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It was a dark and stormy night with choppy seas. I didn’t hit anything, but I did run aground twice while at the helm of the tug boat simulator at the Massachusetts Mari- time Academy (MMA) in Buzzards Bay. But then that’s the point – to let students safely make mistakes and get the closest thing to the real-life experience they need – and would have a limited shot at otherwise on the equipment they’ll be handling where the jobs are today; on tug boats, barges, ATBs and other inland and coastal vessels.

There was a time when young men seeking to make their mark in the world were told to “Go West,” and then later, to think “Plastics.” In the nautical world, ocean-going vessels gave the siren call.

Nowadays, those eying a marine career would be better advised to “go shallow and think small.” As the blue water, deep-draft job market has dried up, brown water opportu- nities have surged to the point today where combined they make up the vast majority of the nation’s merchant marine, with over 4,000 tugs and 27,000 barges.

Seismic Shift

It used to be that MMA, like its sister academies, cranked out deckies and engineers primarily for ocean-going posts, back when there were hundreds or even thousands of U.S. fl agged deep draft vessels. Not anymore. A quick glance at traffi c on the Cape Cod Canal alongside MMA, where 90% of the boats going by are commercial tugs and barges, is tell- ing, notes Capt. Bradley K. Lima, MMA’s dean and vice pres- ident of academic affairs. His colleague, instructor Captain

David Mackey, estimates that deep water U.S-fl agged com- mercial vessels make up less than 1% of world tonnage today.

Brown water, conversely, has seen aggressive growth as tugs and barges replaced conventional cargo ships, and off- shore energy and liquid natural gas exploded. “There has been extreme growth in the offshore segment of the ves- sels of limited size, driven by offshore oil exploration,” says

Scott Craig, director of marine development and compli- ance at Crowley Maritime Corp. “Every one of those oil rigs has four support tugs commanding very high wages.

New Tech & Tug Trainingew Tech & Tug Training

Mass. Maritime responds to industry demand, reloads with cutting edge Transas equipment, and moves to the head of the brown water training queue.

By Patricia Keefe

TUG TECHNOLOGY

January 2014 36 MN

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