I've been on a boat - just not my Ranger Tug!

It has been a slow spring for the blog and I apologize for not posting more. I actually haven’t had the boat in the water except for once on a spring shakedown cruise because I’ve been out of town. One of my other jobs is working in the merchant marine as a medical officer on ships. For the month of June I was actually working on a merchant vessel based out of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. The T.S. Kennedy is a re-purposed bulk carrier that is now used to train college-age cadets at Academy for careers in the merchant marine. The vessel carries approximately 500 students and 100 faculty and crew. My role is to work along with a physician as a medical officer on the ship providing care for the crew and cadets. This is the 10th time that I’ve been able to work on the ship and it’s always a pleasure to be part of the merchant marine training program.

Massachusetts Maritime Academy is one of the five merchant marine academies located in the United States. These are college programs which train mariners for the future roles as tech officers and engineer officers on all sorts of ships to keep our industry across America going. They truly are amazing programs and after being involved for several years with the college I’ve come to have a healthy respect for our shipping industry in general.

In addition to regular college campus classes, cadets are required to participate in a number of Sea days onboard vessels. One of the ways they achieve this is by training vessels that are run by the colleges in several week deployment called ‘sea term”. Traditionally the 6 to 8 week cruises involves several ports of call as well as undergoing rigorous training while underway. While I say that this is called a cruise it hardly really is anything like a cruise ship. Cadets live in large converted holds in small racks below deck‘s. The ship runs on a 24 hour schedule and cadets learn to stand watches as well as participate in classroom activities while underway. It essentially is a large college campus at sea and provides cadets real world experience in preparing them for the shipping industry and other maritime jobs. It really is a unique program that changes 18-year-olds who know little or nothing about the Maritime industry into competent well trained trained Mariners.

Life aboard the ship even for medical officers like myself is not very luxurious. Although I am fortunate as a medical officer to have a cabin of my own, most crewmembers have roommates and sheer heads. Since the operates 24 hours a day with both classroom opportunities and watch standing for cadets. It is a busy operation. Well there is a gym in the large dining Mess deck, they really are no other luxury‘s on board. In prior years on board the ship there are 2 to 3 calls of port allowing students to get off and explore the areas. Traditionally Massachusetts Maritime heads to the Caribbean in the winter time although due to Covid this year it was titled the cruise to nowhere. The ship left Buzzards Bay Massachusetts at the end of May and returned at the end of June. With no port stops and an accelerated training regiment the cruise went by relatively quickly this year.

My job on board as a paramedic is to work with another medical provider who is a physician and provide emergency and routine health care for crew and cadets on board. Healthcare at sea is much different than the regular kind of medicine they provide working on an ambulance normally as a paramedic. To begin with a lot of what I do is just routine medical care that you might go to an urgent care for. Cadets and crew come in for things such as colds, infections and other routine medical issues. The one thing I can say is that we are well prepared for emergencies at sea.The sick bay - which is what a hospital is called on the ship- is well-stocked and prepared for both routine and life-threatening injuries. The one thing you have to know is that on a ship when you were 100 miles from shore we are the only medical care available. It’s a large burden to carry but I feel when I travel with Massachusetts Maritime Academy on board the Kennedy we are one of the most well prepared ships at sea.

While this trip aboard the ship was different in the fact that we had no ports, My prior trips and involvement with the Academy have taken me to all sorts of different Caribbean islands. I’ve also had an opportunity to interact with hundreds of different people in the merchant Marine and hear many stories about the shipping industry in general. While most of us are small boat owners and recreational boaters, we forget that there is a whole different world out there of large commercial vessels that move much of the products around the world that we forget about often. Merchant Mariners of all nationalities work on all sorts of different ships to keep products going across the oceans including fuel, food, and all sorts of other items to keep our economies moving. Next time you order something from Amazon chances are at some point it was on a container ship that traveled the Pacific Ocean. Much of the fuel that we get in the United States comes from overseas and is moved on oil tankers crewed by merchant mariner’s. After spending weeks at sea I’m always left with an appreciation for the women and men who work in our shipping industry and in the Maritime business. Their dedication and many hours away from their families and homes help keep bringing us the things to keep our economy moving, our homes heated, and even the Christmas gifts we get under our tree. I’ve been fortunate through my job in a merchant marine to travel in and out of large ports, see places I never would’ve seen, and meet a whole group of people who hold an incredible knowledge set who keep large ships afloat safely.