ASTORIA, Ore. — Those roughnecks and merchant mariners who work on the tugs and cargo ships along the Columbia River and out on open waters weren’t all born to the job. They were made — pounded into shape at places like the Tongue Point Job Corps Center Maritime Training program.
The seamanship program uses hands-on, performance-based instruction and assessments of its students. Training is split between operational and classroom instruction, with the operational training receiving 75 percent of instruction time. And even when students are out on one of six water craft, when they have down time they might be found studying their textbooks.
In addition to the textbooks and nuts and bolts of the jobs they’re learning, students are taught real-life lessons like balancing a checkbook or writing a resume. Some 50 students are enrolled in the program, which graduates about 20 each year. They are taught by five staff. The seamanship program is divided into two departments — the engine room and the deck.
Deck training — also known as Able Seaman training — teaches the students life boat handling, line handling, splicing lines, attaching lines to barges, steering and basic navigation, basic engine room maintenance, firefighting and other skills required by the U.S. Merchant Marine.
In engine room training — known as the Qualified Member of the Engine room Department — students are taught basic maintenance of diesel engines, operation of generators and boilers, identification of fuel, air and water lines, basic Able Seaman skills and how to compute fuel usage and capacities, according to the program’s Web site.
“If they’re capable and want to do it, they can get both endorsements,” said Patrick Albers, the program director. “Those students that get both endorsements are really sought after.”
He said former students have gone on to work for tugboat companies around Seattle and the Columbia River, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Military Sea Lift Command and the Columbia River Bar Pilots.
Albers said about a dozen of the students get to train on barges belonging to the Corps.
“It’s good to expose students to the real world. (The Corps) is our only option for external training,” Albers said.
He said the Job Corps is working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to find another source for outside training.
“Some students want to work on deep draughts — or ships,” said Gunnar Allen, the program’s boatswain. “Some want to work on tugboats.”
Szabi Vas, a 20-year-old Hungarian student from Seattle, is attempting to earn endorsements as both Able Seaman and Qualified Member of the Engine room.
“I want to work on tugboats,” he said. “I just like the hard work. I want to help the older guys out.”
“We start ‘em out in the scullery, as dishwashers and mess cooks,” Allen said. “They learn every job from the helm down to cleaning heads — the toilets.”
A 19-year-old female student from Hawaii, Ambree Hauhio, said she’s trying for both certifications too, “so I can go out in cargo ships and become a chief engineer.”
The programs take between 18 and 24 months to complete, and she’s been in them for 10. Some of the training requires students to take the boats out on multiday exercises, so there are separate quarters for female students. The Ironwood, a 180-foot-long, 743-gross-ton seagoing buoy tender, can accommodate 50 students and eight staff members.
Joey Kepa, 21, from Molokai, Hawaii, just graduated from the program.
“I was born and raised on the ocean,” he said. “I’ll be looking for a job, any job — tugboats, deep draughts, anything.”
Albers said the program maintains a 95 percent placement rate, but eventually the slowdown in the economy is bound to affect shipping, and placing students might become more difficult.
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