BLOG 21 - Singapore, Malacca Straits, Japan and Australia

Flashback:

My first concrete memory was about Avadi, a place near Madras (Today's Chennai). I distinctly remember the 1954 Congress Working Committee meeting that took place in Avadi in 1954, in which all the top Congress leaders were taking part.

Unlike today, Congress was supreme in 1954 and the meeting was held with a lot of pomp and pageantry. Folk dances and dramas extolling the Government were all side shows.

The 'largesse' of the Central Government - I felt it was mostly because of the success of the Congress meeting - that Avadi was the first choice for location of India's first Heavy Vehicles (Tanks) Factory, inaugurated in 1961.

The 'Vijayanta' tank was the first to roll out for the Indian Army.

In 1955, my Father was transferred from Avadi to Wellington, in the Nilagiri hills.

Marine Musings 4 continues -----

Chapter 6 – Malacca Straits, Singapore and Japan

We had to pass through the Malacca Straits – the gateway between east and west – this probably being the passage where maximum tonnage passes through on a daily basis, compared to anywhere else in the world. Just going out on deck and watching the numerous ships, of all hues, sizes and types – passing each other at full speed and close proximity, is a sight to behold. In the ‘70s, traversing the Malacca Straits. with what would today be considered obsolete and antique radars, called for navigational skills of a high order and steady nerves.

It was not just the east bound or the west bound traffic that the navigators had to contend with, but also the cross traffic moving more or less at right angles to the major flow. Faster ships would be overtaking the slower and ponderous ones. Faster cargo liners speeding at 21 or 22 knots would overtake bulk carriers and tankers moving at a sedate 11 or 12 knots. Being a bulk carrier, we would always be overtaken by other ships.

Over the years (spanning 38 years), I probably would have transited the Malacca Straits more than two hundred times. Over this period of time, I saw how vast was the difference in skill sets and attitudes during passages through high traffic density areas. In the ‘70s and well into the ‘80s, a Third Mate or a Second Mate would consider it an insult were the Master to come on the Bridge to take over during such transits. He handled things efficiently and without any mishap (along with his Sukhani / Helmsman) for the period of his watch and would hand over to the next watch with a detailed brief of the situation, standing by for at least 15 minutes to 30 minutes till the next watch keeper adjusted himself to the night vision and fully appraised himself of the ships in proximity.

Such were the skill levels, confidence and experience. The ‘Sukhanis’ or helmsman – who would be on ‘lookout’ duty when the vessel was on ’auto pilot’ – were very skilled and could spot a ship miles and miles away, would quietly tell the Duty Officer ‘Saab --- bearing may bathi diktha hai’, alerting the Duty Officer. A quick bearing check, a quick plot on the chart and highlighted if a potential threat were all in a day’s work. Radars were relied upon only to a certain extent. Adherence and knowledge of ROR (Rules of the Road) were paramount.

In sharp contrast, later years would see the Navigational Charts being more detailed, Traffic Separation Schemes being implemented and enforced, radar surveillance from shore for very long stretches with back up advice being provided to vessels by shore based controllers, made things a little easier for ships.

Probably the one most important piece of Navigational Equipment that made a difference to Navigation – along with a paradigm shift away from using human sensory inputs for navigation to a total reliance of radar based / machine based input for navigation – took place with the induction of ARPAs (Automatic Radar Plotting Aid). From one radar, vessels were getting equipped with two radars (one on standby), to one radar and one ARPA and later to 2 ARPAs on each vessel. With increasing reliance on ARPAs, the paradigm shift from sensory navigation to tools’ aided navigation took place in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Were both the ARPAs to fail and the watch keepers have to rely on their own sensory inputs, panic stations set in, leading to mishaps.

Today, the SEXTANT has become a relic, a museum piece, with very few or almost no one on board knowing how to use it.

Singapore

Most east or west bound vessels used to bunker at Singapore, as fuel oil was cheaper there than at most ports in the world. Lub oils, food supplies and Deck / Engine stores were also picked up in Singapore. All this was done at anchorage. In those days, vessels used to anchor not very far away from Clifford Pier. Launches were arranged for non-essential crew to go ashore in batches. I had to help with bunkers, so I was in the 2nd batch that went ashore.

