19 years so far , more than 50 countries . its the best job I have ever had . every ship is different in pay , leadership and attitude . base pay , penalty pay , hazard pay , ammo pay , overtime pay , it adds up . if you are someone that does not know what you want to do in life go get your twic , passport and mmc . you can ship , make money until you figure out what you want to do in life . its a life changer for sure .
@@thatlldodonkeh The big companies are always hiring new people. Unfortunately you have to start somewhere which means more than likely you will start at the bottom. Alot of guys who work the great lakes have issues or past criminal records. It helps to have an education or a background in supervision to move up through the ranks. It's not an easy life. You'll spend half of your life away from home and family on the seas. You'll miss birthdays, holidays, and funerals. But if you enjoy the work and the open seas then it could be a rewarding career for you.
For those that don't want to watch the whole video he made the equivalent of $34.5 - 39 an hour if you work 8 hours a day which sounds great but he didnt go home for months at a time.
@@johnny265 I think you can make more money as OTR driver than working on a ship plus you can live your life once in awhile. I think drivers get over $0.50 per mile. Drivers that own their truck make a lot more.
@@AntonAtan you can definitely make more offshore generally speaking. Some chiefs and captains at my company bring in 1400/day and I’ve heard of them working as much as 11 months in a year but average 6-8 m
I got into the Merchant Marine in the 1980s, and it seems so much simpler when I sailed. Never got rich, but then again I went to sea to "see the sea" and get the hell away from society. Saw amazing sights, met amazing people. Did it for 15 years, would not trade a single second of it for the world. Keep the wind at your back. Joe.
im 22, grew up as a run-of-the-mill studious asian canadian in vancouver. There's no one in my circle who works anywhere close to boats, but im just looking at how intriguing these maritime lifestyles are. The funny thing is it's this ship-building video-game that slowly brought me here. Ships! The Sea!
You build your dream than you live it, that is how you live life. I had a stellar career and at 55 I walked away to go be a small time farmer in Ecuador, never be afraid of change.
I wokred with the state for 30 years with the disable at a state hosptial on 3rd shift never made over 12 dollars per hour the work was there had good insurance was why I stayed I made double my salary of my 35 ace farm I did veggies, hunted and grew mushrooms, Grunted Worms Trapped could not make a living doing just one but could do in both I did leave the state job for a year went to IRAQ working security in the Green Zone came back got my same job back , same pay, same days off but had 45K in my account
Retired merchant marine officer here. What you get paid is complicated. Basically you get paid a daily rate, as per your contract, and then you get so much per day of vacation pay. Your vacation pay also depends on your contract. All of this depends on the company and/or the ship you are working on. In my case I was also contributing some to my pension plan, along with the company. Now that I've been retired for 4 years I've gotten back all the money I put into the pension plan over the years and then some. The pension money keeps coming in every month and that's money that I worked for years ago and am still collecting today. That doesn't even include the matching money that went into my IRA account. I have to admit that I worked until I was 70 before I retired but the end result is that between social security and my pension I don't even have to touch my IRA for living expenses. I don't think there's too many jobs out there anymore that has pay like that. Did I mention that while I was working I got 5 to 6 months of vacation every year? I don't think McDonald's pays that well.
@@litawi7869 Yes, that's true. Typically the dispatcher would call me and say "There's a ship in Singapore that needs a replacement officer for the next 90 days, are you interested?" At that point I can say yes or no. If I take the job, the company will give me an airline ticket to fly out to some place like Singapore and I will replace the officer that will be getting off. Now I am obligated to stay on the ship for at least the next 90 days. At about the 80 days point the ship may or may not be at a location were a crew change is easy or I may be given the opportunity to stay on another 30 days. Eventually I will be replaced with another officer at some port and will get off and go home using an airline ticket paid for by the company. Now I'm on vacation. The company has already given me money to live on while I'm on vacation. That money is given out the day I get off the ship in one lump sum. The amount depends on how long I was on the ship working. Effectively I am getting a paid vacation, but it's not quite as much as I get paid while actively working. If everything goes perfectly I will work about 90 days on with 90 days of vacation. Usually it doesn't quite work that way. Often times I might work 120 days and then have 90 to 120 days of paid vacation. You never really know because there's no fixed schedule. During my vacation days I might also have to spend a week or two at a school getting some required additional education. This is usually paid for by the company or my union. Sometimes things come up and I might get off the ship after working for about 60 days. Maybe the ship needs to go into a shipyard due to some kind of failure. As you can see, it's a complicated situation and I'm effectively unemployed while at home on vacation with no guarantee of a job in the future. This kind of life isn't for everyone. During my last 10 years of working before retirement I had more opportunities to work than I could take. The officers that were qualified to work were quitting or retiring leaving the labor pool smaller all the time. I could take the highest paying shipping jobs with the best benefits because I had moved up to near the top of my union's seniority list. My last 5 years were the best of my 20 years working on ships. I don't know why more people don't want a high paying job with about 6 months of paid vacation every year and a pension when you retired.
@@ronjurgs9799 because they want to have a home and family and not work all over the place. Like you said, it's not for everyone but it sounds like a good life.
I'm probably 10 years your senior - maybe more - but you're so right: don't do it for the money. Live a life of adventure, not quiet desperation. Great video, Joe!
@@chantelrhine8965 you're right that you need to meet your basic needs first - for sure. What I could maybe have been more clear about is that the money shouldn't be the biggest drive... but you make a good point
Was US Navy for almost 30 years and almost went Merchant Marine after retirement but took the most money doing something else. Have tremendous respect for what you and merchant seamen do for Americans and I've spent quite a long time on ships at sea and it's not for everyone but it's an exciting life spent hard at work (sometimes not so much😁) and not cooped up in some building or factory. Best of luck in your adventures brother mariner and fair winds and following seas
Retired US Army here (21 yrs of service) and served in IRAQ during my last tour. I cannot swim (water phobia) which was the main reason I didn't join the Navy. I rather be cooped up in a nice clean, corporate-style building where I feel safe and secured than being in the ship surrounded by water (where hostile elements can harm you such as Somali Pirates, Russian torpedos, hurricanes, etc.). I'm fortunate enough to have a 2nd life after the Army and I'm going for a 2nd retirement check. I do respect the Merchant Mariners and the work they do.
@@gheerock4077 Being at sea is not for everyone. I grew up as a teenager doing deck hand work on offshore fishing trawlers and ran a lobster boat for a few years too so it was an easy transition. Being at sea has both a freedom and sense of discipline because it's amazing the things and places you see but also any mistake can have catastrophic results. Congratulations on your transition and thanks for your service too👍
My father was a merchant seaman. WWII Atlantic & Mediterranean convoy vet. Retired in the late 70's with an unlimited tonnage license. Specialized in super tankers. Even with a master's license, he preferred first mate because the union allowed him to work overtime. His last deep water job was as the master of an ocean going tug towing a converted WWII LST to and from Jacksonville FL & San Juan PR. He sailed thru the Bermuda Triangle four times a month and had some opinions about the region. He said all the superstition about the triangle is bunk. He said the weather in the reagion is dynamic, changes are sudden, violent and the ocean will swallow you without a trace. It happens all over the world.
I have been a petroleum operator for 25 years. I have worked in other departments like refining. The best pay is where I am. Overtime rates up to x5. Call out rates, shift pay and on. This year has been an all time high which is strange.
My great uncle who was Norwegian, was a merchant marine from around 1900 to 1926. I still have photos that I think are just really cool. I’ve just stumbled onto your channel and have found it to be so interesting. Glad you set this up and interested as to how and why you chose this as a career…and how you decide from job to job. Your channel is very interesting.
As a retired pilot (airline, not marine), looking back, it was always - always the life style that made or broke a particular job. Fun to watch Joe. Bon Courage ;)
An airline pilot had lots of time off. Plenty of free time for other hobbies. Not sure what they make now but I know my father was at $245/hr with AA when he retired in 2015. I’d say the pay was pretty good. I do know in 2021 some pilots shared their pay stubs in a FB group he’s still in and made over $700k on the wide bodies. Took advantage of the system put in place. However, I rarely heard my father complain about his job. His only complaint was the mergers. Or a lack there of trying to work out the kinks. Luckily he was #2 on the Airbus when he retired which made bidding a lot easier for him. He’d come home positive each time. Enjoy Retirement Sir!
For me this was an interesting reply. I was also a pilot and had all the necessary ratings to get started in the airline industry and gave it some very serious thought. However, for other reasons, I ended up going thru the Merchant Marine academy and the worked full time as a seafarer on cargo ships. Typically, I worked between 180 and 200 days a year. The rest of the time I was on vacation (paid) and had some good benefits like company paid health insurance and matching contributions to my IRA. Now I live on a nice pension, curtesy of my union, and social security. If you join a maritime union and stick with it for many years you will move up on the shipping list and have much better options on which ships you choose to work on. In my last years before retirement, I was usually #1 to #3 on the list and could be very picky on which ship to join when it was time to return to work.
PIlots have the worst lifestyle of all, hotel rooms gone a week at at a time, weird hours, flying all night, bad sleep, bad food, high divorce- fun job, the actual flying part, the rest of it blows.
@threetoyotas I wonder if I knew your dad!?!? I also fly the Airbus for AA, but the small bus, the 320 / 321. Was he on the 330? I spent about a year and a half working on aircraft carriers as an enlisted Marine, Aviation Ordnance, before I started flying. I know my at sea experience was a lot different than that Merchant Marines have. I had a lot of fun at sea, and it was hard work, but a different kind of work. I will say, flying for the airlines is similar in some ways, as in being away from home half the year, albeit for lot shorter durations of time. It's not for everyone, and sometimes it's difficult, but the pay is good. It did take me 10 years in the airline businesses to finally break 6 figures though.
I was in the Navy years ago and the only time I really enjoyed being in was when we were underway. Being deployed was the best time ever. The time sitting in our home port was almost like everyone had too much time on their hands and seemed to come up with dumb stuff. When we out to sea everyone was focused on their job and we were going somewhere new and that was what I loved about it seeing new places. You are right it is about the lifestyle completely. I got to see amazing places at a very young age when most everyone I went to school with had never been out of state much less half way around the world before I was 19. Life at sea can be a real eye opener too as you get to see how the rest of the world really is first hand and it will amaze you.
@@JoeFranta Hey Joe. Great video. Would like to send you a sample product that you may find useful for living in small spaces like a ships berthing area. If interested let me know. Respectfully, Rodney
Joe, love your videos. Could you possibly break down the command structure and staffing on one of these ships? Everything from the chain of command, to the different jobs people get, to how many people are typically staffing one of these. That would be a super informative video, if not several videos.
Hi Joe! New to your channel. My grandfather was a Merchant Marine during WWII. He left Philadelphia at the age of 16, back then they didn't check ages and stuff, but the stories he used to tell were phenomenal! I really appreciated your stories as well. It brought back a lot of good memories for me. Stay safe, and here's to good sailing! Cheers!!
Rather than approaching the income question on a per-voyage basis (because, as you rightly pointed out, there are many, many variables), it would be better to share your average annual income over the last five years. Include, too, how many days you worked each year. That should give a much better picture of the income potential. It would also be interesting to hear about your progression through the ratings, how quickly one could expect to progress, how easy (or not) it is to get on with a union, which unions are better (or not) in various ways than others, and how those factors could be expected to impact one's income.
Based on the numbers given, sounds like he averages about $9,000 per month (or 30 days worked). I would imagine most work roughly 9 months of the year (that’d be two or three contracts with roughly a month off in between each) so you’re looking at an average annual of around $80-$85k pre-tax + vacation. Assuming the vacation pay matches the normal rates, you would work 9 months a year and those 3 months off are covered by your vacation so it’s be about $108k/yr pre-tax
@@andyd9116 very well thought out.. due to the nature of the work they are taxed thru the per-diem model, which equals to about 9-12% total tax. So for 9 month work its not a bad paying job.
