Public Employee Press

Pearl Gray of Marine Workers Local 2906
Woman at sea

By JANE LaTOUR

A summer trip to Annapolis planted a seed that grew into an exception — a woman thriving in a job done mainly by men.

Pearl Gray liked what she learned on a teenage visit to the U.S. Naval Academy and followed high school with four years at the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y. Only 1 percent of her class was female, and Gray is now the only woman mariner in the Dept. of Environmental Protection, whose vessels transport liquid sludge to dewatering plants.

At the academy, she studied calculus, physics, navigation and marine engineering as well as English and history. Her student days also included shipping out on oil tankers and container ships and interning at Philadelphia’s Vessel Traffic Control System.

After graduating in 2005, Gray went to California, joined the Masters, Mates and Pilots union and moved cargo at night until she got an engineering berth on an oil tanker. “The people were great, and there was another woman on board,” Gray said. “The pump man and an electrician on board taught me a lot. There are still nightmare stories out there for women, but I don’t have one.”

As a DEP Mate since August, Gray trained on all three city sludge vessels, and she pumped cargo on the Red Hook. Now she’s working 13- to 14-hour days as a dispatcher, scheduling crews, and coordinating plant needs with the boat schedules.

“There’s so much learning and adapting. I try to take the situations as they come, knowing that I have the skills to do the job,” she said.

Gray’s advice to other young women seeking to break out of the traditional mold: “If a woman wants to come into a male-dominated industry, she has to realize there will be challenges. You have to adapt and overcome. Behave appropriately and learn from your mistakes. I lead the way I like to be led.”

At DEP, the one woman mariner who preceded Gray, Jennifer King, was held in high esteem by former shipmates and fellow officers. “Many parallels exist between Pearl and Jennifer,” said Jon Bailey, president of DC 37’s Marine Workers Local 2906.