| From the desk of Cap'n Manny... |
*Profile of Cap'n Manny, Chihuahua Valley:
Contact Info:
Cap’n Manny Aschemeyer
The Outback Ranch
30623 Chihuahua Valley Road
Warner Springs, CA 92086
Tel: 951-767-3037; Fax: 951-767-3048
e-mail: outbackranch@hughes.net
website: http://www.captain-manny.com/
Born: Baltimore, Maryland
Age: 66
Position: Executive director, Marine Exchange of Southern California
Married to Floy Ann, three children, 10 grandchildren, and two great-grandsons
Hobbies: Completing the “Captains’ Crows Nest”, a tree house at his
ranch where some of his maritime memorabilia is kept – including
nautical charts, a ship’s wheel, a ship’s bell, wooden anchors, and a
display board containing over 100 rope knots.
Favorite Books : “Hawaii” and “Tales of the South Pacific” (both by James A. Michener)
Personal: Met his future wife Floy Ann in Orange County during one of
his ship calls at LA/LB Harbor in 1967 (she was a waitress at the time,
working two jobs to support her three children.) Their first date was
arranged by a former high school buddy who was stationed with the Air
Force in California at the time. Time spent together that first year
of courtship: about 17 hours (all during his port visits to LA/LB
Harbor, which were occurring every 45 – 50 days). They were married in
December of 1969, and Cap’n Manny adopted Floy Ann’s three children
shortly thereafter as his own. They now have ten grandchildren and two
great-grandsons….
Favorite voyage: A trip to Mombassa, Kenya 44 years ago that included
time off to take a “photo safari” through Tsavo National Park, with an
overnight stay at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro….
Education: Graduated with honors from the California Maritime Academy in 1963,
Bachelor’s degree in nautical sciences/marine transportation,
California Maritime Academy, Vallejo
1982-3: Maritime professional courses, Maritime Institute of Technology & Graduate Studies, Linthicum, Maryland
Professional
licence: Unlimited USCG Licence to sail as master (captain), 8th Issue
Steam & Motor Vessels, Any Gross Tons, Upon Oceans (current/active)
Career:
1960-9:
Midshipman for three years at California Maritime Academy, then aboard
US-flag merchant ships, as licensed deck officer, rising to master in
five years; sailed aboard break bulk freighters, passenger ships,
reefer vessels, missile-tracking ships, heavy-lift ships and other
special-project vessels on routes to Europe, Africa, the Middle East,
the South Pacific and Latin America
1969-71: California Maritime Academy, senior instructor, training ship licensed watch officer
1971 – 1973: Assistant district manager, traffic & operations – Grace/Prudential Lines
1973 – 1976: Operations manager, Pacific division for Prudential Lines
1976 – 1982: General Manager, Pacific southwest region for Prudential and Delta Lines
1982-4: Port captain/general manager, operations, Pacific South West, Crowley/Delta Lines
1984-93: Stevedoring Services of America, Head Office in Seattle .VP for marketing and customer services, Southern California
1993 – 2008: Executive director, Marine Exchange of Southern California
Awards:
Outstanding Midshipmen’s Service Award – California Maritime Academy Alumni Association
US Coast Guard Meritorious Team Commendation & Commandant’s Public Service Commendation, US Coast Guard
Stanley T. Olafson “Bronze Plaque” Award – Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
Maritime Industry Salute Award – International Seafarer’s Center for LA/LB Harbor
Maritimer of the Year Award – Propeller Club of LA/LB Harbour
Maritime Communicator of the Year Award – Harbor Association of Industry & Commerce
Mystic Order of OSPR Award – California Office of Spill Prevention and Response
Distinguished Alumni Award – California Maritime Academy & CMA Alumni Association
Distinguished Maritime Service Award and Medal – U.S. Maritime Administration
Commandant’s Distinguished Public Service Award and Medal – U.S. Coast Guard
*Los Angeles Times
- Sunday Profile
A lifetime of feeling the sea's allure….
Cap’n Manny has been a key fixture during the L.A.-Long Beach port complex's expansion.
