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International shipping giant Maersk suspended five crew members and launched an investigation in the wake of an explosive blog post by a federal service academy student who said she was raped in 2019 in one of the company ships when I was 19 years old.
The anonymous author of the post said she is a senior at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) in Kings Point, New York, who trains students to do Become commissioned officers in the armed forces and licensed Merchant Marine officers who work on ships that carry cargo and passengers around the world.
She wrote last month that she was the only woman on a Maersk ship during her Year at Sea, a mandatory program when students work on commercial vessels and experience what the school describes as their "first real chance at self-reliance."
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In her account of what happened, she said that after leaving a port in the Middle East, the engineers on the ship forced her and her fellow cadet, who is a male, to go down drink after drink of hard liquor one night, and that she woke up naked in her bed early the next morning and started to panic.
"There was blood on my sheets and I knew immediately that I had been raped," she wrote.
"I was a virgin and had been guarding me, and as soon as I woke up I could feel that I was very sore and I knew exactly what had happened."
She wrote that her supervisor on the ship, a senior engineer in his 60s and the second in command of her department, had been sexually harassing her in the weeks leading up to that night.
She said that while she couldn't remember the actual rape due to alcohol, she remembered this same man in her room, stripping, standing next to her, and forcing himself against her.
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According to her post, he called her hours after she had woken up and realized what happened and asked her to come to his room, saying they needed to talk. The woman said he went to her room and when she accused him of abusing her, he denied it, saying that he had only helped her get back to her room and "Whatever you think happened, you wouldn't tell the captain, Right? "She said that he proceeded to put his hand on her thigh, and that when she got up to leave he told her that no one would believe him.
"Back in my room, I decided the only thing I could do was hold out," he wrote in his post on the website of Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy, a nonprofit run by a USMMA graduate who said that he was a victim of and a witness to sexual harassment and abuse on a Maersk ship.
"No one was going to believe me, and putting up with it was the only option I felt I had. I was trapped."
For the next 50 days, she said that she had to continue working for the man who had raped her, seeing him every day.
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What she says prompted her to speak
While he confided in the other USMMA cadet on board about the alleged violation, he did not officially report it at the time.
But upon returning to campus and working as an advocate for victims, she learned of at least nine other students currently enrolled in the academy who said they had been raped during their year at sea.
This prompted her to speak out, she said, and her story quickly swept across industry and the federal government.
"She was sick from the number of young women being raped at sea," said her attorney Ryan Melogy, founder of the nonprofit that published her story.
"Nothing was being done about the problem. She wants to see real change and real responsibility for what happened to her and many others."
Her post has also garnered media attention and dozens of comments expressing support and sharing similar experiences from both men and women, including alumni, students, academy parents, and others in the maritime industry.
Denmark-based Maersk, which is the world's largest container shipping company, said in a statement released on Friday, as previously reported by Danish and industry media, that its US subsidiary is working closely collaboration with academia, unions representing officers and crew, and the U.S. government, and that five crew members would remain suspended until the investigation is completed.
"We are shocked and deeply saddened by what we have read. We take this situation seriously and are concerned about the allegations made in this anonymous publication that we have only recently learned of," said Bill Woodhour, CEO of Maersk Line, Limited, the US subsidiary of the company.
"We do our best to ensure that all of our workplace environments, including boats, are a safe and welcoming workplace, and we have initiated an investigation from start to finish."
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The U.S. Maritime Administration, which oversees the academy, said in a statement that it was aware of the allegation and that the USMMA superintendent forwarded the blog post to the Coast Guard Investigative Service the day after its publication. "We have zero tolerance for sexual assault and sexual harassment at the USMMA and in the maritime industry," the statement said. "As we determine the appropriate steps necessary to increase and ensure the safety of USMMA students, we are committed to listening and working closely with the entire USMMA community, including students, parents, and alumni."
A spokesperson for the agency also noted that the woman said in her post that she did not choose to report the alleged assault and said that academia and government officials would conduct a review of current requirements imposed on commercial vessels to ensure the safety of the students.
The Year at Sea has been previously suspended
USMMA's partnerships with shipping companies were previously under scrutiny in 2016, when Year at Sea was suspended amid reports of sexual assault and harassment.
It was reinstated the following year, after the school and the federal government promoted new rules for the program and a zero-tolerance policy for sexual assault and harassment.
The federal government said last year that reports of sexual assault on academy students had decreased in the 2018-2019 academic year, but that there were nine reports of sexual abuse during this time, as well as two reports of sexual harassment and one report. of retaliation.
The Department of Transportation also noted that the school's culture was still "heavily influenced by the higher proportion of males compared to females," which made some students feel like they had to act like "one of the kids," and said that there are still a number of reasons why victims are not comfortable reporting, including "fear of retaliation from peers, social stigmatization and ostracism."
The woman behind the blog post wrote that of more than 50 women in her senior class at the academy, she "has not spoken to a single one of those women who has told me that she has not been sexually harassed, sexually assaulted or degraded at some point during the last 3 years at the Academy or during the Year at Sea. Most of the people, and even the leaders of our school, do not seem to understand the seriousness of this problem, especially at sea. "
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Prior to Maersk's announcement of his investigation, the US Under Secretary for Transportation and the Acting Marine Administrator were co-authors of a letter posted on the school's website expressing the agency's "unwavering support" for the woman who came forward.
Congressman Tom Suozzi and US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand also issued a statement last week demanding an immediate investigation and saying they "will continue to work closely with the Academy of the Merchant Marine to implement systems that ensure timely and complete reporting."
Do you have any experience or information to share about the US Merchant Marine Academy or the maritime industry? Email us at watchdog@cnn.com.
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