Priming the pump

  “The hawsepipe method was dead, and we didn't know what to do about it,” said Capt. Russ Johnson, port captain for Dunlap Towing, Everett, Wash. “If we didn't keep the pump primed, we wouldn't have the officers we need for the future.” Speaking at the recent graduation ceremony for Pacific Maritime Institute's Workboat Academy in Seattle, Johnson was addressing a whole collection of pump primers, which included 15 men and one woman who had just completed the two-year mates program, representatives of the companies that sponsored them, and the instructors at PMI. PMI has been running the...