Sam Irvin Subjected Me to Horrific Sexual Harassment & Abuse. I Lost 20 Pounds b/c I Could Barely Swallow Food. When He Reads This Statement He’ll Know the True Extent of What He Put Me Through

(This statement was written by the victim to U.S. Coast Guard investigators in connection with the Coast Guard’s S&R case against Samuel Sullivan Irvin, III. MLAA obtained the statement through records requests. It has been edited for length and to protect the identity and dignity of the victim)

During my first voyage with Chief Mate Samuel Irvin he incessantly harassed me. This harassment was not of a sexual nature. He constantly berated me about my job performance which has always been of the highest order. I do not remember the exact details of most of this harassment, I mainly remember only how I felt and the effect that the harassment had on my emotional state. I do remember that he would call me on the hand held radio as often as every five minutes while I was on cargo watch reminding me repeatedly to do things that were routine activities which I had never forgotten to do.

He was quite astute in noting what my insecurities were and insulted me in those areas both personal and professional. I was always worried about forgetting to do things, so he would aggressively question me about my duties, making me assume that I had forgotten to do things. He would laugh after I had run around double checking myself, only to find out that I had performed my duties flawlessly. He knew that I saw myself as old, fat, and unattractive so he frequently made remarks about my looks, age, and weight.

He liked to tell anyone who would listen that I was fat and lazy. He called me on the ship's internal phone during my rest hours several times a night to ask me questions which could have easily waited until morning or that he could have found out from someone who was awake. Once when he had apparently been drinking, he called me hourly right up until midnight when I had to go to watch. When we tried to wake him for watch he didn't answer his phone. I eventually had to send his Able-bodied seaman to wake him. The next day he pointed out how exhausted I was and told everyone that I didn't have the stamina to go to sea. He wasn't discreet in spreading rumors about me among the crew about my inability to handle the job.

At the time I didn't realize that this was a campaign on his part to intentionally harass me. I had lost my confidence in my ability as a mate and was always fearfully waiting for his criticisms. I even thought that it was my fault when he couldn't be awoken to come to watch on time. He would show up at fifteen or twenty minutes past the hour. It never occurred to me that the smell of alcohol on his breath accounted for his inability to be woken.

During my first voyage with Irvin I lost 20 pounds because I was so stressed by the hostile work atmosphere that I had a hard time swallowing food. During the voyage Irvin convinced me that he was on the fast track and would be the next permanent captain at Maersk Line, Limited. He told me that both the captains on the ship were his mentors and were pushing for him to make permanent captain. He further informed that the fleet manager was his personal friend and a fellow Kings Point alumnus who would make sure that he was advanced and Captain [REDACTED] would be run out of the company. I foolishly believed him and thought that any complaint I could have made about him wouldn't have been believed.

During my second voyage with Chief Mate Irvin I was very cowed by him and didn't question anything he told me. I am not sure the exact date that Captain [REDACTED] came to the vessel. It was either on January 24th in Charleston, or shortly thereafter. After Captain [REDACTED] left the vessel, Irvin’s harassment changed in nature. It began with the wake-up calls. Irvin insisted that I be the one to wake him up, not the AB on watch. When he answered the phone, he would speak, in what I can only call a bedroom voice, which was low, gravely and sexy. He would say things like, “I was dreaming of you.” I found this very uncomfortable and asked the able seaman to make the wake up calls. This didn't work, since he ordered me not to let the AB make the calls anymore, because he didn't trust the AB to make a proper wake-up.

During the sea passage between Charleston and Houston, he escalated to his wake-up talk to telling me about his "dream" which would be of a very pornographic nature. I remember three dreams that he told me about. The first one was that he dreamed that for some reason there was a bed on the bridge and he dreamed that he was fucking me while trying to keep an eye on the horizon for traffic. The next was that he and I were fucking in the bridge head unbeknownst to the captain, pilot, and helmsman who were bringing the ship into port. The last one I remember was that he was sitting in the captain's chair on the bridge and that I was giving him a blow job. He thought it was funny that his only thought during the dream was that he would get into trouble if the captain came in and found him sitting in his chair.

After the first “dream” when he came onto the bridge for his watch I asked him if he remembered what he said to me when he answered the phone. He said no, that he must have still been asleep. I actually believed him. After one of the calls he would be very contrite and nice to me during the watch turnover, but by the time I crossed paths with him that day the professional harassment started again.

