Acushnet Marine ElectricEST. 2008 · MA #ME-12740
Crew · Luis AlvesJourneyman · Refrigeration lead2014–present

Luis Alves — refrigeration lead since 2014.

Luis came across from Madeira in 1989 with his family, started his electrical training at Bristol Community College in 2008, and joined the shop as the second hand in 2014. He carries the Massachusetts Journeyman license #JE-22885, is Carel-pCO5+-certified, and is the native-Portuguese-speaker on the crew — useful in a fleet where roughly a third of the captains' first language is not English.

Licensure
MA Journeyman JE-22885, Carel certified
Joined
2014-06-09
Plates led
P-02, P-05; supports all
Lives in
Acushnet
Luis Alves, in a fish-hold with a headlamp, holding a Fluke 376 clamp meter and reading off an industrial wiring diagram printed on D-size paper.
Crew · Luis Alves on a hold-cooler service

§ 01 · How he got here

Luis emigrated from Funchal, Madeira to New Bedford in 1989 at age six. His father fished out of Pier 3 for fifteen years; his uncle still does. Luis went to New Bedford High, did a stint as a galley hand on a scalloper out of high school, and came ashore in 2008 to do the BCC electrical-technology associate's degree. He worked at Fish Ex Marine Refrigeration for three years before joining Acushnet in 2014.

§ 02 · What he does

Luis leads anything refrigeration-controls-related — Plate P-02 — and runs the alternator-end rebuild bench for P-05. He has done the Carel training in 2018 and the renewal in 2024; he is the one we call when an RSW board is doing something the manual didn't predict.

He is also the shop's Portuguese-speaker. About a third of the captains in the harbor have Portuguese as a first language — Madeiran, Azorean, or Cape Verdean — and a conversation in the captain's first language sometimes turns up details that English wouldn't have surfaced. Luis takes those calls.

§ 03 · Outside the shop

Luis coaches under-12 soccer at Brooklawn Park and is on the steering committee for the New Bedford Feast of the Blessed Sacrament — the largest Portuguese feast in North America, four days each August at Madeira Field. He wrote the April 2026 bulletin on RSW failure modes.

Cross-references: Luis leads P-02 (refrigeration) and P-05 (generators).

Sources

  1. Bristol Community College. Electrical technology program.
  2. Carel Industries. Carel certification training.
  3. Massachusetts DPS. Journeyman electrician licensee list.
  4. Feast of the Blessed Sacrament. New Bedford, August.
  5. Fish Ex Marine Refrigeration. Refrigeration trade.
  6. City of New Bedford. Brooklawn Park.