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FEMALE DISPATCHERS: Welcome Voices!
As far back as ancient Greek mythology, it appears that there was much anxiety about the role of women in shipping. The Greek myth of the Sirens describes huge birds with the heads and voices of women, who with their irresistible songs lured sailors that came near them to their deaths on the rocks off the shores of Sicily. The only man to ever hear their songs and survive was the Greek hero Odysseus who had his men lash him to the mast of his ship to prevent him from jumping to his death. Even more recently there seems to have been a lingering superstition that women were bad luck on ships. Given these less than flattering perceptions of women in the nautical world, it is not surprising that their assimilation into the shipping business has taken time to evolve. However, in today's world women are now successfully occupying an increasing number of positions that were previously occupied only by men. One example of this is the number of female dispatchers now employed at Moran. Moran employs a qualified staff of dispatchers to cover each of its ports 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The dispatcher position plays a critical role in the ship docking and sailing operation. It is the dispatcher's responsibility to make certain that tugs and crews are where they need to be and at the time they are needed by Moran's customers. In order for each towage job to go smoothly, the dispatchers need to have a thorough knowledge of the mechanics of the docking and sailing process as well as the characteristics of the port including the locations of the various terminals and berths, the water depths and tides, and the tug running times to and from each location. Dispatchers also need to be able to communicate effectively with customers, shipping agents, ship captains, docking pilots, tug captains and crews, and port administrators. And because ship docking and sailing is a fluid activity, that is to say that often things don't go exactly as they are planned, dispatchers must handle stress and pressure well while staying organized and focused and thinking on their feet. The dispatcher position at Moran had typically been occupied only by males, but over the last decade Moran has added a number of women to the dispatch staff. The first was a veteran employee of Moran Towing of Virginia, Denise Piner, who moved from the Billing Department to the dispatch area. Moran then hired Tina Jordan at the Port of Baltimore, Kimberly Lemon at Charleston, South Carolina, Kathy Pritchard at Norfolk, Virginia, and Geraldine Garrison and O.Kay Jackson at Savannah, Georgia. These women have come from a variety of backgrounds, but they all share the common denominator of a love for the shipping business. Denise Piner. Denise began her career at Moran in the billing department of the Norfolk, Virginia division in 1973 and moved to the position of dispatcher approximately eight years ago. The transition to dispatcher was made somewhat easier for Denise due to the 20 years she spent in the billing department verifying ship tonnages, tug usage and running times. She already knew the terminals, piers, customers and their ships. More challenging was gaining the necessary operational knowledge such as how tide variations and weather conditions effect tug assignments. Denise keeps meticulous records about past ship voyages, including ship placement at the pier and which tugs were used. This enables her to offer prompt assistance in current situations. Maintaining her reputation of dependability and trust with everyone with whom she deals is particularly important to her. As she expresses it "We are a service business. Whatever the customer wants, we are here for them. What information I don't know, I find out. I never guess. Too much depends on it. Everything is so important". Tina Jordan. Tina was hired by the Baltimore division in 1993 as a Relief Dispatcher and Administrative Assistant to the Vice President and General Manager. Her current title is Operations Coordinator. She had previously been an Administrative Assistant for a construction/drilling company, so she had to learn marine operations from scratch. To help herself in the learning process, she converted a hand-written manually maintained book of customer agreements to an automated system, making it an enhanced tool for all of the dispatchers in Baltimore. In the process she quickly became familiar with the customers, their ships and calling patterns. She learned running times to and from all piers and terminals and how to read nautical charts. Although Tina admits that it was a lot to learn, she says that the tug crews were particularly helpful and patient. In her daily activities Tina extends this same patience not just back to the tug crews, but to customers, agents and everyone with whom she communicates while juggling the demands of the arrival and departure schedules each day. Tina's competitive spirit keeps her always anticipating and preparing for the unexpected so that she will be able to quickly respond to the varying needs of Moran's customers. Kimberly Lemon. Another newcomer to the marine industry was Kimberly Lemon, formerly in the food and beverage business. She was hired as a dispatcher by the Charleston, SC division in 1995. While initially somewhat intimidated by all of the nautical language that she had to learn--terms like bridle, forepeak, footmark, and bar time she quickly discovered that she loved the maritime business and continues to find it challenging and exciting. As she puts it "You must be flexible and go with the flow". Waking people up in the middle of the night takes some finesse. Like all of the dispatchers, Kimberly is in frequent contact with the crews, port agents, the port authority, the pilot station, ship captains, and customers. She stresses the importance of being able to deal with all kinds of personalities and maintain a sense of humor. Kathy Pritchard. Kathy came to Moran Towing of Virginia in June, 2000, first as a deckhand on the tugs and then as dispatcher. A veteran seaman, having spent ten years as a Bosun's Mate 2nd Class in the Navy stationed in Norfolk Virginia, she was well equipped to transfer her knowledge of the sea and the port to Moran's dispatch operation. She has developed good relationships with the various local agents in Norfolk and now is comfortable with the administrative side of the business as well as the operational side. She said that the most important thing that she had to learn about dispatching was how to juggle numerous tasks at once. Frequently everything can bunch together. Kathy said that as a dispatcher and during her time on the boats, her gender has never been a factor in the way she was treated. Kathy works the weekend evening shift, which enables her to pursue a degree in business administration full time during the week days. Geraldine Garrison. Prior to joining Moran 4 years ago, Geraldine worked for 12 years as a school teacher in the Savannah school system. But living near the coast and seeing the big ships coming and going from the port spurred an interest in becoming involved in the shipping business. Geraldine said that she had to learn a lot in order to be a dispatcher but that the tug crews and others that she works with are like a big family and are always very helpful. Geraldine was the first woman to work the weekend night shift at Savannah. She says that now that she is familiar with dispatching, she enjoys the work and the people that she deals with very much. O. Kay Jackson. O. Kay came to Moran's division in Savannah in the summer of 2000. She first became acquainted with Moran when she came to Moran's pier to shoot a photograph of a ship for an article she was doing for the local newspaper. In addition to her years of covering port activities as a journalist, her hands on experience comes from the eight years that she spent as a dispatcher for the Savannah Bar Pilots. In that capacity she had to be aware of everything that moved on the river. O. Kay said that being a dispatcher requires a strong sense of self, particularly when you are working the midnight shift alone, which is what she does. She says it sometimes takes some cajoling in order to get people to do what needs to be done in the middle of the night. She said that it is a tremendous amount of work to learn to dispatch, but O. Kay believes hard work is a virtue. And because she sees the tugboat as the ultimate "hard-worker" she says this may explain her deep affection for tugboats. These six females are familiar voices to the shipping people in the ports they serve. So at Moran, when a female voice is heard on the radio or the telephone, rather than being an unwanted voice like those of the Sirens of Greek mythology, it is a welcomed voice, offering assurance that all steps have been taken to insure a safe and efficient operation for all parties involved in the ship docking or sailing operation. |
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50 Locust Avenue | New Canaan, CT 06840-4737 USA | Tel: 203.442.2800 |
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