It’s really, really hard to pin down your exact pay on any given job because no ship (or company) pays the same. Sometimes, even with the same company, they have a different union contract depending upon which ship you are aboard that is owned by the same company. Before retiring I worked with several different companies and sometimes my daily pay was good, but I was only paid 15 days for every 30 days worked for my vacation pay. Sometimes my vacation pay was 27 for 30 but they didn’t give me a matching contribution for my IRA account. One company had nice ships that I loved to be aboard and made a lot of good stops at ports I enjoyed and would even sponsor some trips ashore, but their pay wasn’t the best. One the other hand if I was joining a ship at some foreign port and my flight was more than 6 hours long the company paid for a business class ticket. My highest paid ship overall only visited fixed ports and we didn’t have much time to go ashore. Additionally, the ship didn’t have any elevators so if I was working on something and needed to haul a bunch of stuff to the job site, I had to carry everything up and down a lot of stairs. This was getting to be more & more difficult because I worked until I was 70. One the other hand I was making about $ 570 / day on this ship plus all kinds of benefits.
My old man was a Master Mariner on tankers but he started at 16 (before he could get and official 'cadet' post at a major company) working on tramp steamers. Before he was 19 he had circumnavigated the globe twice, with and average voyage time of nine months. He ended up as a supertanker captain but retired when shore-based people became involved in the running of the ship. It is a hard but rewarding life by all accounts. Best of luck, and keep up the fascinating videos.
Best maritime channel on UA-cam. I've watched almost every video and I only discovered the channel last week. I've always dreamed of doing what you do, but I'm married with a kid now, living the 9-5 life. Keep the videos coming! You've a real talent for this - great editing, excellent content. Fair winds and following seas!
There’s no point in regret, but seeing this series of you on ships I feel this is something I’d have really enjoyed for the lifestyle. Thanks for another one Joe
Just came across your channel. I sailed in the Merchant Marines from 78-83. My last year of sailing in 83, working 2mos on 1.5 off, non-union coastwise tanker as an AB/Quartermaster I made 30k for the whole year, just for comparison. I had a back injury and wasn't able to sail anymore. I've missed it every single day. Good sailing to you mate!
It is good to mention that, those conditions are valid only for US citizens maybe. The average contracts on vessels are 5-6months+1month and the salaries are way lower. 3rd mate on tanker earns between 3-4k$ and most of the time OT is not payed. On bulk and car carriers, salaries are even lower. Vacation is not payed as well.
I live on the East Coast in Florida and enjoy watching the ships come in and out of port. I always track where they have been and where they are going. I live the water and have always been fascinated about cargo ships and that lifestyle. These videos are endlessly interesting to me. I appreciate them
I wish I would’ve done this when I was 21 years old and fresh out of college , The biggest part of your compensation is all the costs that you do not have to pay if you add all those up those are significant , plus no commuting stress , I bet you probably have some places around the country where you can park your RV for free and just hang out !
@@vooo1314 Really? Im 50 now and am looking in this direction. Do you have any advice to give me? i have a HS degree and food service experience so no qualifications. I want to get away from the service industry.
Of course can you live rhe life going from one port to another for 25 years? Most people on land would have bought a house and paid in 15-20 years into the house and have a nice equity. Don't get a chance for a decent stable relationship when you're gone 60-90 days at a time and see your significant other fir week before leaving again? Lots of sacrifice.
That pay, with food and rent included, is not too bad. Seems like you're right around $300 a day before taxes. Not having an electric bill, water bill, rent, food, household supplies to deal with for the length of the contract makes that money go further. It also must be nice to have a built in restriction on what you can spend. On a 130 contract means no going to the bar or sporting events or shopping or anything. Just sitting on a big check when you sign off. Thanks for the info.
Joe, You're a very chill guy, and watching what you do is interesting not just because of the way you tell us about it, but it's really an unusual job compared to what most of us do. Love your attitude, and I'll check out your other channel. Peace out, brother!
I’m a 3rd engineer on an MSC ship based out of Hawaii. I stand watch in two 4 hour segments every day. Work overtime 3 days a week for 3 hours each time. And probably do another 6-10 hours per week of mandatory overtime for operational stuff. We get paid every 2 weeks and I’ve been consistently pulling in about $8k before taxes. Just as an overview in case anyone was interested.
Every 2 weeks probably, and MSC doesn't pay as much as union, but they make up for it in overtime. Thirds on the ship I was just on made around 725 a day.
Joe you do a great job with your videos. You explain things well. Enjoy them when I catch them. It is not a job for everyone but it is the best job in the world...
Great vlog as always! Nice RV btw. You have a Norwegian mentality of work. Your pay goes to your free time. That is what drives you. Work is a to get money for what you love to do. That is how I see you. Enjoy RV life. Drive to the U.P. Be safe!
So glad I found this channel. Always thought about this as a career. Now I’ve got two kids and doubt I could handle the time away. Keep up the good work and thanks for taking us along for the ride!
One of my grandfathers was a merchant marine during WW2 in the Pacific.(mostly US mainland to Australia) His ship was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese U-boat.
Depends on company and position, my father is an engineer and has a day rate ofr nearly $1000 / day. Deckhand usually average around $220 a day, some more, some lower.. and every company Is a bit different, Some will offer you overtime time which is time and a half, but usually a decent company as a deckhand no experience you start at 19-20 and hour, overtime pay kicks in after 40 hours, so that bump you're almost making $30 an hour. So, if you work 12 hours a day for 28 days, get paid at a $19 rate, and overtime kicks in after 40 hours per week, you would make $8,056 in a 28-day month. And also note, you will get to eat for free.. and be on a boat for a month, you are pretty much forced to save that money.
Update to pay for anyone interested. 2024, roughly rates starting out with no experience is around 200-250.00 a day. AB or QMED are the next step up, and the pay jumps to 350-600 a day. Mates 400-850, Chief Mates 700-950, Captains 500-1300 a day. The reason the pay is so varied is due to the location, license, company, and size of the vessel you work on. For instance, an assistant engineer on a cruise ship makes less money than a Qmed on a 300ft supply ship in the Gulf of Mexico. Why? Because cruise ships pay everyone less but offer a more travel based lifestyle. In the north of American everything is unionized in the marine industry, so the pay is broken down and based around 8 hour days with optional 4hr over time. In the Gulf it is more consistent with a manditory 12 hr work day but honestly, the annual salary reflects about the same north and south based on the criteria I mentioned earlier. I do not know about any pay for freshwater or river based boats, also no knowledge of fishing vessels as there are different rules and laws. I just know the ocean-going rates.
Now that the school videos are out. Another video that would be great to see is a breakdown of school costs. That would give people an idea of the benefits of spending the money on school and what they make after.
i built screens for 26 years, made 50K one year, probably averaged 40K, and worked in the heat and humidity, cold and rain, and can't say that was somewhere i wanted to be but i did it to pay the bills. too old now but i would definitely look into this if i was a young person.
Well said, the first day I went to trade school, the instructor started off by saying "if you are ONLY here for the money, you will not last." My self and one other person were the only ones out of a class of 25 that completed our hours, wrote and received red-seal certification.
I agree and say the same thing. I say if my thing was just making a lot of money, I wouldn't be doing this. It's a lifestyle and an endurance game here.
I mean, why the hell else would you willingly be on a boat for 3 months straight, in places you don't wanna be, doing stuff you don't wanna do, if not for money?
@@IHateMyAccountName I have lived the life of 5 men. I have sailed the 7 seas, seen exotic places on every continent (including Antarctica), been with some of the most beautiful and exotic women on the planet and got paid to do it. For some people, there is more to life than having the biggest tombstone in the graveyard.
As 45 years as a over the road trucker. I owned and operated. It's definitely a lifestyle. If you enjoy what you're doing you will never work a day in your life. Just know that when that time comes to change or retire go for it. Retired in January of 23. I do miss it but not enough to go back.
I worked on oil tankers as an AB watch and maintenance out of Valdez Alaska 1985-88 and remember making 32,000 for 8 months at sea. In today's wages that would be 95,000. We made a couple runs to Barbers Pt Hawaii and shore leave in Waikiki was a blast. Keep up the videos Joe much appreciated!
I fished crab and cod on the Bering Sea. I agree there was a point where I was fishing because I loved it, I saw alot of Alaska we sailed the Inside Passage, gorgeous unreal, but it's not just about the money for sure! Super informative video!! 👌
I love this video you are answering all the questions I wondered about that kind of work. Especially about shipping hazardous materials- and how you must need to find other work while the ship is docked for repair, maintenance etc (usually Winter). Sounds like a savings account with at least 3 months income would be beneficial.
Retired SIU Bosun here but I was mostly a watchstanding AB for like 20 years. I used to get asked all the time how much $ I made. I still get asked how much $ I used to make. Like you I always found it a difficult question to answer. When you look at stuff like money market pension contribution, all the extra bennies above and beyond normal health care, eventual pension monthly payment, it is easiest to just say "I made x amount of money in wages, overtime, and vacation pay last year, and worked x days, and so I averaged x dollars per day worked." That doesn't tell the whole story but it's an answer that usually satisfies most people who ask. And let's not even get into quarterly and working dues. A lot of people don't realize that you might also be going to the hall every day for weeks before you get the job you want. AFAIC that, to me, is a work day with no pay. If you go to a school between ships, those days are work days. Travel? Work. Physical? That's a day's work. Your career makes a lot of demands on your time and patience for which you aren't compensated except that it is necessary for you to get jobs. People think you get a lot of time off, but really you end up on average giving up about two months a year for no pay. If you go to sea for say 8 months during that year, you have actually probably only taken two months off, plus the weekends while ashore. Most people who work on the beach get a month vacation every year and EVERY WEEKEND AND HOLIDAY off. So yeah an American seaman who is a union man sailing on union ships does pretty good, financially, if he works hard, but it's not as rosy as a lot of landlubbers imagine it to be. You can sling numbers that make you look like a Rockefeller and not be lying. You can also paint a picture of grinding wage serfdom and not be lying. People don't get it. And yeah you are right, Sure, we work because we get paid to work, but if the money is your only reason for going to sea, you aren't gonna have a very happy or rewarding career. That's the situation I found myself in, which is why I retired and took my pension at 60 instead of working to 65 or 67. The joy wasn't there anymore. The PITA factor was getting insane. It got to where I would fly out to meet a ship, put on my coveralls and boots first thing, drop my papers off at the Capts office and relieve my guy, and not set foot ashore except on the dock while working, then get relieved at the end of my hitch and get whisked straight to the airport and never get ashore the whole time. Back in the day, we were all shore hounds. I mean we tore it up. I don't know how we made it on so little sleep, cause off watch or after hours we were ashore. We had FUN, lemme tell you, politically incorrect types of fun, and we saw lots of really cool shit. We didn't have half as much paperwork and red tape back then. Our Z cards used to not expire. No red book, no TWIC or STCW, and if you weren't holding a license, your Z card and your passport was all you needed. The lawyers hadn't completely ruined everything, and shipping companies were still ran by sailors and captains could still run their ships. As the life got more regulated and aggravating, I found myself getting grouchier and grouchier and I was tired as hell of it, and I didn't give two shits about the money anymore cause you can always get yourself some money but you can't always get happy.
yea spent a lot of time on tankers so i say been to saudi, abu dabui, kuwait, bahrain, (then point to the yellow spot 20 miles away and say its over there) and when you do tie up ashore the size of the terminal and rules means you dont get ashore. or a modern box job less then 12 hours alongside an no shore leave (hell your working)
@@philiprice7875 35yrs a mariner here, you are spot on. I sailed the world seen and experienced sh*t nobody would believe and lived the life of 10 men. Something most multimillionaires could never say.
