BLOG 18 - FIRST INTERNATIONAL PORTS

21+

Sorry, the narcissist in me prevailed, hence my 21 year old CDC photograph. It is in total contradiction to my normal persona, which normally shuns social media.

My training ground, the Chennai Perumai, starts to evolve in this and the following narratives.

Chapter 3

It was during this voyage (around Cape Agulhas) that I crossed the Equator for the first time, while southbound and back again, northbound.

At that time, we had to go around the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa, as the Suez Canal was closed due fighting between the Egyptians and Israelites. Cape Agulhas is at the southernmost tip of South Africa and is at the dividing line between the colder Atlantic Ocean and the warmer Indian Ocean. The Cape of Good Hope, previously known as Cape of Storms, lies slightly north west of Cape Agulhas and is mostly rough.

My first experience of rough seas was in this area, waking up to the ship rolling and pitching heavily. The cargo also being heavy (iron ore), the rolling was not gentle, known in sea parlance as ‘stiff’. To my surprise, I did not feel seasick. I never felt seasick during my entire sea career, however bad the storm.

We took on bunkers (fuel oil, diesel oil and lubricating oil are referred to as bunkers) at Las Palmas.

First Impressions : Las Palmas Situated in the Canary Islands belonging to Spain. Beautiful island, beautiful beaches, beautiful people. After being at sea for more than 25 days, I welcomed the chance to step ashore on this island. In 1970, Las Palmas was a small, beautiful and clean town, with lovely beaches where a lot of people gathered in their beachwear. Not too many shops, a few restaurants and a post office.

Beach at Las Palmas

I came across my first wall against being a total vegetarian (apart from eggs), where I could not order anything on the menu, as they were all either pork or fish or beef or meat. But the waitresses were very kind and made some sandwiches, with tomatoes, cucumber and cheese. This war between continuing to remain a vegetarian (at sea), as opposed to joining and swimming with the tide of non-vegetarians, was something I had to contend with for my entire sea career. But I stood steadfast in my principle to remain a vegetarian, in spite of the number of times the cooks on board could not make even one vegetarian dish.

The old adage that "Wherever you go in the world, you will find an Indian residing there" was true of Las Palmas also. There were three shops run by Gujarati families. The crew, who were past masters of the Romania run, bought quite a few fake Rolex watches, parasols, ladies scarves and nylon stockings. I was a little surprised, as I knew that Gujarati women do not wear stockings or scarves. When I asked those in the know, I was told these items fetched very high prices in the black market in Romania.

Today, the Canary Islands is a retirement home for many Britons and Germans, as they find it cheaper than their own countries.

SISCO, as a company, prided itself on the quality of food served on the table and I had the benefit of such quality for most of the 6 years I spent with SISCO.

Being an Indian registered ship, the crew and officers were from India. The officers were from all over India. In stark contrast, the deck crew were mostly from Gujarat, the catering staff were from Goa and the Engine crew (Motormen) were from Tamil Nadu.

Gujarati crew were from the ancestral fishermen folk and were used to sea life. One part of the crew were the Able Bodied seamen (also from Gujarat), who kept watch on the Bridge, along with the Duty Officer. They were also called ‘Sukhanis’ and were, for the most part, out on the Bridge wing, keeping watch and battling the elements – the cold, the fog, the bad weather. And then the Duty Officer would be alerted to the presence of another vessel in the vicinity by the reassuring call of “Saab, Bhatti diktha hai” (“Sir, I see a light”) followed by another call of the colour of the light and its direction. They were mostly grizzled old veterans but with the keenest of eyes, keener than the Duty Officer’s. Then the Duty Officer homes in on this light, plots its course and takes evasive measures – as per Rules laid down, also known as Rules of the Road – in the event of the vessel being very close.

