From the MM&P Hiring Hall - 1 January 2026
Tom Mezzacappa, 1st Mate
At the MM&P hiring hall. Oakland, California
I’ve been shipping out since 2016, so almost 10 years.
Growing up I always wanted be kind of Navy, or something. But then the older I got I released that’s not for me, and discovered the maritime academies.
Once I went to sea for the first time, when I was 19, I fell in love with it. I was born and raised in San Diego, so I’ve been on the water my whole live. There’s a kind of the sense of serenity when you’re out there.
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Typically I ship out of L.A. I’m a little bit new in the union hall, I was working for the Navy as a contractor for 8 years. I made the jump to the hall somewhat recently.
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The last routes I’ve gone, we went Long Beach to Hawaii, Guam, Okinawa. And then Ningbo (China - Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan is the busiest port in the world in terms of cargo tonnage), Shanghai (China), and then back to Long Beach. A 35 day circle.
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I am in a [relationship] - we try the best we can. I’m more used to it because I’ve been doing this for awhile. I have had a few failed experiences. But we’re trying. She’s really respectful of my passion with this, but there is that potential for what’s going to happen later on. But everything at the moment is good.
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By the time you get off a ship you’re ready to be off, and ready to relax. I would say once I’m about 3 months on vacation I start getting ready to go back to work. Ready to start making money again. As much as I love being at sea, being on land is better, seeing family, friends. I spend a lot of time on the water, and as much as I love it I think people forget that we work to live, not live to work, especially on the water.
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My favorite thing, it’s a funny thing to say, is the calmness of it [being on the water] even though sometimes it’s not calm. Especially in today’s world, it’s a nice separation from all that’s going on.
The nature aspect - seeing the beauty of the water, the stars at night, the sunrises and sunsets. You see things that people don’t see at all.
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I have a few favorite ports. My top three would be: Honolulu, Noway - a few cities over there, and Yokohama in Japan.
If we’re in a domestic port we typically have ore time to go out a little bit, get some dinner, meet up with a friend, but when we’re overseas, especially in China, and Japan, it’s just so fast, so quick. And as a mate you’re so busy you don’t have time. The free time you do have, you sleep.
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When the ship arrives we tie the ship to the pier. Once it’s secure, as time is money, the cargo operations start almost immediately, especially on these container ships. The gantry cranes move fast. If you don’t pay attention they might take off several cargo hatches which you have to note for your logbook. You make sure everything is done safely, make sure people unhook the lashings.
People do make mistakes out there even though it’s an everyday job for a lot of people. My job is to making sure those mistakes don’t happen so no one gets hurt.
When they (the longshoreman) are on the ship they run the show, but if it comes to something that’s unsafe I think we could take that jurisdiction. But it’s like a harmonious work relationship with them. I’ve heard stories of people getting in arguments, work stopping, and that’s probably the hardest part of our job, to keep the peace between all working parties because everyone wants to go home at the end of the day.
Once the ship’s loaded, in a very simplified way, the Pilot comes on board, everyone man’s their stations. We get the lines from the tugs, we let go the shore lines, the tugs pull us away, and we go on our merry way.
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Mealtime in the mess hall, I feel like nowadays a lot of people don’t really hangout outside of working hours, so the mess hall is the only way people kind of talk and socialize. It’s important to be able to do that out there, to keep you sanity, a little bit.
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The Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate, when I first started sailing both those bridges were the first big bridges I went under. It’s interesting going under bridges. The shock and awe of just seeing the bridges from a different angle. It’s motivational in a way. It excites me that I’m someone capable of driving those ships in and out of port. It makes me proud of what I do.
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Sometimes you don’t want to leave a port, and you hate to see that early (departure) time.
There was one time in Okinawa, I was able to get off the ship for the first time. I thought I had like 6 hours to walk around and enjoy myself. And then after 2 hours I got a call, we’re leaving in an hour.
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When I was working with the Navy I worked on salvage tugs, that was a really cool line of work. We towed old Navy ships to be decommissioned. We were in port for long periods of time, which is quite rare today. Now you’re only in port for hours. But there were times that I would be in port for 4 months straight, and really get the chance to explore and see cities. That was probably my favorite ship I’ve worked on. I was on that class of ship for 5 years.
Different ballgame now, what I’m doing. But I remind myself that I’m out here to have a better life.
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I always joke that the Sirens are calling me back out to sea. It makes me wonder if that was always a sailor’s myth of how people would justify keeping going back to sea. I think you have got to be a little bit mad to go back to sea all the time. It’s not a normal career job that people do, being away from family, friends, everything you know.
There have been many times in my life while working where I’m out in the ocean, and I think this is the most random thing that I’m doing. How am I thousands of miles away from everything, in the middle of the ocean? It blows my mind that people still do this, and that I’m one of those people.
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Tom Mezzacappa, 1st Mate
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Photo: Robert Gumpert 27 October 2025