You are correct. I was an officer on cargo ships for 20 years before retiring in 2018. It's hard to explain the vaccation days, free travel to/from the ship, pension benefits, free health insurance, and contributions to your IRA as well as the benefits of any required schooling (free to you) you might have to do because of rule changes. Your paycheck amounts are complicated and only a part of the total $ you end up getting every year. Of course while you are on the ship ship you never go hungry and stay warm at night. Our steward even made the best chocolate chip cookies you could ever have.
I was in the U.S. Navy for 10 years and then later worked for Military Sealift Command as a civilian mariner (CIVMAR) doing a job that doesn't exist in the contract mariner (or CONMAR) world (Chief Radio Electronics Technician). I had many friends that were working in both AB(M) and AB(W) positions, and while MSC is a completely different beast than where you have worked, many of the factors that you talk about are absolutely true not just for them but all ratings. Pay drastically varies from ship-to-ship depending on operations especially if you were unlicensed. Generally speaking we made more in the Gulf and Middle East regions due to the fact that we did more underway replenishments and loading cargo could be an all-day and all-night thing depending. Love your videos Joe!
Interesting Joe in Australia we have a aggregate wage this was set up due to it issues wage set on 8 hr day + 3hrs it for operational needs plus there's rates for different class of vessels great vids and very informative thanks for the content brother
You are one cool dude and I really enjoy your videos. So cool you are living an exciting lifestyle to see the world while young. NJ is cool and all, but we all owe it to ourselves to explore. I still visit NJ often to see family and friends. Awesome videos. Thank you 👍👍
I have absolutely no interest in ever being a sailor, but find your vlogs interesting anyway. It's a window into a world I want nothing to do with, but benefit from because people like you. I was always wondering about your pay so this is great, but can you also talk about how you find your jobs and what the application process is like since I am guessing there is some competition to get the contract. Maybe I am wrong, but would love to learn more. BTW, I just got my CDL and deliver beer...lol.
My grandfather started doing this in the 40's and retired in the 80's. My grandma never worked and he was able to take care of 5 children. His old photo albums have every country with a port. Hard work but great pay
Love your videos. I've enjoyed watching them all. Now I have a few questions. How are relations between the contractor seamen and the ship's officers? Is there a career path from where you are to becoming an officer? Do you progress to positions of more responsibility with experience, or is additional training required? How do you go about finding a job on a ship? Is there a central place that shipping companies post contract offerings? Are contracts negotiable or is it just take it or leave it? I have a son that's in college, but he's unsure of what he wants to do in life. He's the adventurous type, loves to go camping in the wild and wants to see the world, but our family isn't independently wealthy and cannot provide much opportunity to provide for his yearn to travel. He doesn't seem interested in an 9-5 office job, but this seems like something that would appeal to him, while providing valuable and marketable skills. Thanks for your videos. It's a window into a world I've never been a part of, but find fascinating.
I can try to answer some of your questions here! I currently am sailing as a ship’s officer and can tell you that there tends to be a good professional relationship between officers and crew from my experience. When you all live together on a big floating box, it helps everyone to pull in the same direction! There is opportunity to move from a deckhand position to an officer, but it can take years to accumulate the sea-time and classes needed to get one’s officer ticket. The route many officers (myself included) take is to attend one of the 5 state maritime schools which offer a 4 year degree along with an USCG officers license. If he were to decide to sail asap, the Seafarers international Union is the place to go. He could take the basic courses required and then head to one of their union halls where all the jobs are posted! This is certainly a unique career and life to live, but it affords great travel, pay, and lots of time off for adventuring. I hope That answered some of your questions!
I don’t know if there is anything such as ‘contractor seamen’. Aboard a merchant vessel there are officers and what’s commonly known as ‘unlicensed’ crew. The non-officers really have a license, but they aren’t considered to be an ‘officer’. If it’s a union ship the ‘unlicensed’ crew may belong to a couple of different unions depending upon their job. The various officers also may belong to several different unions as well. If you get your training to become a merchant mariner and join the appropriate union, then the union will find a position for you on a ship. Every time you go to work it may or may not be on the same ship. You can start your work at a low-level seaman and then raise to be captain. I have seen this happen, but it takes a lot of time and training that has to be done when you are off the ship and on vacation. Contracts are possible but they are usually negotiated between the shipping company and a union. I also was somewhat adventurous. That tendency was inherited from my parents. Many years ago, I went thru a merchant marine academy and graduated the same week I turned 50. I was then an officer and worked on cargo ships for 20 more years before retiring in 2018. Many of those years I worked on tramp vessels and went around the world a couple of times and saw a lot of different things in lots of different ports all over the world. It is a great life for someone who likes to do adventurous stuff while getting paid well.
@@winwin-bf7sm The majority of jobs you don't get much port time these days, the name of the game for the shipping companies is to make money, smaller crews, and in and out of port as fast as you can load and unload. Plus, as you get older, it can get monotonous and hard on your body if you are unlicensed. The best thing he points out is that every ship is different, and every captain is different. Very few people are cut out for a life at sea. The attrition rate is sky high. And if you go by insurance companies' actuarial tables, the industry consistently averages in the top 5 for danger and stress. US flagged companies carry less than 3% of world cargo annually.
What a shower of moaning sods in the comments. I was in the British merchant navy for years and I understand exactly where your coming from. I was a chief cook for years and yes it's not exactly a nine to five job,I remember a tanker I was working on and we got orders to go to Luanda, well it was in a middle of a war so we refused and we were backed by the union. Then we got told we would get a war bonus,lol you guessed it we went. Great times at sea Joe. Keep the great videos.
we was on a LPG tanker going to the gulf during Iran iraq was heard on BBC world that our sister ship was fired on with 7 missiles (all missed) we was 7 days out and all crew put in for pay off before we entered gulf again Union talks bribe and navy escort
Not a ship but the situation seems similar. In '76 I worked on the Trans Alaskan Pipeline at pump station #12. The company provided lodging, shared with a friend, food. We worked 6 - 10 hr days. With no place to go and spend any money I would send my checks back home to my pregnant wife. Made some solid money, especially for someone in their mid 20s. First two weeks my only expense was 25 cents for a Snickers candy bar from the commissary. Videos are well done, thanks
It would be good to add a chart to facilitate your explanation. Each column of the chart would be the individual ships you worked on. The rows of the chart would be the pay categories you mentioned: You also need to have a row identifying the number of days you worked on each ship. Fill in that matrix with your pay amounts for each category on each ship, then you can verbalize why the amounts differ from ship to ship.
For some of us who are educated in STEM and make high salaries on land (hehe) his salary does concern me a bit. It has some drawbacks (as with most things). I like how solid he is about his commitment to his work and his journey. He reminds me so much of myself when I was young. May he live a long blessed life seeing this earth. What a privilege.
Thanks for the breakdown of the pay rates. My question is how long do you wait between jobs? You say 45 days on this ship and 107 days on that ship. How do you go about getting off one ship and on to another?
Thanks for answering the question. I drive a truck in the UK and it's comparable but i'm not about to give it up to sail about and get wet for any amount of money 😂👍 love the videos though
Hey man! First time viewer here! Thanks for running this channel, man, I've always been curious about the life of a merchant sailor, and this did a good job of getting into that. I just watched 77 days, and thought it was/wasn't funny when people were nervous about the ship possibly coming from China..."something about a virus or something... hope it's not a big deal... " good shit, bro, be easy!!
As a 21 year old with no maritime experience, would I need to get a degree from an academy or go through a training program to get my foot in the door or could I just apply for entry level positions?
You would need to go to a USCG REC (regional exam center) we’re better yet just find a school that you can get your MMC (Merchant Marine credential) and all associated courses for the STCW, find a doctor that does Merchant Marine physicals and the school should get all the paperwork submitted to the Coast Guard. You’ll start out as a OS (ordinary semen) and when start building your hours you’ll eventually be able to upgrade to hirer ratings. You can research all the credential information online to what you need to do. Then just start researching different companies in exactly what you wanted do. Work on the mud boat going to the oil rigs, working on an oil rig, offshore supply vessels, tug and barge, Harbor tug, research vessels, are just a fraction of the possibilities. I worked for a private company on an ATB tug pushing petroleum from one refinery to the next. I used to make a ridiculous amount of money.
Check out the Paul Hall Center in Piney Point, MD. They can get you started and get you on a ship after some training. If you wish to be an officer you will have to commit to 4 years of training at one of the Merchant Marine academies. I went the academy route so I can't speak too much about the Paul Hall Center but I have talked to many of my crew mates who went that route. In my case I was an officer on cargo ships for 20 years and retired in 2018.
Yes. In my case I had my own business until I was 46. I sold out and went off to the Merchant Marine academy. My graduation was on the same week I turned 50. After looking for a job for a while I landed one and went to work. Eventually I joined a union and they kept be busy working on ships until I was 70 when I retired. I now collect social security and a union pension. With this income there's no reason for me to work anymore.@@bkkid75
Really interesting for me to compare lifestyles. I've been in the oil & gas industry for decades and the lifestyle is pretty similar. High wages but consistently chasing contracts and with tons of downtime. I love it personally and said it right; don't do it for money but for the lifestyle.
How hard is it to maintain a family with a lifestyle like this (merchant marine, oil& gas , military, airline pilot, etc.) where you're away from home for long periods of time?
You keep up with them yourself and at the end of the week you turn them into your supervisor. I’m a junior engineer with a electrician endorsement. So on my current ship in getting 4 hours of overtime everything plus 8 hours overtime on Saturday and 8 on Sunday. And if I get called out to plug or unplug refrigerated cargo I get another 2 hours for each call out. Doesn’t matter if it takes me 10 minutes you still get the 2 hours regardless.
For you, the physical labor, compared to what you've done in the past, do you think it matches up with the pay? I've seen all of your videos and it looks like it's not that bad? Like scraping, chipping, painting, cleaning. Is there other stuff we don't see that is really hard and backbreaking?
No, as far as physical labor working on ships isn't bad. Driving the beer truck was 100x harder. The hardest thing about sailing is just being on your feet for so long. Oh and being away from home for months at a time lol
@@Atlas2040 In case Joe doesn't get a chance to answer you can actually see the six part series on this channel how he got into this. It's not an undergraduate degree, I think that's pretty much the officers. He went through the apprenticeship program in Maryland. Here you go: ua-cam.com/video/H7HgVOFXCU4/v-deo.html I believe it's a guaranteed job once you get done.
@@sfmc98 thanks for the information. I'm about to enroll at Texas A&M for Marine Transportation. I already have an associates in science so I will most likely continue going this route.
@@Atlas2040 Nice, if you're a young guy especially, this is great. Make good money, get a retirement and being in your 40s with a ton of options is an awesome thing.
Thank you Joe, for the better-than-expected rundown, as far as the pay and benefits of working on a ship. Although I'm retired from a totally different industry (EMS), the information that you provided, was greatly appreciated by those seeking that kind of employment. Much success in you RV Videos, as well! Greetings from N. Kentucky. PS Glad you presented it the way you did, as I'm certain that some need a 'Reality Check', as to the Pros/Cons of sailing. You presented it, including the 'Big Picture' of everything in prospective!
Have you considered logging and calculating exactly what you are due and how you earned it with a spreadsheet with all the different rate factors in the contract on the horizontal axis with the amount paid and the days in the vertical axis?
What was your pay for the last year....what did you make? 75K....85K....95K? Say an annual amount for last year. You really didn't answer how much you made.
