When I Was a Cadet Sailing With Maersk, Chief Mate Samuel Irvin Broke Into My Room and Tried to Get in Bed With Me. He Was Drunk and Supposed to Be on the Bridge Standing Watch at the Time.
*(This USCG investigation statement regarding shipboard sexual misconduct committed by Maersk Captain Samuel Sullivan Irvin, III was written by the victim, a former student at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. It was obtained by MLAA through records requests. Certain information has been redacted to protect the victim’s identity.)*
To: U.S. Coast Guard Investigators
Re: Statement regarding shipboard behavior of Mariner Samuel Sullivan Irvin
10 February [REDACTED]
From the period of late July through August of [REDACTED] I was sailing aboard the M/V [REDACTED] as the Engine Cadet and occupied the room directly across the hall from Mr. Irvin. Mr. Irvin started out treating both my sea partner and I very respectfully. We arrived on the ship in Charleston, SC as the ship started its domestic leg of the run. By the time the ship had started across to Northern Europe Mr. Irvin began making sexual passes and requests of me. On several occasions I spent time in the man's office being social, occasionally having a small glass of scotch with him.
I slowly began to stop spending time in his office when Mr. Irvin started drinking more, most evenings drinking 3-5 glasses of scotch between the hours of 2000 and 2200. As Mr. Irvin started drinking more he would begin to throw crude comments and sexual suggestions into the conversations. At the time I considered this the man's reaction to being drunk. As the comments continued to get worse I would remove myself with the excuse of needing sleep or to work on projects. Many of the comments and suggestions included asking me into his shower and telling me that he could show me things sexually no man my age could. When these comments came up I would tell him “no, you're old enough to be my father and that's just wrong.” He never seemed to get discouraged.
There is one incident that needs special attention in this investigation. I do not remember the exact date, but we were on the coastwise leg of the trip heading toward Houston. Chief Mate Irvin was standing the 0400 to 0800 watch on the bridge, and at 0430 he left my sea partner and an AB wheelman up on the bridge and proceeded to get the master key out of his suite, unlock my stateroom door, enter my stateroom while I was sleeping, and attempt to crawl into bed with me. I pushed him out of the bed and told him several times to get out of my room before he complied. He smelled heavily of alcohol at the time. The next morning he apologized profusely for his actions and told me that he had been drunk and should not have done such a thing. I responded that he was entirely out of line and should never even think about trying that again, drunk or not. He never again attempted to enter my stateroom at any point in time.
Some other points that can be brought up to show Mr. Irvin’s personality would be the way he spoke about his wife and kids. He would often tell me that his wife was not a nice person at all and that they were staying together for the kids. He would also ask me for advice on dealing with his 14 year old daughter being a rebellious kind of person, but he was obviously not close with her and did not readily accept my advice of being straightforward with her and treating her like an adult. He spoke most admirably about his son, for whom he wrote short children's stories as he grew up.
Mr. Irvin got off the ship at the second Charleston stop on my second coastwise section of my time on the ship. I did not hear from him again, but I did, however, hear from the third engineer, that was onboard when I got off the ship a few months later. He told me that when Mr. Irvin had returned to the ship he began to spread rumors about the ship that he had been sleeping with me through his last term onboard. I assured the third engineer that there had been no such activity onboard. I figured there was no way to stop the rumors at that point so I dropped it there.
I have heard nothing else about Mr. Irvin since. I hope this has been helpful to you. Please feel free to contact me at the information above if you have any further questions or need any further information.
Respectfully,
M/N [REDACTED] 1/C
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy