On September 28, 2021 Midshipman-X courageously published her horrific account of the sexual abuse she endured while serving as a cadet aboard a Maersk ship during the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s Sea Year program. {Read Her Blog Post Here}

Hope’s incredible bravery set off a tidal wave of change around maritime safety issues, and laid bare the rampant problems of sexual assault and harassment in the global maritime shipping industry. The tidal wave she set in motion rolls on, and has not even crested.

In December 2021 MarineLog.com named Midshipman-X to the list of “Top Women in Maritime 2021,” and wrote that “According to those who nominated her, Midshipman X has led the way in making shipping safer for all male and female mariners.” In December of 2022 Hope was once again named in MarineLog’s Top Women in Maritime Issue for the 2nd year in a row.

On June 14, 2022, 8 1/2 months after she published her anonymous blog post and 4 days before her graduation from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Midshipman-X publicly revealed her identity as Hope Hicks in a lawsuit filed against Maersk Line, Limited.

Hope was joined in her lawsuit by a 2nd USMMA student who had been brutally sexually harassed and subjected to a pattern of unwanted sexual touching aboard the same Maersk ship (the M/V Alliance Fairfax) where Hope was raped two years earlier. The 2nd woman, who has chosen to remain anonymous, is known as “Midshipman-Y.”

In November of 2022 Hope successfully settled her civil case against Maersk in a confidential resolution of her claims.

In August of 2023 Hope’s alleged rapist Edgar Sison was finally charged with sexual assault by the U.S. Coast Guard via its Suspension & Revocation (S&R) process. Sison subsequently voluntarily surrendered his merchant mariner’s license to avoid a trial and was permanently banned from working aboard American commercial vessels.

Both Midshipman-X and Midshipman-Y were represented in their lawsuits against Maersk and in their criminal and administrative Suspension & Revocation cases against their assailants by attorney J. Ryan Melogy of New York law firm Maritime Legal Solutions, PLLC.

Links to stories about Midshipman-X:

1. The Midshipman-X Blog Post that Started it All (September 28, 2021): I Was a 19-Year-Old Virgin When I Was Raped by a 60+ Year-Old 1st Engineer Aboard a Maersk Ship During Sea Year. I Know Several Other Current USMMA Students Who Were Also Raped During Sea Year.

2. CNN (August 25, 2023): A mariner accused of raping college student loses ability to work at sea, but escapes criminal charges. “In a high-profile case that rocked the commercial shipping industry, a sailor accused of raping a student from the US Merchant Marine Academy has agreed to surrender his credential to work on ships, but he will not be criminally prosecuted.”

3. CNN (March 22, 2023): The Coast Guard renewed a mariner’s ability to work at sea after he was accused of rape. Now, the agency is trying to keep him off ships 1.5 years after Hope Hicks told her story to the CGIS, and one day after her interview aired on CNN, her rapist was charged with an alcohol violation by the U.S. Coast Guard.

4. CNN (March 16, 2023): She accused her boss of rape. A year later, no resolution Video featuring Hope.

5. CNN (March 16, 2023): Failed oversight, lax punishments: How the Coast Guard has allowed sexual assault at sea to go unchecked: “Hicks didn’t know it at the time, but her encounter with Sison would launch what some in the shipping industry have likened to a “Maritime Me Too” moment and shine a critical spotlight on the one agency with the most power to do something about it: the United States Coast Guard.”

6. Washington Post (November 18, 2022): Shipping line Maersk, federal cadet resolve sex assault lawsuit. The allegations shook the industry and led the Transportation Department to pause an at-sea training program. “It is important to me that my case has brought greater awareness of the issue of sexual assault and harassment at sea,” Hicks said in a statement Friday. “The leadership of MLL has expressed the need for change. The changes that MLL has proposed are an important first step, but there is still a lot of work to be done in the maritime industry.”

7. CNN (June 15, 2022): Two students sue shipping giant Maersk, alleging sexual assault and harassment

8. Washington Post (June 14, 2022): Cadets suing shipping company, alleging rape and harassment at sea

9. MarineLog (June 14, 2022): No longer anonymous, “Midshipman X” files suit against Maersk Line

10. Washington Post (October 14, 2021): A Merchant Marine Academy Cadet Says She Was Raped at Sea. Her Story Has Washington Looking for Answers “I believe the academy fails everyone,” the midshipman [Hope} said. “They throw us out into a situation where we are the bottom of the bottom and we’re made to feel like it’s normal to be treated the way we are treated.” (Hope’s first and only interview until she went public with her identity on June 14, 2022).

11. gCaptain (October 10, 2021): Rape At Sea – An Open Letter To USMMA Midshipman X (Written and published by John Konrad 10 days after Hope published her blog post, this piece poured gasoline on the already smoldering fire and brought the Midshipman-X story to the consciousness of the entire U.S. maritime industry).

12.  CNN (October 11, 2021): 'I was trapped': Shipping giant investigates alleged rape of 19-year-old during federal training program

13. MLAA (November 1, 2021): Maritime Crusader Senator Maria Cantwell & 5 Powerful Congressmen Call Maritime Industry “Toxic,” Demand Firing of USMMA Leader Jack Buono, & Demand Suspension of Cadet Commercial Shipping. This powerful letter led to the USMMA Sea Year program shutting down for the 2nd time in 5 years and led to the firing of USMMA Superintendent Jack Buono.

14. Statement from Midshipman-X (November 3, 2021): Suspending Sea Year will not fix the maritime industry’s toxic culture, and we should not surrender the ships of the U.S. Merchant Marine to sexual predators.

15. TradewindsNews: Better known as Midshipman X, Hope Hicks forced the US maritime industry to again confront its issues with sexual assault

16. El Pais: “Sexual harassment of sailors sees the light: After decades of silence about the abuses of shipping company crew members, two victims have gone to court in the United States.”

17. Le Monde: “In the very masculine world of the merchant navy, cases of harassment and sexual violence are slowly emerging”

18. Midshipman-X.org: Midshipman-X’s Official Website