The World’s Youngest Master Mariner gCaptain Total Views: 978 September 6, 2009 We have received many great article submissions in gCaptain’s YOUblog section , the place where mariners get a chance to blog, but few posts have received the quick acclaim of this “news” article by first time participant Humorist . Enjoy… I n 2000 the Washington Tribune first broke the story of pets receiving credit cards. “Frustrated with an endless stream of solicitations” the newspaper tells us “Bob Jones angrily filled out an application for his dog Brandy, a toy poodle, and was shocked to find a shiny new Mastercard in his mailbox two weeks later”. Captain Benjamin Dover, clearly remembers the article despite being only 6 years old at the time. “If a dog could get a card then so could I” he recalls. And he did. By the age of ten he had used the card to buy a Boston Whaler, by 12 he had financed a 100 ton fishing boat and soon accumulated enough seatime to sit for a Coast Guard 100 Ton Master’s license. While Ben had experience with convoluted forms, from his dealings with Mastercard, the application for a Coast Guard license was significantly more complex. “I got most of the boxes filled-out ok and was able to do everything by mail, which I liked because I look young for my age.” says young Ben. “I did have trouble with the box titled ‘desired rank’ but my mom always says I have ‘Unlimited’ potential so that’s what I wrote down.” NMC Chief, Captain Dumass USCG, says that’s where the initial mistake was made. In an official statement he writes “An insidious compilation of events led to the misevaluation of Mr. Master’s application and subsequent misguidance by NMC staff the complexity of which is still being evaluated.” Further Web 2.0 based investigation by gCaptain reporters unravels the larger mystery. On a facebook tweet the evaluator handling Mr. Dover’s application admits “Well it was a application for Master and he wrote ‘Unlimited’, the mistake was clearly his.” In a later t