If you are an enlisted man in the US Navy, and you disobey an officer’s command, you are subject to punishment and possibly a court martial. What about the merchant marine? Is a common seaman bound by the same laws? What’s the civilian equivilent of a court mnartial? Can a merchant captain dispense justice (the same as a Navy captain?).
And, what does the Merchant Marine proscribe for a refusal to carry out a direct order?
I work as first mate aboard a US flagged merchant vessel. In the merchant marine there is very little sense of belonging to the merchant marine, as opposed to being in the navy. It is a civilian occupation. Folks generally say they work for the shipping company.
The orders given are usally simple job instructions. “Paint this bulkhead” or “repair that piece of machinery”. On the bridge an officer will give orders to the helmsman to steer a course or to change course.
The usuall penalty for disobeying orders is that the seaman will be fired, as with a shoreside job. There are penalties procscibed by law which include jail time and fines for certain offenses. I’ve never seen that happen, we just send the person home at the next port.
When a seaman gets his merchant marine document from the coast guard he does swear an oath to obey all lawful orders of the officers above him. There is no equivilent to a court martial. If a seaman commited a serious offence that endangered the safety of the vessel or crew then the captain has the authority to confine him. On my ship the captain has handcuffs in his office, but I’ve only seen them used once. We carry no guns on board. If we confined someone we would turn them over to the police in port and let the office handle the legal matters.
Ordinarily it is a professional work environment where everyone is there to do a job. Nobody gets shanghied, everyone is there to make a living. As I said, the penalty for disobeying orders is usually getting fired.
Hope that helps.
H
In my stint as a sailor, we had to sign the “articles” once each month, indicating that we agreed to be bound by various regulations regarding the discipline aboard the ship. However, consistent with Hambone’s post, I do not ever recall even mild allusions to the “articles” once we were sailing. Jerks were fired (or, more frequently, jumped ship at port to avoid being fired).