Singapore of the 1970s was totally different from what it is today (2022). As in most of Asia, the British occupied Singapore for a large part of their modern history, with the Japanese beating the British out during World War II, for a brief period. Self governance followed in 1959 and, after a brief stint with the Malaysian Federation, Singapore became independent in 1965. She struggled for nearly a decade, but came out of the shadows of a colonial past pretty quickly, more due to a dynamic and futuristic Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew. It cannot be called a full fledged democracy, because it was more of a police state, with some draconian laws. But, the economy surged, people became richer and the nation state has prospered. Majority of the population were of Chinese descent (75%), followed by Malays (15%) and Tamils (about 7%).

When I first visited Singapore in 1971, I made a beeline – as most Indians do – for Serangoon Road. First order of the day Idli – Vadai – Dosai at Komala Vilas, on old fashioned banana leaves and hospitable waiters. Then a stroll through the street, where married Tamil couples abounded. But what piqued my interest were the wives – almost all – walked a few feet behind the husband, full of make up and lipstick, dolled up to the nines, wearing high heels in which they were discernibly uncomfortable. The famed Mustafa Shopping Centre of today was then a small 12 foot wide store, selling VCRs, tape recorders and quite a few electronic goods. What made them popular were the prices, with very small profit margins compared to other, more highfalutin, areas such as Lucky Plaza. The sheer volume of their business made them very profitable, and it continues to this day. Over two decades, they moved from their initial modest location to large, expansive malls, where they owned the entire street.

Being more or less at the cross roads of the east to west shipping route, Singapore used its location to it's advantage and popularized it as an entrepot from where a lot of shipping cargo was transhipped at low cost. Seeing the advantageous location, several oil companies set up shop in Singapore to provide bunkers to transiting vessels. Oil terminals and berths for oil tankers came up, followed by berths for general cargo. Fuel oil and lub oil supplied at Singapore was the second lowest in price (around the world), due to low taxes. In those days, only Rotterdam could beat Singapore prices. All ancillary businesses like ship chandlers, workshops, specialized service to ships all profited and the economy started booming.

Initially, Singapore was a service oriented state. But far seeing minds planned for even more. After encouraging the manufacturing sector, they made the leap into digital and more advanced technologies by inviting world renowned companies to invest, giving them all kinds of assistance and tax benefits.

Initially, the average Singaporean was not qualified enough for many of the jobs, so they openly allowed professionals from abroad to reside and work in these high-tech jobs. Simultaneously, they improved the quality of education for the locals, sent many a deserving candidate to reputed universities in the US, UK and other advanced countries – all at government cost. 50 years down the line, I can see that the educated Singaporeans have supplanted most of the expatriates who were in top positions.

I can write a lot about Singapore, having gone there numerous times, but I won’t, as this narrative is more about my shipping life and not a travelogue. But, as I enter each country, I will write briefly about that port or country and its people.

One of the more saddening aspects of Singapore was that, as the nation got more prosperous, I somehow felt that the nation had lost its soul and was just another nation where economy was king and money the ruler. In the ‘70s and well into the ‘80s, I felt that the populace as a whole was more happy, even though not very prosperous. The people were friendly, happy and smiling. But, as the decades passed, I could feel that they had become more and more serious, with a worried countenance for their immediate individual future. A leisurely gait was supplanted by a hurrying step. Happiness seemed to go out of the window. Many a time, when I was put up in a hotel, before joining a ship, I watched the people and citizens of Singapore from behind the glass sidewall of the restaurant, having their complimentary breakfast. They looked harried and harassed, as they hurried past , cellphones stuck to their ears and not a mile on their faces, not a rekaxed gait. But their economy was booming, their per capita income pretty high on the list. That, probably, is the price of success. What price happiness?

So, resuming our voyage, we chugged along through a calm Malacca Straits and entered a rather choppy South China Sea. South China Sea can be treacherous due to cyclonic weather and I have been through many a storm in this area, rolling, pitching, pounding. We skirted the eastern side of the Japanese main islands and reached Tokyo Bay.

Japan

I am not certain of my first Japanese port in Tokyo Bay. It could have been Kawasaki, Kimitsu or Kizarazu, all pretty close to Tokyo. - I have gone to these ports frequently. All I remember was the hectic activity to discharge the cargo of iron ore. What had taken nearly a month to load in Goa, India, was discharged in a space of 30 hours. The efficiency of Japanese workers stunned me and it made me look at my job in a different light.

