thedrifter
04-12-09, 07:51 AM
Adventure draws many to high seas
But thrill can ebb amid monotony, fatigue
By Peter Schworm and John Ellement, Globe Staff | April 12, 2009
BOURNE - The sea calls them like a siren, stealing their hearts with the promise of adventure and boundless horizons. Many sailors seem born into the life, and despite its unyielding demands, wouldn't trade it for the world.
The saga of Richard Phillips, the cargo ship captain from Vermont being held hostage by Somali pirates, has also cast a spotlight on the perils of working on the high seas. But beyond the danger and the romance are the monotony, fatigue, and loneliness.
Their voyages, which can last as long as two months at a time, can leave merchant marines stressed and exhausted. Ships never sleep, seamen note, and workers on deep-sea merchant vessels rarely rest for more than a few hours at a time.
They are often out of contact with their loved ones for extended stretches, confined around-the-clock to close quarters with strangers. They work in unforgiving weather, with little job security. Worst of all, especially for restless, thrill-seeking personalities hoping for high-seas drama, it can be dull as ditchwater.
"Ninety-eight percent of the time, it's boredom, just your average routine," said James Staples, a sea captain from Norwell and longtime friend of Phillips who expects to command a ship around the Horn of Africa later this year. "It's monotonous sometimes. It's very placid."
After the initial thrill, life on a freighter crawling toward its destination, mile after countless mile of indistinguishable waters, can lose its luster. "Imagine being in a giant Winnebago, driving in a desert at 20 miles an hour with no one else in sight - for days on end," said Richard Gurnon, president of Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Bourne, where Phillips and his second in command, Shane Murphy, as well as Staples trained for their nautical careers.
Still, jobs in the industry have much to recommend, maritime specialists say. Academy graduates can usually choose from a range of job offers at salaries that can top $80,000. Sweetening the deal, at least at the outset, is the concentrated work schedule that gives employees six months of vacation. "To someone just out of school, two months on and two months off sounds incredible," Gurnon said.
"But when you're on, there are no Sundays, no holidays. No Christmas, no New Year's, and no sleeping in."
In a way, the profession's mix of highs and lows are part of its charm, those in the industry say. It makes each day different, with a personality of its own, and shakes up the workaday routine.
"You're not looking at someone else's cube, that's for sure," said Brad Harris, a marine scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth who conducts research on lengthy ocean trips with scallop fishermen. "You're always working on something different."
Like many in the maritime industry, Harris grew up on the water. As a teenager in an Alaskan fishing town, he spent summers on commercial fishing boats, snatching salmon out of Prince William Sound and Upper Cook Inlet, and later became a boat officer on a research vessel.
The open water is addictive, Harris said, and never fails to put things in a different light.
"It gets in your blood," Harris said. "The ocean is extremely powerful, and in our everyday lives, we forget we're not. It reminds you that things are big, much bigger than we usually realize."
Chris Pinkerton, a 26-year-old Mass. Maritime graduate, grew up in the port city of Norfolk, Va., and knew as young as sixth grade that he would someday work on the water. Today, he serves as a mate on a tug and barge in the Gulf of Mexico, a job that indulges his dislike of commutes and love of moon rises.
"I never saw myself in a quote 'regular' job," he said. "For me, it's the right lifestyle." In the same spirit of adventure, many view maritime careers as an escape from a punch-clock existence. For them, the sailor's life holds a timeless appeal, with visions of wide-open waters and exotic ports of call.
"I've always wanted to travel, to see the world, and I think this is the best way do it," said Katelyn Bono, a 20-year-old Mass. Maritime student who said she fell in love with the ocean at a young age.
Edward MacCormack, a classmate of Phillips's who sailed the Pacific Ocean for two decades and now directs career services at the Bourne academy, said the pull of the sea is innate.
"There must be something hidden back in the genes," he said. "Most normal people wouldn't have anything to do with going to sea."
But others come to it later in life, said Charlie Naff, a ship's captain and instructor at New England Maritime, a Hyannis training company that attracts many professionals who have left office jobs in their wake.
"It's demanding physically, and it's demanding mentally, but it's never boring," Naff said. "If it's boring, you're still at the dock."
Whether a captain or tankerman, researcher or engineer, those who work on the sea tenderly describe the experience, its natural beauty, exhilarating freedom, and shared sense of purpose with crewmates.
"It is a powerful environment. It's very simple and very spiritual," said John Bullard, president of the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole and former mayor of New Bedford.
Bullard, who has sailed across the Atlantic three times, said the oceans have a million moods that can change from one moment to the next.
For Gurnon, it's the stars, the meteor showers he remembers most vividly from his years on the ocean. Or the brilliant "green flash" that bursts in the sky when the sun edges over the sharp end of the vast ocean.
"That's something landlubbers never see," he said.
Video
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/04/12/adventure_draws_many_to_high_seas/
Ellie
But thrill can ebb amid monotony, fatigue
By Peter Schworm and John Ellement, Globe Staff | April 12, 2009
BOURNE - The sea calls them like a siren, stealing their hearts with the promise of adventure and boundless horizons. Many sailors seem born into the life, and despite its unyielding demands, wouldn't trade it for the world.
The saga of Richard Phillips, the cargo ship captain from Vermont being held hostage by Somali pirates, has also cast a spotlight on the perils of working on the high seas. But beyond the danger and the romance are the monotony, fatigue, and loneliness.
Their voyages, which can last as long as two months at a time, can leave merchant marines stressed and exhausted. Ships never sleep, seamen note, and workers on deep-sea merchant vessels rarely rest for more than a few hours at a time.
They are often out of contact with their loved ones for extended stretches, confined around-the-clock to close quarters with strangers. They work in unforgiving weather, with little job security. Worst of all, especially for restless, thrill-seeking personalities hoping for high-seas drama, it can be dull as ditchwater.
"Ninety-eight percent of the time, it's boredom, just your average routine," said James Staples, a sea captain from Norwell and longtime friend of Phillips who expects to command a ship around the Horn of Africa later this year. "It's monotonous sometimes. It's very placid."
After the initial thrill, life on a freighter crawling toward its destination, mile after countless mile of indistinguishable waters, can lose its luster. "Imagine being in a giant Winnebago, driving in a desert at 20 miles an hour with no one else in sight - for days on end," said Richard Gurnon, president of Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Bourne, where Phillips and his second in command, Shane Murphy, as well as Staples trained for their nautical careers.
Still, jobs in the industry have much to recommend, maritime specialists say. Academy graduates can usually choose from a range of job offers at salaries that can top $80,000. Sweetening the deal, at least at the outset, is the concentrated work schedule that gives employees six months of vacation. "To someone just out of school, two months on and two months off sounds incredible," Gurnon said.
"But when you're on, there are no Sundays, no holidays. No Christmas, no New Year's, and no sleeping in."
In a way, the profession's mix of highs and lows are part of its charm, those in the industry say. It makes each day different, with a personality of its own, and shakes up the workaday routine.
"You're not looking at someone else's cube, that's for sure," said Brad Harris, a marine scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth who conducts research on lengthy ocean trips with scallop fishermen. "You're always working on something different."
Like many in the maritime industry, Harris grew up on the water. As a teenager in an Alaskan fishing town, he spent summers on commercial fishing boats, snatching salmon out of Prince William Sound and Upper Cook Inlet, and later became a boat officer on a research vessel.
The open water is addictive, Harris said, and never fails to put things in a different light.
"It gets in your blood," Harris said. "The ocean is extremely powerful, and in our everyday lives, we forget we're not. It reminds you that things are big, much bigger than we usually realize."
Chris Pinkerton, a 26-year-old Mass. Maritime graduate, grew up in the port city of Norfolk, Va., and knew as young as sixth grade that he would someday work on the water. Today, he serves as a mate on a tug and barge in the Gulf of Mexico, a job that indulges his dislike of commutes and love of moon rises.
"I never saw myself in a quote 'regular' job," he said. "For me, it's the right lifestyle." In the same spirit of adventure, many view maritime careers as an escape from a punch-clock existence. For them, the sailor's life holds a timeless appeal, with visions of wide-open waters and exotic ports of call.
"I've always wanted to travel, to see the world, and I think this is the best way do it," said Katelyn Bono, a 20-year-old Mass. Maritime student who said she fell in love with the ocean at a young age.
Edward MacCormack, a classmate of Phillips's who sailed the Pacific Ocean for two decades and now directs career services at the Bourne academy, said the pull of the sea is innate.
"There must be something hidden back in the genes," he said. "Most normal people wouldn't have anything to do with going to sea."
But others come to it later in life, said Charlie Naff, a ship's captain and instructor at New England Maritime, a Hyannis training company that attracts many professionals who have left office jobs in their wake.
"It's demanding physically, and it's demanding mentally, but it's never boring," Naff said. "If it's boring, you're still at the dock."
Whether a captain or tankerman, researcher or engineer, those who work on the sea tenderly describe the experience, its natural beauty, exhilarating freedom, and shared sense of purpose with crewmates.
"It is a powerful environment. It's very simple and very spiritual," said John Bullard, president of the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole and former mayor of New Bedford.
Bullard, who has sailed across the Atlantic three times, said the oceans have a million moods that can change from one moment to the next.
For Gurnon, it's the stars, the meteor showers he remembers most vividly from his years on the ocean. Or the brilliant "green flash" that bursts in the sky when the sun edges over the sharp end of the vast ocean.
"That's something landlubbers never see," he said.
Video
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/04/12/adventure_draws_many_to_high_seas/
Ellie