The US Coast Guard has taken the first step towards stopping an engineer from working at sea nearly 18 months after he was first accused of raping a teenage sea cadet on a Maersk cargo ship.
Officials launched the administrative case against the senior seafarer just days after Hope Hicks told TradeWinds that she was “sickened” at learning her alleged attacker had been able to continue working at sea.
Hicks first wrote about her experiences under the pseudonym Midshipman X in September 2021 and said she had been pressured into drinking alcohol before she was raped in her cabin by a man more than 40 years her senior.
The allegations were investigated and passed to prosecutors at the US Department of Justice in February 2022. Still, no decision has yet been taken on the case, according to her lawyer, Ryan Melogy.
But days after the US network CNN named the alleged attacker, the US Coast Guard started “suspension and revocation” action against him.
Cases are generally not started until a criminal case has concluded. But the Coast Guard has come under pressure to act after the first engineer reportedly returned to work at sea alongside women who were unaware of the allegations against him.
The case is understood to focus on the breach of alcohol rules, to avoid conflicting with the potential criminal case. Melogy said a one-year suspension was being sought.
The engineer, whose identity is known to TradeWinds, was among five people fired by Maersk after it investigated the claims. Two were sacked for failing to cooperate with the inquiry — believed to include the engineer — and three others for breaching the company’s alcohol policy.
But Melogy was told the man was later able to work for at least one other company at sea and has remained a member of a powerful shipping union.
A Coast Guard spokesman said: “The determination on whether to allow a mariner to continue working prior to suspension or revocation action against their credential is at the employer’s discretion.”
The man’s union, the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association, has been approached for comment.
The head of the union added his name to a letter to the US government last May committing to “systemic and cultural changes” in the industry to prevent incidents of sexual assault.
The letter said “ongoing reporting is needed to ensure that employers are held accountable and provide transparency so that mariners, labour, and the public can fully understand a problem that has too long been ignored”.
