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In 1492, Columbus sailed for the New World. In the course of his many journeys, Columbus lost nine ships, all shipwrecked. By today's standards, he would probably be considered a very careless captain.

Today, navigation equipment is much better. To operate a ship transporting cargo and passengers, a person must hold a license issued by the United States Coast Guard.

Capt. Ann Sanborn says she started out as a third-deck officer and worked her way up to captain. She and Capt. Christopher McMahon are both graduates of the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA). They say that life at sea is challenging and exciting.

Sanborn says her adventures bring her to intriguing coastlines and islands that others have never heard of. In her many jaunts, she has been to Madagascar and the Arctic Circle. She also did Jacques Cousteau-caliber stuff on an oceanographic ship.

With water covering two-thirds of the Earth's surface, there is much to explore and tons of cargo to be carried from point A to B. In addition, vacationers are beginning to sail the seas, either on cruise lines or private yacht charters. All these boats that sail the seas have a licensed ship captain in charge.

A ship captain holds a very vital position. They are responsible for all decisions made on the ship, and all decisions have one common thread, says Sanborn. The safety of the passengers and crew comes first, as does the safety of the vessel.

A bad decision can compromise safety, and in severe cases, can hurt the environment. An example is the Exxon Valdez, the ship that ran aground 25 miles south of Valdez, Alaska, in 1989.

Sanborn says that Capt. Joseph Hazelwood made the right decision to avoid ice by taking an alternate route. However, when he left the bridge of the ship unmanned, he compromised the safety of the boat.

More than 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled into Prince William Sound, killing an estimated 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles and up to 22 killer whales.

Perhaps one of the most misunderstood cases of a captain's decision is the Titanic, says Sanborn. People think the captain made some bad choices. However, this was not the case. The captain was not trying to pick up speed, as some say, says Sanborn. She has done a lot of research on this particular shipwreck.

"If they were trying to pick up speed, they would have turned on all the boilers, but they hadn't. They were still testing them out, putting them online slowly," says Sanborn. She says captains are not only responsible for decisions on deck, such as navigation, but also those decisions below deck in the engine room.

"It was just one of those situations that with 20-20 hindsight, you can spot the error chain," says Sanborn. Ships were built very sturdy back then, she says. They were built to withstand hard collisions because ships were not equipped with radar or sonar devices. Ice was just another obstacle in those days.

"When the ice forced you to stop, you stopped," says Sanborn. On that particular night in 1912, there was no moon. Without radar, the moonlight would have been vital in spotting an iceberg. Captains know to look for ice blink (the glint of the moon on ice) and the phosphorous shine on the ocean. That shine, caused by plankton, would be visible one nautical mile away.

After speed trials were conducted, it was determined that the Titanic deck officers would not have seen the iceberg until its shape blotted out the stars, about 450 to 500 yards out. "That was much too late to do anything. At the speed she was going, it was a death blow," says Sanborn.

Today, these dangers can be avoided with modern equipment. However, nature can still throw some curveballs. "You feel very small on a ship," says Sanborn, who has experienced 55-foot seas as a captain. "You see the full force of nature." It is a hazardous environment and awe-inspiring at the same time, she says.

Capt. Lee Alexander does maritime research. He likes to remind people that "the sea is unforgiving." He says that life at sea has always been glamorized from the times of Ulysses to the present day.

Those seriously considering the profession need to know that the hours are long (24 hours per day, seven days a week), the work is hard and you will be separated from your family for months at a time.

"Just because you like boating doesn't mean you're going to enjoy a maritime career," he says. "I'll give you an analogy. It's one thing to like planting vegetables in your garden and another thing to be a farmer."

Those that truly know what they are in for will be rewarded. "Coming and leaving a port are exciting. Getting paid to 'drive' a ship was the neatest thing for me," says Alexander.

Professors at maritime institutions teach students the dangers of the sea by using simulators, much like flight simulators. "We create scenarios that force people to improve their skills. I find people do the best learning when they make mistakes," says Sanborn. The bonus with simulators is that they mimic real hazardous scenarios, but no one gets hurt.

Sanborn says small yachts seem too tiny for her, but only because she has been on boats 1,200 feet in length. However, many captains prefer the intimacy of the smaller water vessels, such as 89-foot and smaller sailboats and motor yachts.

There are captains with limited licenses who sail these boats for pleasure or for business uses, such as for chartered fishing trips.

Dave Sprinkle is a captain for a yacht chartering company in Washington. He started working on his family's fishing boats in Alaska at a young age and spent the last several years fishing commercially in the Bering Sea. Now, Sprinkle works in the charter industry.

In this job, Sprinkle oversees operations of the fleet, and often skippers yachts for clients who don't have enough experience to captain themselves. "It's exciting and fun. I get to cruise the San Juan Islands in Washington or the Canadian Gulf Islands. Some of our charters choose to take an extended trip to Alaska," says Sprinkle.

"A captain's license lets you work in many aspects of the marine industry," Sprinkle says, including charter yachts, commercial fishing boats, tugs, freighters, oil tankers and the merchant marines. Sprinkle adds that what you can do at sea is only limited by the size of the dream. There is a boat out there for everyone.