One mariner’s blackball tale

In the excellent maritime site G Captain.com, a seafarer gives an interesting account of how he got blackballed.

Having worked as a deckhand for eight years for an oceanographic institute, about a year ago he witnessed a female third engineer just out of the academy being openly harassed by the chief engineer. When he asked an oiler what was going on, he was told that the chief was trying to run the young woman off the ship. Why? Because the chief had originally promised the third’s position to his buddy the oiler.

Because the new and inexperienced third was afraid to go to the captain, the deckhand decided to approach him as her advocate, asking him to investigate. But the old man told him to drop it.

Next, the deckhand confronted the chief, telling him to stop the harassment or else (foolishly, he admits) “he’d deal with me on the dock. Bad move.” The captain wrote him up for disrespect and fired him for “creating a threatening work environment.” This, despite having an outstanding work record with excellent evaluations and a recent promotion.

Since then, he says that despite sending out over a hundred resumes, he has not received so much as a single reply. Now he’s concerned that he’s been blacklisted and his sailing career could be over.

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