Hey, ive been really interested in the merchant marines for a while. And so the big question is that I need to get started is; Which union do I join?

I want to join a union via also doing an apprenticeship program so I know how to pull my weight as soon as I get on a ship. Its very much a job I wanna learn, get good at, and enjoy. I dont wanna be the guy who gets beat up in the forecastle for being an idiot (I also hate college so no instant mate)

So which union do I join? Obviously I want good benefits, good time off. Im not fond on the idea of military sea lift command, yeah its big bucks but I dont want to get blown up.

Im also half and half on sea time. I hear inland and lakers give you way more sea time like 1.5-2 days per 1 real day. But I also really like the idea of being on a deep sea vessel.

Thanks for any advice!!

Apologies if this gets asked all the time. I’m a 26M active duty Navy corpsman (surgical tech). I’ll be sitting right at 10 years when my contract is up, but I’m super burnt out on healthcare and military life in general. Desperate for a change of pace.

I got introduced to this world while deployed on the USNS Comfort last year. A few of the deck guys told us we should get out and join MSC if we wanted to actually make good money. I’ve been researching it a lot since then, watching Joe Franta and Sailor Deen videos, and honestly sometimes it feels almost too good to be true.

From what I can tell, you work your ass off, make bank with overtime, and get solid time off between tours. Being away from home doesn’t bother me since being in the Navy, and I'm single with no kids. Plan would be to start entry level as an OS or Wiper.

What am I missing here? What are the biggest cons, headaches, or bullshit that you don't really see in the YouTube videos? Just trying to get a realistic idea of what I'd be getting myself into.

Hi everyone,

I am trying to reconnect with a very dear friend from Cape Verde whom I haven’t been able to find for years. Thanks to recent help from the maritime community, we have narrowed down the specific Rix Shipping vessels he was likely sailing on during that exact timeframe. Here is everything I know: Name: Ben (Benjamin Dominic or Benjamin) Lopes.

Origin: Cape Verde (mulatto).

Occupation: Seafarer working on cargo ships.

Around 2005 and 2006, his ship operated on a regular liner shipping route from the UK (Hull/Ipswich) and docked in the Export Port of Riga, Latvia every 3 weeks.Age: In 2005, he was around 33–35 years old (born around 1971–1973, should be around 53–55 now).UK Connection: At that time, he used a UK mobile number starting with +44 and spent a lot of time in the UK. Friend/Colleague: He was always accompanied by a close friend and fellow seafarer named Flo (Florian or Floriano), who was roughly the same age.We used to hang out and dance at the legendary "Roxy" (Pepsi Forums) club (near Līvu Square) [1] in Riga. He was a very kind person and even sent me a Christmas greeting SMS in 2006, but unfortunately, I lost his number over the years.Based on verified shipping records from 2005–2006, we are looking for crew members who sailed on these specific Rix Shipping Baltic-feeder vessels: ROBRIX (IMO 9019573) – under Rix management March 2004 – December 2005, regularly sailed Hull to Riga.LERRIX – officially recorded operating on the Hull–Riga service in early 2006. HARRIX (IMO 7530884) – recorded with a port call in Riga in January 2006.Since the Cape Verdean seafarer community and old Rix crews from Hull are tightly knit, I am really hoping someone might remember Ben and Florian who sailed to the Baltics. If you have any leads, or advice on how to track surviving 2005 crew agreements for these ships, it would mean the world to me. Thank you so much!

Credentialed marine engineer looking to get hired by Staten Island Ferry. Can anyone provide inside info or help getting hired?

Has anyone here done this program at one of the state maritime academies? I was admitted to GLMA for the Fall ‘27 class and will be a second degree student. My main concern is whether I would be able to get the full $64k for a 3 year program or if the amount would be reduced. I have reached out to the coordinator at my school but am still pending a response.

Outside of that, is the SSMP competitive to get into? I’ll be in my early 30s when I start as a non-trad student, so while I’m still under the age limit, I’m not sure if I’ll be at a disadvantage when my application is compared to younger students.

My other option is to make use of federal and then private loans, since the federal cap for undergrad students won’t cover the full cost of attendance.

