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Chief Steward Chris Greene makes a variety of meals for the crew three times a day.
The MCP Boat Blog is presented by the Mason County Historical Society and its Port of Ludington Maritime Museum.
By Rob Alway
Editor’s note: For the past several years, I have made it a personal mission to tell the stories of the Great Lakes maritime industry and, especially, the people who work aboard its vessels. As someone who has spent much of my life watching, photographing and studying these ships, I believe their stories deserve to be told.
Documenting the industry is important for preserving its history, but it is equally important for its future. Great Lakes shipping plays a vital role in our nation’s economy, and its continued success depends on attracting new generations of skilled mariners.
Recently, I spent five days aboard the SS Wilfred Sykes, a 1949 steam-powered freighter operated by Central Marine Logistics. This series explores the ship, the work it performs and, most importantly, the people who keep it sailing.
ABOARD THE SS WILFRED SYKES — Long before Christopher Greene became the chef responsible for feeding the crew of the Wilfred Sykes, his culinary career took him from Ohio to Rhode Island, Florida, the Caribbean, Key West and eventually northern Michigan.
Today, Greene serves as Chief Steward aboard the Sykes, an officer-ranked position within the ship’s crew. He has spent roughly two decades sailing the Great Lakes and the past 16 years with Central Marine Logistics, which operates the Wilfred Sykes.
The route was anything but direct. But for Greene, it eventually led to the galley aboard one of the Great Lakes’ most distinctive freighters.
Crew members eat a meal in the crew galley.
And that is where he intends to finish his career.
“I plan to finish out my rodeo and retire here,” Greene said.
Greene, who lives in Alpena, grew up in the Toledo, Ohio, area. He began cooking before graduating from high school. While many of his friends left for college, Greene began traveling and working his way through the restaurant business.
A chef at a country club encouraged him to pursue culinary arts professionally. Greene eventually attended Johnson & Wales College (now Johnson & Wales University) in Rhode Island, then studied hotel and restaurant management at Florida International University. His career took him into Hyatt Regency hotels and resorts, including work in south Florida and the Caribbean.
Eventually he left the corporate hotel world for private restaurants, including Louie’s Backyard in Key West. He later returned to the Midwest, working at a French restaurant in Toledo and spending two seasons on Mackinac Island before settling in Alpena.
It was in Alpena that two friends helped point his career in an entirely different direction.
Cooking burgers for lunch.
They owned a meat market that supplied groceries to Great Lakes vessels and suggested Greene’s skills as a chef could translate well to working aboard a freighter.
“They were telling me, ‘You’re such a great cook. You could go and work on these boats and make some good money, and it’s a good job,’” Greene recalled.
So he tried it.
“And I loved it.”
Greene began sailing around 2006. His first vessel was the Fred R. White Jr., where he worked under Capt. Ralph Yannick. Greene credits Yannick with helping steer him toward becoming a steward. He then spent several years moving between vessels through the union hall before landing with Central Marine Logistics.
Sixteen years later, the Wilfred Sykes is home.
“She’s probably the prettiest boat on the lakes,” Greene said. “I’ve had the best captains, and I love my galley. It’s a great galley.”
Greene makes a variety of foods, but much of the younger crew prefers meals from the fryer.
Life in the galley
Aboard a Great Lakes freighter, the galley operates on the ship’s schedule, not the other way around.
For Greene, the day begins around 5 a.m.
“It’s time to make the donuts,” he joked.
Breakfast comes first. Then attention immediately turns to lunch, followed by preparation for dinner. When the vessel is sailing, that rhythm continues seven days a week.
As Chief Steward, Greene holds an officer-ranked position aboard the vessel. He is the Sykes’ chef, responsible for the galley and for preparing the meals that keep the crew fed throughout the vessel’s operating day.
Cooking aboard a freighter also requires understanding the people being fed.
Greene said years of experience have taught him to read the crew and learn their preferences. The relationship between the Chief Steward and the crew is an important one aboard a vessel where the same people work, eat and live together for weeks or months at a time.
“We’re all one big family out here,” he said. “We all seem to have a good time, teasing each other or giving each other a hard time. But that’s sailor life.”
Greene’s culinary background is considerably broader than the stereotypical image of shipboard cooking.
Italian food was an early specialty, but his interests expanded over the years to Cajun and New Orleans cuisine, Caribbean dishes, Mexican food and traditional American meals.
The challenge, he said, is adapting that experience to changing crews.
Greene remembers an earlier Sykes crew that enthusiastically ate nearly anything he prepared. Today’s crew is younger, and tastes have changed.
There are times, he joked, when the younger sailors would be perfectly happy with chicken nuggets, pizza and burgers.
Greene has other ideas.
“I try,” he said of broadening their tastes. “They’re all good kids, and they’re going to grow up one day.”
Greene’s crew appreciates his culinary skills.
“Any sailor will tell you that the cook can make or break a crew,” said Capt. Jason Cracraft, master of the Sykes. “We are blessed to have Chris onboard and his food never disappoints.”
Naturally, the crew loves to tease their chief steward.
“It’s our love language,” one of the crew members said with a smile after giving Greene a hard time about the food. “He’s the best, though.”
“Know Your Ships” magazines spread out in the officers’ mess.
A changing Great Lakes fleet
After two decades aboard Great Lakes vessels, Greene has also watched the industry change around him.
He worries about the future of the profession and the shrinking number of major fleets operating on the lakes. At the same time, he sees younger sailors entering the industry.
Keeping them on the Great Lakes may be another matter.
Greene frequently talks with maritime academy cadets who train aboard the Sykes. Many, he said, ultimately plan to pursue careers on the oceans rather than remain on the Great Lakes.
“I’m seeing a younger group of people coming in, but I’m also seeing a lot of people going to the seaside rather than the Great Lakes,” Greene said. “That’s the thing that worries me the most.”
It is another reminder that the future of the Great Lakes merchant marine depends not only on ships, cargoes and companies, but on finding people willing to make a career of life aboard them.
The toughest part of sailing
For Greene, the hardest part of the profession has never been getting up at 5 a.m. to prepare breakfast.
It is being away from home.
For much of his career, Greene said he routinely sailed stretches of roughly 100 days, followed by about a month and a half ashore. With about seven years remaining before he expects to retire, he plans to begin shortening those long stretches aboard ship so he can spend more time at home.
“The toughest thing about sailing is having a relationship,” he said. “That’s the biggest test of them all.”
It is a part of Great Lakes shipping rarely seen from shore.
People watch the freighters pass beneath the Mackinac Bridge, through the Soo Locks or along the Lake Michigan shoreline. They photograph them entering harbors and follow their movements across the lakes. What is less visible is the life taking place aboard — the long stretches away from families, the seven-day workweeks and the routines required to keep a vessel and its crew operating.
Greene compares parts of that life to military service, particularly the strain long absences can place on relationships.
“People don’t realize how tough it is to be a merchant marine,” he said.
For Greene, though, the career that began in restaurant kitchens and eventually brought him aboard Great Lakes freighters is one he has no intention of abandoning before retirement.
And aboard the Wilfred Sykes, each day still starts the same way.
Around 5 a.m., the lights come on in the galley.
It’s time to make the donuts.
Tomorrow: Aboard the Wilfred Sykes: Part 6. At 22, AB Crawford finds his future in the Great Lakes’ past
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