Thanks for that info. I'll never be a MM but I really enjoy knowing what people make. Seems like good money for hard work. Free food - my favorite phrase. Ha, ha.
uk merchant navy here there was complex tax rules but if you stayed more then 30 days you had to pay tax end of one contract was waiting for another job left the UK after 2 weeks 4 weeks later new job fly to Rotterdam join ship (oil tanker) whole new crew who flew in from all over europe same reason found ships next port was in the UK and this due to rules on re-entry mad all 30 of us liable for a full years tax. someone workout later over £100k was collect from us the trip to UK tied up 20.00 let go 02.30 (took us past midnight so we had 2 days in UK then to top it all this was 1987 and we sailed into "the great not a hurricane" storm
@@JoeFranta US Merchant Marine here. I have worked on Vanuatu and Marshall Island flagged ships and still had to pay US taxes. Last I checked, if you can show you spent 330 days outside the US, about $90,000 of your income could be exempt (Not financial advice).
My Dad was a merchant seaman from the early 1950s till his death in 1985. Belonged to the SUP, Sailors Union of the Pacific. Shipped out of San Pedro till 1965 and then we moved to Seattle when the Vietnam War heated up. Did runs to Japan, Hong Kong, Saigon, Subic Bay or along the Pacific Coast of South America. I got interested in geography and encyclopedic data about cities. Asked my Dad if he ever visited the overseas attractions as an armchair traveller I'd become acquainted with. He said no, never made it past the first gin mill. I thought what a shame, Dad never gets past the industrial sections of foreign cities. Little did I know as an 8th grader that a "gin mill" was a slang term for a tavern.
Hey Joe. In the last couple months I’ve been doing some research on joining this profession. I love the ocean and the idea of working on deep sea ships really excites me. I appreciate you doing these videos as it gives a lot of insight into the profession. I’m in a landlocked state and have no SIU halls nearby. Ive been considering going to the school you did in Maryland. I saw in another comment you suggested someone get a stcw (?) cert and then just go get a job at a union hall. Is it really that simple? I have no real ocean experience other then recreational stuff. Is it better to go through SIU to get the full training experience? Does doing either option impact what you can make? I’m not interested in this work so I can get rich but I would like to be able to save some money up so I can buy a cabin in the woods. The work entices me simply because of the adventure and the fact that I would have pretty low expenses while on the ship making it easier ( I think at least?) to save money. One other question I wanted to ask I’ve heard that most deep ocean ships have internet access now? Is this pretty true? I’ve got friends and family that I’m pretty close with and would be nice (but not a total deal breaker) if I had the opportunity to stay caught up with them while I have down time. Just trying to make sure the right expectations are set before I fully commit. One other question I wanted to ask does the rv style of living off the ship make it easier to take contracts? I imagine if you couldn’t find the right contract in one port you could very easily drive to a different one. Or do you mostly stay in one area and just use the rv out of convenience (not having to pay rent on a place you don’t live in most of the year) anyway love the videos. Every one I watch gets me more excited for this opportunity.
I am an alumni of the school (2000-01) . Its a great way to get your training and also networking and learning the ropes of how to get a job etc. You'll need all of that training if you want to do well and make a career out of it. There are other ways to get those classes and certifications, but I'd highly recommend the apprentice program. It was a great experience for me.
@Einar B no absolutely not dude. You do not get any internet access or for that matter cell phone reception. You get to maybe, just maybe make a phone call once a month off the captians phone. Thats about it dude... doesnt sound like your even cut out for it asking those questions Id stay way buba chubs.
@@singlewidetrailer stay were u are if your concerned about damn internet then this isnt for you chubs... stay put flipping burgers at taco bell like my army recruiter told me... have fun at TBELL!
Is there an age limit or age range where you'd be considered for some of these positions, or is it based on physical capability? In low 50's and looking for a change...
If you are relatively fit and can work odd hours, theres LOTS of jobs on board ships. Now, you very likely wont be starting with the good paying ones but with competence and a willingness to learn you can go up quickly (at least in Canada you can, I have a friend in his mid 40's who started a couple years ago and he makes a decent living)
I work on Tugboats as a Chief Engineer and I love it, but honestly I want to get out there and work on some Container Ships, Bulk Carriers, Tankers, and some Ro-Ro ships while I’m still young. Like I said why have a MMC and just be confined to the same harbor for 30 years. That may be some people’s life but not mine. I am adventurous, I can come back to Tugs later when I’m older and want to stay home closer to family. For now this is what I want. Working on getting my AB now, I have the TWIC and MMC, I am an OS and Lifeboatman. I need that AB.
Way to much filler on this video, we don't need to hear the airplane. You also didn't describe any of your topics in any detail at all. You should really write down an outline with your informational facts and hit your points in quick succession.
I guess I did a bad job of explaining, sailing isn't a 9-5, every time go to work i make a different amount. So its unfair to just say I make xxx a year. cause it fluctuates so much
I like you, but this is just a very bad video buddy, you do a horrible job of answering a simple question, you never even gave us a yearly amount?? Fix this video please, I would love to know how much you make as a merchant mariner
The whole point of this video is that it’s not a fixed number even before the element of choice each sailor has over how much of the year to work. He’s an intelligent guy, he you easily look up his tax return and tell us what he made in each tax year. The point is to make clear that there is no such number as the annual wage for a merchant seafarer.
I fully enjoyed your videos and I’m super happy to watch I had a friend in Florida his dad was a merchant marine and spoke well of it I’ve always dreamed of being that person you help me to live that life thank you so much
What’s up Joe. I’m from Staten Island. My wife and I just took our new van to Turkey Swamp after watching your video. You were 👌 spot on with the review. Then my seasick getting self watched a bunch of your ship videos. Awesome. I love job specific vlogs. Live vicariously through people….Thanks for the Entertainment and education. Safe Travels.
So glad you guys enjoyed turkey swamp, i was just there again acouple weeks ago! Such a nice quiet place. Thanks for watching and super glad you're enjoying the content. don't be a stranger
I just Graduated Mass Maritime, I'm testing for my 3rd Engine Unlimited next week and joined AMO. I have worked with a few guys from SIU and they're usually all solid dudes (obviously there's some people with licenses and non-licensed that should not be out there in general or just suck to work with) but I'm excited to hit my first hitch as a green third.
New to the whole genre, heard about the merchant marines from people and they said it was their favorite time. Seeing it now @ 43 i have to say its looking damn good. I would do it for the experince and the pay would be a bonus. P.s. Dubs are a form of ear protection that blocks out high pitch sounds that damage the ears that muscians and roadies wear, ive owned some and they work really well. Theyre worth every penny, maybe those can help you on your next voyage. Id definetly bring some out. Oh too for your guys out there beating the colds and such there is a stellar product on the market out of marina del rey CA. The c and f shot by dr schulzes. I highly recommend it, its 112$ for 15 oz bottle but it licks a cold before it starts! Buy it! Id take a few botlles with me on a ship if I wind up going. P.s.s. Thanks joe! Maybe ill see you out there one day in the next few years. Cheers!
Great video. I worked many pipe laying ships in my 20 years working for a company. The pay was my hr pay plus I always had 4 hrs OT due to the 12 hr shifts on board. I also got travel pay sitting on planes or in taxi's. 100k was my best year and could have done more. Skipper
I work on the Great Lakes as a 2nd cook. I do the baking and the dishes. Between overtime, holiday pay and years end bonus it averages out to about 3000 a week
Thank you for sharing the info. If I was young again I think I might try it for a few years. Looks very interesting and you get to go so many different places. Susan
wow found your channel by accident and so happy i did i watched alot of the ship videos before i watched the basic training how you got to the ships found it very very intresting now i cant stop watching great job mate great videos ty for sharing now going to subscribe to your R.V CHANNEL i know i am late to the party but keep up the great work
19 years so far , more than 50 countries . its the best job I have ever had . every ship is different in pay , leadership and attitude . base pay , penalty pay , hazard pay , ammo pay , overtime pay , it adds up . if you are someone that does not know what you want to do in life go get your twic , passport and mmc . you can ship , make money until you figure out what you want to do in life . its a life changer for sure .
What's "ammo pay"?
@@GORILLA_PIMP when transporting ammo depends on the amount you get paid for it . its hazardous cargo
@@set747 Msc is always hiring
@@donrodriguez8615 do you know of any unions that arnt military related I've done my share already with military
@@set747 you can see what SIU has to offer
I was making $223k a year as a captain on the great lakes. Loved every minute of it. Battled through some rough seas. Met lots of good people.
Lot of good men ;)
@@BBWahoo which company are you sailing with??
Which company did you work for?
I’m interested in this career. How did you become a captain? And how did you get to do it on the Great Lakes? Just curious
@@thatlldodonkeh The big companies are always hiring new people. Unfortunately you have to start somewhere which means more than likely you will start at the bottom. Alot of guys who work the great lakes have issues or past criminal records. It helps to have an education or a background in supervision to move up through the ranks. It's not an easy life. You'll spend half of your life away from home and family on the seas. You'll miss birthdays, holidays, and funerals. But if you enjoy the work and the open seas then it could be a rewarding career for you.
For those that don't want to watch the whole video he made the equivalent of $34.5 - 39 an hour if you work 8 hours a day which sounds great but he didnt go home for months at a time.
Thank you! This guy just says nothing for so long geez
@@johnny265 I think you can make more money as OTR driver than working on a ship plus you can live your life once in awhile. I think drivers get over $0.50 per mile. Drivers that own their truck make a lot more.
@@AntonAtan you can definitely make more offshore generally speaking. Some chiefs and captains at my company bring in 1400/day and I’ve heard of them working as much as 11 months in a year but average 6-8 m
Thank God. You're a good man. I was screaming "on with it!"
Thank you.🙄
I got into the Merchant Marine in the 1980s, and it seems so much simpler when I sailed. Never got rich, but then again I went to sea to "see the sea" and get the hell away from society. Saw amazing sights, met amazing people. Did it for 15 years, would not trade a single second of it for the world. Keep the wind at your back. Joe.
10 years myself. It was the best decision I ever made. 🤘⚓
i have a major medical problem and forfeited a marine job my dad and grandfather were seaman on tugs in NY harbor
im 22, grew up as a run-of-the-mill studious asian canadian in vancouver. There's no one in my circle who works anywhere close to boats, but im just looking at how intriguing these maritime lifestyles are. The funny thing is it's this ship-building video-game that slowly brought me here. Ships! The Sea!
Everyone here is a inspiration to me
WHAT UNION HALL DID YOU SHIP OUT OF ? PLEASE REPLY , JOHN FROM NORTH CAROLINA .
You build your dream than you live it, that is how you live life. I had a stellar career and at 55 I walked away to go be a small time farmer in Ecuador, never be afraid of change.
I wokred with the state for 30 years with the disable at a state hosptial on 3rd shift never made over 12 dollars per hour the work was there had good insurance was why I stayed I made double my salary of my 35 ace farm I did veggies, hunted and grew mushrooms, Grunted Worms Trapped could not make a living doing just one but could do in both I did leave the state job for a year went to IRAQ working security in the Green Zone came back got my same job back , same pay, same days off but had 45K in my account
Retired merchant marine officer here. What you get paid is complicated. Basically you get paid a daily rate, as per your contract, and then you get so much per day of vacation pay. Your vacation pay also depends on your contract. All of this depends on the company and/or the ship you are working on. In my case I was also contributing some to my pension plan, along with the company. Now that I've been retired for 4 years I've gotten back all the money I put into the pension plan over the years and then some. The pension money keeps coming in every month and that's money that I worked for years ago and am still collecting today. That doesn't even include the matching money that went into my IRA account. I have to admit that I worked until I was 70 before I retired but the end result is that between social security and my pension I don't even have to touch my IRA for living expenses. I don't think there's too many jobs out there anymore that has pay like that. Did I mention that while I was working I got 5 to 6 months of vacation every year? I don't think McDonald's pays that well.
You better enjoy that money because if you don’t somebody else will
5 to 6 MONTHS??!!