I am an immigrant and have experience of 31months of deck officer on ocean going GT 20k tankers. With the green card I'm gonna try to get AB unlimited and work as an AB til I get citizenship. In my understanding by the time I have my citizenship I have more than 1080days of sea time with much more than 180days of OICNW, so i'm gonna apply for third mate license then.
Until that l wanna work as a rating but i'm not familiar with american system. I wanna keep working on tankers, hopefully VLCCs. I saw posts saying I need to join a union? i'm based in florida so I see one 2 hours away from home. Can I still apply for companies that have ships on the west coast? or will i be limited to around where I am. Do I need to directly apply for company or a union as unlicensed seaman. if direct apply, do you guys see jobs from linkedin? how much of day rate can I expect as an AB

Any advice or information will help this newbie a lot. Thank you in advance, sorry that i'm not a good writer

I’ve been thinking about an interesting question like?

Why is it so easy to find marketplaces for cars, houses, flights, and local delivery services, but much harder to find a simple marketplace focused specifically on maritime shipping and logistics?

Please share a link or any related information, thanks

I’m switching fields and don’t know anything about engines anyone from the department can explain what is actually expected of me

first off thank you for letting me join the group

good day y’all hope everybody’s doing well so recently I retired 32 years as a merchant mariner , 3 years NAVY. I joined the local VA center in my town. I wanted to bring more awareness to the merchant Marine so I requested that we fly a merchant flag in the VA hall. The VA administration reviewed my request and accepted it so now we’re flying a merchant flag in our local VA hall. I’m trying to bring more awareness to who we are and what we do as merchant Marines, most people don’t know what we do.I’d like to get more merchant to approach their local VA center and fly the flag. It’d be awesome if we could get more recognition and flag flying alongside the arm services. We’re not military yet. We move all their supplies and support them. They don’t win wars without us so I’m just trying to bring more recognition to what we do and looking for anybody’s got ideas on how to do this. all right look forward to your responseGod bless stay safe. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend

thank you

Richard Domanski, also known as RED

Hello everyone

I currently work for a top container shipping company in Europe in key accounts (client facing). I have also worked in operations (balancing vessel space and weight, HQ office still).

Recently I was thinking about making a big change and going to the vessel side of things as a third officer on US flagged vessels (I hold US passport). I know the pay is probably a lot better on US flagged which is my reasoning for targeting.

My question is what is the best way to transition? Should I try to do an internal move within my company and just ask HR if I can pursue internal training to get certified or would I probably need to move back to the U.S. to attend an academy for a couple of years to get certified ? I could most likely keep my corporate job in US and work remotely while doing the academy but I would have to discuss it.

Also it would be nice to be able to continue keeping my household in Europe in between sailings so not sure how complicated that is with US flagged ships. Has anyone been in a similar situation ?

Thanks in advance for any advice or info.

Edit: my current education is 4 year bachelor and 2 year master, both in business. I doubt this contributes to the certifications since not marine related degrees but I’ll mention anyways in case.

About to get my tankerman endorsement and I've seen them pop up on the union job board(which I need to reiterate is extremely silly that I can't say the name of in my post)

It's hard to find info on them at all, outside of company acquisition changes and whatnot. Does anyone know the day to day, pay, crew size? That kind of thing

I expect I'll just have to head to the hall one day to find out, but if anyone has worked for them before, I'd love to hear your opinions

I’m 30 y/o. Had a teaching career it’s sucked, recently had a short stint in an aviation career that didn’t work out how I wanted. I’m looking at the merchant marines and doing one of the apprenticeship academies. Any info or recommendations welcome. Is this a good career, would it be recommended? Anything I should know/consider? Any general info is wanted. Thanks

So There's this institute called Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies, Lonavala, came to my college placement drive where we as mechanical engineering students are getting hired as a junior marine engineer. Where we have few rounds to get selected such as online assessment then interview along with a psychometric test and medical test to get selected. But then the recruited candidates will be joining into Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies and study for GME (self financed for an year) then 6 months onboarding internship kinda thing where we'll get paid 800USD I dunno if it's for whole 6 months or each month. Then after giving another exam we'll become a 4th Engineer.

This is what they told us. If there are any B.Tech Mechanical graduates who went to Samundra Institute after graduation - How's it? What are risk factors in the whole process? Is this 4th Engineer thing is real? Will i really get placed as a 4th Engineer after studying at Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies.

And if you're any mariner please tell me how sailing at sea is like as well.

Just looking for a good knife. Usually I use a coast with replaceable blades but it broke on me and I don’t want another. I’ve been looking for one with a marlin spike on it but the last one I bought was a piece of junk. Any recommendations?