Review of Living on Cargo Ships
The risk towards a cargo ship’s crew is ever-present with the occurrences of harsh weather and isolation from the mainland, but working on the lake is worth the hardships since current technology maintains connects with the mainland and the pay and benefits make the job well worth it. Research finds that people aboard ships will do many things to stave off the boredom and isolation that is presented while living on a cargo ship or freighter to keep their sanity. Of course one of the perks to get them through the hardships would be the great pay that they make as well as the benefits they receive. Also technology only continues to grow and make the Great Lakes just a tiny bit safer each year and this small step
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The workers do not in seem to mind the job when it comes to the amount of payment they receive for their jobs. In the article “Life on a Great Lakes Freighter: Crew misses family, but pay’s good” Jim Schaefer states:
They hold union jobs, all the way up to the captain, and crew members say the pay and benefits are worth the sacrifices they make to be on board. Deckhands average about $55,000 to $65,000 a season, which usually equates to six or seven months of work. Officers start around $90,000. Captains make $160,000 to $200,000, according to Glenn Kolke, marine personnel manager for Interlake. (par. 10)
The average yearly wage in the U.S.A. is around $50,500 which as shown above is anywhere from $4,500 to $144,500 below what the crewmembers of a ship make in near half the time which was shown in a fairly recent census (How much do Americans earn?, par. 11). The benefits of these jobs can include meals, dental, disability, and paid leave (Maritime Salaries and Benefits, par. 2). These perks that come with the jobs certainly show that the pros definitely outweigh the cons of these
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With few exceptions today’s weather tracking technology is only continuing to evolve. The use of satellites allows for accurate readings and predictions of upcoming weather events. These findings in conjunction with such inventions as the Marine VHF radio which can send for help at a maximum range of 60 nautical miles help warn the crew of impending doom before the storm hits. Though many ships have been destroyed by storms in the past, today’s technology is humanity 's solution against the relentless forces of
This paper investigates why Donald McKay is the father of American clipper ships. He was born in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, September 4, 1810.2 When Donald was sixteen years old he had the desire to learn the trade of ship building, so he went to New York. In 1826 New York was the worlds best shipbuilder and shipbuilding was America’s leading industry. McKay decided that in order to learn the trade he must obtain an apprenticeship. So he became an apprentice to Isaac Web who has appropriately been called the “Father of Shipbuilders”. This is because more successful master shipbuilders came out of Web’s shipyard than from any other place in America.3 At the conclusion of his apprenticeship he went on to work for Brown & Bell. In 1832 packet building was the best and most readily available work in New York. The majority of these ships were built at Isaac Web’s, Brown & Bell’s, and Smith & Dimon’s. At this time McKay was what would be called a free lance ship wright. McKay then married Albenia Martha Boole the eldest daughter of John Boole.4 At this time McKay then went to Newburyport and formed a partnership with William Currier.
Magellan treated his crewmen unfairly because he felt that he had total control over them. An employer should be provided benefits, Magellan did not provide living essentials. The crewmen would sleep on the wood floors because beds or at least hammocks were not provided. For the employer that does all the work a true captain should provide for his labor-men. Also, the
For starters, you could easily get lost with the limited technology like what happened to Henry Hudson in New York. Sometimes a ship could be struck by a terrible wave that could potentially crush the ship against rocks, and leave all of the crew left for dead. On the ships there isn't a lot of room for food; eventually, sailors can run out of food and then starve to death along with the crew. Starvation of the crew usually leads to mutiny or overthrow of the captain because they were promised food yet there starving. Or caused by not eating food with a lot of vitamin C you could die of a disease called scurvy which was common for sailors to die from. It wasn’t unheard of that pirates would attack your ship, if they saw a ship they would raid it. You could also go into debt for the rest of your life by not getting how much gold you said you would.
Leading up to the hurricane, many scientists expected the storm to dissipate over the ocean and cause little to no harm (Rappaport). The scientists were relying on faulty equipment that said that due to slow air speed and l...
