differn't

So how bad is the manpower shortage in the maritime industry?

 It's bad enough that my employer is paying me my relatively princely wage to fill in a job as an Ordinary Seaman, an entry-level position in the maritime world.

 I'm working on a tugboat, something I never really got to do.  You see, I'm a tankerman, and paid my dues in a ship's engine room before breaking out onto the deck of a tanker, and then I came here to HAWSEPIPER'S Afloat Global HQ/center for sexual deprivation, skipping my employer's usual advancement route aboard their fleet of tugs.

 So, yeah. They're paying me my rate to do a job that normally pays substantially less, because they don't have the people to fill the spots. I'm doing the job of a raw greenhorn.

   No one wants unskilled labor on a boat, so companies hire the bare minimum of shoemakers and then many hope to promote from within. BUT, when there's a gap between fieldable employees and minimum crew figures for a vessel to leave the dock, stuff like this happens.

 And this is why I'm shouting out to the world that if you're out of work and worried, contact me. If you're unemployed and turning your nose up at a $50,000 a year job, you're obviously not THAT worried.