I'm not a Merchant Marine, but it's not a posh life, from what I have been told. It's like serving on a naval vessel, but you don't ever have the option of being assigned a shore berth; you're always at sea. You stand watches, monitor and maintain the ship and ship systems, oversee cargo loading, stowing, and unloading, and do the thousand other little chores needed to keep a merchant vessel running. If you are a merchant vessel in some waters, notable the east coast of Africa and the waters of southeast Asia, you are ripe for being captured by pirates. Yep, pirates. Merchant vessels are not armed nor are the crews allowed to carry firearms for ship/self defense. Pirate boats swarm a merchie and board her, taking the crew hostage (usually) for ransom or killing them outright (does happen more often than you think) so they can steal the ship, sell the cargo, and then either sell the ship for reuse (repainted and reflagged) or scrap or scuttle the ship in deep water. A merchie's defense is radar to enable them to detect a raid (hopefully allowing a local naval patrol to come to their aid) and fire hoses used to swamp the small boats pirates use to attack.

hey i have a question im new on here so i dunno how to post one how do i join the merchant navy ive looked everywere but i can only find applications for officers i just wanna be cabin crew plz tell me if u know to ur question i think most of wat he said is true lol tis a gd job tho lol anyway plz reply thnx