Midshipman-X, (aka Hope Hicks) Maritime Activist & Whistleblower

On September 28, 2021 Midshipman-X courageously published her account of the abuse she endured while serving as a cadet aboard a Maersk ship during the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy's Sea Year program. Her story was published on the Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy website and Instagram account and almost immediately went viral — soon appearing on the front pages of CNN, the Washington Post, and European newspapers.

Before Hope made the decision to come forward, she reached out to maritime attorney Ryan Melogy — a USMMA graduate and former merchant mariner who had been through his own fight against industry retaliation after reporting abuse at sea. Hope told Ryan she wanted share her story publicly, and that she wanted to “set off a bomb." He told her she had come to the right place. Ryan then guided Hope through every step of what came next: the polishing and publishing of her anonymous account, the ongoing public disclosures and media engagement, the federal investigations, meetings with investigators and federal prosecutors, civil litigation against Maersk, and the long fight to hold her assailant accountable.

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.

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."

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 sexually assaulted two years earlier. The 2nd woman, who has chosen to remain anonymous, is known as "Midshipman-Y."

Ryan represented both Midshipman-X and Midshipman-Y in their civil cases against Maersk and shepherded them through the parallel criminal investigations and U.S. Coast Guard Suspension & Revocation proceedings against their assailants — work he carries out through his maritime injury and abuse law firm Justice4Mariners.

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

The reforms reached well beyond the courtroom. Just five months after Hope's blog post made sexual assault at sea front-page news, the Safer Seas Act was introduced in Congress. By December 2022 — fifteen months after Hope first came forward — President Biden had signed it into law, the most significant maritime safety legislation in a generation, overhauling how sexual assault and harassment are reported, investigated, and prosecuted aboard U.S.-flag vessels. The law was the product of a campaign Hope and Ryan waged together over more than a year: Hope putting her name and her story in front of Congress, the press, and the public, and Ryan working the policy side — drafting language, briefing staffers, and pushing for the statutory reforms that became the strengthening of 46 U.S.C. §10104, the federal law governing the reporting of sexual misconduct at sea.

That same month, Hope was named to MarineLog's Top Women in Maritime list for the second year in a row.

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.

His permanent removal from the industry set a precedent that had eluded survivors of sexual violence at sea for generations. Hope proved that a senior ship’s officer working for one of the biggest shipping companies in the world could be named, charged, and forced out of the industry by a survivor willing to tell her story and a legal team willing to back her up.

In the years since, Hope has become an icon — not just for survivors of sexual violence at sea, but for every mariner who has ever been told that speaking up was futile.

The bomb Hope set off in 2021 is still detonating. The tidal wave she set in motion rolls on, and has not even crested.

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. The Wall Street Journal (September 22, 2024): Cargo Ships: Where Sexual Assault Is a Problem and Prosecution Rare: “It was absolutely worth coming forward, even though it was scary and difficult,” Hicks told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. “While significant progress has been made, there’s still years of work needed to ensure a just and safe maritime industry.”
3. 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.”
4. 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.
5. CNN (March 16, 2023): She accused her boss of rape. A year later, no resolution Video featuring Hope.
6. 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.”
7. 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.”
8. CNN (June 15, 2022): Two students sue shipping giant Maersk, alleging sexual assault and harassment
9. Washington Post (June 14, 2022): Cadets suing shipping company, alleging rape and harassment at sea
10. MarineLog (June 14, 2022): No longer anonymous, “Midshipman X” files suit against Maersk Line
11. 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).
12. 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).
13. CNN (October 11, 2021): 'I was trapped': Shipping giant investigates alleged rape of 19-year-old during federal training program
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. TradewindsNews: Better known as Midshipman X, Hope Hicks forced the US maritime industry to again confront its issues with sexual assault
17. 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.”
18. Le Monde: “In the very masculine world of the merchant navy, cases of harassment and sexual violence are slowly emerging”
19. Midshipman-X.org: Midshipman-X’s Official Website