A Female Coast Guard Officer and Kings Point Graduate Fought Maersk, Masters Mates & Pilots, and Her Own Corrupt Agency to Take Down Shipboard Sexual Predator Samuel Sullivan Irvin, III

New York, NY

By: MLAA

Samuel Sullivan Irvin, III graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) in 1979. 11 years later, in 1990, Captain Jennifer Williams, USCG (Ret.) graduated from the same Academy and was commissioned into the U.S. Coast Guard as a Marine Safety Officer. There had been 11 women and 200 men in Williams’ USMMA graduating class.

In 2007, the paths of Williams and Irvin would cross when then-Commander Williams was serving at Coast Guard Sector North Carolina in Wilmington and serious shipboard sexual misconduct allegations made against Samuel Irvin by multiple credentialed-mariners landed on Williams’ desk.

According to one of the primary victim’s of Irvin’s shipboard sexual abuse, Maersk Line, Limited and the Masters, Mates, & Pilots (MMP) labor union—of which Irvin was a member—were not conducting a proper investigation into the abused mariners’ extraordinarily serious allegations against Irvin, and the women believed that Maersk and MMP were trying to protect Irvin and themselves rather than the victims, because of both organizations’ “vested interests” in the matter.

In her letter to the Coast Guard Commandant requesting an investigation, one of the primary victims wrote:

When I joined the [Vessel] I had no prior acquaintance with the 2nd Mate. Upon finding out that 2nd Mate [REDACTED] was filing charges against Captain Irvin and that her charges so closely mirrored my unfortunate experiences I knew that I had to abandon my privacy and file charges as well. The [Vessel] is operated by Maersk Line, Limited, so we contacted the company's designated person and he came to the vessel in Norfolk to interview us, and four other witnesses. 

Since that time Masters, Mates, and Pilots has become involved. The response we have had from both the company and the union has been chilling to say the least.

2nd Mate [REDACTED] and I both feel that Maersk Line, Limited and Masters, Mates, and Pilots have vested interests in this case and cannot be expected to conduct an even-handed investigation. We are not interested in filing damages against either the union or the company. Our only goal is to make sure that Captain Irvin is taken from his position of power that allows him to inflict such damage on his officers and crew.

We respectfully request that the Coast Guard once more fulfill their traditional role of protecting the mariner and conduct an exhaustive investigation of Captain Irvin’s past interactions with female cadets, apprentices, officers, and crew, to ascertain if he is the predator we firmly believe he is. We further hope that Captain Irvin’s license will be suspended while the investigation is being conducted to ensure that he has no access to vulnerable women.

Eventually, the matter made its way to Captain Williams at Sector North Carolina. This is likely because Irvin was a resident of North Carolina and Williams was only coincidentally stationed in North Carolina. Had she not been stationed there, Irvin may have eventually completely escaped all punishment for his shipboard crimes and misconduct.

In an interview with Captain Williams published in a 2019 edition of Proceedings, The Coast Guard Journal of Safety and Security at Sea, Williams spoke about the role she played in the investigation of Samuel Sullivan Irvin, III, the resistance efforts to investigate cases like Irvin’s had traditionally received from within the Coast Guard, and her own battle against her own agency that ensued when she decided that something must be done about Irvin.

According to the interview: 

Additionally, Jennifer can be credited with forever bettering both the maritime industry and the Coast Guard through initiatives she championed. In one instance, while serving in North Carolina as a commander, she recalls a particularly intricate investigation, stemming from allegations of sexual assault committed by a licensed mariner aboard a commercial vessel. In that case, then-Commander Williams tenaciously pursued evidence preparing to prove her case, something other investigators had been averse to in the past. The result was the accused mariner surrendering his license and departing the maritime industry. 

While Irvin did technically surrender his license, the story is more complicated, and the final result was out of Williams’ hands. Irvin received a 2.5 year suspension of his license in a secret settlement agreement with Coast Guard prosecutors and a Coast Guard ALJ judge, was required to attend a “bona fide sexual harassment training” program, and was not banned from returning to the industry following his suspension.

Irvin died in December 2022. However, his many victims remain living—with the memories of the sexual harassment and violence Irvin subjected them to aboard his vessels still part of their daily lives.