We passed through the Straits of Gibraltar, the famed Rock of Gibraltar being just that, a massive rock. But its strategic importance from a naval standpoint cannot be refuted as, when properly fortified, it can shut off naval fleets from the Mediterranean and Black Sea. (Something akin to the ‘Guns of Navaronne’). Which, I suppose, is the reason why Britain is refusing to return the island to Spain, although it is surrounded by Spain. Later, during my career, I had occasion to fly in and land on the rock, on a small airstrip carved out of the rock. I had to join ship at Algeciras in Spain, so I simply drove across the causeway connecting Gibraltar and Spain.

We then headed towards Romania and crossed the Aegean Sea and the Bosphorus Straits before entering the Black Sea. As we cross the Bosphorus, we become part of history, where East meets West, at Turkey. We cross the relatively newly named (about a hundred years ago) city of Istanbul. Previous to that it was called Constantinople, in honour of Emperor Constantine of Rome, who shifted his capital to Constantinople.

Two of the long standing empires ruled most of Europe and quite a swathe of Asia from here, the empires being the Byzantium and Ottoman Empires. The Muslim world took its spiritual guidance from the Caliphs of the Ottoman Empire, which remains the case, in pockets, even today.

India still remembers, with horror, the ‘Moplah’ genocide of 1921, which was recorded as the Khilafat movement, a vague link to an ideology of the Turkish Caliphate. Tens of thousands were slaughtered in the Malabar region, while an entire nation stood idly by and the British administration turned a blind eye. In sheer terms of numbers, it beat the Jallianwalah Bagh massacre, all for a remote allegiance to a failed Caliphate.

A massive bridge connecting one side to the other was in the works, expecting completion in 2 to 3 years. The standout bit of scenery was the Blue Mosque, so massive that we could see fine details from afar. I promised myself that, one day, I would come and visit this impressive Mosque. I made good that promise more than 40 years later.

The Blue Mosque

After this scintillating sight, we proceeded into the Black Sea to Romania and berthed at Constantza for discharge.

First Impressions: It was the peak of winter and I was ill prepared for such an icy winter. But, clothed in as many layers of clothing as possible, we braved the weather and went ashore a few evenings. It was the first time I was coming across sub zero temperatures (-5 degrees C). As soon as we left the confines of the port, we had to head out to a bar for a couple of cognacs to put some warmth into the body. The town was impoverished, the people friendly but poor. I felt we in India were a little better off. The country was under the oppressive communist leadership, to be later supplanted by a dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu in 1974. Like in India, cinemas were the favourite source of entertainment, one of them showing Raj Kapoor’s Awaara. To my ears, there seemed to be a few Tamil words in the Romanian language – I may be wrong.

Our next stop was Augusta in southern Italy for bunkers, where I tasted one of the best cups of coffee that I had in my life, the taste of it still lingering after 50 years.

We then crossed the Atlantic. Winter voyages are mostly rough in any ocean and the Atlantic was no less.

I found the routines on board very strenuous during the first couple of months; physically strenuous because of working for more than 12 hours a day; mentally strenuous because I was picking up new things every day and my circuits were overloaded with the abundance of technological knowledge which one had to imbibe, in order to fulfill my duties as an engineer.

After the first two months, I just got used to the strenuous routines, as my muscles built up and my brain started coming out of the fog and shock of routines that a landlubber would have found unsustainable and incongruous. That is when I started enjoying my work and the learning of it. One had to be very practical and rational in order to be a Marine Engineer. Till then, I had been the impossible romantic, dreamily and emotionally going through life.

At sea, we had a system of watches – 4 hours on watch and 8 hours off watch, 4-8, 8-12, 12-4. The 4-8 watch was 2nd Engineer’s watch, the 8-12 was the 4th Engineer’s watch and the 12-4 watch was the responsibility of the 3rd Engineer. Each of them had a motorman (also called ‘oiler’ in some companies). Depending on the number of 5th Engineers being assigned to a ship, they were then allocated a particular watch. On this ship, we had two 5th Engineers. I was allocated the 4-8 watch and had to be with the 2nd Engineer on the watch.

Today, we have the much touted ‘mentor’ system which is the subject of many a discussion and seminars. But in our own quiet way, we Indians have had this ‘mentorship’ for millenniums. A ‘Mentor’ is primarily one who passes on his knowledge and experience to his juniors and advises them. Here, on board, it was a question of passing on the experience of technology which the senior had imbibed.

