Crew innovate
Competition increases job search creativity. A8-9
Violence is real
Accounts of abuse in yachting industry come to light.
Industry deaths Several pioneers, crew die. A6,16-17 Vol.8, No. 9
A4
www.the-triton.com
December 2011
Fraudulent use of captain’s license under investigation
CREW EMBRACE THE ROARING 20s
By Dorie Cox
Two members of the film “Super Crew,” winner of the comedy category, were all decked out for this year’s Great Gatsby-themed Fort YachtiePHOTO/DORIE COX da Film Festival. See more photos on page A13.
A U.S. captain received a phone call this summer from a man who admitted to copying his license and putting his own name on it for employment in the yachting industry. The captain thinks it might have been used for possibly as long as three years. “Stealing a captain’s license is a little like taking a pilot’s license and flying a plane,” said the captain, who asked not to be identified while a U.S. Coast Guard investigation is pending. The captain’s U.S. Merchant Mariner credential was allegedly photocopied without permission and retouched to reflect the name of an unlicensed person working in the yachting industry. The counterfeit was discovered when a crew agent checked the serial number of the paper and discovered the name did not match the one on record with the USCG National Maritime Center’s Web site. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates that nearly 9 million Americans have pieces of their identities stolen each year. And the yachting community is not immune. “I believe we must get more vigilant, especially with yacht positions of higher responsibility,” Linda Leathart of Nautic Crew International, said. In yachting, the victim usually does not know their information has been compromised until an incident, such as an accident or insurance claim. Often, inconsistencies with credentials are
Want to find a job? Stay on people’s minds Two minutes after stepping off the ferry at the Monaco Yacht Show this fall, a broker offered a captain a job. “You have to do the shows, make the rounds,” a captain said. “If you are out of sight, you are out of mind. I do it because they remember me. I got that offer because From the Bridge he saw me.” Lucy Chabot Reed It’s that frontof-mind presence that captains at this month’s From the
Bridge captains luncheon say is the secret ingredient to finding a job in today’s market. “If they see your face and they just got a call for a captain, it works,” one captain said. “You have to stay top of mind, but it’s a fine line between that and annoying them. It’s a Catch-22: call too much and they stop taking your call; don’t call enough and they forget who you are.” As always, individual comments are not attributed to any one person in particular to encourage frank and open discussion. The attending captains are
identified in a photograph on page A14. “We all got started in this industry by pounding the concrete and doing daywork,” one captain said. “If I was unemployed tomorrow, what would I do? I’d pound the pavement, pound the keyboard and the phone.” “You definitely find out pretty quick how strong your connections are,” another captain said, referring to ”that broker who always says ‘call me’ when you are working, then you call when you are out of work and they won’t take
See BRIDGE, page A14
To verify U.S. mariner credentials, visit the National Maritime Center at www. uscg.mil/nmc and search for “Credential Verification”, e-mail iasknmc@uscg.mil or call 1-888-IASKNMC. found during the hiring process because captains usually require copies of original certificates for their files, Leathart said, and crew agents usually want to see them before they offer a candidate for hire. If false credentials aren’t discovered then, they often come to light when new crew do not perform to expected standards, she said. “We got a new database because the old one couldn’t upload a sufficient amount of certificates,” Leathart said. “Now people can upload and we can verify their information.” But agents don’t share such documents until the stage of hiring where the employer needs to see them. Leathart said she is well aware of the value of the actual documents and maintains security. Employers and mariners can check the status of credentials on the USCG National Maritime Center’s Web site. Validity, expiration dates, descriptions and limitations are listed. But even the USCG Web site states “Employers: It is recommended you visually verify original
See LICENSE, page A15
TRITON SURVEY
Who does a reputation for not paying bills follow, primarily? Captain – 18.3% Owner – 32.1% Yacht – 49.6%
– Story, C1