@@litawi7869 Yes, that's true. Typically the dispatcher would call me and say "There's a ship in Singapore that needs a replacement officer for the next 90 days, are you interested?" At that point I can say yes or no. If I take the job, the company will give me an airline ticket to fly out to some place like Singapore and I will replace the officer that will be getting off. Now I am obligated to stay on the ship for at least the next 90 days. At about the 80 days point the ship may or may not be at a location were a crew change is easy or I may be given the opportunity to stay on another 30 days. Eventually I will be replaced with another officer at some port and will get off and go home using an airline ticket paid for by the company. Now I'm on vacation. The company has already given me money to live on while I'm on vacation. That money is given out the day I get off the ship in one lump sum. The amount depends on how long I was on the ship working. Effectively I am getting a paid vacation, but it's not quite as much as I get paid while actively working. If everything goes perfectly I will work about 90 days on with 90 days of vacation. Usually it doesn't quite work that way. Often times I might work 120 days and then have 90 to 120 days of paid vacation. You never really know because there's no fixed schedule. During my vacation days I might also have to spend a week or two at a school getting some required additional education. This is usually paid for by the company or my union. Sometimes things come up and I might get off the ship after working for about 60 days. Maybe the ship needs to go into a shipyard due to some kind of failure. As you can see, it's a complicated situation and I'm effectively unemployed while at home on vacation with no guarantee of a job in the future. This kind of life isn't for everyone. During my last 10 years of working before retirement I had more opportunities to work than I could take. The officers that were qualified to work were quitting or retiring leaving the labor pool smaller all the time. I could take the highest paying shipping jobs with the best benefits because I had moved up to near the top of my union's seniority list. My last 5 years were the best of my 20 years working on ships. I don't know why more people don't want a high paying job with about 6 months of paid vacation every year and a pension when you retired.
@@ronjurgs9799 because they want to have a home and family and not work all over the place. Like you said, it's not for everyone but it sounds like a good life.
So what did you make in your best year?
I'm probably 10 years your senior - maybe more - but you're so right: don't do it for the money. Live a life of adventure, not quiet desperation. Great video, Joe!
Lol all sounds good but when your kids need food a roof and clothes then tell me don't worry about the money
@@chantelrhine8965 you're right that you need to meet your basic needs first - for sure. What I could maybe have been more clear about is that the money shouldn't be the biggest drive... but you make a good point
Di u get paid at the end, or bi weekly?
Do you need a special education other than high school diploma to work as a sailor?
@@kimjongun9555 no
Was US Navy for almost 30 years and almost went Merchant Marine after retirement but took the most money doing something else. Have tremendous respect for what you and merchant seamen do for Americans and I've spent quite a long time on ships at sea and it's not for everyone but it's an exciting life spent hard at work (sometimes not so much😁) and not cooped up in some building or factory. Best of luck in your adventures brother mariner and fair winds and following seas
Retired US Army here (21 yrs of service) and served in IRAQ during my last tour. I cannot swim (water phobia) which was the main reason I didn't join the Navy. I rather be cooped up in a nice clean, corporate-style building where I feel safe and secured than being in the ship surrounded by water (where hostile elements can harm you such as Somali Pirates, Russian torpedos, hurricanes, etc.). I'm fortunate enough to have a 2nd life after the Army and I'm going for a 2nd retirement check. I do respect the Merchant Mariners and the work they do.
@@gheerock4077 Being at sea is not for everyone. I grew up as a teenager doing deck hand work on offshore fishing trawlers and ran a lobster boat for a few years too so it was an easy transition. Being at sea has both a freedom and sense of discipline because it's amazing the things and places you see but also any mistake can have catastrophic results. Congratulations on your transition and thanks for your service too👍
We aren't "doing it for Americans".. that's a huge reach
@@therooster1339 Fair enough
My father was a merchant seaman. WWII Atlantic & Mediterranean convoy vet. Retired in the late 70's with an unlimited tonnage license. Specialized in super tankers. Even with a master's license, he preferred first mate because the union allowed him to work overtime. His last deep water job was as the master of an ocean going tug towing a converted WWII LST to and from Jacksonville FL & San Juan PR. He sailed thru the Bermuda Triangle four times a month and had some opinions about the region. He said all the superstition about the triangle is bunk. He said the weather in the reagion is dynamic, changes are sudden, violent and the ocean will swallow you without a trace. It happens all over the world.
If you take the square miles on the triangle and place it anywhere else, you will have the same number of lost ships.
Now that sounds like a rich life.
I have been a petroleum operator for 25 years. I have worked in other departments like refining. The best pay is where I am. Overtime rates up to x5. Call out rates, shift pay and on. This year has been an all time high which is strange.
@@SCD4 so that’s why gas is so high! Seems a little excessive.
@@coaltrain18000 I don't work with gas.
My great uncle who was Norwegian, was a merchant marine from around 1900 to 1926. I still have photos that I think are just really cool. I’ve just stumbled onto your channel and have found it to be so interesting. Glad you set this up and interested as to how and why you chose this as a career…and how you decide from job to job. Your channel is very interesting.
As a retired pilot (airline, not marine), looking back, it was always - always the life style that made or broke a particular job. Fun to watch Joe. Bon Courage ;)
An airline pilot had lots of time off. Plenty of free time for other hobbies. Not sure what they make now but I know my father was at $245/hr with AA when he retired in 2015. I’d say the pay was pretty good. I do know in 2021 some pilots shared their pay stubs in a FB group he’s still in and made over $700k on the wide bodies. Took advantage of the system put in place.
However, I rarely heard my father complain about his job. His only complaint was the mergers. Or a lack there of trying to work out the kinks. Luckily he was #2 on the Airbus when he retired which made bidding a lot easier for him. He’d come home positive each time.
Enjoy Retirement Sir!
For me this was an interesting reply. I was also a pilot and had all the necessary ratings to get started in the airline industry and gave it some very serious thought. However, for other reasons, I ended up going thru the Merchant Marine academy and the worked full time as a seafarer on cargo ships. Typically, I worked between 180 and 200 days a year. The rest of the time I was on vacation (paid) and had some good benefits like company paid health insurance and matching contributions to my IRA. Now I live on a nice pension, curtesy of my union, and social security. If you join a maritime union and stick with it for many years you will move up on the shipping list and have much better options on which ships you choose to work on. In my last years before retirement, I was usually #1 to #3 on the list and could be very picky on which ship to join when it was time to return to work.
PIlots have the worst lifestyle of all, hotel rooms gone a week at at a time, weird hours, flying all night, bad sleep, bad food, high divorce- fun job, the actual flying part, the rest of it blows.
@threetoyotas I wonder if I knew your dad!?!? I also fly the Airbus for AA, but the small bus, the 320 / 321. Was he on the 330? I spent about a year and a half working on aircraft carriers as an enlisted Marine, Aviation Ordnance, before I started flying. I know my at sea experience was a lot different than that Merchant Marines have. I had a lot of fun at sea, and it was hard work, but a different kind of work. I will say, flying for the airlines is similar in some ways, as in being away from home half the year, albeit for lot shorter durations of time. It's not for everyone, and sometimes it's difficult, but the pay is good. It did take me 10 years in the airline businesses to finally break 6 figures though.
From enlisted AO to flying. Congrats. That is awesome.
I was in the Navy years ago and the only time I really enjoyed being in was when we were underway. Being deployed was the best time ever. The time sitting in our home port was almost like everyone had too much time on their hands and seemed to come up with dumb stuff. When we out to sea everyone was focused on their job and we were going somewhere new and that was what I loved about it seeing new places. You are right it is about the lifestyle completely. I got to see amazing places at a very young age when most everyone I went to school with had never been out of state much less half way around the world before I was 19. Life at sea can be a real eye opener too as you get to see how the rest of the world really is first hand and it will amaze you.
For sure, absolutely. Thanks for watching James
@@JoeFranta
Hey Joe. Great video. Would like to send you a sample product that you may find useful for living in small spaces like a ships berthing area. If interested let me know.
Respectfully,
Rodney
Thank you for your Service Sir 🇺🇸🇺🇸
7 minutes in... "Bro! For the love of God How much do you make?!?!"
For sure!! How much do you make!! Get on with it!
😂😂😂😂
I left at 10 minute mark. Still no idea LOL
lol Here's one of the various examples:
11:35 --> for 65 days, he made $18k
even after seeing the timestamp i was over it lol
Joe, love your videos. Could you possibly break down the command structure and staffing on one of these ships? Everything from the chain of command, to the different jobs people get, to how many people are typically staffing one of these. That would be a super informative video, if not several videos.
Hi Joe! New to your channel. My grandfather was a Merchant Marine during WWII. He left Philadelphia at the age of 16, back then they didn't check ages and stuff, but the stories he used to tell were phenomenal! I really appreciated your stories as well. It brought back a lot of good memories for me. Stay safe, and here's to good sailing! Cheers!!
Rather than approaching the income question on a per-voyage basis (because, as you rightly pointed out, there are many, many variables), it would be better to share your average annual income over the last five years. Include, too, how many days you worked each year. That should give a much better picture of the income potential. It would also be interesting to hear about your progression through the ratings, how quickly one could expect to progress, how easy (or not) it is to get on with a union, which unions are better (or not) in various ways than others, and how those factors could be expected to impact one's income.
Based on the numbers given, sounds like he averages about $9,000 per month (or 30 days worked). I would imagine most work roughly 9 months of the year (that’d be two or three contracts with roughly a month off in between each) so you’re looking at an average annual of around $80-$85k pre-tax + vacation. Assuming the vacation pay matches the normal rates, you would work 9 months a year and those 3 months off are covered by your vacation so it’s be about $108k/yr pre-tax
@@andyd9116 very well thought out.. due to the nature of the work they are taxed thru the per-diem model, which equals to about 9-12% total tax. So for 9 month work its not a bad paying job.
It’s really, really hard to pin down your exact pay on any given job because no ship (or company) pays the same. Sometimes, even with the same company, they have a different union contract depending upon which ship you are aboard that is owned by the same company. Before retiring I worked with several different companies and sometimes my daily pay was good, but I was only paid 15 days for every 30 days worked for my vacation pay. Sometimes my vacation pay was 27 for 30 but they didn’t give me a matching contribution for my IRA account. One company had nice ships that I loved to be aboard and made a lot of good stops at ports I enjoyed and would even sponsor some trips ashore, but their pay wasn’t the best. One the other hand if I was joining a ship at some foreign port and my flight was more than 6 hours long the company paid for a business class ticket. My highest paid ship overall only visited fixed ports and we didn’t have much time to go ashore. Additionally, the ship didn’t have any elevators so if I was working on something and needed to haul a bunch of stuff to the job site, I had to carry everything up and down a lot of stairs. This was getting to be more & more difficult because I worked until I was 70. One the other hand I was making about $ 570 / day on this ship plus all kinds of benefits.
Yeah man for sure...but you're asking too much...the guy looks bit confused and not clear at all...
@@andyd9116thank you
My old man was a Master Mariner on tankers but he started at 16 (before he could get and official 'cadet' post at a major company) working on tramp steamers. Before he was 19 he had circumnavigated the globe twice, with and average voyage time of nine months. He ended up as a supertanker captain but retired when shore-based people became involved in the running of the ship. It is a hard but rewarding life by all accounts. Best of luck, and keep up the fascinating videos.
I'm having trouble finding where to go to get a job preferably on oil tanker if I can. I have Twic MMC pass port. Please help
@@set747i
@@set747u
Wow its a great job
Best maritime channel on UA-cam. I've watched almost every video and I only discovered the channel last week. I've always dreamed of doing what you do, but I'm married with a kid now, living the 9-5 life. Keep the videos coming! You've a real talent for this - great editing, excellent content. Fair winds and following seas!
