The Merchant Marine Express

Happy Veteran’s Day! We Just got our first snow as the ship was covered with a slushy, wet snow last night. I had taken the 4:00-8:00pm Watch to replace the acting 2nd Mate and due to loading of the vessel, it would be less of a burden if I stood watch during the mid-portion of the loading of Limestone. This was because it takes a trained eye as well as experience to load a boat, based on the draft (how deep the vessel sits in the water) and tonnage of cargo; something a well seasoned Mate could handle. As I signed off the Watch, a Low Front had passed through and brought near-zero visibility with ‘white out’ conditions. Fortunately for me, I was already asleep in the comfort of my warm stateroom

Well, since I reported a week ago, the union which I belong and the company that owns this vessel had reached a settlement and we did not Strike, as a result. The company had agreed that over the five years, they would pay into increased benefits, including pension and wage increases. This would place our vessel on par with the other companies under the same union, American Maritime Officers Union, and the pay scale would be the same, across other fleets.
Its been reported that this company that the Arthur M. Anderson is flagged under, has favored non-union contracts both currently, and in the past. As a footnote, this company owns many deep-sea vessels and one of the past vessels I was employed on, the M/V Fred Stockham, was taken over by this company back in July of this year.
I’ve witnessed the loading of not just Limestone, but of Coal in recent weeks. The ways that the petro cargo could be loaded are by a complex system of conveyer belts and a loading house that most resembles an old, dilapidated Mine shaft on train tracks. As it feeds the cargo on a long conveyer into the holds, we can move the vessel, ever so slightly up and down the dock- as required to line up the loading mechanism to the correct hatch.
One of the last ports we visited, in Sandusky , Ohio , had an older system of delivering Coal whereby the huge coal cars (train cars) were run up into a specially designed hopper that lifted the One hundred-ton car and tilted it over ninety-degrees on its axis in order to dump out this valuable cargo. This system of using cantilevers of weights, and hydraulic rams to lift and tilt the train cars, has been used over fifty-years . Interestingly, the cars are pushed off the loading platform, automatically, and run on their way to a waiting area; an analogy of what cows do after they’ve been milked at a dairy farm. It is an eye opener to see a train car literally being run on its own and down the tracks with no other cars attached or Engine pushing.
The weather is becoming a winter mix of cold days and colder nights with rain turning to sleet then snow as is forecasted for the week to come.
Have a great day and a wonderful weekend!
-Nadir

Tags: Arthur M.Anderson, Voyages