When I Was 3rd Mate on a Maersk Pre-Positioned Ship My AB Harassed Me And Eventually Threatened to Kill Me. When I Reported Him to Maersk, They Moved Him To A Sister Ship & Promoted Him to Bosun.
* This anonymous submission was originally posted as a public comment to the Mishipman-X story. MLAA does not know the author’s identity. *
I was sailing as a 3rd Mate standing an in port watch 00-08. It was a pre-positioning ship operated by Maersk. I kept a log of everything the AB was doing to me at all hours throughout the watch. Keep in mind this man was 6’3 nothing but muscle and weighed 300 pounds, we were the only ones awake during these hours.
He would threaten me verbally, even going as far as saying he would kill me and that he knew my home address. It started off with small stuff at first, like throwing out my night food. I would go down to the galley seeing him scrape my plate into the garbage, seeing the cling wrap that said “3M.” And he would purposely not call in the anchor calls every hour and would even sleep on watch in his room.
I tried talking to him saying he needs to do his duties and that’s when it got worse. On multiple times throughout the trip he made romantic passes at me, and I denied him and said I was not interested. He then went a different route by trying to scare me into wanting him. I let this go on for a few weeks because I didn’t want to be like “every other girl in the industry” who cries harassment and never gets another job. Which is another problem is that people feel this way.
It got to the point where not only was he threatening me but also the bosun, CM, and other mates. That’s where I became comfortable in knowing it wasn’t just me and I reported it straight to the CM. Multiple statements were written, verbal warnings along with written warnings. Eventually the company removed him from the ship and sent him to the sister ship.
He is now on another Maersk ship with a promotion to Bosun doing this to other people. He has not only threatened females but males as well. He tried to use the intimidation factor. The fact that harassment and sexual harassment wasn’t taken serious and it’s all on record is shocking to me and this same man is still sailing and was promoted by the EXACT company that removed him from the ship thinking that was a good enough punishment.