Tonght US women mariners talk about their work, on Facebook.

It's short notice but tonight at midnight BST Jack Tar Magazine will be streaming a panel discussion by seven women mariners about working at sea. The event has been staged by New York for Working Harbor Committee. http://workingharbor.com/

It follows a screening of the PBS documentary Shipping Out—The Story of America’s Seafaring Women. Go to the Jack Tar Facebook page just before 19.00 New York time (midnight BST). The screening of the 56 minute documentary starts at 18:00 (23.00 BST).It's Jack Tar magazine's first ever webcast.

FILM: Shipping Out: The Story of America's Seafaring Women - Featuring Captain Ann Sanborn
Produced by Maria Brooks - Waterfront Soundings Productions

This unusual documentary tells the history of seafaring women in America. We meet modern women performing jobs in commercial shipping. They work on container ships, tankers, tugs and other vessels, as pilots, engineers, mates and ordinary 'seamen'. "Shipping Out" explores the history, mythologies and attitudes which limited women's participation in seafaring roles until recent times.


PANEL DISCUSSION:
A panel of seven women active in maritime trades including:

Jessica DuLong, chief engineer retired NYC Fireboat John J. Harvey
Capt. Linda L. Fagan, USCG Captain of the Port of New York
Capt. Ann Loeding, tugboat captain
Capt. Coleen Quinn, Sandy Hook Pilot
Marissa Strawbridge, KP’06, Second mate for American Marine Officers
Commander Linda A. Sturgis, USCG, Head of Prevention NY
Debra Tischler, Former second mate on tankers, car and bulk carriers
Betsy Frawley Haggerty, Maritime Writer will be the moderator.


Panelists' Biographies

Jessica DuLong. DuLong is chief engineer aboard the retired fireboat John J. Harvey. She is the author of the critically acclaimed My River Chronicles: Rediscovering the Work that Built America; A Personal and Historical Journey. In her book, DuLong describes how she learned to appreciate the value of hands-on work after she her crew served at Ground Zero, where, for several days, fireboats provided the only water available to fight blazes.

Captain Linda A. Fagan. U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the Port of New York. A 1985 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Captain Fagan’s career has taken her to all seven continents. She has served aboard ships in the Arctic and Antarctic and has held policy and port management positions in many locations. She is now in charge of Coast Guard operations in the busy Port of New York and New Jersey. She is seen here aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Sturgeon Bay which is icebreaking in the Hudson River. (Courtesy of the U..S. Coast Guard)

Captain Ann Loeding. Tugboat captain Loeding began working as a deckhand on tugs in New York and near coastal waters and eventually "came up through the hawse pipe" to work in the wheelhouse on tugs in New York, the Erie Canal, the Great Lakes, the Atlantic Ocean and, briefly, Alaska. These days she is active in historic vessel restoration, but still occasionally steers tugs. She lives on the shores of the Hudson River in Kingston, NY.

Captain Coleen Quinn, Sandy Hook Pilot. Before joining the Pilots’ intense 5-year Apprenticeship Program in 2003, Captain Quinn sailed as second mate on ocean-going ships for three years after her 2000 graduation from the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point. A deputy pilot since 2008, she is one of 72 pilots, only two of whom are women, who are required to board and guide all major ships entering and leaving the Port of New York.

Commander Linda A. Sturgis. U. S, Coast Guard Commander Sturgis joined the Coast Guard in 1993 and served as a Deck Watch Officer on the Coast Guard Cutter Mellon, which was homeported in Seattle and conducted missions in Alaska, the Caribbean and the South Pacific. A marine safety expert, she is now head of the Prevention Department at Coast Guard Sector New York.

Marissa Strawbridge. A 2006 graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, Strawbridge has been sailing with American Maritime Officers since graduation. She has sailed aboard tankers and is currently second mate aboard MV SBX-1, a Dynamic Positioning vessel, for the Missile Defense Agency. This highly unusual vessel combines the world’s largest phased-array X-band radar system carried aboard a mobile, ocean-going semi-submersible oil platform.

Debra Tischler. A 2002 graduate of SUNY Maritime College, Tischler sailed with Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG) on tankers, car carriers and bulk carriers for 4.1/2 years as second and third mate. She came ashore in 2006 to work as an operations manager for Moran Towing, Inc. She currently works shoreside with OSG as a Commercial Operator, acting as liaison between voyage charterers and vessels.

Moderator:

Maritime journalist Betsy Frawley Haggerty. Haggerty is the former editor in chief of Offshore Magazine and a freelance writer, whose articles have appeared in many maritime periodicals, including Workboat, Professional Mariner and Soundings. She is a columnist for Boating on the Hudson, a lifelong sailor, president of the North River Historic, and a member of the board of directors of the Working Harbor Committee.