02 November 2025
From the MMP Hiring Hall
Jacob Gross, 37 tanker man.
At the MM&P hiring hall. Oakland, California
Photo: Robert Gumpert 31 October 2025
I graduated from Cal Maritime in 2018. Before that I was in the Navy, since I was 18, so I’ve been on the water since I was 18.
It’s different than it used to be. When I started sailing there was no internet, you couldn’t even call home. There was a phone, but it was like a one minute delay. So, you’d say something, then 30 seconds to a minute later you’d hear something back. It wasn’t worth calling. But now there’s Starlink, you feel more connected.
I used to enjoy that disconnection. I’d set my bills up, and just leave. But that was before I had kids, and a wife, so …
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I don’t live here, I live in South Africa. I grew up here in the Bay Area but I married a South African Afrikaans girl and so we live there.
I come here for about a week, I visit my parents, I come to the hall a couple of times, and then I usually have a job.
Instead of waiting for those ships that everybody wants (containers), and competing with everybody in the Los Angeles and Oakland halls, I don’t have to do that [with tankers].
This union does not have a lot of qualified tanker-men, so there’s not a big pool of people to relieve you. The only reason I’m taking it (this job that came up) is as a favor to the company. They already have somebody to relieve me. They’re just waiting for that person’s paperwork to get processed by the Coast Guard, so I know in 60 days I’ll be off.
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You have to be careful (on a tanker), there’s a big blowout in a pipeline or something, a spill of oil into the water, then it could be your license. You’re gonna have to defend yourself. That’s always a worry, so you want to be on ships that have good equipment.
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In the US fleet [tankers are in poorer condition than box ships], globally not so.
[In] the US fleet there’s this business model that the companies follow, especially [with] these government contracts. They buy an old ship, 10-12 years old, tankers are really only allowed to operate for 20 years, so shipping companies will have a ship, they have big services due, and they decide, let’s lease it out for the rest of its life instead of running it ourselves. These MSC (Military Sealift Command) contracts are guaranteed - 5 year, high paying contracts - so they get a crappy old ship and they run it to the end of its life at a pretty good rate - a cheap rate because it’s an older ship - and then they do it again.
If it was a domestic oil tanker the best contract they would probably get to move oil is probably a year when it’s (the tanker) over 12 years old. But the US government hands out 5 year contracts, at high rates, so they buy [old ships].
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[There is] a mandatory, once a year class in Mississippi, in handling guns. It’s to familiarize yourself with the three different types of weapons they have onboard: a rifle, a handgun, and a shotgun.
[The guns] are for different things; the pirates are just one. Maybe you get a lone gunman type situation, like somebody has a mental breakdown. Or even protect yourself from someone who is part of the ship’s crew.
We don’t have enough training, I think. Once a year feels like too much for me, and not enough at the same time. I think they would be better off hiring a security team to ride the ship than to arm the sailors themselves.
Sometimes they tell us they want us to carry the guns while we’re on watch, loading and unloading oil, which just seems like a bad idea because we’re not in the military, we’re just civilians. I don’t want to carry a gun when I’m on watch. People have made mistakes and fired the gun by accident, and sometimes captains will issue the guns, but not with bullets. [That] doesn’t make sense to me. If you’re going to issue them, they should have bullets.
There’s a lot of confusion about it, about how it should be done. My thoughts are if there’s concern about security they should hire a security team. There’s plenty of beds on the ships for extra people.
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I try and just do 90 days [at sea], but it always ends up more. In general I try and keep it to 6 months out of the year.
With some struggles [I’ve made it work with my family]. With my son, he’s 12, and he’s used to it at this point. But it’s definitely not the easiest job, with a family. The internet does help with that, I talk to them everyday, never used to be able to do that. It helps.
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You know there’s a lot of routine, and if you have a story it’s probably something bad happened. I find the routine of it, nothing crazy happening, that’s how it usually is. If you have some stories it usually means something happened.
So, I don’t have a lot to talk about when … [I get home]. My wife gives me crap about it because my son doesn’t really know what I do, right? You can explain it but he’s never seen me at work.
It’s interesting, it goes way back this idea of the sailor, the image of the sailor. The image is you’re out on the town, you’re drinking, having a good time. Nobody sees sailors at work. So, there’s this kind of mystery. They see the carpenters, plumbers working, they never see the sailor working.
My son is the same way. Even though I tell him stuff about work. It’s such a mystery.
Jacob Gross, tanker man
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