In the 1970s, 1980s and well into the 1990s, Tokyo Bay was probably the most congested Bay in the world, by sheer volume of trade and the number of ships that pass in and out of the bay, day and night. Most of the industrial activity of Japan takes place in the hinterland of Tokyo Bay. The major ports in the Bay area are Yokohama, Yokosuka (a traditional naval base for US warships, naval fleet and aircraft carriers), Chiba, Kawasaki, Kimitsu, Kizarazu, with hundreds of smaller ports that accommodate small ships and barges.

When I first visited the Tokyo Bay area (many visits) in the ‘70s, the industries in this area were devouring the natural resources of other countries at quite an alarming rate, to power their burgeoning industries. Coal, iron ore and oil were consumed greedily, with the resultant pollution that come with such industries. Over the decades, these giant corporations have shifted their polluting industries to other parts of the world and also for economic reasons.

One thing the Japanese must be given credit for is the speed with which they can modernise a port, to keep up with changing times. For example, with increasing movement of cargo in containers, Japan was the first country in Asia – and one of the first in the world – to cater to the logistics of discharging and loading of containers. More about this later, when I started working on container vessels, multi-purpose carriers and the like.

We had no chance to go ashore and, after discharge was completed we made our way out of Tokyo Bay and, after about a hundred or so nautical miles, drifted for a few days, awaiting orders from Chennai Office as to our next assignment.

At that time, our ship was what was known as, in marine parlance, a ‘Tramp Ship’ on voyage charter. We went wherever there was cargo to be carried, provided the freight rates were reasonable. Then there were the ‘Time Chartered’ vessels, which were fixed for a particular time period, which could extend from a few weeks to a few years. Then there were the ‘Liner Service’ vessels that had a fixed run, with fixed schedules. There are other types also, but these are the three main ones. I was fortunate enough to work on many of these types of vessels during my sea career.

In those days, the Radio Officer - "Sparks" - had a very important role to play – he was the only one licensed to communicate with shore stations, when vessel was in mid-sea. All messages in and out of the ship flowed through him. Using a (at that time) sophisticated (mostly made by Marconi in those days) radio station, and using Morse Code, he would contact the closest shore station and send out the vessel's messages and receive any messages meant for the vessel. Weather reports were also acquired through these stations. Voice calls were possible when close to a shore station, but were rarely used and that too in emergency. Voice calls were possible through VHF, when very close to land and a shore station.

In other words, when the vessel was a little far from land, we were more or less isolated and alone in the world. But over the decades, Morse code was superceded first by telex links. Then satellite communication and digital technology revolutionised communications. Indian ship owners took quite a while in modernising their communication equipment, in contrast to the Europeans and Japanese. Initially, all communications were pretty costly, so messages sent or received looked like they were in code, but were actually shortened form of a string of words, after leaving out the obvious verbs or nouns or adjectives.

I will be writing about technological improvements in communications in more detail later on in this narrative. But the one thing I need to say here is that the Morse Code was officially retired on 31st Jan 1999 and was not used any more. By then, ships had upgraded their technology.

Australia

Our next assignment was to load coal at Newcastle, Eastern Australia for discharge at a port in Tokyo Bay Japan.

We had a few days at Newcastle, so I could step ashore and see the town. It was mostly old world English style buildings, neat sidewalks, plenty of open spaces with grass and trees and benches. Some points of interest were:

1) The post office which, apart from normal mail, also catered to philatelists and sold franked stamps in lots of 20, 50 or 100. I revived my philately interest on seeing this, though the first purchase was modest, as I did not have much of Australian Dollars with me.

2. Second Hand bookshops, where top class authors’ books were being sold for as little as A$2. It revived my interest in books, after a rather severe drought in College. These books could be returned and one could get back A$ 1.50 or 1 dollar. My treasure trove began.

3. Restaurants did not have any idea of vegetarian food, but we found an Indian restaurant, so managed a few items. The interesting thing was no alcohol was served in these restaurants, due to strict licensing laws. So, to circumvent this, they had a liquor shop close by. You could buy a cold beer and take it into the restaurant and they supplied glasses for free. It was called BYO – Bring Your Own. It worked out pretty cheap for all concerned. That was my first Foster beer.

After loading coal at Newcastle, we went back to Tokyo Bay in Japan.

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