By Ronald D. White
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 3, 2008
Call him Cap’n Manny. Everybody down on the waterfront does, even though Manny Aschemeyer was last at the helm of a ship in 1971. Officially, Aschemeyer is executive director of the Marine Exchange of Southern California, which tracks ship movements at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. But he is much more: historian, statistician, booster and news service. Next month, he'll be pulling up the gangplank after nearly five decades on or near the sea. Aschemeyer's maritime years provide a window on the modern evolution of shipping.
He still remembers the “photo safari” he took during a voyage that brought him to Mombassa, Kenya 44 years ago. One night, he recalls, there was brandy to be sipped with friends as Mt. Kilimanjaro's snowy peak shone like silver in the moonlight. "No merchant seaman gets to do that anymore. There's no time," Aschemeyer says -- because tight profit margins have led to ships that are much bigger and faster. Crew sizes have shrunk (some as few as 13), as has the time spent in port, which is now sometimes as short as 48 hours. When Aschemeyer was sailing, "The whole purpose was to go ashore and see something that you had never seen, and to experience something that you had never done." Nowadays, he says, "Everyone is either working or sleeping or eating aboard the ships, and shore leave is extremely limited."
Growing up in Baltimore, young Manny and his father, Fritz, could walk to any dock and usually get aboard a vessel for a tour. Fritz Aschemeyer had trained to be a seaman like his own dad, but wound up a painter and decorator of Lowes’ movie theaters after his family emigrated to America from Germany in 1926. Still, Fritz wanted his son to go to sea. He would invite seamen home for dinner to "hear their exotic tales of faraway places," Manny Aschemeyer says. "My family says I was brainwashed, and I guess I was. But I was able to make captain before my father died, and I'm very proud of that." Aschemeyer eventually became a “Master Mariner”, a status that meant he could command "any ship of any gross tons, upon any ocean." His Captain’s license is still current and hangs in his office for all to see.
A typical cargo vessel in those days was 450 feet long and carried about 8,000 tons of freight, but not a single cargo container. The cargo was on pallets or as separate items that had to be loaded piece by piece. It could take days (or often a week or more) to load and unload a vessel. The size of a crew back then could be as many as 50 and included plumbers, deck engineers, and carpenters, "because we had to maintain the ship ourselves," Aschemeyer says. A transpacific crossing took about three weeks. Today, that voyage takes about nine days in a ship that is nearly three times longer, twice as fast, and can carry 100,000 tons of cargo in more than 10,000 twenty-foot cargo containers. "To look at the difference now from where we have come, it is just phenomenal," Aschemeyer says.
His first stint as captain was aboard a ship owned by Calmar Steamship Corp., a subsidiary of Bethlehem Steel Corp., hauling steel from Baltimore and Philadelphia through the Panama Canal to West Coast ports. A watercolor painting of the vessel by his father hangs in Aschemeyer's office.
By 1969, Aschemeyer had married and begun three years as an instructor at his alma mater, the California Maritime Academy. That allowed him to go to sea three months a year on training cruises for the midshipmen. Aschemeyer moved into shore-side maritime management in 1971 during the last days of some of the most famous U.S. shipping lines. Dozens went bankrupt or were acquired by foreign lines, succumbing to cheaper “global competition”. ….. From about three dozen U.S.-flagged lines back then, only a handful remain today, and none is ranked among the top 10 in the world.
In 1993, Aschemeyer became executive director of the Marine Exchange, a nonprofit organization that helps clients around the globe keep track of their cargo. "I still get to play with ships all day, but I get to go home to my wife at night," he says. For years, the Marine Exchange mostly announced the arrivals and departures of ships from the busy ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. In 2007, the Marine Exchange monitored and facilitated 27,000 vessel transits on their arrivals and departures from LA/LB Harbor -- through its state-of-the-art Vessel Traffic Service (VTS), which it operates in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard (and which Aschemeyer helped to inaugurate in 1994).
"The Marine Exchange would not have the reputation it has in the maritime industry without him," says John Hanlin, managing director of Marsh Risk & Insurance Services, who is Chairman of the Marine Exchange’s Board of Directors.
