Maersk Chief Mate Charged With Shipboard Rape and Molestation By U.S. Coast Guard Allowed to Keep His Merchant Mariner’s License After Signing Secret Settlement Agreement

To read a profile of Maersk Captain and Serial Sexual Predator Samuel Sullivan Irvin, III as well as tragic statements written by victims of his shipboard sexual abuse, visit this page.

New York, NY

By: MLAA

         What kind of shipboard sex crimes (and how many of those crimes) would an American mariner be required to commit before the U.S. Coast Guard decided to permanently revoke the mariner’s Merchant Mariner Credential (MMC)?

     We still don’t know, because the U.S. Coast Guard has never permanently revoked the MMC of a credentialed mariner for shipboard sexual misconduct. The latest case to emerge from Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy’s (MLAA) investigation of the U.S. Coast Guard’s injustice system demonstrates that multiple charges of shipboard rape and molestation are not even enough permanently revoke a mariner’s MMC.

     In U.S. Coast Guard vs. Samuel Sullivan Irvin, the Coast Guard charged mariner Samuel Irvin with 13 counts of misconduct, including 11 counts of shipboard sexual misconduct, yet the Coast Guard eventually allowed Irvin to walk away with a 30 month (2.5 years) suspension of his license and MMC in exchange for signing a secret settlement agreement and agreeing to “enroll and complete a bona fide Sexual Harassment training.”

     Samuel Sullivan Irvin III graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 1979, making him the classmate of disgraced MMP President Don Marcus. Marcus went on to build his own maritime industry reputation as an infamous protector and defender of shipboard sexual predators. Disgraced former MARAD leader Mark Buzby, who installed disastrous and now-fired USMMA Superintendent Jack Buono and set the stage for the 2nd Sea Year Shutdown, was also a member of the USMMA class of 1979. Captain Eugene Albert, who ran the USMMA Sea Year program for 15 years by protecting shipping companies and predators, silencing victims, and enabling the sexual abuse of a horrifying number of USMMA cadets, was also a member of the USMMA class of 1979.

     Irvin, who was a member of the Masters, Mates & Pilots (MMP) labor union until his death in December 2022, was sailing as Chief Mate for Maersk Line, Limited at the time he signed the secret settlement agreement with the Coast Guard, and upon completion of his 2.5 year suspension Irvin was free to resume shipping out of MMP union halls, and presumably free to resume sailing as a senior officer aboard Maersk containerships. Maersk is already known as haven for shipboard sexual predators, and Samuel Irvin’s case reinforces the Danish shipping company’s well-earned reputation. 

     According to documents obtained by MLAA through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Sam Irvin was charged with 11 counts of shipboard sexual misconduct by the U.S. Coast Guard via the Suspension & Revocation (S&R) process after at least 4 different mariners, including 2 different licensed female mates and at least 2 different USMMA cadets, told Coast Guard investigators that Irvin had engaged in a pattern of criminal shipboard sexual misconduct that spanned over a period of at least 4 years.

According to documents obtained by MLAA, the shipboard sex crimes Irvin was accused of committing included:

1.Causing a 2nd Mate to engage in a sexual act by forcefully raping her at sea.

2. Causing a 2nd Mate to engage in a sexual act by “forcefully sodomizing” her at sea.

3. Creating a hostile work environment after a 2nd Mate declined his romantic advances (at least 4 years after raping and forcibly sodomizing a different 2nd Mate).

4. While moored in the port of Rotterdam, causing a 2nd mate to engage in a sexual act by forcing her to perform oral sex on him.

5. Breaking into a USMMA’s ENGINE CADET’s locked cabin at night using the ship’s master key while she was asleep in an attempt to solicit and engage in sexual acts with her.

6. Inviting a 2nd mate to come to his office under false pretenses and then forcefully raising her shirt and bra and kissing her breasts.

7. Forcing a 2nd Mate to engage in a sexual act on the bridge by forcefully kissing her and then placing his right hand down her pants and forcefully penetrating her vagina.

8. During the change of watch on the bridge, knowingly causing a 2nd Mate to engage in a sexual act by pressing her hand around his penis and holding her hand in place, not allowing her to pull away.

9. Violating sexual harassment laws by waging a bet with a U.S. Merchant Marine Academy DECK CADET to sleep with the 2nd Mate.

10. Directing lewd and lascivious comments towards a U.S. Merchant Marine Academy DECK CADET, creating a hostile work environment.

11. Directing lewd and lascivious comments towards a female U.S. Merchant Marine Academy ENGINE CADET, thereby creating a hostile work environment.

12. Having intoxicating beverages in his possession onboard the ship, a violation of Maersk drug and alcohol policy.

     In his dealings with the Coast Guard, Irvin was represented by attorney William Hewig, III, who not coincidentally later represented Maersk shipboard sexual predator Captain Mark Stinziano in Stinziano’s Suspension & Revocation trial before U.S. Coast Guard Administrative Law Judge Michael Devine. Hewig seems to be to go-to lawyer for Maersk officers accused of shipboard sex crimes.

In Stinziano’s case, which has many facts that mirror the later case of USCG vs. Samuel Sullivan Irvin, III, Judge Michael Devine found proven that aboard the M/V Maersk Idaho, “on several occasions, [Stinziano], with his hand, touched Deck Cadet's buttocks, through clothing, without his permission…on two occasions, [Stinziano] approached Deck Cadet from behind and simulated performing a sex act by contacting Deck Cadet's buttocks, through clothing, with other crew members present and without Deck Cadet's permission…drew genitalia on DeckCadet's hardhat and required him to wear it in front of the crew…[Stinziano] placed a pen in [his] buttocks and then held out the pen to Deck Cadet to indicate that it now smelled like Respondent's buttocks…directed Deck Cadet to use nicknames when they spoke over the radio, wherein Deck Cadet was "butter cake" and Respondent was "daddy"…[and] threatening to punch Deck Cadet in the genitals.”

     USCG ALJ Judge Michael Devine found that none of this conduct by Stinziano was “sexual misconduct,” and instead found PROVEN that Stinziano had only committed three counts of “assault and battery” against a USMMA Deck Cadet—and handed down an absurd 4 month suspension of Stinziano’s U.S. Coast Guard-issued merchant mariner credential.

USCG ALJ Judge Michael Devine, is himself a 1975 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and a generational peer of Irvin and the other members of the USMMA Class of 1979 directly and indirectly involved in the case of U.S. Coast Guard vs. Samuel Sullivan Irvin. There seems to be a shared mindset among men of their generation regarding the inevitability and acceptability of sexual abuse at sea.

It’s all very strange.

And very dangerous.

But not at all surprising.