There’s no point in regret, but seeing this series of you on ships I feel this is something I’d have really enjoyed for the lifestyle. Thanks for another one Joe
No regret Bob! Good to see ya again!
@@JoeFranta Do you think it's possible to be a merchant marine without having to ever get on an airplane?
@@robmen1402 If you work on the Great Lakes or the rivers its possible. If you sail deep sea you are going to end up on a plane at some point.
Just came across your channel. I sailed in the Merchant Marines from 78-83. My last year of sailing in 83, working 2mos on 1.5 off, non-union coastwise tanker as an AB/Quartermaster I made 30k for the whole year, just for comparison. I had a back injury and wasn't able to sail anymore. I've missed it every single day. Good sailing to you mate!
It is good to mention that, those conditions are valid only for US citizens maybe. The average contracts on vessels are 5-6months+1month and the salaries are way lower. 3rd mate on tanker earns between 3-4k$ and most of the time OT is not payed. On bulk and car carriers, salaries are even lower. Vacation is not payed as well.
I never was interested in a life at sea, although I was a coxn on a lifeboat for a few years, but, I find your life at sea fascinating. Thanks.
Glad you enjoy them
As a retired union man I like the galleon as a non union vessel keep up the good work
I live on the East Coast in Florida and enjoy watching the ships come in and out of port. I always track where they have been and where they are going. I live the water and have always been fascinated about cargo ships and that lifestyle. These videos are endlessly interesting to me. I appreciate them
I wish I would’ve done this when I was 21 years old and fresh out of college , The biggest part of your compensation is all the costs that you do not have to pay if you add all those up those are significant , plus no commuting stress , I bet you probably have some places around the country where you can park your RV for free and just hang out !
@@vooo1314 Really? Im 50 now and am looking in this direction. Do you have any advice to give me? i have a HS degree and food service experience so no qualifications. I want to get away from the service industry.
Of course can you live rhe life going from one port to another for 25 years? Most people on land would have bought a house and paid in 15-20 years into the house and have a nice equity. Don't get a chance for a decent stable relationship when you're gone 60-90 days at a time and see your significant other fir week before leaving again? Lots of sacrifice.
That pay, with food and rent included, is not too bad. Seems like you're right around $300 a day before taxes. Not having an electric bill, water bill, rent, food, household supplies to deal with for the length of the contract makes that money go further. It also must be nice to have a built in restriction on what you can spend. On a 130 contract means no going to the bar or sporting events or shopping or anything. Just sitting on a big check when you sign off. Thanks for the info.
yes! exactly my thoughts. no bills, just stack money.
bets being homeless as well
@@altha-rf1et great point!
Joe, You're a very chill guy, and watching what you do is interesting not just because of the way you tell us about it, but it's really an unusual job compared to what most of us do. Love your attitude, and I'll check out your other channel. Peace out, brother!
I’m a 3rd engineer on an MSC ship based out of Hawaii. I stand watch in two 4 hour segments every day. Work overtime 3 days a week for 3 hours each time. And probably do another 6-10 hours per week of mandatory overtime for operational stuff. We get paid every 2 weeks and I’ve been consistently pulling in about $8k before taxes. Just as an overview in case anyone was interested.
Is that 8k every 2 weeks? Or 8k for the whole month?
Every 2 weeks I believe? It can be done.
Every 2 weeks probably, and MSC doesn't pay as much as union, but they make up for it in overtime. Thirds on the ship I was just on made around 725 a day.
@@esotericcommonsense6366 As a MSC 3rd Mate I can pull $725 a day (gross) if I work a 12hr day on a weekend (all OT hours).
@@oceanaxim holy fuckin shit
You are very genuine and straight forward. I found it easy to watch. Good job.
Agreed. He has an easygoing way about him that makes the videos enjoyable.
Joe you do a great job with your videos. You explain things well. Enjoy them when I catch them. It is not a job for everyone but it is the best job in the world...
Great vlog as always! Nice RV btw. You have a Norwegian mentality of work. Your pay goes to your free time. That is what drives you. Work is a to get money for what you love to do. That is how I see you. Enjoy RV life. Drive to the U.P. Be safe!
So glad I found this channel. Always thought about this as a career. Now I’ve got two kids and doubt I could handle the time away. Keep up the good work and thanks for taking us along for the ride!
One of my grandfathers was a merchant marine during WW2 in the Pacific.(mostly US mainland to Australia) His ship was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese U-boat.
Depends on company and position, my father is an engineer and has a day rate ofr nearly $1000 / day.
Deckhand usually average around $220 a day, some more, some lower.. and every company Is a bit different, Some will offer you overtime time which is time and a half, but usually a decent company as a deckhand no experience you start at 19-20 and hour, overtime pay kicks in after 40 hours, so that bump you're almost making $30 an hour.
So, if you work 12 hours a day for 28 days, get paid at a $19 rate, and overtime kicks in after 40 hours per week, you would make $8,056 in a 28-day month.
And also note, you will get to eat for free.. and be on a boat for a month, you are pretty much forced to save that money.
Thanks Joe, as usual, informative and entertaining
Glad you enjoyed it
He is.
Update to pay for anyone interested. 2024, roughly rates starting out with no experience is around 200-250.00 a day. AB or QMED are the next step up, and the pay jumps to 350-600 a day. Mates 400-850, Chief Mates 700-950, Captains 500-1300 a day. The reason the pay is so varied is due to the location, license, company, and size of the vessel you work on. For instance, an assistant engineer on a cruise ship makes less money than a Qmed on a 300ft supply ship in the Gulf of Mexico. Why? Because cruise ships pay everyone less but offer a more travel based lifestyle. In the north of American everything is unionized in the marine industry, so the pay is broken down and based around 8 hour days with optional 4hr over time. In the Gulf it is more consistent with a manditory 12 hr work day but honestly, the annual salary reflects about the same north and south based on the criteria I mentioned earlier. I do not know about any pay for freshwater or river based boats, also no knowledge of fishing vessels as there are different rules and laws. I just know the ocean-going rates.
Glad to see another vid, Joe. Great info, many thanks. Enjoy your RV time.
Thanks Neil
Love your honesty, doing something you really enjoy
Now that the school videos are out. Another video that would be great to see is a breakdown of school costs. That would give people an idea of the benefits of spending the money on school and what they make after.
i built screens for 26 years, made 50K one year, probably averaged 40K, and worked in the heat and humidity, cold and rain, and can't say that was somewhere i wanted to be but i did it to pay the bills. too old now but i would definitely look into this if i was a young person.
Well said, the first day I went to trade school, the instructor started off by saying "if you are ONLY here for the money, you will not last."
My self and one other person were the only ones out of a class of 25 that completed our hours, wrote and received red-seal certification.
I agree and say the same thing. I say if my thing was just making a lot of money, I wouldn't be doing this. It's a lifestyle and an endurance game here.
what trade are you in?
Do u get paid weekly ir at the end?
I mean, why the hell else would you willingly be on a boat for 3 months straight, in places you don't wanna be, doing stuff you don't wanna do, if not for money?
@@IHateMyAccountName I have lived the life of 5 men. I have sailed the 7 seas, seen exotic places on every continent (including Antarctica), been with some of the most beautiful and exotic women on the planet and got paid to do it.
For some people, there is more to life than having the biggest tombstone in the graveyard.
As 45 years as a over the road trucker. I owned and operated. It's definitely a lifestyle.
If you enjoy what you're doing you will never work a day in your life. Just know that when that time comes to change or retire go for it. Retired in January of 23. I do miss it but not enough to go back.
here in france with french flag , you work 1 month and 1 off (sometimes 15 days /15 d...) and about money it's about 1500 e and 2000e
I worked on oil tankers as an AB watch and maintenance out of Valdez Alaska 1985-88 and remember making 32,000 for 8 months at sea. In today's wages that would be 95,000. We made a couple runs to Barbers Pt Hawaii and shore leave in Waikiki was a blast. Keep up the videos Joe much appreciated!
The most important thing is READ the contract before you sign! Go home and do the math on a 56 hour rate and OT on whatever the OT is.
I fished crab and cod on the Bering Sea. I agree there was a point where I was fishing because I loved it, I saw alot of Alaska we sailed the Inside Passage, gorgeous unreal, but it's not just about the money for sure! Super informative video!! 👌
totally agree with you.. money chasing is a bad thing...
I love this video you are answering all the questions I wondered about that kind of work. Especially about shipping hazardous materials- and how you must need to find other work while the ship is docked for repair, maintenance etc (usually Winter). Sounds like a savings account with at least 3 months income would be beneficial.
Retired SIU Bosun here but I was mostly a watchstanding AB for like 20 years. I used to get asked all the time how much $ I made. I still get asked how much $ I used to make. Like you I always found it a difficult question to answer. When you look at stuff like money market pension contribution, all the extra bennies above and beyond normal health care, eventual pension monthly payment, it is easiest to just say "I made x amount of money in wages, overtime, and vacation pay last year, and worked x days, and so I averaged x dollars per day worked." That doesn't tell the whole story but it's an answer that usually satisfies most people who ask. And let's not even get into quarterly and working dues.
A lot of people don't realize that you might also be going to the hall every day for weeks before you get the job you want. AFAIC that, to me, is a work day with no pay. If you go to a school between ships, those days are work days. Travel? Work. Physical? That's a day's work. Your career makes a lot of demands on your time and patience for which you aren't compensated except that it is necessary for you to get jobs. People think you get a lot of time off, but really you end up on average giving up about two months a year for no pay. If you go to sea for say 8 months during that year, you have actually probably only taken two months off, plus the weekends while ashore. Most people who work on the beach get a month vacation every year and EVERY WEEKEND AND HOLIDAY off. So yeah an American seaman who is a union man sailing on union ships does pretty good, financially, if he works hard, but it's not as rosy as a lot of landlubbers imagine it to be. You can sling numbers that make you look like a Rockefeller and not be lying. You can also paint a picture of grinding wage serfdom and not be lying. People don't get it.
And yeah you are right, Sure, we work because we get paid to work, but if the money is your only reason for going to sea, you aren't gonna have a very happy or rewarding career. That's the situation I found myself in, which is why I retired and took my pension at 60 instead of working to 65 or 67. The joy wasn't there anymore. The PITA factor was getting insane. It got to where I would fly out to meet a ship, put on my coveralls and boots first thing, drop my papers off at the Capts office and relieve my guy, and not set foot ashore except on the dock while working, then get relieved at the end of my hitch and get whisked straight to the airport and never get ashore the whole time. Back in the day, we were all shore hounds. I mean we tore it up. I don't know how we made it on so little sleep, cause off watch or after hours we were ashore. We had FUN, lemme tell you, politically incorrect types of fun, and we saw lots of really cool shit. We didn't have half as much paperwork and red tape back then. Our Z cards used to not expire. No red book, no TWIC or STCW, and if you weren't holding a license, your Z card and your passport was all you needed. The lawyers hadn't completely ruined everything, and shipping companies were still ran by sailors and captains could still run their ships. As the life got more regulated and aggravating, I found myself getting grouchier and grouchier and I was tired as hell of it, and I didn't give two shits about the money anymore cause you can always get yourself some money but you can't always get happy.
yea spent a lot of time on tankers so i say been to saudi, abu dabui, kuwait, bahrain, (then point to the yellow spot 20 miles away and say its over there) and when you do tie up ashore the size of the terminal and rules means you dont get ashore.
or a modern box job less then 12 hours alongside an no shore leave (hell your working)
@@philiprice7875 35yrs a mariner here, you are spot on. I sailed the world seen and experienced sh*t nobody would believe and lived the life of 10 men. Something most multimillionaires could never say.
