I don’t get it, are they the military or are they not? Aren’t the ships privately owned? Can you not be a ship captain without going to the Merchant Marine Academy?
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Think of it basically that commercial ships registered with the United States as their home are part of the United States Merchant Marine, as well as United States citizens who work on board ships.
Theoretically, they can be mobilized to move cargo for the Navy, but that hasn’t happened in a long enough time that everyone who was involved is either retired or dead. It’s also not realistic. Because of a few factors such as the Jones Act (which also is responsible for a large portion of the high cost of living in Alaska, Hawaii, and the territories), there aren’t many US-flagged ships anymore. Most either are owned by the Navy (see MSC below) or are for territorial waters, Great Lakes, or Gulf of Mexico. There are not as many Americans who work on board ships as there used to be, as well, since international shipping loves to hire Filipinos.
There is the Military Sealift Command. This is a fleet of Jones Act-compliant civilian-crewed ships that the Navy owns. These aren’t warships. Often, the only uniformed military person on board is a Navy supply officer with a government credit card who’s there to buy stuff that the ship will bring to an aircraft carrier or something like this.
In order to be a ship’s officer, you need a license and you need to start as a third mate or third assistant engineer before working your way up with experience and further qualifications to first mate/first assistant engineer and then to captain (or sometimes called master) or chief engineer. Deck officers and engine officers have totally separate career tracks. The typical way to become an officer is through an academy: the federal government operates the United States Merchant Marine Academy, and there are a few state ones, three part of the Texas A&M, State University of New York, California State University systems, as well as independent ones (still state schools) in Michigan, Maine, and Massachusetts. At these schools, you spend a few years getting the sea training, practical training, and classroom training to be either a mate or an officer, mixed in with coursework leading to a bachelor’s degree. Some of them have programs for people who already have a bachelor’s degree. If the Navy pays for your degree (everyone at the Merchant Marine Academy, some people at the others), you’re expected to spend five years working at MSC or a few other places, as well as five years on the Navy Reserve. The Merchant Marine Academy also gives the option of commissioning active-duty military equivalent to one of the big academies like West Point, usually commissioning into the Navy but they commission a few guys into other services every year as well.
Generally, approximately one third of the Merchant Marine Academy goes into shipping after they graduate, one third goes into active-duty military, and one third works shoreside as engineers at shipyards, defense contractors, and other things that the Navy considers acceptable shoreside jobs to fulfill the obligation from the Navy paying your degree. One niche career field that has a lot of USMMA guys is admiralty law: people go to law school, graduate, and work specifically in the law pertaining to ships and cargo.
It’s possible to become a ship’s officer without going to an academy, but the classroom requirements are more than they used to be and the degree from an academy (usually something like logistics or supply chain management, often called “maritime transportation,” for deck officers, something like engineering or engineering technology for engine officers) can open a lot of doors shoreside that you couldn’t get without a degree, so an academy is generally the best option for most people.
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