But Aschemeyer is probably best known for his "Manny-Grams," or daily e-mails to a worldwide audience that cover every aspect of the maritime industry. "People complain because he sends so many, but then something happens and we're trying to figure it out. We call Manny and he says something like, 'Oh yeah, we sent you an e-mail on that two days ago.' So you never delete those messages," says Art Wong, a spokesman for the Port of Long Beach.
Aschemeyer will retire next month to a ranch east of Mt. Palomar in San Diego County. Although it is far from the water, he won't be entirely done with the sea. He will continue to serve as president of the International Seafarers Center of Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbor, which provides a friendly atmosphere where merchant seamen can relax, recreate, and call home or send e-mails. A mini-van service picks them up at the piers and shuttles them to the International Seafarers Center, as well as to local shopping centers and to restaurants, movie theatres, etc. Aschemeyer volunteers as a van driver several nights each month. "Once you are a seafarer, all others are your shipmates," Aschemeyer says. "If we can arrange for them make a phone call home to their families, or drive them to a store, then we have helped them significantly during their limited time in port."
ron.white@latimes.com
*Fairplay International Shipping Weekly
10 Apr 2008
The end of "Mannygrams?"
Captain Manny Aschemeyer’s email bulletins became legendary during the
2004 LA port congestion crisis. But now “Cap’n Manny” is aiming to hand
it over to his deputy...
by Martin Rushmere
A quirk of
fate has placed the most important US maritime gateway in California,
the edge-of-continent state where eccentric notions and weird behaviour
are lauded. Shipping, on the other hand deals with common sense and the
practical. Such eccentricity is not only frowned on but can be
downright dangerous.
Those cross-currents converge at the twin
ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, testing the resolve of
professionals such as Captain Manny Aschemeyer at the Southern
California Marine Exchange, the nerve center for the movement of 8,000
vessels a year through the two ports. He has headed the exchange for 15
years.
Opposing forces have clashed most strongly at the exchange
over environmental issues. “Pollution and the environment are a
problem,” he told Fairplay, “and it’s right they should be controlled.
People scream about the diesel from the trucks and the ships and the
noise. Now there is even sight pollution—because people say the cranes
are ugly. But there has to be a balance. “Where do the people think all
their cheap goods come from? There seems to be ignorance, and they don’t
realise it’s the ships bringing them in.”
At the same time, he
welcomed changes in the ports’ concern for the community: “Twenty-five
years ago the ports would have just said: ‘Shut up and sit down. What’s
good for the ports is good for you.’ So it’s good that there is greater
concern for the community. “Nonetheless, ports today are not getting
enough credit for what they are doing environmentally. They have made
enormous strides,” Aschemeyer said.
The exchange also has to cope
with the increasing demands of port security. “People still wonder
about getting back to ‘normal’ and pre-9/11 days. I tell them to forget
it. The situation now is the new normal,” he declared.
And always
in the background is the unceasing argument about the US Jones Act,
which requires use of US-built ships. “Every nation has cabotage, and I
don’t see why the US should be singled out for criticism,” he told
Fairplay. “We need a national merchant fleet, and the quality of the
mariners we produce is the best in the world – they are in demand
throughout the world. I am a firm supporter of the Jones Act.”
He
is less enthusiastic about dealing with federal bureaucrats: “We are
lucky to have such close, friendly relations with state and federal
authorities, particularly the Coast Guard, in Southern California. But
dealing with bureaucrats in Washington is difficult. They want to
protect their turf and tend to circle the wagons, and you have to be
extremely careful and diplomatic.”
Known throughout the industry
simply as “Cap’n Manny”, he has guided the Marine Exchange from a minor
clearing house of information to the only privately run vessel traffic
service in the US, partnered with the Coast Guard.
Aschemeyer
said he almost pities today’s seafarers: “All they do is push a few
buttons. It’s so boring. They don’t get to see the ports they put into,
and there is no real sense of fellowship. “My greatest sense of
satisfaction was navigating – shooting the Meridian Passage, marking the
chart and saying to the captain with absolute certainty: ‘That’s where
we are, Sir.’ I would love to be doing that sort of work again.”