You are correct. I was an officer on cargo ships for 20 years before retiring in 2018. It's hard to explain the vaccation days, free travel to/from the ship, pension benefits, free health insurance, and contributions to your IRA as well as the benefits of any required schooling (free to you) you might have to do because of rule changes. Your paycheck amounts are complicated and only a part of the total $ you end up getting every year. Of course while you are on the ship ship you never go hungry and stay warm at night. Our steward even made the best chocolate chip cookies you could ever have.
I was in the U.S. Navy for 10 years and then later worked for Military Sealift Command as a civilian mariner (CIVMAR) doing a job that doesn't exist in the contract mariner (or CONMAR) world (Chief Radio Electronics Technician). I had many friends that were working in both AB(M) and AB(W) positions, and while MSC is a completely different beast than where you have worked, many of the factors that you talk about are absolutely true not just for them but all ratings. Pay drastically varies from ship-to-ship depending on operations especially if you were unlicensed. Generally speaking we made more in the Gulf and Middle East regions due to the fact that we did more underway replenishments and loading cargo could be an all-day and all-night thing depending. Love your videos Joe!
Interesting Joe in Australia we have a aggregate wage this was set up due to it issues wage set on 8 hr day + 3hrs it for operational needs plus there's rates for different class of vessels great vids and very informative thanks for the content brother
You are one cool dude and I really enjoy your videos. So cool you are living an exciting lifestyle to see the world while young. NJ is cool and all, but we all owe it to ourselves to explore. I still visit NJ often to see family and friends. Awesome videos. Thank you 👍👍
It’s not exciting at all it’s actually the exact opposite that’s why they pay well
I have absolutely no interest in ever being a sailor, but find your vlogs interesting anyway. It's a window into a world I want nothing to do with, but benefit from because people like you. I was always wondering about your pay so this is great, but can you also talk about how you find your jobs and what the application process is like since I am guessing there is some competition to get the contract. Maybe I am wrong, but would love to learn more. BTW, I just got my CDL and deliver beer...lol.
Beer, Water, Soda are all heavy. Easier and lighter to deliver Potato Chips, Popcorn etc.
My grandfather started doing this in the 40's and retired in the 80's. My grandma never worked and he was able to take care of 5 children. His old photo albums have every country with a port. Hard work but great pay
Love your videos. I've enjoyed watching them all. Now I have a few questions.
How are relations between the contractor seamen and the ship's officers?
Is there a career path from where you are to becoming an officer?
Do you progress to positions of more responsibility with experience, or is additional training required?
How do you go about finding a job on a ship? Is there a central place that shipping companies post contract offerings?
Are contracts negotiable or is it just take it or leave it?
I have a son that's in college, but he's unsure of what he wants to do in life. He's the adventurous type, loves to go camping in the wild and wants to see the world, but our family isn't independently wealthy and cannot provide much opportunity to provide for his yearn to travel. He doesn't seem interested in an 9-5 office job, but this seems like something that would appeal to him, while providing valuable and marketable skills.
Thanks for your videos. It's a window into a world I've never been a part of, but find fascinating.
I can try to answer some of your questions here! I currently am sailing as a ship’s officer and can tell you that there tends to be a good professional relationship between officers and crew from my experience. When you all live together on a big floating box, it helps everyone to pull in the same direction! There is opportunity to move from a deckhand position to an officer, but it can take years to accumulate the sea-time and classes needed to get one’s officer ticket. The route many officers (myself included) take is to attend one of the 5 state maritime schools which offer a 4 year degree along with an USCG officers license. If he were to decide to sail asap, the Seafarers international Union is the place to go. He could take the basic courses required and then head to one of their union halls where all the jobs are posted! This is certainly a unique career and life to live, but it affords great travel, pay, and lots of time off for adventuring. I hope That answered some of your questions!
I don’t know if there is anything such as ‘contractor seamen’. Aboard a merchant vessel there are officers and what’s commonly known as ‘unlicensed’ crew. The non-officers really have a license, but they aren’t considered to be an ‘officer’. If it’s a union ship the ‘unlicensed’ crew may belong to a couple of different unions depending upon their job. The various officers also may belong to several different unions as well. If you get your training to become a merchant mariner and join the appropriate union, then the union will find a position for you on a ship. Every time you go to work it may or may not be on the same ship. You can start your work at a low-level seaman and then raise to be captain. I have seen this happen, but it takes a lot of time and training that has to be done when you are off the ship and on vacation. Contracts are possible but they are usually negotiated between the shipping company and a union. I also was somewhat adventurous. That tendency was inherited from my parents. Many years ago, I went thru a merchant marine academy and graduated the same week I turned 50. I was then an officer and worked on cargo ships for 20 more years before retiring in 2018. Many of those years I worked on tramp vessels and went around the world a couple of times and saw a lot of different things in lots of different ports all over the world. It is a great life for someone who likes to do adventurous stuff while getting paid well.
@@winwin-bf7sm The majority of jobs you don't get much port time these days, the name of the game for the shipping companies is to make money, smaller crews, and in and out of port as fast as you can load and unload. Plus, as you get older, it can get monotonous and hard on your body if you are unlicensed. The best thing he points out is that every ship is different, and every captain is different. Very few people are cut out for a life at sea. The attrition rate is sky high. And if you go by insurance companies' actuarial tables, the industry consistently averages in the top 5 for danger and stress. US flagged companies carry less than 3% of world cargo annually.
Any updates? I wanna know if ur son made up his mind!
Do officer’s were uniforms,versus regulars salors
What a shower of moaning sods in the comments. I was in the British merchant navy for years and I understand exactly where your coming from. I was a chief cook for years and yes it's not exactly a nine to five job,I remember a tanker I was working on and we got orders to go to Luanda, well it was in a middle of a war so we refused and we were backed by the union. Then we got told we would get a war bonus,lol you guessed it we went. Great times at sea Joe. Keep the great videos.
Thanks for the kind words. I feel bad some aren't getting it, every ship is different
we was on a LPG tanker going to the gulf during Iran iraq was heard on BBC world that our sister ship was fired on with 7 missiles (all missed) we was 7 days out and all crew put in for pay off before we entered gulf
again
Union
talks
bribe and navy escort
Not a ship but the situation seems similar. In '76 I worked on the Trans Alaskan Pipeline at pump station #12. The company provided lodging, shared with a friend, food. We worked 6 - 10 hr days. With no place to go and spend any money I would send my checks back home to my pregnant wife. Made some solid money, especially for someone in their mid 20s. First two weeks my only expense was 25 cents for a Snickers candy bar from the commissary. Videos are well done, thanks
WOW! A snicker bar is now $2.75 and is a once smaller in weight when I paid .25 cents in 1970’s.
It would be good to add a chart to facilitate your explanation. Each column of the chart would be the individual ships you worked on. The rows of the chart would be the pay categories you mentioned: You also need to have a row identifying the number of days you worked on each ship. Fill in that matrix with your pay amounts for each category on each ship, then you can verbalize why the amounts differ from ship to ship.
Especially the type of ships like LNGs Roros even oil platforms
For some of us who are educated in STEM and make high salaries on land (hehe) his salary does concern me a bit. It has some drawbacks (as with most things). I like how solid he is about his commitment to his work and his journey. He reminds me so much of myself when I was young. May he live a long blessed life seeing this earth. What a privilege.
Thanks for the breakdown of the pay rates. My question is how long do you wait between jobs? You say 45 days on this ship and 107 days on that ship. How do you go about getting off one ship and on to another?
Some contracts require you to come back. others is one trip and done. I try to work 6 months out of the year.
@@JoeFranta I think how the contract finding/hiring process works for people in your part of the industry would make an interesting video
@@JoeFranta with that much money that is all you need to work
@@JoeFranta how do u get into a job like this
The Vacation is unreal.It took me 25 years papermill 6 weeks vacation.We got 2.5 days month Army.Your truly a free spirit
Thanks for answering the question. I drive a truck in the UK and it's comparable but i'm not about to give it up to sail about and get wet for any amount of money 😂👍 love the videos though
exactly! Cheers mate, thanks for watching
@@JoeFranta being surrounded by certain death 24/7 isn't my thing.
What type of truck (type of driving job)? Do you sleep in the truck?
@@frodrickfronkensteen9241 night trunk. Go home every morning. couple of hours kip in the truck between jobs 😊
Hey man! First time viewer here! Thanks for running this channel, man, I've always been curious about the life of a merchant sailor, and this did a good job of getting into that. I just watched 77 days, and thought it was/wasn't funny when people were nervous about the ship possibly coming from China..."something about a virus or something... hope it's not a big deal... " good shit, bro, be easy!!
Can you help us with a guide on how to get contracts on ships if you already a mariner?
If you're union, go to a hall and sit and wait. If you're non-union, give a company a call.
As a 21 year old with no maritime experience, would I need to get a degree from an academy or go through a training program to get my foot in the door or could I just apply for entry level positions?
You would need to go to a USCG REC (regional exam center) we’re better yet just find a school that you can get your MMC (Merchant Marine credential) and all associated courses for the STCW, find a doctor that does Merchant Marine physicals and the school should get all the paperwork submitted to the Coast Guard. You’ll start out as a OS (ordinary semen) and when start building your hours you’ll eventually be able to upgrade to hirer ratings. You can research all the credential information online to what you need to do. Then just start researching different companies in exactly what you wanted do. Work on the mud boat going to the oil rigs, working on an oil rig, offshore supply vessels, tug and barge, Harbor tug, research vessels, are just a fraction of the possibilities. I worked for a private company on an ATB tug pushing petroleum from one refinery to the next. I used to make a ridiculous amount of money.
@@Chief74 good tips and information
Check out the Paul Hall Center in Piney Point, MD. They can get you started and get you on a ship after some training. If you wish to be an officer you will have to commit to 4 years of training at one of the Merchant Marine academies. I went the academy route so I can't speak too much about the Paul Hall Center but I have talked to many of my crew mates who went that route. In my case I was an officer on cargo ships for 20 years and retired in 2018.
@@ronjurgs9799 do you think someone older then 50 can do it?
Yes. In my case I had my own business until I was 46. I sold out and went off to the Merchant Marine academy. My graduation was on the same week I turned 50. After looking for a job for a while I landed one and went to work. Eventually I joined a union and they kept be busy working on ships until I was 70 when I retired. I now collect social security and a union pension. With this income there's no reason for me to work anymore.@@bkkid75
Really interesting for me to compare lifestyles. I've been in the oil & gas industry for decades and the lifestyle is pretty similar. High wages but consistently chasing contracts and with tons of downtime. I love it personally and said it right; don't do it for money but for the lifestyle.
How hard is it to maintain a family with a lifestyle like this (merchant marine, oil& gas , military, airline pilot, etc.) where you're away from home for long periods of time?
Do you have to keep up with your overtime hours or does the ship have a timing mechanism? Interesting as always! Thanks!
You keep up with them yourself and at the end of the week you turn them into your supervisor. I’m a junior engineer with a electrician endorsement. So on my current ship in getting 4 hours of overtime everything plus 8 hours overtime on Saturday and 8 on Sunday. And if I get called out to plug or unplug refrigerated cargo I get another 2 hours for each call out. Doesn’t matter if it takes me 10 minutes you still get the 2 hours regardless.
@@ethanlove5513 what is standard number of hours worked without overtime?
@@geddon436 on most ships it’s 40 hours a week
@@ethanlove5513 how do u get into a job like this?
Your expression when hearing the jet fly overhead…🤣👍. Great sense of humor!
For you, the physical labor, compared to what you've done in the past, do you think it matches up with the pay? I've seen all of your videos and it looks like it's not that bad? Like scraping, chipping, painting, cleaning. Is there other stuff we don't see that is really hard and backbreaking?
