BLOG 48 : "Marine Musings 12": We Nearly Run Out of Air during Berthing at Khorramshahr.

Courtesy istock

Motomachi, Kobe, Japan

The Taut Experience of Berthing at Khorramshahr in Iran.

I had become reasonably adept at anything to do with the B&W Engine. Due to our unceasing efforts, the Main Engine, although 18+ years old, was in top condition. I could start and reverse the engine on very little air. This came in very handy on one of the trips to Khorramshahr.

We sailed upriver on the Shatt-el-Arab under pilotage and passed Khorramshahr port to our starboard. There were many vessels at the berth discharging cargo, 2 of them belonging to Wilhelmsen, flying the Norwegian flag. Our Captain, being particularly a spit-and-polish type, tooted the whistle and sent a person to lower and raise the Company Flag, as a salute to another ship of the same company. They, on the other two ships, were not expecting this. There was a sudden flurry of activity on both those ships, with people sprinting to the monkey island to return the salute, the flag being flown on one of the yard arms of the mast on the Monkey Island. I still cannot forget a person, most likely their Chief Mate, in khaki shorts ad shirt, racing from forward, in order to return the salute. We were already well past them when they returned the salute. We had gone a few miles upriver and anchored. A few days later, when we came to berth alongside, we again crossed them. This time they were ready and saluted with the Flag. Their Chief Mate had a cheeky grin on his face that said, "You can't catch me a second time".

I was able to see all this from our main deck as I had started giving my staff more independence and responsibilities and would leave them alone for quite a while during maneuvering, so that they could think for themselves. Of course, from the Main Deck to the Engine Room bottom floor was, to me, only less than a minute away.

We were anchored up river on the Shatt-el-Arab and came down river in the ahead direction, to berth on the Iranian side, port side alongside. It should have been easy but for the fact that the clearance between the two ships where we had to berth was just about 6 or so metres. The tide was going up river, which helped for our slightly deeper draft. There were no tugs. The ship literally had to move side ways and berth with very little space to spare. There were no bow or stern thrusters.

As was done for every berthing, both air bottles were pressed up to 30 kg/cm2 and, keeping one in use, the other was shut off. Usually one bottle is sufficient for manoeuvring whilst berthing, as both the compressors are pressing up the bottle in use.

But the number of starts and reversals were really too many. The compressors could not cope with the volume of air demanded and, when the air pressure in the running bottle reached 12 bar, I had to get the other bottle opened again and again to boost up the air pressure in the running bottle. After nearly 40 starts of which more than half of them being reversals, mostly in quick succession, we were running out of compressed air. At one stage, I started the engine with the air pressure at 8 bar in each bottle, with a possible one more start in the system.

I, then, called the Bridge on the telephone and asked to speak to the Captain. When I told him that we may just manage one more start, he said “2nd Saab, I was anticipating your call a long time ago, knowing the number of starts that are being performed. But don’t worry, we are already along side and I will be giving ‘Finished With Engines’ shortly”.

Class requirements are 12 starts total. Why I mention this is because I was challenged 8 years later by a shipyard during the trials of a brand new vessel. More on this later.

My knowledge of B&W Engines increased manifold and served me in good stead through later years. Within a decade, MAN had merged or bought up B&W. MAN B&W engines became the most bought and most popular of the marine engines. Most of the ships that I worked on, had later and later models and designs of MAN B&W engines.

I had been given an ‘Excellent’ report by Chief Engineer Remedios, prior his signing off two months before. The Superintendent of the ship was flabbergasted, as the Chief had never given anything beyond ‘Good’. I was told that I was next in line for promotion. It was also supported by the Captain.

13 months and a week after having joined Barber’s, I signed off the Trianon on 5th May 1978 and flew back home. After persuading the Chief, he recommended that the 3rd Engineer be promoted. With the promotion, I had fulfilled my promise to the Third Engineer.

I did not know then that my next ship would be the worst one in my entire career, where I would come as close as 10 seconds to losing my life, only through the idiocy of so called professionals.