As
the exchange’s executive director, he leapt into the national eye
during the 2004 congestion crisis, sending out daily bulletins on
delays, ships at anchor, time taken to unload and the number of dock
workers available. “It was pandemonium. I knew we were doing a good job
because everyone was upset with us,” he recalled. “Even the Pacific
Maritime Association [which represents the port employers] didn’t like
us giving details on dock worker numbers. But later they realised how
important it was, and they now publish it on their website.”
This
was the start of the now-indispensable ‘Mannygrams’ – the daily emails
from the exchange to thousands of subscribers around the world on every
maritime development affecting Southern California. “The lesson I have
learned is to be honest, fair, accurate and timely,” he told Fairplay.
“We might catch flak in the heat of the battle, but there is no doubt
that people appreciate it.”
This strength of purpose and fairness
applies to his daily life. A committed Christian, he and his wife Floy
Ann were part of a church ministry for about a decade that served
California’s prisons. “The state has got the whole criminal justice
system backwards. There are prisoners who should be paroled and people
out of jail who should be prisoners.” But there have been success
stories. “A drug addict and repeat criminal changed his life and became
the chaplain for Los Angeles county jails,” he said.
He is
stepping aside at the exchange, handing over to his deputy, Dick
McKenna, to take on a PR role. “We have never met many of our customers.
I am going out to give them a personal briefing on our role,”
Aschemeyer said. He is also acting as a maritime consultant for
international corporations.
That should allow more time to
indulge in his favorite pastime, reading history. “Right now I am deep
into 1421- The Year China Discovered America. It gives compelling
evidence about China’s fleet that sailed almost around the world,” he
said.
A maritime upbringing
Ports have been part of
Manny Aschemeyer’s life since his boyhood, when he toured ships in
Baltimore with his German father, who left to join relatives in the US
after the First World War. “He had never been able to finish his
maritime training and in a sense could not fulfill his destiny,” he told
Fairplay. “It just seemed natural that I would go to sea, and I never
had a hankering for any other life. My father would take me on the
ships, most of which were German of course, meeting the captains and
peering into every part of the vessel.
An honours graduate from
the California Maritime Academy, he served on a range of ships, rising
from third mate to master in five years. Steel and timber through the
Panama Canal were a large part of his sailing years.
“My worst
sailing experience was third mate on a reefer that ran hard aground in
the York River in Virginia. We were stuck for days, all the cargo had to
be taken off and it was a huge job to get us off. The captain got hung
out to dry, and although he was technically to blame, I don’t think it
was his fault. I vowed never to be on a ship that ran aground again –
and I never have.” The best moment? “A cargo to Mombasa in East Africa
in my 20s. Going on safari, sitting in the bush, glass of brandy in
hand, admiring Mount Kilimanjaro and wondering if life could get any
better.”
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*Long Beach PRESS-TELEGRAM
Marine Exchange Chief Sets Sail for Retirement
By Donna Littlejohn Staff Writer; donna.littlejohn@dailybreeze.com
Article Launched: 03/30/2008 09:25:54 PM PDT
LONG BEACH (CA) -- Capt. Manny Aschemeyer, executive director of the Southern California Marine Exchange, retires March 31. He played a key role in its development as a sophisticated, trusted, and respected state-of-the-art Maritime Information Center that tracks all vessels entering and exiting the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Hueneme, and San Diego.
Walking the docks in Baltimore in the late 1940s - his German immigrant father, Fritz Aschemeyer, by his side - young Manny Aschemeyer discovered his life's calling. "My father was a frustrated armchair sailor all his life," said Aschemeyer, 66. By the time Aschemeyer turned 10, his father, who worked as a professional painter and decorator, had persuaded his young son to follow the dream. Young Manny set his cap toward attending a maritime academy and going to sea. "My family said I was brainwashed, but I wanted to be a merchant marine captain," he said.
And so began Aschemeyer's long dance with the sea, which after nearly 50 years will come to a close today when he officially retires from his 15-year post as executive director of the Southern California Marine Exchange in San Pedro. Known simply as "Cap'n Manny" - he did, in fact, sail the seas as a ship captain, a milestone reached before his father died - Aschemeyer has become something of an institution among port personnel, shipping industry types and more than a few news reporters who count on his forthright answers and expertise about all things maritime.