No, as far as physical labor working on ships isn't bad. Driving the beer truck was 100x harder. The hardest thing about sailing is just being on your feet for so long. Oh and being away from home for months at a time lol
@@JoeFranta do you have a maritime transportation undergraduate degree?
@@Atlas2040 In case Joe doesn't get a chance to answer you can actually see the six part series on this channel how he got into this. It's not an undergraduate degree, I think that's pretty much the officers. He went through the apprenticeship program in Maryland. Here you go: ua-cam.com/video/H7HgVOFXCU4/v-deo.html
I believe it's a guaranteed job once you get done.
@@sfmc98 thanks for the information. I'm about to enroll at Texas A&M for Marine Transportation. I already have an associates in science so I will most likely continue going this route.
@@Atlas2040 Nice, if you're a young guy especially, this is great. Make good money, get a retirement and being in your 40s with a ton of options is an awesome thing.
Thank you Joe, for the better-than-expected rundown, as far as the pay and benefits of working on a ship. Although I'm retired from a totally different industry (EMS), the information that you provided, was greatly appreciated by those seeking that kind of employment. Much success in you RV Videos, as well! Greetings from N. Kentucky. PS Glad you presented it the way you did, as I'm certain that some need a 'Reality Check', as to the Pros/Cons of sailing. You presented it, including the 'Big Picture' of everything in prospective!
Have you considered logging and calculating exactly what you are due and how you earned it with a spreadsheet with all the different rate factors in the contract on the horizontal axis with the amount paid and the days in the vertical axis?
Weirdly specific
I would say no😂
Loved your videos man. I'm a seaman myself working as an AB on container vessels.
What was your pay for the last year....what did you make? 75K....85K....95K? Say an annual amount for last year. You really didn't answer how much you made.
I would of also liked to know that aswell honestly
Thanks for this comment. It enabled me to save time after clicking dislike on a time waster video 👌🏿
Mister franta does indeed tell you how much he made per gig and days out. Also “Come out here because you want to be here” …..
I also like it because your not spending while on board so at the end of it you have a tidy sum to chill until the next contract
This could have been a 3min video
Thanks for that info. I'll never be a MM but I really enjoy knowing what people make. Seems like good money for hard work. Free food - my favorite phrase. Ha, ha.
very interesting. How do taxes work when you're working in international waters?
Cause Im sailing on an American flagged ship, I pay American taxes
uk merchant navy here
there was complex tax rules but if you stayed more then 30 days you had to pay tax
end of one contract was waiting for another job left the UK after 2 weeks
4 weeks later new job fly to Rotterdam join ship (oil tanker)
whole new crew who flew in from all over europe same reason
found ships next port was in the UK and this due to rules on re-entry mad all 30 of us liable for a full years tax. someone workout later over £100k was collect from us
the trip to UK tied up 20.00 let go 02.30 (took us past midnight so we had 2 days in UK
then to top it all this was 1987 and we sailed into "the great not a hurricane" storm
@@JoeFranta heard better under the American Flag then risking sailing under other countries
@@JoeFranta US Merchant Marine here. I have worked on Vanuatu and Marshall Island flagged ships and still had to pay US taxes. Last I checked, if you can show you spent 330 days outside the US, about $90,000 of your income could be exempt (Not financial advice).
If you are American you are still required to pay taxes to the US. Your world wide earnings are taxed by US.
My Dad was a merchant seaman from the early 1950s till his death in 1985. Belonged to the SUP, Sailors Union of the Pacific. Shipped out of San Pedro till 1965 and then we moved to Seattle when the Vietnam War heated up. Did runs to Japan, Hong Kong, Saigon, Subic Bay or along the Pacific Coast of South America. I got interested in geography and encyclopedic data about cities. Asked my Dad if he ever visited the overseas attractions as an armchair traveller I'd become acquainted with. He said no, never made it past the first gin mill. I thought what a shame, Dad never gets past the industrial sections of foreign cities. Little did I know as an 8th grader that a "gin mill" was a slang term for a tavern.
Hey Joe. In the last couple months I’ve been doing some research on joining this profession. I love the ocean and the idea of working on deep sea ships really excites me. I appreciate you doing these videos as it gives a lot of insight into the profession. I’m in a landlocked state and have no SIU halls nearby. Ive been considering going to the school you did in Maryland. I saw in another comment you suggested someone get a stcw (?) cert and then just go get a job at a union hall. Is it really that simple? I have no real ocean experience other then recreational stuff. Is it better to go through SIU to get the full training experience? Does doing either option impact what you can make? I’m not interested in this work so I can get rich but I would like to be able to save some money up so I can buy a cabin in the woods. The work entices me simply because of the adventure and the fact that I would have pretty low expenses while on the ship making it easier ( I think at least?) to save money. One other question I wanted to ask I’ve heard that most deep ocean ships have internet access now? Is this pretty true? I’ve got friends and family that I’m pretty close with and would be nice (but not a total deal breaker) if I had the opportunity to stay caught up with them while I have down time. Just trying to make sure the right expectations are set before I fully commit. One other question I wanted to ask does the rv style of living off the ship make it easier to take contracts? I imagine if you couldn’t find the right contract in one port you could very easily drive to a different one. Or do you mostly stay in one area and just use the rv out of convenience (not having to pay rent on a place you don’t live in most of the year) anyway love the videos. Every one I watch gets me more excited for this opportunity.
I have all the exact same questions 😆 please answer Joe! My current field of work isn't looking so good for the future and I'm not getting any younger
I am an alumni of the school (2000-01) . Its a great way to get your training and also networking and learning the ropes of how to get a job etc. You'll need all of that training if you want to do well and make a career out of it. There are other ways to get those classes and certifications, but I'd highly recommend the apprentice program. It was a great experience for me.
@Einar B no absolutely not dude. You do not get any internet access or for that matter cell phone reception. You get to maybe, just maybe make a phone call once a month off the captians phone. Thats about it dude... doesnt sound like your even cut out for it asking those questions Id stay way buba chubs.
@@singlewidetrailer stay were u are if your concerned about damn internet then this isnt for you chubs... stay put flipping burgers at taco bell like my army recruiter told me... have fun at TBELL!
@@nateb-runs5053 what??
Thank you Joe for that very honest and informative info that should really help anyone in their decision making.
Is there an age limit or age range where you'd be considered for some of these positions, or is it based on physical capability? In low 50's and looking for a change...
I dont work on a ship but my dad does I think you cant be too fat but I don't know really
If you are relatively fit and can work odd hours, theres LOTS of jobs on board ships. Now, you very likely wont be starting with the good paying ones but with competence and a willingness to learn you can go up quickly (at least in Canada you can, I have a friend in his mid 40's who started a couple years ago and he makes a decent living)
Age doesn’t matter. You need to be in good health (eyesight, hearing, mental health) and pass your courses. You could even become a captain.
@@jochendergeilerochen424 MSC = Military Sealift Command (or Mostly Senior Citizens)
I love the fact you mentioned AMC! Thanks!
You can edit out the stuff that wastes time, like jet noise.
for sure, live and learn
You can skip past it too buddy
@@Zeromaus only if you have telepathic powers and know it's there.
@@Zeromaus It seems Joe accepts constructive criticism much better than you do. Probably why his vids keep getting better.
@@bigmonmagoomba9634 Wow, 3 hours apart. I had you thinking about this all day huh?
I work on Tugboats as a Chief Engineer and I love it, but honestly I want to get out there and work on some Container Ships, Bulk Carriers, Tankers, and some Ro-Ro ships while I’m still young. Like I said why have a MMC and just be confined to the same harbor for 30 years. That may be some people’s life but not mine. I am adventurous, I can come back to Tugs later when I’m older and want to stay home closer to family. For now this is what I want. Working on getting my AB now, I have the TWIC and MMC, I am an OS and Lifeboatman. I need that AB.
Next time come prepared. Don’t care to watch you shuffle through a box of paystubs
Amigo, you are darn good with these videos and the editing.
Way to much filler on this video, we don't need to hear the airplane. You also didn't describe any of your topics in any detail at all.
You should really write down an outline with your informational facts and hit your points in quick succession.
stop complaining
@@EyeQon Naw, I'll say what I want.
@@BuceGar if you got such an issue then go to another video, simple as that
I guess I did a bad job of explaining, sailing isn't a 9-5, every time go to work i make a different amount. So its unfair to just say I make xxx a year. cause it fluctuates so much
@@EyeQon Or you can keep wasting your time trying to boss people around on the internet. I've got all the time in the world.
Great video well done! I get messages from people every now and then asking these questions. For sure I’ll be sending them your way. Keep going!!
I like you, but this is just a very bad video buddy, you do a horrible job of answering a simple question, you never even gave us a yearly amount?? Fix this video please, I would love to know how much you make as a merchant mariner
Its not a simple answer brother. It changes yearly, all depends on how many months I work.
The whole point of this video is that it’s not a fixed number even before the element of choice each sailor has over how much of the year to work. He’s an intelligent guy, he you easily look up his tax return and tell us what he made in each tax year. The point is to make clear that there is no such number as the annual wage for a merchant seafarer.
@@ATH_Berkshire THANK YOU
Interesting information about an industry little known to the public. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for watching!
Thanks Joe, this was a pretty great rundown of the industry and the way it operates as well
I fully enjoyed your videos and I’m super happy to watch I had a friend in Florida his dad was a merchant marine and spoke well of it I’ve always dreamed of being that person you help me to live that life thank you so much
What’s up Joe. I’m from Staten Island. My wife and I just took our new van to Turkey Swamp after watching your video. You were 👌 spot on with the review.
Then my seasick getting self watched a bunch of your ship videos. Awesome. I love job specific vlogs. Live vicariously through people….Thanks for the Entertainment and education.
Safe Travels.
So glad you guys enjoyed turkey swamp, i was just there again acouple weeks ago! Such a nice quiet place. Thanks for watching and super glad you're enjoying the content. don't be a stranger
I just Graduated Mass Maritime, I'm testing for my 3rd Engine Unlimited next week and joined AMO. I have worked with a few guys from SIU and they're usually all solid dudes (obviously there's some people with licenses and non-licensed that should not be out there in general or just suck to work with) but I'm excited to hit my first hitch as a green third.
New to the whole genre, heard about the merchant marines from people and they said it was their favorite time. Seeing it now @ 43 i have to say its looking damn good. I would do it for the experince and the pay would be a bonus. P.s. Dubs are a form of ear protection that blocks out high pitch sounds that damage the ears that muscians and roadies wear, ive owned some and they work really well. Theyre worth every penny, maybe those can help you on your next voyage. Id definetly bring some out. Oh too for your guys out there beating the colds and such there is a stellar product on the market out of marina del rey CA. The c and f shot by dr schulzes. I highly recommend it, its 112$ for 15 oz bottle but it licks a cold before it starts! Buy it! Id take a few botlles with me on a ship if I wind up going.
P.s.s. Thanks joe! Maybe ill see you out there one day in the next few years. Cheers!
Great video. I worked many pipe laying ships in my 20 years working for a company. The pay was my hr pay plus I always had 4 hrs OT due to the 12 hr shifts on board. I also got travel pay sitting on planes or in taxi's. 100k was my best year and could have done more.
Skipper
I work on the Great Lakes as a 2nd cook. I do the baking and the dishes. Between overtime, holiday pay and years end bonus it averages out to about 3000 a week
Thank you for sharing the info. If I was young again I think I might try it for a few years. Looks very interesting and you get to go so many different places. Susan
I'm a f'ing genius. When I watched your last ship vid I figured that if I was an MM guy I'd live in an RV given the work calendar you must keep.
wow found your channel by accident and so happy i did i watched alot of the ship videos before i watched the basic training how you got to the ships found it very very intresting now i cant stop watching great job mate great videos ty for sharing now going to subscribe to your R.V CHANNEL i know i am late to the party but keep up the great work