Great American In Cadet Training Deal

[jamzmom]

Monday, 23 June 2008

US Maritime Administrator Sean Connaughton and Gunther Keitel, Executive Vice President of Great American Lines have signed an agreement for cadets from the US Merchant Marine Academy and state maritime academies to take their training voyages on Great American Lines ships. The company runs two large cargo ro-ros, Sunbelt Dixie and Sunbelt Spirit under foreign flags. The agreement was signed on graduation day at Kings Point. Mr Keitel and Mr Connaughton are both graduates of the academy and the latter pointed out how different the employment situation is for today’s graduates than it was for him and his classmates. “Sixty-five percent of today’s graduates already have jobs sailing in the US maritime industry,” he said. “When my class graduated there were almost no jobs for us in the US industry.”

Mr Keitel said, “We believe the increased diversity of ships being made available to cadets at Kings Point and the various state academies will provide a broader base of awareness of ship types and the associated complexity involved for operational and commercial success.”

This agreement is the fourth such training agreement to be signed in the past year. Previous agreements were with APL, Overseas Shipholding Group and SeaRiver.

[kp2001]

Not sure that I necessarily agree with US cadets sailing on foreign flag ships. I think there are plenty of US flag ships out there sailing without cadets on them so not sure why we need foreign flag ships. If they want US cadets they should be US flagged. Period.

[kpdad]

Good point KP2001. My inexperience is showing, so bear with me. If a ship is non-US flagged, do they follow the same "rules" that a US flagged ship would?

[kp2001]

Originally Posted by kpdad

Good point KP2001. My inexperience is showing, so bear with me. If a ship is non-US flagged, do they follow the same "rules" that a US flagged ship would?

Not all of them. In order to enter a US port they have some regulations; however, there are many reasons that someone does not register their ship in the US. The most obvious reason being cost.