Deep Sea Dreams Merchant Marine Blog

Trying to understand where our US Merchant Marine is heading is, nearly impossible.  What is obvious is that as active maritime tonnage  continues to collapse,  solutions to create a strong maritime work force become more and more difficult. It appears that most maritime graduates and license holders, will find great difficulty  making a career at sea. In my opinion going ashore after a few years sea experience is best option for these individuals as higher ranking positions continue to get tougher and tougher to find. Relying on the politicians in our government to come together and provide funding to successfully build...

You don’t have to have naval architects’ degree to realize these special vessels stretch the definition of the term seaworthiness.  Let’s imagine this scenario for a moment. Suppose you had a choice of two “vessels”, which would you choose? A dingy, a typical row boat , that may hold one or two adults. They are very small, typically not much larger in length and breadth  than a sheet of 4 x 8 plywood but their hull is designed properly to includes some freeboard, a defined keel and perhaps a slightly raised bow to take the small chop they are designed...

  For us seafarers, the recent loss of the Secor Power and its crew is just another reminder of the dangers we face going to sea.  It is tough to think that men could simply head to sea and within a few hours find themselves in mortal danger.  Only time and a proper investigation will yield information as to what exactly happened to cause the loss of the vessel and it’s most likely that we will find out certain circumstances and actions were done (or not done), onboard the vessel which contributed to the casualty.  What little I know about...

  Let us face it, those of us who go, or have gone to sea, have some of the most unique individual personalities one could ever encounter. I don’t think there is any other group of people in any career path that could come close to the experiences of those who have chosen the sea life have had. This maritime crew, dare I say motley crew, is a group that many outside of the industry would love to be in with.  You could think of that popular Bruce Willis movie, Armageddon, and the interesting team of characters he brought along...

  I am thinking back at going to sea as a cadet in the 70’s, sailing on a “redneck” ship and being pressured to get a haircut before going ashore. It was a crazy ship and there is a lot of stories from it, but perhaps another time for those.   During this time, I read Michener’s The Drifters which mainly captured the  life experiences, dreams and adventures of several young travelers as they roamed Europe during a tumultuous period of the 60’s.  At some point, I looked up the definition of “Hippie” and in essence it is defined as one...