Maritime Expert
"He's really ‘in the know’," said Port of Long Beach spokesman Art Wong, a former port reporter for the Press-Telegram. "A lot of people come and go in this industry, but Manny's been around a lot of years. He knows all the players. If you want to know something about the industry, Manny is the one to talk to." His sold-out retirement dinner on March 27th, with 360 guests (many from numerous states around the country), testified to Aschemeyer's popularity. "People who have anything to do with the ports really owe him a great debt," said maritime journalist Michael D. White, referring to his leading role in developing the Marine Exchange. "He's a good man."
His "Manny-Grams," daily e-mail maritime news roundups, are legendary. "When I send one out, the whole computer system groans and comes to a near stop at the Marine Exchange”, Aschemeyer joked.
From time to time, he has included a few personal notes for his wide-ranging readership, some of them reflecting his Christian faith. He sent out an urgent request for prayer, for example, a couple of years ago for his grandson who had been injured. "Some people are sometimes taken aback, but I'm a pretty strong Christian. I share (my faith) openly, but if someone takes offense, I back off," said Aschemeyer, the father of three children (one died at age 33 in an accident in 1992). He also has 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Days at sea
Aschemeyer's long career began after he graduated in 1963 from the California Maritime Academy near San Francisco. He soon got his sea legs, in days when crew members had time to play cards on deck and bond as they weathered storms and other dangers at sea. Cargo vessels carried about 8,000 tons of freight in those days, but held no cargo containers. It took days to unload the cargo and a crew of about 50 to maintain the ship.
Technology has changed much of that, with cargo containers carrying about 100,000 tons of cargo and automation cutting down on the need for so many crew members, who no longer have to perform so many of the hands-on tasks, such as navigation. Crews also don't get the extended shore leaves they did in Aschemeyer's seafaring days. The former captain recalls going on a six-day safari in Kenya more than four decades ago. Cargo is unloaded quickly, and ships in port are turned around and headed back out to sea within a day or two. "Nowadays, those guys are prisoners on their ships," he said. "Some of them have told me they feel that the ship is running them. They're mechanical robots (due to automation)."
He volunteers some of his time today in helping the International Seafarers’ Center at LA/LB Harbor, an organization that provides shuttle vans, an R&R Center, a store, and other services for crew members during their short hours in port. Aschemeyer drives vans as part of his volunteer service, and he serves as President of the ISC’s Board of Directors.
After Aschemeyer married in 1969, his career gravitated shore side. He taught for a while at his alma mater, Cal Maritime, and then worked at several major steamship lines as “Port Captain” and in various executive management positions. He was also vice president with a large stevedoring contractor and marine terminal operator for nearly 10 years. But it was in 1993, when he took over operations at the Marine Exchange, that Aschemeyer said he found his true career niche. "The Marine Exchange has been the best job of my career, so it's fitting to end my long career there," he said. "Everything else just prepared me for that."
Technology shift
When Aschemeyer and his associate, Cap’n Dick McKenna, arrived, ships were still tracked using handwritten 3-by-5 index cards slotted in a revolving turnstile. Today, the operation has expanded, becoming in essence what air traffic controllers are to airports. "We boot-strapped the Marine Exchange from a quiet, sleepy operation into a full-service vessel traffic and maritime information center, entirely computerized," he said. The center tracks cargo ships globally and has become an integral link in the massive goods movement chain. Since 9-11, port security has become an increasingly important part of what the Marine Exchange is called on to do.
And while Aschemeyer is stepping down - McKenna will take over as executive director of the exchange - he won't exactly disappear right away. He'll be coming in two to three days a week through December, as needed, to help in the transition, said Aschemeyer, who lives with his wife, Floy Ann, on a ranch in east San Diego County. He'll also work from home, focusing more on the marketing and sales aspects of the marine exchange service. "It's been a good ride for me, folks, and I've had a challenging, exciting and rewarding career,” Aschemeyer wrote in his farewell Manny-Gram last week. "God bless you all!!"
So no more Manny-Grams?
Not to worry. They'll still be around, but in a different format. Look for them to reappear in the next month or so on a new "Manny Gram Blog Page" that will be launched as part of the Marine Exchange Web site, www.mxsocal.org.
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