Alaska Cruise Ship - New Mate, Wrong Turn

UPDATE: unofficialsquaw.com's stories for NowPublic have caught the ear of folks at the Seattlest blog interested in why the Seattle-bound ship ran aground. Great work, unofficialsquaw.com and gcaptain.com!

Sources close to gCaptain.com tell us the cruise ship
that hit a rock near Jueno Alaska last week was being navigated by a
young third mate on his first job out of California Maritime Academy
and his second day on that job.

I would like to say that I had a similar experiance my second day as a third mate. Heading south just out of San Francisco
I was on my first watch when the radar began flashing with the multiple
targets of a fishing fleet heading out to sea. One such target
persisted and if it had not been for the fact we were a steam ship
whith a very loud whistle the captain of the fishing boat would have never woken from his slumber (in his cabin!) and diverted his course.

Why had the captain of the “Empress of the North” put the new mate
on 8-12 watch? Why had he not woken up for the turn? With such
important cargo aboard why did the company not hire someone with more
experiance? My bet is the salary offered was not enough to attract a
more experienced mate.

So what will happen? Hopefully the captain and company will have to
answer these tough questions in front of the NTSB. I’m equally
hopefully the young mate will not be discouraged from continuing his
career at sea because now he has something he was lacking last week….
experience.

Read More at gCaptain.com.

Have more info? Email it to: tips (at) gcaptain.com

John Konrad is a USCG licensed Master Mariner of Unlimited Tonnage currently working as Chief Mate aboard a 865′ ship in the Gulf of Mexico. Since graduating from SUNY Maritime College he has sailed in all 4 of the worlds oceans and reports from his ship via satellite.