Navigating a lucrative career

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - The Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies in Linthicum launched the Workboat Mate Program this year to train people with little or no maritime experience to work as mates on tugboats, which pull barges that transport millions of dollars worth of goods around the world. Training director Walt Megonigal, program manager Vic Tufts, executive director Glen Paine and academic business development manager Capt. Bob Becker talk about their new school and its advantages over a traditional four-year college.

What needs exist for a maritime school?

Megonigal: When I meet people I ask them, “What are you wearing that was made in America?” and they usually can’t point to anything. So I ask, “How do you think they got here?” Chances are it came on a boat. A lot of the folks who are operating tugs are older and are retiring, so that’s opening up an increase in demand. We never had a program to replace the folks who left.

Paine: The average age of a captain is 55, and it takes 10 years to become one.

What is the training like?

Tufts: The students’ time is split between the classroom and going out to sea. They work with companies on the same boats with the same crews. They learn radar, bridge-resource management, firefighting and celestial navigation. They first work as a deck-hand trainee and clean up the galley. Then they become a mate trainee and supervise the operation of the deck. They travel the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf Coast. One student recently went to Africa. Another transported coal up the Mississippi River. Another delivered grain to Cuba in one of the first trips since the embargo.

What makes a good boat mate?

Tufts: A good candidate knows what he wants, and he needs to have confidence. A candidate will work with technology and will have responsibility for both the crew and cargo because he may be operating a $40 million tug with a barge carrying $100 million worth of products. If he’s carrying gas or oil across the Chesapeake Bay, he has to make sure there isn’t an environmental catastrophe.

Paine: We don’t want people who are trying to find themselves. We want people who know they are going to be away from their families and who are trying to make a career out of this for 20, 30 years.

What can a recent graduate earn?

Tufts: In the New England and New York harbor regions, a new mate can make $80,000 [a year]. In the central Atlantic and Gulf Coast, it’s mid-$70,000 to $80,000.

Megonigal: The reason salaries are so high is because the responsibility is high. You have to get expensive cargo from Point A to Point B on time. We like folks with work experience.

Paine: You have to control a large vessel in all weather. You have to work at 2 a.m., in snow and rain. It’s not a 9-to-5 job. You can’t call in sick or come in late.

Tufts: On the first day of school in Seattle, students traveled from Seattle to Alaska, and four out of six of them quit because they were seasick.

Becker: I puked for the first week, but in 26 years at sea, I never did again.

FAST FACTS

» Enrollment: 70, between MITAGS and the Pacific Maritime Institute, its sister school in Seattle.

» Tuition: $27,000 for the two-year training, plus $2,000 for lunch fees. But tugboat companies will reimburse tuition costs.

» Job perks: Tugboat mates work half the year, usually three weeks on and three weeks off. Mariners also get to travel the world.

» Downside: Mates are away from home a lot and work 24/7 while at sea.

» Starting salary: $70,000-$80,000

» Length of training: Two years, split between classroom and boat

» Minimum age: 19

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com

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