John is the captain of the Sheila McDevitt, a 179-meter (587-foot) cargo vessel that hauls dry bulk goods, including coal, phosphate, dry cement, grain, corn, rice, and sugar.

Speaking from his home in Burnet, Texas, John is modest about his responsibilities. “Overall management is really what I do for the most part,” John says of his job. “I do some navigation duties entering and leaving port also.”

EARLY WORK

Growing up in Palmetto, Florida, John spent a lot of time in and around the water. “From my earliest age, I was at home in the water,” he says. “I’d run out every morning and jump in the water and swim and boat and fish. I had rowboats and sailboats and canoes and everything else that would float.”

John’s father was a commercial fisherman, and his grandfather used to run freight schooners. John learned a lot about boating while going out on the water with his father. “Sometimes, it was scary,” he says. “I just got respect for the sea early on . . . boats being out in bad weather sometimes.”

After studying naval architecture at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, John realized he would rather be out on the water than indoors. John was accepted at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York, where he graduated in 1984.

MOST EXCITING PART OF YOUR WORK

“I just love the traveling,” John says. “I just like to be able to go to all the different places and see the life there. It’s not always very nice places, but it’s interesting just the same.”

MOST DEMANDING PART OF YOUR WORK

“[Making sure] that everything is ready, that the vessel is ready to discharge cargoes, that the machinery is in good condition.”

HOW DO YOU DEFINE GEOGRAPHY?

“I think of basically sea lanes, and how I get from one place in the world to the next by ship.”

GEO-CONNECTION

John says he always has to consider geographic features, including ocean currents and weather patterns, when he is planning safe routes for the Sheila McDevitt.

Traveling to places like China, East Africa, and even North Korea for his job, John has had to deal with many issues in human geography. “When I get into ports, I’m dealing with a lot of different cultures, different rules, different governments and things like that,” he says.

When John first became a captain, he used sextants and LORAN, a radio navigation system, to pinpoint where he was. “Now with GPS, it’s become very easy as far as open ocean navigation,” he says. “We know where we are all the time.”

SO, YOU WANT TO BE A . . . CREWMEMBER OR SHIP’S CAPTAIN

“If you are deck side or even if you go to the engineering side, the sciences are pretty important.”

GET INVOLVED

If you live by the water, take an introductory sailing or boating course.

John says you can familiarize yourself with navigation without using a lot of tools. “With a GPS receiver and latitude and longitude, you can actually pull out a chart or a map and start plotting positions,” he says, “That’s always good practice, or a good way to know if you have an interest in that or not.”