>>1759121I’m a tug licensed chief engineer with 10 years of experience, both harbor ship assist and ocean line towing.
Unless you have an engineering degree from a USCG approved school/training program you’ll be working your way up from the bottom as a deckhand/wiper.
You do not need a degree to make good money but you do need a license of DDE-any horsepower at minimum. That takes several years of sea time and then the technical knowledge to pass the tests. All that knowledge and sea time transfers upwards, as long as you’re not sailing on lil toot with less than 4,000HP.
The problem with going straight into tugs and staying too long like I did is you get stuck on tugs and unable to get an international STCW endorsement via the demonstrated competency method, as you’ll almost never sail under an engineer who’s got his STCW 3 and the qualified assessment endorsement. Then once you’re your own engineer sailing alone on a tug you can’t bootstrap yourself into STCW without $25,000 worth of classes and several months off of work.
However there are thousands of tugboats and only a few hundred American flag vessels over 1600 tons, so domestic/coastal tugs will always have openings and be busy.
Just starting out at 24 your best bet would be to find a QMED program with the shortest timeframe, I think it’s 18 months. Get QMED and sail for MSC, get RFPEW from MSC and bank money and sea time till you have 1080 days, test for 3rd AE and DDE any horsepower, see if MSC will help you get STCW 3/OICEW.
3rd AE/DDE-any with STCW 3 OICEW can basically write your own ticket and easily make $120/yr, moving up to $150+ as you move up the license ranks.
I’m forever trapped on tugboats because I have a family and can’t afford to basically quit my job for 1/3rd of a year to take a bunch of redundant classes.