In Houston there were no night mates assigned to the vessel so I was working the cargo watch. I went to the bridge to make coffee for Irvin who was coming on watch. I had to open a new can of coffee. As I was opening the coffee the opener slipped and I cut my hand on the ragged lid. By the time I got the flow of blood stanched and a paper towel wrapped around my finger, the trash can was filled with bloody paper towels. I went out onto the bridge wing so that I could watch the bunker barge while I waited for Irvin to relieve me on the watch. When he saw the bloody towels in the trash he came out onto the bridge wing and demanded to know who got hurt. When he found out it was me he was very solicitous and checked my hand to make sure the cut wasn't as bad as all the blood made it look. This was the first time he saw a spot of dirt on my face and took his time brushing it off and telling me how cute I was. He was nice to me all the next day, and managed to find other dirt spots to wipe from my face that day when no one was around.

I realized that he was treating me nice because I had let him touch me. I was very uncomfortable about that. I talked to my then-husband and told him what had happened. He told me that letting Irvin touch me was rather indiscreet, and warned me that Irvin might have gotten the wrong idea. I assured my husband that I would keep at least three feet between me and the chief mate.

When I tried to maintain a distance from Irvin he would morph back into “cruel Sam” again. His swings between being nice and menacing were noted by the officers and crew. Crew members would greet each other in morning with the question, “Do we have the Good or the Bad Sam today?” It was about this time that he began inviting me to drop by his room for a glass of wine. I never took him up on these offers, informing him that I never drank aboard ship. After each time that I refused these invitations he became more verbally vicious to me.

Over the five days following sailing from Houston Irvin began touching me in more familiar ways. I found that if l rejected his advances he would verbally harass me throughout the day. If I allowed the touching it won me hours and sometimes a whole day of peace. He began to make a point of catching me alone in the elevator where he would pin me against the wall and try to kiss me. It was approximately February 5th when I first gave into him. I was rewarded for letting him,  with some very friendly treatment for a day.

Shortly after I let him kiss me in the elevator he was very late relieving me on watch. I was placing a position on the chart when he came into the bridge. Because of my height and the height of the chart table I have to lean very far over the table to place a plot on the upper part of the chart. I was leaned over the starboard chart table when Irvin brushed his hips against my bottom, and reached over and grabbed my shoulder. He pulled me up right and turned me halfway around. He trapped me against the chart table, by pressing his pelvis into my right hip. He reeked of alcohol when he kissed me.

I thought that the kiss was all I was going to have to put up with when he surprised me by pressing me into a French kiss (the elevator kiss had been a closed mouthed kiss) and sliding his right hand down my jeans penetrating my vagina with his fingers. I am ashamed to this day that I didn't fight him and yell for the AB who was just outside the closed curtains of the chart room. I was rewarded by my inaction with a long stretch of peace. During this time he began to act giddy. He acted like he was courting me. I knew that I had to go along with all his advances if I wanted this peace to keep going. I felt that I had given him a de facto consent by not reporting his earlier abuse. I was scared that the captain would find out what was going on and blame me for it.

On the morning watch he came up on watch on time for once. I was filling out the log book on the port chart table, when he came up. He whispered to me to give him my hand. I thought he was going to place something in my hand in the darkness. He did: his penis. He pressed my fingers around his penis and held them in place, not letting me pull away. In a loud voice he continued the watch turnover, asking me what the course, RPM, and traffic was before letting my hand go.

At this point I had no self esteem left and I stayed in my bed sleeping or attempting to sleep whenever I didn't have to be working. I totally blamed myself for the situation. I rationalized his actions by telling myself that if I was a better mate, and if he wasn't drinking, he wouldn't do these things to me. I didn't realize that all the harassment was grooming behavior to make me think the whole thing was my fault…

At this point the harassment changed again. While Irvin was still sexually abusing me, the rewards of the good treatment stopped. He started spreading rumors that I was chasing him around. He began telling me that I was a slut…

Just based on what little I told him, the Captain asked me if I wanted to file a formal complaint against Irvin. I told him that I was going to try to sail as chief mate with Maersk Line, Limited and didn't want to ruin my chances of advancement. The captain made me promise that if any other woman was harassed by Irvin that I would come forward and support her in any manner needed to resolve her case.

When a new Chief Mate joined the vessel to replace Irvin, I tried my best to forget what had happened. By this time I had lost 40 pounds and the new Chief Mate was shocked by my haggard look. On Irvin’s final day aboard the ship, I thought he had already left the vessel and made the mistake of getting into the elevator. Irvin joined me before I could escape. He tried to kiss me again and I fought him off. He just looked at me with pure evil in his eyes and said, “I can't believe that after everything that happened that I still want to fuck you.” 

I was so ashamed at what had transpired that it has taken me the last four years to tell bits and pieces of the story. Finally, when he reads this statement he will know the true extent of what I went through.

In no way do I expect to profit from this statement. Making my charges public will only damage my career. By going public I have pretty well assured that I will not be assigned as permanent chief mate at any company. I am going public because I have to atone for all the women that must have abused by Samuel Irvin because I didn't step up and take him out of his position of power when I had the chance.

Signed,

[REDACTED]