Lt. Cmdr. Tom Pray, USCGR-Ret., has an enviable commute. Once he leaves his stateroom aboard the Spirit of Endeavor, it takes him less than a minute to reach the bridge, where he has a bird’s-eye view of glacier-covered fjords, humpback whales, colonies of sea lions, and a host of other wonders found off the coast of southeast Alaska.

Like many seagoing servicemembers, Pray didn’t want to spend his second career sitting at a desk, so before he left the military he took the steps necessary to become a merchant mariner. Today, he works as both a chief mate and a captain for Cruise West, a family-owned small cruise ship company in Seattle.

Stringent training requirements and increased educational costs have made it harder for servicemembers to launch second careers afloat. Still, deciding whether to return to a career on the sea or take a shoreside job continues to be a difficult choice for many transitioning officers.

The nature of shipping

Shipping is one of the most complex and heavily regulated industries in the world. A merchant ship might be owned by one country, managed by another, registered in a third, and manned by seafarers from all over the world. The ship’s officers, however, are trained and qualified according to stringent global standards established by United Nations’ agencies, which regulate international shipping. Consequently, the seagoing training U.S. military officers receive doesn’t necessarily count toward earning the licenses and certifications needed by merchant mariners. (See Getting Underway)

The U.S. Coast Guard is the regulatory agency responsible for licensing and documenting all U.S. merchant mariners. Those who plan to sail on international waters also need an International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) certification, which acts as an “international driver’s license” and signifies their competency to stand watch on a commercial vessel. Both documents require mariners to be trained and cross trained in many areas so they can perform a wide variety of tasks aboard ship.

“There are similarities, but it’s a different environment than the Navy,” says Jay Jepson, a former naval officer who now is a recruiting manager with Military Sealift Command (MSC) in Norfolk, Va. “Driving a ship and shooting Tomahawks is one thing, but on our ships, we’re doing underway replenishments, and we’re more focused on seamanship, cargo handling, and other merchant mariner-type activities.”

The MSC, which is a branch of the Navy, hires civilian mariners, or civmars, to crew their government-owned supply vessels. However, the MSCcurrently is hiring only able seamen, which means you’ll have to pay your dues before reaching a rank similar to the one you attained in the military. NOAA also hires civilian mariners, but advancement is limited because only NOAA officers command the ships.

Competition for jobs in the U.S. Merchant Marine also is stiff. Although 95 percent of our nation’s overseas trade moves by water, only 3 percent is carried aboard ships that sail under the U.S. flag. Many foreign-flag ships employ low-wage sailors from developing nations such as the Philippines or Burma, and the world’s largest fleets now are administered by Panama and Liberia.

Job opportunities do exist for licensed sailors with good skills, however. Pray learned that in 1990 when he got a call from a friend who needed a mate to take a crab-processing ship to Alaska. The job quickly turned into a full-time career, and he spent the following nine years working as a commercial fisherman aboard a U.S merchant ship in the icy and often volatile waters of the Bering Sea.

Like most commercial fishermen, Pray spent a lot of time at sea and worked long hours during open fishing season. Although the pay was good, working conditions were dangerous—six of his fellow crewmembers lost their lives while aboard ship.

Deaths in the commercial fishing industry aren’t uncommon, says Pray, who thinks many of the new regulations and training requirements passed in recent years have helped increase safety and added to sailors’ professionalism. However, the U.S. Department of Labor still ranks commercial fishing as the nation’s second-most dangerous occupation (the most dangerous is logging).

A 1999 downward turn in the fishing industry left Pray temporarily unemployed, but he soon went on to find an enviable position in the small cruise ship industry. Today, he sails Cruise West’s Spirit of Endeavor through Alaska’s Inside Passage, California’s wine country, and Baja California’s Sea of Cortés.

“There’s no comparison,” says Pray of the safer living and working conditions aboard the cruise ship.

Working in the small cruise ship industry has its challenges, though. Pray usually works with young crews who haven’t received the well-rounded training he benefited from while in the military. He also performs many more “collateral duties” than he did in the Coast Guard, doing everything from hauling garbage off the ship to familiarizing himself with customs regulations that apply domestically and abroad.

While the duties might not always be glamorous and the salary isn’t astronomical, Pray says there’s a lot to be said for the small cruise ship industry.

“Although people look more at salary when applying for a job in the merchant marine, they really need to look at where the jobs are to get their feet in the door,” advises Pray. “The high-paying jobs are on the big boats, followed by the oil or mineral field. But if you like meeting a wide variety of interesting people that are fun to talk with and dealing with assorted problems, … the small cruise ship industry isn’t such a bad deal.”

Because of the different duties and regulations, most military retirees pursuing a second career at sea must work their way up the ladder to attain a position equivalent to the military rank at which they retired. Capt. Mike Murphy, USN-Ret., started his career in the Merchant Marine. When he retired from the military in 1992, he returned to the industry and was hired as a second mate— the Navy’s equivalent of a full lieutenant.

“It is unlikely a naval officer can make a lateral transition because the jobs are so different,” says Murphy. “Lateral transitions have happened in certain government-contracted ships, but it’s fairly rare.”

Murphy rose through the ranks quickly, however. Within two years he was a master, which afforded him the title of captain. Like Pray, he found his duties as deck officer in the merchant marine were quite different than those he had in the Navy.

“In the Navy, a ship normally has a commanding officer, executive officer, first lieutenant, supply officer, communications officer, administrative support staff, and personnel support staff,” says Murphy. “In the merchant marine, these jobs all are assumed by the four or five deck officers aboard the ship.”

Murphy’s schedule also is demanding. Although he works four months on and then takes four months off, he gets no holidays, paid time off, or shore duty. While underway, his workday typically averages 12 to 14 hours. And when Murphy does take time off, he spends two to four weeks in training classes to maintain the licenses and certifications needed to work as a merchant mariner.

Like many professional mariners, he belongs to a maritime union that provides about half of the training he needs. His employer, Maersk Line, Limited, or the government agency that contracts with his company picks up the rest.
Training costs have become an issue for aspiring merchant mariners in the past few years. According to Murphy, the basic training needed for a deck officer to get started in the industry now runs several thousand dollars. Lt. Cmdr. Richard Wells, USCG-Ret., who works in the Coast Guard’s regional examination center in New Orleans, agrees.

“Depending on what credential you’re going for, it could be as little as a couple thousand dollars up to $30,000,” says Wells, who speaks with students and maritime educational vendors on a regular basis. “For someone who wants to start at the bottom, the cost is much less, but most officers don’t want to do that.”

Murphy says his salary has increased over the years, and he now earns about what he did during his last few years on active duty while spending six to eight months a year at sea. Although he says the Merchant Marine isn’t for everyone, Murphy says he’s glad he returned to sea because it has afforded him the opportunity to apply a lifetime of education and training to a rewarding second career.

The landlubber route

Not every sailor yearns to return to the sea. Many former military officers, such as Capt. James M. Drager, usn-Ret., elect to use their skills and experience in shoreside jobs after they retire.

During his 25 years on active duty, Drager worked as pilot, air wing commander, and ship captain. Shortly before retiring in 1993, he was contacted by a representative from Carnival Corp., the world’s largest cruise group, which was looking for someone to head up its new multibillion-dollar shipbuilding program. Drager was interested, and after an interview, he was hired on a six-month trial basis. Eleven years later, he’s still with Carnival and has helped deliver 28 ships, which are used by Carnival Cruise Lines and its sister companies Holland America Line, Costa Cruise, and Cunard.

Many of the skills Drager acquired in the service—managing people, handling large budgets, and multitasking in a fast-paced environment—have served him well in his second career. As the vice president of corporate shipbuilding, he’s charged with coordinating the shipbuilding efforts of five operating companies and four shipyards, which are located in Europe.

“I used to worry about bombs and fuel oil, now I worry about bedspreads and what artwork is going on the ship,” says Drager. “You don’t do any [of these tasks], but it all comes through you, and you coordinate the efforts to make sure the owner gets the final decision.”

Drager compares his job to running an air wing or a carrier, which has multiple department heads who each have their own staff and budget. An adept troubleshooter, he’s often called in to solve what he calls “the crisis of the day,” which could occur at any given yard on any given ship that’s under construction.

Although he has made a successful transition, Drager has faced some challenges. When he first started at Carnival, he thinks he might have been perceived as “too militaristic,” but he quickly mastered the art of diplomacy in order to be more effective. Moving from a high-level position in the military to a mid-level management position also took some getting used to, but he soon proved himself and was promoted up through the ranks.

Today he enjoys many of the benefits of his job, which include travel, parties in Europe whenever a new ship rolls out, and the challenge of meeting a difficult on-time delivery deadline.

“Don’t let it scare you,” Drager advises those thinking about pursuing post-military careers in a ship-related industry. “Once you’re out and going, you’ll do fine. I know you’ve been comfortable for 20 or 25 years, but once you’re out, you’ll look back at the end of your first year and think it wasn’t so bad after all.”