The word 'Mentor' comes from ancient Greece. Merriam Webster elaborates:

We acquired mentor from the literature of ancient Greece. In Homer's epic The Odyssey, Odysseus was away from home fighting and journeying for 20 years. During that time, Telemachus, the son he left as a babe in arms, grew up under the supervision of Mentor, an old and trusted friend. When the goddess Athena decided it was time to complete the education of young Telemachus, she visited him disguised as Mentor and they set out together to learn about his father. Today, we use the word mentor for anyone who is a positive, guiding influence in another (usually younger) person's life.

The Indian concept of "Gurukul (A school) run by a 'Guru' (A mentor, a teacher) goes back thousands of years. where the young pupil was taught all subjects - Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Geometry, Astronomy, Anatomy, herbal medicine etc( and included spiritual teachings and guidance,

SISCO was a ‘Gurukul’ of sorts, as it transformed our baby steps into giant leaps.

One of the untaught qualities we had been inculcated into during our training period in DMET Calcutta, was a sense of belonging to a highly valued Institution and the camaraderie that was part and parcel of the Institution. Some had it to a very great degree and some to a lesser degree. This binding (or bondage) to, and pride in, our Institution also meant that ‘mentorship’ is not taken lightly and we help our juniors from the same Institution. In the ‘70s probably 80% of sailing Marine Engineers (on Indian ships) were from DMET and, as such, I had many a senior from DMET who sailed with me in SISCO.

RP Singh, 3 years my senior, was my first Second Engineer. owe a lot of my knowledge to his patient tutoring and the frequent challenges he threw at me.

This ‘mentorship’ would sometimes involve being strict with juniors and getting them to do jobs which they otherwise will not want to do. I remember a particular case of a 5th Engineer being assigned to my watch, when I was a 4th Engineer. Familiarisation is the first part of the training. The first part of a 5th Engineer’s training is familiarisation with pipelines - manually tracing pipelines, quite a bit of them being in the bilges, under floor plates, which ends up in getting yourself dirty, very dirty.

This particular 5th Engineer was particularly lazy and would avoid me during the course of the watch. Those were the days without air conditioned Engine Control Rooms. Watch keepers had to be all over the Engine Room during the watch, maintaining temperatures, pressures, ensuring all machinery were working properly and also carrying out maintenance work at the same time. There was no automation; everything had to be done manually.

Because he was unfamiliar with the system, he could not be given the important tasks of ballast work, when in port, keeping nights or any maintenance work. I was pulled up by the Chief and Second Engineer as he was keeping watch with me, for his lamentable lack of knowledge. I was told that he would be sent home - fired - after the ship reached India.

As he was, basically, an intelligent boy, I did not want him to lose his job. So, I had to become very strict with him, started giving him time bound jobs and ensuring he did them. He was with me for 4 months. For reasons of his own, he went on leave when the ship reached India.

A few months later, he joined another SISCO ship and was there for a few months. When he heard that I was due to join the same ship in a few days as 3rd Engineer, he resigned and went home. I then lost touch with him.

5 or 6 years later, I was sitting in Seaman's Club, Bombay, having a beer, when I saw him making a beeline for me. I thought his intention was to bash me up. But, to my surprise, he was happy to see me, pulled up a chair and ordered for both of us. When I carefully - and, I must admit, tremblingly - asked him what he was doing, he said that he was a 2nd Engineer in a foreign company and was highly rated in his company as one of the best engineers. He had got through his 2nd Class Part ‘B’ exams with flying colours. He then stated it was all because of me, as I had seen the potential in him and pushed him to the limits. We, finally, parted as friends. He, later on, went on to take up various top positions ashore.

Even today, I regret that I did not push myself to those same limits.

In the beginning I felt it had value in that you expected a lot from a fellow DMETian in terms of technical knowledge and skills. Much later I realised that it was more of snob value than anything else, as I saw some from my College make a mess of things on board and others who were not from DMET doing an excellent job.

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