Chapter 5 – Places, Cities

We were on a regular liner service route, called ‘Willine’, loading cargo from Far East countries, bound for the Persian Gulf.

Our Japanese ports were, most of the time, Kobe, Nagoya and Yokohama. Because we were loading ‘break bulk’ cargo, we used to stay for at least 3 to 4 days, with Nagoya stay the shortest.

After 2 visits, I had become familiar with most ports.

Kobe was always interesting. ‘Motomachi‘ was the premier shopping centre, containing (at that time) a lot of small shops, some very old and very traditional, quite a number of them run by an entire family – Father, Mother, Son, Daughter-in-law and their children – one of them selling Samurai swords, another selling beautifully embroidered kimonos, another selling crockery and cutlery of lovely designs. No traffic was allowed on this street.

I could only look on in awe at the beauty of ‘Noritake’ crockery. A traditional jewellery shop always deserved a look in, selling ‘Mikimoto’ pearls, the grey black pearl necklace the most eye catching item of the display. These were artificial pearls. I hardly bought anything, just admired beauty at its best. A cake shop always got my custom – I always used to buy a few and keep it in my ‘fridge.

The items bought in any shop used to get packed so beautifully, that you felt reluctant to open the package. I have not found this done so beautifully in any other country.

Hardly any of the shopkeepers could speak English, although they could read and understand. Sign language and writing on paper was the accepted thing. Bargaining was considered below their dignity. The street was only for pedestrians, so there were a lot of seats around small trees, from which I had a street view of the ordinary Japanese. It was a sociological exercise. Quite a few, especially younger men and women would stop and talk to me, their first question to me, in halting English, would be ‘Do you know English?’ They would mostly be students from a nearby university, studying English.

At the beginning of the more than 1 kilometre street, music used to play when the ‘Walk’ signal for pedestrians used to come on. I came to know it was for the blind. Diagonally across from this street crossing was a 7 storey building, the ‘Dai Maru’ Departmental Stores. The ‘On Sale’ items were on the 6th Floor. All my working socks came from there. Everywhere, people were very polite and helpful.

Courtesy 123rf.com

Dai Maru - rebuilt after 1995 Earthquake

"Noritake" Set - Cost Rs. 58,000

Mikimoto Pearls - Dark grey black - About Ra. 200,000

Another area of Kobe I visited regularly over the years was the massive Kirin Beer Parlour close by. The elevated railway had a station called ‘Sanomiya’ Station. The station housed 2 movie theatres showing Japanese movies, mostly set in Samurai times, quite enjoyable. The space under the elevated rail tracks was given to numerous small shops, selling mostly clothing. There were a number of small ‘Saki’ parlours also, with a friendly ‘mama san’ managing the bar, with hot ‘saki’ for the customer, served from beautiful jars into small glasses.

There were quite a number of small ‘dives’ that had a bar with a live band playing American songs.

I cannot forget ‘Kobe Sarees’, run by a very friendly Sindhi by the name of Mr. Vaswani along with his Japanese wife and ‘Rokko Sarees’, run by a Punjabi. Quite a number of sarees were bought here for sisters and relatives. It usually was followed by a good dinner at ‘Delhi Restaurant’ run by a Japanese family, the lady having picked up Gujarati cooking when working as a cook for a Gujarati family.

I hardly went ashore in Nagoya.

Yokohama played a very important role in Japanese history when it was a village. Later it became the 2nd largest city in Japan and the largest port.

For me, the biggest attraction in Yokohama was the ‘Shakey’s Pizza Parlour’ in a basement opposite Kannai Station. The best ever pizza compared to anywhere else in the world was available here, along with ‘Kirin’ draft beer, crisply fried potatoes and a piano jukebox with country music. Maybe it was the ambience, but it was unforgettable. And vegetarian pizzas to top it all off!

Just adjacent was a 3 kilometre stretch of an underground market. On a whim, I once explored it and found it to be a wet market. All kinds of living beings were either skinned and hanging or floating around. Octopus, huge chunks of (I guessed) whale flesh and all else in between.

