Jobs On A Barge

OUR WORKING WATERFRONT: Many on South Shore make living by the sea

For 24 years Richard Mackey worked in a windowless room in North Quincy, processing deposits for the banking giant, State Street.

When State Street laid him off in 2000, the Houghs Neck man spotted his next job pretty much out the window of his house: on the water.

A decade later, you can find Mackey five days a week in his new office – at the helm of a high-speed commuter ferry where his view is 360 degrees. And on a warm day, the ocean breeze puffs up the short sleeves of his white captain’s shirt.

“I love the water,” he said this week as he guided the Flying Cloud ferry out of the sun-sparkled Fore River, bound for a dock at Logan Airport. “My (bank) job was the complete opposite, a very controlled environment.”

Mackey is just one face of the South Shore’s working waterfront, part of a marine economy that ranges across the seafood business, tourism, transportation, construction and science and spawns jobs for boat builders, welders, deckhands, tugboat drivers, biologists, dredge operators, fishermen and workers at ports that handle fuel tankers.

The last time the state measured the marine economy was in 2006 and concluded that it generated $14.8 billion of annual business in Massachusetts.

For Mackey, the waterfront delivered a second career and one rooted not in the digits of finance but the unpredictability of nature.

“It’s the same way it was a hundred years ago. The sea determines what you’re going to do everyday,” he said as Spectacle Island loomed off the ferry’s starboard side. “This is a picture-perfect day. But when the wind’s blowing 40 miles per hour, it’s extremely hard.”

The shifting currents of places like Hull Gut and Nubble Channel off the tip of Long Island have earned this captain’s respect as he logs more than 750 nautical miles a week, threading commuters, tourists and schoolchildren through the archipelago stretched between Quincy, Boston and Hull.

The succession of four horn blows from Mackey’s boat can be heard from another waterfront business that sprawls across eight acres along the Fore River Basin – Sterling Equipment, which is part of the Jay Cashman construction empire. Amidst scraps of rusted steel spread across open blacktop, orange sparks sailed in the air as three welders aimed their torches at a 69-foot long steel cylinder hoisted up on blocks.

Jobs in Nigeria -Barge Master at Ceres Requirement Ltd-

Monitor the weather conditions and rig motions – advise OIM on conditions likely to affect drilling operations and seaworthiness of the rig. Authority I Ensure that accurate calculation of load distribution and weights for daily stability reports and lightship are maintained. Authority I Coordinate all helicopter and supply boats traffic - supervise movement of materials and personnel to and from the rig. Authority I Ensure all navigation equipment is properly maintained and ready for use  at all times. Monitor quantities of expendables such as fuel, potable water, drill water, et cetera. Authority I Ensure that cranes are in safe working condition. Authority I Ensure all safety equipment, including lifeboats and fire-fighting equipment is maintained in a state of operational readiness at all times. Authority I Actively participate in the daily operations meeting with the OIM and other rig department heads. Authority I Operate and maintain the bulk system as required. Authority II Supervise tests on fire fighting equipment, obstacle lighting and audible signals. Authority II Ensure all lifting gears are inspected and certified, correctly color coded, maintained, and stowed properly. Authority II Prepare and supervise rig move plans, and associated mobilization preparations. Authority II Ensure that daily marine logs are accurate and completed. Forward copies of these reports to the shore-base office. Authority II Ensure that all Flag State, Classification Society, statutory regulation, and minimum manning requirements are complied with. Authority II Coordinate and supervise periodic inspections of the rig’s structure, including hull compartments and critical joints. Authority II Assist in the effective management of the Preventive Maintenance System and ensure all records are properly maintained. Authority II Supervise the operation and maintenance of pollution control system. Authority II Prepare Job Safety Analysis for hazardous marine operations. Authority I Ensure that the Company QHSE policies and other programs are communicated to and understood by all rig personnel. Authority I Play an active part in the weekly meetings, Quality Improvement Plan program, and all other Company safety management systems. Authority I Review, understand and become familiar with the rig’s safety case. Authority I Ensure new arrivals receive a full safety briefing and induction on the rig.

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Economic methods of channel maintenance, report of Working Group 14 of the Permament Technical Committee II.