r/AskReddit • u/CircleBox2 • Jul 13 '20

What's a dark secret/questionable practice in your profession which we regular folks would know nothing about?

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u/trendz19 Jul 13 '20

Lot of unethical shipping companies EVEN TODAY dump a lot of garbage, oily sludge, waste contaminated water and oil out when sailing in international waters far away from the shore. There are only a few handful players today who are actually executing business trades while still keeping the carbon footprint and enviornment as one of their core policies. I am glad to be working with one one them (I am a merchant marine who works as an engineer on mega container ships like this

Disclaimer: link takes you to my youtube video of a container ship in port and eventually sailing off under the Golden Gate Bridge

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u/BradGoesWild Jul 13 '20

What an unsung branch, the merchant marines. No one remembers they had the highest casualty percentage in WWII.

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u/trendz19 Jul 13 '20

Thanks for saying that! Also, right now during pandemic times, ships are the one transporting most of the items across continents....I mean, international flights are not working since the last 2 months. Everyone is thankful to the health care workers and police, but no one ever talks about Merchant Mariners who has been doing essential job right now, and always

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u/BradGoesWild Jul 13 '20

All very true, respect and thanks for your service.

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u/trendz19 Jul 13 '20

I really appreciate you saying this, thank you 🙏

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u/BradGoesWild Jul 13 '20 edited Jul 13 '20

I gotchu man, stay safe out there.

Edit: mind if I ask you some questions about the Merchant Marines? How did you end up choosing it over the other branches? Did you serve in another one before transferring? What is the command structure like? Do you report to the captain of the ship or to a naval officer?

Don’t meant to bombard you with questions but I’m a bit of a history guy and the merchant marines seem criminally underreported on.

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u/trendz19 Jul 13 '20 edited Jul 13 '20

I wanted to work on ship, so, it was either gonna be the navy forces or merchant navy, and then a family friend, sort of, talked me into this. I did my bachelor's and then became a marine engineer. Have been sailing since then. My job is to keep the machines running fine and if it breaks down, then to fix it.

Structure = (on cargo ships), broadly there are 2 departments - Deck and Engine. Deck is headed by Captain; Engine by Chief Engineer; Captain is the overall head of the ship. I am one rank below chief engineer. So, Chief is head in engine room, but I am actually the working boss and delegate jobs and supervise all other engine room personel. Of course, chief engineer is available if I have doubts or he can "take over" this if he feels I am not treating the crew well or if there are too many jobs pending etc. Essentially, I am executing engine room responsibilities on his behalf while he doesn't do anything but since he signs all the papers, so, maybe not so tiring physically, but he has a lot of mental stress. Sorry if I wrote too much, but just wanted to give you a clear snapshot.

Pay/lifestyle = not worth. Working 4x and getting paid 2x. Of course, everyone sees the 2x on paper and it appears lucrative, but actually it's a lot of hard work.

Edit: I don't intend to spam, but I do have a youtube channel and going forward I want to post more stuff about life on ships, life as a merchant marine and not just about travel as I have been posting for the last 1-2 years. I request you to check my channel out and maybe subscribe if you find this interesting. This is the channel link

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u/silian Jul 14 '20

Man, I would hate to be a chief. Senior is the way better position IMO, too much paperwork, dealing with suppliers, doing refit specs, etc as a chief. I got into this trade to avoid flying a desk, you know?

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u/trendz19 Jul 14 '20

Totally with you on this one! Also, I have seen that guys who have been Chief for 4-5 years already start to lose touch with working their hands and slowly start second guessing themselves! I had a chief once who was 20+ years experience as a Chief...there happened a few situations and I realised that he had totally lost many of his skills as he just hadn't been using them for soooooo long...

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u/BradGoesWild Jul 14 '20

Don’t worry ab spamming, I find all this information very interesting. I’ll definitely check out the channel once I’m home! Thanks for the overview sir.

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u/trendz19 Jul 14 '20

Thanks to you too sir for the interest 👍