Because the Passage is where the Atlantic, Pacific and Southern Sea converge with no nearby landmass, it is home to choppy, turbulent waters. Underneath the waves is where you could very well end up, depending on the mood of the currents. Violently thrashing sailors most of the time, the waters have a mind of their own. You never know if it will be smooth sailing or the longest ten days of your life. Shackleton and his crew ran into that very phenomenon “By 10:00 P.M the water seemed relatively clear of ice, and their spirits rose: so far, so good ...By the third day of sailing, the weather turned rotten. A gale blew up with snow squalls and heavy seas. And waves broke incessantly over the boat.” (98). Freezing waves. Bitter winds. Relentless rain. Coupled together they spell a recipe for a multitude of health issues, including potentially deadly hypothermia. Shackleton and his crew were not spared, “After the third day our feet and legs had swelled … and began to be superficially frostbitten, the constant soaking in seawater, with the temperature at times nearly down to zero; and the lack of exercise. During the last gale they turned dead white and lost all surface feeling”... They were cold, frostbitten and covered with salt-water blisters. Their legs were rubbed raw from the chafing of their wet pants… Their bodies were bruised and aching from the pounding up and down in the bows, and they were exhausted from lack of sleep.”(100) Many a ship and sailor have been left battered and seasick and braving this desolate sea who has conquered and claimed numerous ships for it’s own, allegedly beginning with Francisco de Hoces in the early 1500s. Little is known of his trip through the Passage. A handful of decades later, the Passage was bravely navigated by a British sea captain named Francis Drake. In English influenced countries, it is Drake’s
The United States Merchant Marines The United States Merchant Marines are complied of thousands of the best trained men and women of today to man naval or commercial ships. Merchant Marines have dated back even further then the United States Coast Guard. The Merchant Marines have had a huge impact on the United States Navy since they have been established. Merchant Marines have manned fleets of ships for the U.S. Navy which carry imports and export during peace time.
But finding a job does not mean you’ll receive the same pay as those who are legal workers. Construction works who work with unions receive a lot of benefits from their employers, such as: “Medical, Dental, Vision, Reimbursement, Flexible Spending Accounts, Life Insurance, Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D), Short Term Disability & Long Term Disability” ( Turner Co.). They also receive an End of Year Premium Pay and numerous of programs are made available to them within the company they work with. The wage differs from an “insulator who can make 68,996 to $190,223, structural iron workers $111,920 to $235,248, steamfitters that make $98,328 to $221,603 yearly” (The Real
Lee J. Holman, then president of the local, stated the longshoremen would demand a 6-day, 30-hour week at a minimum rate of $1 per hour. ”[2] Such demands were modest when considering the necessity of waterfront workers to a maritime based economy. This was at a time when the Bay and Golden Gate bridges were still under construction. Before the bridges, overland travel in the San Francisco Bay Area was longer, slower, and couldn’t carry as heavy loads as sailing across the bay.
Shipping companies and shipbuilders worked with insurers and mariners for safer ship designs with greater stability and more longitudinal strength. The storm proved the Great Lake straight deckers were underpowered. Many complaints were directed toward the Weather Bureau of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This resulted in an increased effort to achieve more accurate weather forecasting and faster communication of storm warnings. End of article, Bio follows ROGER MEYER is a Michigan based writer and specializes in writing articles on the outdoors and World War II. His 200 published magazine articles have appeared in over 80 publications
...save lives. Another advance in hurricane safety is weather predicting technology. At the time of the storm, there were no warning sirens and although the people were aware that bad weather was coming, they were used to dealing with storms and were unaware of the deadly disaster that was approaching.
The owners of the Essex must have had much success the way they managed their operations considering that the Essex was one of the oldest ships in Nantucket at the time of the final journey of the ship. This leaves little incentive for the owners to invest into the ship or the crew. Risk-taking pays but business should be down with a conscience and a paternalistic employment practices will develop, which will cement loyalty employees. (Matsushita, 1988). When the Essex left port for the last time the ship and crew had probabilities of success stacked against them. “What is bought with money or with goods is purchased by labor, as much as what we acquire by the toil of our own body. They contain the value of a certain quantity of labor which we exchange for what is supposed at the time to contain the value of and equal quantity.” (Smith, 1991). The owners essentially put little value into the captain and the crew from their actions; examples are lack of training of crew, captain and mates, the rundown resources on the ship...
As sea ice begins to melt, opportunity in sea transportation strikes as an interesting topic for the Canadian economy. Wintertime shipping has proven to be difficult in the Canadian arctic, due to heavier and thicker ice (Fergal & Prowse, 2007). Summertime has always been a preferable season for sea transportation partially due to the softened ice, and the amount of daylight produced, compared to wintertime darkness (Ferg...
...ey will not only receive good pay but they will start to receive things like health insurances, retirement plans, holidays, and vacations.
Helmreich, R. L., Merritt, A. C. and Wilhelm J.A. (1999). The Evolution of Crew Resource
A solar storm refers to space weather involving solar activities like solar flares and coronal mass ejection. Although most solar storms may only have minor effect on the Earth, a particularly strong one like the 1859 Carrington Event is likely to cause damage of spacecraft and satellites, as well as radio and electricity blackout of large regions on the Earth. In the age that people’s lives are greatly dependent on electronic and telecommunication technologies, our modern civilization is under a constant threat posed by a hazardous solar storm. This paper will examine a few past solar storm observations and attempt to analyze the effects of the major components of solar storms on human technologies and people’s lives.