Facebook post meant to support gambling ship captain backfires

GALVESTON — What was apparently intended as a harmless Facebook post by the management of a gambling ship unleashed a storm of negative comments, foul language and threats, the company’s general manager said.

The company posted a request Monday asking for opinions on whether the Galveston-based Jacks or Better Casino yacht should fire its ship captain, David Kendrick, who was in command when the vessel struck a buoy April 15 and was damaged.

“HIRE OR FIRE?” the post read. “Jacks or Better Casino must make a decision before we reopen on April 28. Should we reinstate Captain David Kendrick or should we fire him?”

General manager Rocky Herrin said Kendrick was consulted about the post before it went up.

“We posted it with his approval, but the verbiage was not right,” Herrin said. “It backfired — being social media — the backfire being that people thought we’ve hung him out to dry.”

The owners decided Wednesday to keep Kendrick on the job.

After the crash, the posts on the Jacks or Better Facebook page were overwhelmingly in support of the captain. Management hoped to capitalize on the support by giving his backers a voice in the decision on whether to retain him, Herrin said.

“It wasn’t going to sway myself or the owners one way or the other,” he said. “It was just to show that everybody is behind the captain.”

The original Facebook post was replaced by a second post explaining why the first was taken down:

“The thread received hundreds of comments in less than 30 minutes, many of them denigrating the writer and management of JOB for posting it.

Condemnation was aimed personally at our employees who received telephonic hate threats against themselves and families.

“Dog poop was actually thrown on the GM’s front door. Further, there is talk of a boycott against JOB when we sail again on April 28th. JOB made the decision to delete the thread because of the vitriolic criticism and the animosity that followed.”

Some of the posts threatened family members of employees and were filled with vulgarities, Herrin said.

“We did not anticipate the misunderstanding that the thread would cause. For that, JOB offers its sincere apology; not for content, but for verbiage,” the company said in its post.

Herrin said that he checked names of those making the negative posts against names of passengers and found that none of the vitriolic critics had ever been aboard the Jacks or Better yacht.

He said earlier this week that the controversy had not hurt business.

The ship was fully booked, but bad weather could interfere with a cruise scheduled for Friday, the first since the crash.

Repairs to the 6-foot gash on the port side and some minor structural damage were being completed, Herrin said.

Casino gambling is illegal in Texas, but Jacks or Better cruises outside the 9-mile limit into federal waters where it becomes legal.