Welcome to Mike's Page, a personal archive of photographs taken during my years working as a merchant seaman. These images document life aboard working ships, the crews I sailed with, cargo operations, and the ports and shore visits that shaped more than 25 years at sea.
The archive spans 1989 to 2015 and includes photographs or ship references from the M/V Maersk Alabama, M/V Liberty Spirit, M/V Harriette, M/V Padre Island, M/V Westward Venture, M/V Maersk Alaska, S/S Major Stephen W. Pless, S/S Sgt. Matej Kocak, USNS Stalwart, USS Shasta (AE-33), and earlier port visits in the Philippines, along with stops in Salalah, Mombasa, Tarragona, Guangzhou, Bahía Blanca, Saipan, Panama, Crete, Italy, Torquay, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Key West, and more.
And yes, the white face powder in this photo was from Thai New Year, or at least that's the story I'm sticking with.
Browse the Archive
Explore the collection by ship or by destination. These internal links help visitors and search engines get to the strongest parts of the archive more quickly.
Ships and Service
- M/V Maersk Alabama — container ship photographs from port calls in Salalah, Oman and Mombasa, Kenya, 2009
- M/V Liberty Spirit — bulk carrier photographs from port calls in Tarragona, Guangzhou, and Bahía Blanca, 2008
- M/V Harriette — bridge, engine room, cargo work, crew, and Africa voyage photographs
- M/V Padre Island — dredging work, Gulf Coast operations, and life aboard ship
- M/V Westward Venture — Ro-Ro ship photographs and European port calls
- M/V Maersk Alaska — Container-RoRo ship reference tied to the January 2006 Cagliari, Sardinia port call
- S/S Major Stephen W. Pless — crew and helicopter deck photographs from Japan and northern Europe, 2003 to 2005
- S/S Sgt. Matej Kocak (T-AK-3005) — crew photographs and a port call in Torquay, England, July 2004
- USNS Stalwart — surveillance ship service, Key West, Panama, and interdiction-era images
- USS Shasta (AE-33) — fleet ammunition ship photographs from Navy service, 1989 to 1992
Destinations
- Crete, Cagliari, Sardinia, and Lithuania — Mediterranean and Baltic port calls, 2006
- Torquay, England — S/S Sgt. Matej Kocak port call in July 2004
- Denmark — Jutland countryside photographs from a S/S Major Stephen W. Pless port call, 2003–2005
- Saipan — cliffs, monuments, and island visits in the Northern Mariana Islands, 2003 to 2005
- Costa Rica and Ecuador — Pacific coast shore visits, 2000
- Panama and Key West — canal-area and Caribbean port photographs, late 1990s to 2002
- Florida Sunset — photograph from the deck of a merchant vessel off the Florida coast, 2000
- Philippines — early port-visit photographs, 1990
- California and New York — U.S. coastal and city photographs, early career
About This Archive
This is a personal photo archive documenting nearly two and a half decades of life as a merchant seaman — from 1989 to 2015. Over that span I sailed aboard cargo vessels, working ports across 16 countries on six continents. These photographs capture the ships, the crews, the ports, and the landscapes that made up daily life at sea during that era.
Merchant seaman life isn't well documented outside of official records. This archive exists to preserve a small slice of what it actually looked like — the engine rooms, the bridge watches, the cargo operations, the port towns, and the people who made the voyages work.
Ships
Ten vessels make up most of this archive:
- M/V Maersk Alabama — A U.S.-flagged dry cargo container ship built in 1998 and operated by Maersk Line, Limited under the U.S.-flag fleet. Originally named the Alva Maersk, she was renamed the Maersk Alabama in 2004. At 509 feet in length with a gross tonnage of 14,120, she carried food aid and general cargo on Indian Ocean and East African trade routes. In April 2009 she was hijacked by Somali pirates and her captain, Richard Phillips, was taken hostage — an event later depicted in a major motion picture. She was subsequently renamed MV Tygra and operated by Waterman Steamship Corporation. Photographed in 2009 during port calls in Salalah, Oman and Mombasa, Kenya.
- M/V Liberty Spirit (IMO 8500549) — A bulk carrier built in 1986 by Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea and affiliated with Liberty Maritime. Photographed in 2008 during port calls in Tarragona, Spain, Guangzhou, China, and Bahía Blanca, Argentina. She was decommissioned and scrapped around 2011 after approximately 25 years of service.
- M/V Harriette (IMO 7516993) — A US-flagged bulk carrier built in 1978 and operated by Sealift Inc. Photographed May to June 2007 during her final active period. Scrapped in Chittagong, Bangladesh in June 2011. In November 2009 the M/V Harriette made international news when pirates attacked her in the Indian Ocean with automatic weapons and RPGs — the ship's master executed successful evasive maneuvers and escaped without injuries.