I saw a customer put his chopsticks into a large bottle and remove one of the tiny fish that was swimming around in whatever was the solution in that bottle, lift out a small, wiggly one, put it into his mouth, smack his lips and buy the bottle - as if it was a bottle with olives or pickles. My only visit there.

Hong Kong was a totally different experience. It buzzed with life, hummed with humans everywhere. It was forever busy.

We used to be tied up to a buoy with our anchor chain in Hong Kong Harbour, after removing one of the joining shackles of one anchor chain. Barges and ‘bum’ boats used to come along side and the ship’s gear was used to pick up the cargo from these boats for stowage. It was slow work. Small boats passing by can be called to take us ashore for a few Hong Kong dollars. Kowloon was the preferred side of Hong Kong, due to the shopping and the restaurants. I did not go ashore much in Hong Kong as food, for me, was difficult.

On later ships, when I came to Hong Kong, a tailor and a barber used to board the ship. The tailor had samples with him, you could choose perfectly good material for making suits at pretty cheap prices. He would take measurements and relay the information by a very heavy mobile ‘phone – this was before the advent of the sleek mobiles of today – and get a perfectly fitting suit ready for you in 6 to 8 hours. I never got one made; I had never owned a suit. But I used him to my advantage and would get boiler suits and uniforms stitched by him.

Kowloon main streets had small, temporary shops on the pavement, selling any and all items. One of them was a fruit shop, which sold ‘Sunkist’ oranges, all wrapped in beautiful tissue and looking luscious, all stamped ‘Sunkist’ as a sign of its authenticity. Going down the next side street, there was an old woman sitting on the pavement with 2 baskets. She would take an orange from one basket, put a stamp of ‘Sunkist’ on the orange and put it into the other basket. So much for ‘branded’ items.

During that year, I traveled on the “Star” Ferry, just for the fun of it.

Manila was not often visited. I think I went ashore once. All I can remember are the shared transportation cabs, driven by reckless motorcycles. I went ashore on other ships.

Singapore became more familiar, as we used to stay at least 3 days in port. Previously, on SISCO ships, we would get at best 4 hours ashore, of which an hour would be kept aside for the launch ride. More exploration was now possible. Apart from Serangoon Road, Orchard Road and Lucky Plaza, People’s Park, Cathay Theatre became a familiar stop over. More on Singapore later.

Chapter 6 – What I Learnt on the Trianon – My Takeaways

I had an inkling that, just like I have started taking over ships, there will come a day when I will also be handing over ships to others. After the take over experience on the Trianon, I resolved to ensure that Maintenance Schedules will be maintained till the last few days before I hand over.

I will also cooperate with the incoming staff and give them all reasonable help for them to become familiar with the vessel.

Why were my Engineers inexperienced? That too a Third Engineer who, by all rights, should be almost ready to take over a Second Engineer's post? Therein lay a tale of unethical behaviour of their former seniors, who used them as just one more labourer, never taught them responsibility, never gave them slightly difficult jobs, under the fear that they will make mistakes and the senior will have to answer for it.

Throughout my sea career as a senior officer, I took the chance. I entrusted them with responsibilities, made them think for themselves and tried to draw the best out of them, all the while keeping a covert eye on them. I made myself available to them at all times, day or night. My advice to them always was "Don't be afraid to ask what you think would be the stupidest of questions. It may turn out to be the smartest. Unless you ask questions, you will never learn". I gave them the confidence and assurance that they will not be fired for any wrongdoing, but must be ready for a tongue lashing.

One of the first items that I asked the Chief Engineer put up a requisition for, was a large whiteboard and markers. This was the first ship in which I started teaching, using the whiteboard like in a class room and, later, showing them practical examples in the Engine Room. I called the crew also to such lessons and did not discriminate. With this, their loyalty knew no bounds.

You can be diplomatic, yet firm, in dealing with recalcitrant people, even if they are much older than you, and achieve results, without any kowtowing. The Chief Engineer was a prime example.

Loyalty born from teaching others gives the maximum satisfaction.

I signed off in Singapore, after just over 13 months on board, after a very satisfying tenure.

Little did I know that a series of problems and near-death awaited me on the next ship.

Rangan