The role of merchant seaman, referred to over the years as mariners, has been instrumental in the development of nations going back to biblical times. Merchant ships have been carrying, passengers, cargo, munitions, and fuel supplies throughout history. Speaking of biblical times, remember the story of Job who booked passage on a boat taking him away from the direction that God had ordered him to go. Traffic in the Eastern Mediterranean was credited for creating trading areas between countries and seaports like Thessalonica, which had as many as two hundred thousand inhabitants. In the days of sailing ships, merchant ships carrying cargo from port to port, many had cannons to hopefully discourage pirate raiders.
The early vessels had crew members that were responsible for maintaining the operation and those that were responsible for providin the meals. When steam propulsion was introduced, crews were changed in category to three departments being engineering, steward and deck. For many years all crew members, licensed and unlicensed have been required to pass examinations supervised by the country's coast guard. The deck crew normally consists of a captain, 1st, 2nd and 3rd mates plus unlicensed able body and ordinary seaman, The engineering crew normally consists of a chief engineer, a first assistant, 2nd assistant and 3rd assistant engineer plus unlicensed oilers and wipers. The stewards department will have a chief steward, trained cook, and a number of steward assistants.
In most instances, the licensed personnel will be employed by the shipping company and are subject to transfers or re-assignments as the company requires. That is also the case for the chief steward. For the unlicensed personnel once they leave a ship, they normally will return to their union facility and wait for a reassignment in the capacity that they are qualified.
One of the interesting parts of a merchant seaman's employment comes from the days when ship owners took advantage of the crew members. The crew members now have what is called a Continuous Discharge Book issued by the US Coast Guard. It is in effect a seaman's passport containing a photograph as well as a physical description. Prior to a foreign or coast wise voyage the seaman signs on articles (a contract) indicating his or hers position, date of engagement and whether a foreign or coast wise voyage. At the conclusion of the voyage, the contract is written in the discharge book, supervised by the Coast Guard, and the seaman is reimbursed for the voyage.
For many hundreds of years, cargo ships were loaded from the shore with the products to be stored utilizing both shore side and shipboard cranes. The majority of cargo came aboard in slings or nets and the longshoremen would store the cargo in the ships' holds and mid decks. In peacetime, the storage required specific storage requirements. Example: on a Far East run a ship may drop cargo, in a number of Philippine Ports, then two more in China and two or more in Japan. Obviously, the products being delivered to Japan had to be loaded prior to the Chinese, or Philippine articles. In many cases, to assure that the voyage was profitable, cargo would then be picked up in a reverse order before returning to the States.
The misunderstanding of the term merchant marine has hopefully been explained. Merchant seaman are all volunteers and are not drafted and are not active military personnel. A future article regarding the merchant mariners today, is in the planning stages.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Seth_R_Schneible_Sr
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