I’m a Merchant Marine

I’m not sure what that means either, to be honest.  This is all I know: the cruise ship that I’m working on in Hawaii requires workers to join the merchant marine if they are planning on staying on the ship longer than 28 days – regardless of whether they are directly hired by the cruise line (I’m hired by an outside company to entertain on the ship, not by the cruise line).  From what I can gather, the cruise line requires this because they are an American ship sailing in American waters and subject to American maritime law, which I guess must require everyone on their ships to pay the coast guard $140 to become members of the merchant marine.

I haven’t done any research on this merchant marine thing.  I’ll have to explain more later when I get I the ship and learn about it.  I’ve heard that it means that the ship I’m on could be used in a time of emergency as a transport for troops, and I would be dragged along if I were on the ship.  If there’s anything America holds sacred, its leisure travel, so the prospect of disrupting the cruise lines business for war would have to be a pretty big emergency.  It doesn’t seem very likely, so that doesn’t concern me.

There is some training when I get on the ship, I guess, but again, I’ll have to explain more later.

To get my merchant marine, I had a drug test, a physical exam with complete blood test, filled out my merchant marine license application and brought it with 2 passport photos and $140 to the coast guard station in Manhattan (FYI: right between Battery Park and the Staten Island Ferry Terminal).

The coast guard station is like a DMV run by the military.  It’s way more organized, way less efficient, and meaner.  But that’s a whole ‘nother story.