On average I work 10-14 hour days. From the early morning, my responsibilities are over the assistance of getting the ship docked into the port, securing and supervising the gangway, discipline of the members of the entire staff, multiple meetings on the bridge with the navigational staff (called coffee time), response to any accident, theft or disturbance; and on top of all of that, I am in an intensive training program to qualify with all of my maritime, Holland America and security certifications. The ship is really like a city. For those of you who have sailed as passengers, you most likely never got a chance to see what is happening behind the scenes.
When I first signed on the ship, I was greeted by Ron (current Security Officer), who is a retired Chief of Police from a suburb of Seattle. He introduced himself and got me acquiantined with the layout of the ship. He informed me that he and I would be training together for the next 2 weeks. At the time, I had no idea how intense these next 2 weeks would be. I then went to the Human Resource office for a short orientation and room assignment. I was issued an ID card and given a room key and a master key to the entire ship. Before I could perform any functions of the Security Officer, I had to complete a number of training (still not complete). The ship has a training facility that offers computer training classes online via the intranet computers. There are meeting rooms and everything else you can think of that would be in a normal little city. I headed down to the tailor shop down below, where I was measured for my uniforms. They said it would take a week or so for the first one (still don’t have it), but then I saw why. Every uniform is hand made from scratch (yes even the formal jackets). They took my measurements, and then measured out raw material, cut it and said it would be hand stitched based on my measurements. I thought they already had uniforms and then made adjustments, but no, this is from thread and fabric! My first 2 days I worked almost 13 hours, and more than half of that was training in classes and computer directive sessions. I do have to say that the training is really good, and I hope to take some of the ideas back to the shore side security operations in San Diego and present them to Bryce.
Something I noticed immediately that I hadn’t really considered before was the pride that the crew members take in their work, and the respect that is shown to others in higher rank. To me, I have been a police officer and security, etc. but the title was never really a big deal. Here on the ship title is everything. Many of these people will work the next 20 years trying to get “officer” status, whereas on the shore, you take a b.s. test and the guard card comes and you’re an officer. Most of the officers on board the ship have college requirements, and it is very similar to the military with enlisted and officers. Most of the crew is from Philippines, India or Indonesia. They tell me that working on the ship for the wage most Americans would make more on welfare, makes them able to live in semi-luxury once they get back home to their respective country. I have never witnessed first hand the level of work ethic that these people have and their pride in what they do. The diversity on board the ship is very humbling, and I have already learned so much about other cultures that you really can’t pick up with Americanized foreign nationals. Not to say any less about Americans, but I have been impressed by these guys and gals on the ship. One of the funny things is the Phillipinos don’t pronounce the letter “F” when they translate to English. When you’re and officer walking around they all address you as ‘chief’, but it comes out as, “Cheap”. I have heard it about 500 times in the past 4 days and still chuckle when someone says, “hello cheap”.
The weather so far in Alaska has averaged 50-60 degrees and we have had drizzle/rain except for yesterday in Glacier Bay. It was beautiful and got up to 70 degrees. I will post some pictures of the glaciers and yesterdays travels in this blog.
In regard to port security, there is none in Alaska. On the bridge the other day we were talking about different security measures (we have a full Coast Guard inspection on the 13th – lucky me to arrive just in time) and the fact San Diego runs close to 50 guards for a single ship. In Skagway, AK there were 4 ships in port (San Diego this would be about 250 guards) and this was done with 1 port agent and 3 security guards. The linesmen and longshoreman situation doesn’t change since the west coast union expands here. I took a few pictures in my phone, but need a signal to send to my email for download. I will post a security in port blog in the future.
Well that is it for now, I have to go and sit in yet another meeting. The schedule here has me up and at ‘em around 5am on some days, breaks throughout the day and then wrapping up around 11pm. Have you ever sat and thought, “Why did I sign up for this?” Well I have had that thought a few times recently. For the most part I am doing well, but I tell you, it is very overwhelming. I think once I get the entire computer and paperwork issues settled, things will be much smoother. Until next time; regards.
I will post random pictures on multiple pages for your viewing. If I can get my stupid laptop to format correctly, I will try to get each one labeled.