- M/V Padre Island (IMO 8101783) — A US-flagged trailing-suction hopper dredger built in 1981 by Southern Shipbuilding Co. and operated by Great Lakes Dredge & Dock. At approximately 265 feet in length with a 52-foot beam, she uses trailing-arm suction pipes on both sides to dredge sediment from coastal waterways, with a capacity of 3,600 cubic yards per cut. Her primary work includes clearing the Galveston Channel and other critical Gulf Coast shipping lanes. Photographed January through April 2007 during operations around South Padre Island and Brownsville, Texas.
- M/V Westward Venture — A 790-foot Roll-on/Roll-off (Ro-Ro) trailership built in 1976 by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock. Originally operated by Totem Ocean Trailer Express (TOTE) on the Seattle–Anchorage route, carrying up to 386 trailers and 126 automobiles. Photographed July through December 2006 during port calls in Crete, Lithuania, and Denmark. Later scrapped around 2016.
- M/V Maersk Alaska (IMO 7361233) — A US-flagged Container-RoRo ship built in 1976 by Blohm and Voss in Hamburg, Germany as Axel Maersk. She later sailed as Adrian Maersk, then Sp5 Eric J. Gibson, before becoming Maersk Alaska in 1999. A self-sustaining vessel with 40-ton cranes, she carried about 1,730 TEU with 1,500 lane meters and later RoRo facilities, primarily serving US-Alaska routes. She was later sold to Ignazio Messina and renamed Jolly Nero; years later, under that name, the vessel was involved in the Port of Genoa pilot tower accident. Included here with the January 2006 Cagliari, Sardinia section.
- S/S Major Stephen W. Pless — A Sgt. Matej Kocak-class cargo ship, 821 feet in length, built in 1983 at Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. in Chester, Pennsylvania. Photographed circa 2003 to 2005 during port calls in Japan and northern Europe, including Denmark. The ship carried military helicopter deck cargo — Apaches, Hueys, and other aircraft — as part of her working life. Later operated by Military Sealift Command as USNS Maj. Stephen W. Pless (T-AK-3007), she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in March 2023 and arrived in Brownsville, Texas for scrapping in 2025. She is named for Major Stephen W. Pless, a U.S. Marine helicopter pilot and Medal of Honor recipient from the Vietnam War.
- S/S Sgt. Matej Kocak (T-AK-3005) — A Sgt. Matej Kocak-class cargo ship, 821 feet in length, built in 1983 at Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. in Chester, Pennsylvania. Later operated by Military Sealift Command as USNS Sgt. Matej Kocak (T-AK-3005). Named for Sergeant Matej Kocak, a U.S. Marine Corps Medal of Honor recipient from World War I. A sister ship to the S/S Major Stephen W. Pless, she shared the same class, length, and builder. Photographed in July 2004 during a port call in Torquay, England.
- USNS Stalwart (T-AGOS-1) — Lead ship of her class of Cold War ocean surveillance vessels, commissioned April 12, 1984 by the Military Sealift Command. Her primary mission was anti-submarine warfare using the SURTASS towed sonar array to track Soviet submarines, with data transmitted via satellite to shore bases. Displacing 2,275 tons with a crew of 36, she served until November 2002, then transferred to MARAD in 2004 and later used as a training vessel at SUNY Maritime College. Photographs include counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean and port visits to Key West and Panama.
- USS Shasta (AE-33) — A Kilauea-class fleet ammunition ship, 564 feet in length, built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi and commissioned February 26, 1972. Home-ported at Naval Weapons Station Concord, California, she resupplied US Navy vessels at sea with ordnance, fuel, and stores. Her service included Operation Desert Storm, Operation Earnest Will during the Iran–Iraq War, drug interdiction off Baja California, and PACEX 89. She also rescued 298 Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees in 1980–81. Decommissioned October 1, 1997 and transferred to Military Sealift Command as USNS Shasta, she was scrapped in Brownsville, Texas in 2013–2014. Photographed during my time aboard from 1989 to 1992.
