Marine Interested in Tallships Career

[u/_Purrserker_]

Current active US Marine and I get out in roughly 6 months. Im not 100% on my goals for when I get out, but Maritime is definitely a huge interest of mine and tallships has been something I have always had a passion for. From painting my own miniatures and making a ship in a bottle, to reading, to even going out and stepping foot on some (I want to do some volunteering on the Virginia Schooner once Im out). Im from VA and would like to stay in that area if possible, but after discovering that this is a possible career choice Id love to learn more and do all I can to pursue it. If anyone could give me guidance or know of anywhere in VA I could go I would greatly appreciate it.

[u/CubistHamster]

Pride of Baltimore II isn't ridiculously far away. Don't have personal experience with their program, but I've sailed with several people who do, and they all spoke highly of it.

[u/_Purrserker_ → u/CubistHamster]

Would a good kickstart to trying to get into it be volunteering?

[u/Saymynamewrongagain → u/_Purrserker_]

Absolutely. I wouldn't necessarily call sailing on tallships a career, but only because the pay cut will be pretty large and not all organizations have benefits, year round work, etc. When I sailed tallships (I now work on commercial ships), I worked contracts or seasons, didn't have a home or apartment to save money, and at the time didn't have any major bills.

But reach out to organizations to see if they want volunteers or apprentices. Living Classrooms in Baltimore also owns several boats and is worth a look.

[u/merlincm → u/Saymynamewrongagain]

U/symonymogin is correct about all that stuff. Also volunteering is usually the best way to get a berth. 

[u/CubistHamster → u/_Purrserker_]

Maybe? I'm not really the best person to ask--I got started as a paying trainee on Picton Castle, and just kind of hung around until they offered me paid crew spot.

That's the only ship I sailed on, and we generally didn't take volunteers, so my sense of how those programs usually work is fairly poor.

Volunteering is probably a decent way to find out for sure if you want to work on tall ships. The reality of it most of the time is a lot of grubby, repetitive, and physically demanding work. Especially when you're starting out and are relatively unskilled. (Not to discourage you--there's the potential to see and do some amazingly cool stuff, but you will put in a lot of work to get there.)

If you want a head start, and don't mind spending a bit of money, I'd suggest getting your TWIC and taking an STCW Basic Safety Training class (needed for many entry-level shipboard jobs.) There are plenty of schools that offer that class, that one just seems likely to be closer to you.

[u/Jucarias → u/CubistHamster]

Just to piggy back, get a TWIC card and Basic Training first only if you want to work commercial, like tugs, cargo ships, crew vessels, offshore supply vessels etc. Tall ships you really don't need it, not when Basic Training costs around 1k. But hey OP if you have money to spend you do you.

[u/CubistHamster → u/Jucarias]

If you want to work on any Tall Ships that aren't US-flagged, you absolutely need BST. Not a TWIC, but now that you can do it online, it's easy enough that I think it's worth doing for anyone who has the slightest interest in pursuing maritime employment.