Women Seafarers

[anchorman]

Both

[minnisupplyman]

You guys are really funny! I didn't go to Harvard or Yale or both! I'm from S.C. and I went to Gaffney High School. It's about 90 miles southwest of Charlotte N.C. What boats do yall work on? I'm really enjoying this place to meet and talk to other profesional people in the same industry of boats and ships and offshore stuff. I did think that this might get the wrong response but I didn't think that I had anything to loose. I do believe that it would be really cool to meat someone who does the same thing! Are yall married? I am but will soon be single again. My wife wouldn't be happy if she new that I was doin this but I'm just talkin and not walkin (in other words no harm done, right?). Anyway shes gonna be history reall soon and I thank that its gonna be really cool to meat someone special who works on a boat in the gulf and has lots of ambition and can stay away from other family members for a long time! Thats been the biggest thing for me was deeling with her family! Have yall been paying atention to DOLLY? I've been watchin it myself. Did they evacuate the gulf over there?

[Capt_Anonymous]

Oh yeah I forgot about the MBA

[AspiringMariner]

I am a little disappointed with what this thread has deteriorated into. I am not looking into this life so that I would make it easier for men to find a girlfriend or that it would make me a better girlfriend.<br><br>I am just curious to see if the kind of life is for me. It has got nothing to do with pleasing men and I would appreciate a little more respect and to be treated a little more like any new person looking to make a career change. This attitude makes it very hard for any woman to be taken seriously if all that some men do is see her as potential dating material and I am no longer surprised that so few women choose male dominated fields. It is difficult to be taken seriously if some of your co-workers go out of their way to ridicule you or do not see you as an equal.<br><br>This will not scare me away, but I have no illusions about how some of my potential colleagues might treat me. <br><br>As for the other replies I am grateful for the insight and I am glad to see that for plenty, here at least, someone's sex makes no difference and I sincerely hope that the rest will eventually catch up. <br><br>So minnisupplyman, kindly keep your personal ads off this thread. I would appreciate it even more if you removed them altogether.

[Capt. Lee]

AspiringMariner- He only wants to "MEAT" someone special. ROTFLMFAO.<br><br>MSM-This is not Adult Friend Finder or Yahoo Personals...You haven't even gotten rid of the one you have now and you are already looking for a replacement wife...to be continued.

[cak212]

Please don't let minnisupplyman's post deter you from considering sailing aboard ships. Yes, you might encounter someone who might become romantically interested in you but that is true of any workplace you might enter. What you do with that attention is up to you. Really everyone is so busy working that all anyone cares about is if you are doing your job.<br><br>In minnisupplymans defense, I think he meant no harm. On the transit to the Persian Gulf we had some members of the Puerto Rico National Guard joins us for protection. It was really difficult for me to get some of them to treat me as just another mate. They just weren't used to dealing with a women in this role. If I was fixing something they wanted to do it for me, which I had to over and over again decline ( I can't even imagine the responses I would of got if any of my crewmembers saw one of them doing my work for me). If a traffic situation came up on the bridge they would often doubt my decision. And if I had to tell them to do something it often turned into a power struggle. Again, no fault to anyone just sometimes it is hard to be open minded in a new situation. It takes time but I think with the exception of one or two of the guard’s they saw how hard I was working and started to get it and overall things went well.<br>
<span>
</span>

[aquaholic]

Minisupplyman- <br><br>You do seem to have alot of ambition, may be you should consider taking some community college courses to get a handle on the english language. Then maybe you could get accepted to maritime academy to learn more about what you are doing before you hurt someone physically or mentally. I am still having a hard time believing that out of @ 100,000 sperm cells you were the fastest. But that being said I think if you take few years off to study,you could some day make a decent mariner.

[AspiringMariner]

Serves me right, for posting without getting coffee first. I had missed what a brilliant writer minnisupplyman is. Shame, because it is quite entertaining.<br><br>cak212, I am not discouraged in any way. I think it a fairly decent industry with occasional unfortunate incidents. As long as no one tries to purposely harm anyone and that does not seem to be the case. Besides in my country people get a thorough medical checkup, including a psyche test. I got the impression this is the case in the US as well.

[aquaholic]

AspiringMariner-<br><br>After reading several of minisupplyman's posts I was thinking a genetics test would be appropriate. Being from that part of S.C. his family tree might have very few branches. I would have to agree that the entertainment value is priceless. Refering back to your original post I have found in this industry people are evaluated more on thier skills than gender,race or nationality. I have worked with or around several women officers (both Deck and Engineering) that have been very competent and a positive addition to the crew. On the other hand I have sailed with incompetent crew of both genders. Advancment is definitely skills driven,but as in any industry there are the ones that seem to advance with niether skills or intelligence. If in doubt reference all of MSM's various posts.<br>

[SubGuy]

Aspiring,<br>Have you thought about entering the Dutch Navy as an officer candidate?<br>They're very well thought of and always in need of talented and motivated women.<br><br><A href="http://www.marine.nl/index.html]http://www.marine.nl/index.html</A><br><br>Cheers,<br>SubGuy

[JP]

This is still a mans world out here but it has for sure changed for the better as far as women working at sea. I was almost always the only female on board when I started in the early 70's and it was very hard. There was a lot of discrimination involved that is on top of what they usually do to a greenhorn onboard. I found that if you can get past the office people to get onboad in the first place, you can almost always work with the crew. Even in this day and age, there are still companies out there that just plain will not hire women. They have become a lot smarter about telling you that on the phone when you call to ask about a job! Everything depends on the crew you work with. If you know your job and pull your weight you will make it. Just a suggestion, don't make a big deal out of being female and it helps if you're not too sensitive in the language department. <br>Do look into the womens maritime association, they are a networking group of women located all over the country who help each other out with the kinds of questions you are asking (men can join too).<br>Good luck<br>JP

[AspiringMariner]

JP, sorry about the discrimination. That does really suck.<br>But from your description I get the impression that it is (nowadays) more an individual thing most of the time. A crew could be a bad one, but even you were a man in a bad crew, the experience will probably still be the same.<br><br>Well it seems that success in this industry really depends on your performance and I like that. Now I will just have to figure out whether or not I am the right material.

[oldguy]

Aspiring mariner,
I've had over 60 kinds of work and never, even once, anywhere there were no fools. Ah, but you're a women. So? "A lion's cubs are lions, male and female." (old Georgian poem celebrating Queen Tamara). Women can and do everthing, and salts, young or old, worth their salt, know this. The others aren't worth your time thinking about. I worked at sea. Ga heen, en doe desgelijks!