re: Tugboat Captains

Over the past 20 years, the pay for Tugboat Captains has more than doubled even when adjusted for inflation.

Several factors-

1993 Big Bayou Canot (N. of Mobile) Amtrak Derailment



Happens after a tugboat in the fog hits a CSX train bridge and soon after a speeding Amtrak train derails there (because the rails on the bridge were knocked out of alignment by the earlier collision). 47 Fatalities, over 100 others injured.
The boat captain was not well-trained, incompetent, and was almost illiterate, but was cleared of criminal negligence.
The Captain was so underwhelming that the powers-that-be at the USCG realized that the licensure program needed to be improved and substandard personnel weeded-out.

9/11/01: The Coast Guard gets folded into Homeland Security. All Marine Licensure is even more tightly scrutinized. For example: A DWI while a USCG-licensed person is off the clock (at home) results in that person's USCG license to be put in jeopardy.

Marine licensed personnel (including Tugboat Captains) are now rarer to find than 20 years ago, supply & demand has put upward pressure on wages for them.

Note: The Exxon Valdez incident was in 1989. The Captain of an Exxon Supertanker has a much bigger license than a ordinary Tugboat Captain, this event didn't really filter down to affect the Tugboat Captain level like the Bayou Canot incident did 4 years later.

quote:

---

schedule sucks...and it s always unequal time.

---

All of the harbor tug companies work 7 and 7