

Imagine that your oceangoing tug leaves the Red Sea after transiting the Suez Canal, and is making the passage through the Gulf of Aden around 70 miles off the northeastern coast of Somalia. You see two boats speeding toward your slow-moving tug. Minutes later heavily armed pirates with machine guns and grenade launchers overrun your vessel and swarm aboard —…

22 Sep

Marinerâ€™s notebookâ€”Reality check

Professional Mariner StaffA Mariner's Notebook

We can all empathize with Captain Kelly Sweeney about his bureaucratic TWIC experience. Anyone dealing with a large organization can tell tales of similar frustration. As a Canadian, I take umbrage with his statement about foreign sailors being held to a lower standard of scrutiny. As a former senior officer on cruise ships working out of Tampa, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale…

15 Aug

When applying for your TWIC, consider bringing cookies

Professional Mariner StaffA Mariner's Notebook

When I read 46 CFR 10.113, “Failure to obtain or hold a valid TWIC may serve as a basis for suspension or revocation of a mariner’s license or STCW endorsement,” I immediately decided to apply for my Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) card. I realized that, with over 1 million maritime workers here in the U.S. needing to apply for…

14 Aug

Dredging up pleasant memories of life aboard Stuyvesant

Professional Mariner StaffA Mariner's Notebook

The author in the galley on a break with John Gaudet, the drag tender who served on his watch. I always make myself available for relief work during the holidays, to give a deck officer who might otherwise be stuck on the ship the chance to be home with his or her family. This past Christmas, for the 13th year,…

03 Jul

The Levees at New Orleans

Professional Mariner StaffA Mariner's Notebook

On the official start of Hurricane Season on June 1st. I accompanied some other journalist on a tour conducted by the Corps of Engineers of the some of the levees protecting Orleans and Jefferson Parish here in New Orleans. The object was to show the work that had been carried out since Hurricane Katrina towards a 100 year level of…

01 Jul

Capt. Kelly Sweeney’s Stuyvesant photos

Professional Mariner StaffA Mariner's Notebook

To view Capt. Sweeney's photos from his time aboard Stuyvesant, click here.

01 Jul

Gaining real-world skills at SUNY’s Maritime College

Professional Mariner StaffA Mariner's Notebook

For ten months of the year, the State University of New York’s Maritime College students study at the college campus located at Fort Schuyler in the southeastern part of the Bronx. However, if you are looking for a Maritime cadet between May and July, chances are he or she can be found somewhere upon the high seas onboard the Empire State…

30 Jun

Baltimore & Chesapeake Steamboat Company seeks assistance from tug industry

Professional Mariner StaffA Mariner's Notebook

The Steam Tug Baltimore, an historic steam tug built in 1906 at the Skinner Boat Works in Baltimore and restored and maintained by B&CSC volunteers needs its dock lines replaced. K-Sea Transportation Partners L.P. has generously offered new line out of their Staten Island Facility. We are seeking assistance from the tug industry to get the line from Staten…