Destinations
Port calls and shore visits across 16 countries are represented in the photographs, including:
- Tema, Ghana — Ghana's main deep-water port and one of West Africa's busiest cargo terminals. The M/V Harriette called here during her 2007 Africa voyage for cargo discharge operations. · map
- Chania, Crete — A Venetian harbor town on the northwest coast of Crete, one of the great maritime crossroads of the Mediterranean. The archive includes photographs from the harbor and the remote southern anchorage at Kalon Limenon. · map
- Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy — The capital of Sardinia and a Mediterranean port city with a hilltop Castello district, old harbor streets, and layers of Roman, medieval, and maritime history. The January 2006 Italy section includes the Auditorium Comunale di Cagliari and notes from the Maersk Alaska/Jolly Nero period. · map
- Klaipeda, Lithuania — Lithuania's only seaport, a centuries-old Baltic trading city where the M/V Westward Venture underwent dry dock work. Photographs capture the industrial waterfront and the historic old town nearby. · map
- Billund, Denmark — A small town in the flat Jutland countryside, photographed during time ashore while the ship worked the region. Denmark sits at the mouth of the Baltic, a natural waypoint for cargo traffic moving between the North Sea and Scandinavia. · map
- Torquay, England — A seaside resort town on the Devon coast in southwest England, known as the English Riviera. The S/S Sgt. Matej Kocak called here in July 2004, with photographs capturing crew, St Mary the Virgin Church, and the Hole in the Wall pub. · map
- Garapan, Saipan — The main town on Saipan and the center of island life in the Northern Mariana Islands. The surrounding area carries some of the most haunting WWII history in the Pacific — Banzai Cliff and Suicide Cliff mark sites from the 1944 Battle of Saipan, and Bird Island is a small coral outcrop that has become the island's most recognized landmark. · map
- Olongapo City, Philippines — The city immediately adjacent to U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay, which served as the main rest and recreation area for US personnel. Photographed during port visits in 1990, before the base closed in 1992. · map
- Panama City, Panama — The Pacific gateway to the Panama Canal, one of the world's most strategic maritime chokepoints. The canal cuts the continent in two, saving ships the long route around Cape Horn. · map
- Golfito, Costa Rica — A small port town tucked into a narrow gulf on Costa Rica's Pacific coast, once the headquarters of the United Fruit Company's banana export operations. The photographs capture rainforest and coastline from a shore visit here. · map
- Manta, Ecuador — Ecuador's busiest fishing port and a major Pacific cargo hub on the country's central coast. The photographs document local life and fishing boats from the surrounding area. · map
- New York — Photographs from Bear Mountain State Park in the Hudson Highlands and the Manhattan waterfront. New York Harbor was the busiest port in the Western Hemisphere for much of the twentieth century. · map
- Texas — South Padre Island & Brownsville — The southern tip of the Texas Gulf Coast, where the M/V Padre Island worked the Brownsville Ship Channel and surrounding Gulf waterways. South Padre Island is a narrow barrier island at the mouth of the Rio Grande. · map
- Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco — The iconic suspension bridge marking the entrance to San Francisco Bay, one of the great engineering landmarks of the American West and a defining sight for any ship arriving from the Pacific. · map
- Point Reyes Lighthouse, California — Perched on a fog-bound headland north of San Francisco, the Point Reyes Lighthouse has guided ships along the California coast since 1870. One of the foggiest and windiest spots on the Pacific Coast. · map
- Key West, Florida — The southernmost city in the continental United States, trailing into the Gulf of Mexico at the end of the Florida Keys. A U.S. Navy base and historic port, it served as a staging point for Caribbean interdiction operations aboard the USNS Stalwart. · map
- Salalah, Oman — A port city on the southern coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea, and one of the most important container transshipment hubs in the Middle East. The Port of Salalah handles cargo moving between Asia, Africa, and Europe. The Maersk Alabama called here in 2009. · map
- Mombasa, Kenya — Kenya's second largest city and the largest port on the East African coast, gateway to the interior of East Africa. The old town and harbor carry centuries of Swahili, Arab, and Portuguese maritime history. The Maersk Alabama called here in 2009. · map
- Tarragona, Spain — An ancient Roman port city on the Costa Daurada in Catalonia, built on a promontory above the Mediterranean. One of the great ports of Roman Hispania, with a well-preserved amphitheater, cathedral, and Roman walls still visible above the modern harbor. The Liberty Spirit called here in 2008. · map
- Guangzhou, China — The capital of Guangdong Province and one of China's largest cities, known in the West for centuries as Canton. A historic center of maritime trade and China's main gateway to the South China Sea, Guangzhou has been a global trading port since the Tang dynasty. The Liberty Spirit called here in 2008. · map
- Bahía Blanca, Argentina — A major deepwater port city in Buenos Aires Province on Argentina's Atlantic coast, and the country's most important grain and petroleum export terminal. The surrounding Pampas region feeds cargo traffic through the port from across the Argentine interior. The Liberty Spirit called here in 2008. · map