BLOG 71 - Were My Actions Justified? + A 15 Day Tour of the Eastern Seaboard of the US of A

Marine Musings 18 - MV Talabot

PERSONAL

Capt Kelkar

One of the events that took place during my stay on board the ‘Talabot’ was the receipt of news of the death of a Captain, Captain Kelkar, on another Barber vessel, the ‘Takamine’.

He had sailed with me as Chief Officer / Second Engineer on the ‘Trianon’.

He was the Master of the ship ‘Artemis’ which sank off Japan in 1980. The entire cargo of logs had broken free during extremely bad weather and smashed hold ventilation ducts and air pipes, allowing massive quantities of water to enter the holds and Double Bottoms. There were no loss of lives.

My connection to that ship was that I was supposed to join the same ship on my first promotion as Chief Engineer were the ship to dock in Japan, transferring from the ‘Taronga’ to the ‘Artemis’, a flight from Kuwait to Japan being on the cards. The transfer never happened.

Capt Kelkar was the Master on board the ‘Willine Tysla’ to which I was transferred from the ‘Ad Astra’, due to his having lost confidence in the Chief Engineer. I took over this ‘unhappy’ but excellent ship.

Kelkar, then, was a pale shadow of his younger years and very jittery.

His next ship was the ‘Takamine’. After a few months, as they were coming up to Kobe Pilot Stations early one morning, he felt uneasy and asked the Chief Mate to con the ship while he went down to the toilet in his cabin. The Pilot was picked up and, later, when people went to his cabin, he was found unconscious in the toilet.

A Coast Guard ambulance boat took him to a shore hospital, but he never recovered. Suspected cardiac arrest or the like.

To me, Kelkar was a friend and colleague, friendly when we sailed together. We went our separate ways when we exited the gangway.

Then came the news that Barber’s were not going to pay any compensation for his death while on board, when on Articles, as they considered a ‘heart attack’ as a natural event that could cause death.

I was aghast. I had been under the (false) impression till now that my family will be compensated by the Company if I were to die while on board or in transit to board the ship. Were the myriad life threatening hazards that a seafarer faces at sea all natural? What if I were the next one?

So I wrote a letter to Barber’s, pointing out the injustice of their decision. I reiterated that work related stress in the highly charged atmosphere of a vessel’s Bridge coming in to Kobe Bay early in the morning, with literally thousands of fishing vessels asserting their rights, was not ‘natural’. I was referring to one of the many instances of a stress point on board.

Having observed this on many a vessel when I used to go up to the darkened Bridge for a few minutes, I used to marvel at the fortitude and calmness of some Captains under those pressures and situations. I used to quickly exit the Bridge when I found a tense atmosphere that can be cut with a knife, the Captain impatiently striding up and down the length of the Bridge, sometimes a cigarette in hand, issuing terse commands to others on the Bridge, who were also tense by osmosis.

In my letter, I explained that such scenarios were common - but always stressful. By extrapolation, these events could cause heart attacks that could not ever be termed ‘natural’. I requested that Kelkar’s family be compensated.

There was no reply.

That was when I did something after a couple of days of thought at the injustice all the sailing staff had to face on major issues, solely going on the basis of a ‘contract’ being signed at the start of a tenure.

I wrote to all the Masters and Chief Engineers on all the ships of the Company - we used to get the fleet’s crew list every month - asking them to donate any sum of their choice into a ‘Kelkar Fund’, explaining why. It did not matter that Kelkar was probably rich enough to leave behind a sizable sum for his family - indeed, they were very well off, as I came to know later.

It was more a matter of principle.

I, later, came to know that a few meetings and discussions had been held in the Office regarding payment of compensation and was rejected as they did not want to set a ‘precedent’.

On board the ‘Talabot’, Captain Aindley advised me not to send out the letter to all, as it would, likely, affect my career. In the Office, a copy of this letter did not seem to elicit much of a reaction.

Contributions to the tune of (around) $20,000 were collected and handed over, much later, to the widow.

This letter of mine and, subsequently, the fall from grace in the eyes of the Company officials most probably contributed to my not being offered a job ashore in the Office. Who would like dissenters in the Office?

Except for a brief period of managing the Singapore office caused by a medical emergency, I remained a Chief Engineer for the rest of my 23 odd years in Barber’s.

Nearly 40 years down the line, I still reflect about going out on a limb for a principle versus keeping my mouth shut, as my actions hardly created a ripple. Did I create a professional faux paus? Would I have taken the same stand now (37 years later), if I were confronted with the same situation? The jury is still out.

Browsing through the "Draft quidelines on the "terms & conditions" for emplovment of Seafarers enqaqed on lndian flaq ships-req." of 2022, I came across the following paragraph.

"l that rf a seafarer contracts ilness or gets hurt and/or receives rnjury as stated in clause i) and k) above which results in death ofthe seafarer (including death arising from marine perir or heart attack or any other naturar cause) or due to which his/her abirity to work is reduced but not being death or disabirity caused by his/her own wir-fu, act or defaurt or his/her own misbehavior and can be attributed to his/her employment, the death and disability compensation payable to the seafarer or his/her nominated "Next of Kin" shaI be specified in the CBA/SEA which shall not be less than the agreed amount under NMB (lndia) or INSA-MUl agreement."

(E&OE)

SIGN OFF AND TOURING THE US of A

When signing off from the “Talabot” at New Orleans, my wife and son were given permission to stay for 6 months in the US. Although I had a B1 / B2 visa (tourist visa), I had to sign off on the C1/D visa (seaman visa) as I was part of the crew. Usually, seamen are given three days time to leave the US. When I asked for 15 days stay in the US, the Immigration Officer, seeing that my family was with me and I wanted to have a holiday in the US, was kind enough to give me a month’s stay on the visa.

Mr. Pramod Ahuja, who had just started up the BSM New Orleans Office, whom I knew from the fire accident days on the “Tarantel”, invited us to stay at his house. His wife and he were very warm hosts and made us feel at home. While his wife, my wife and son went shopping the next day, Pramod took me to a travel agent to arrange an itinerary for us.

The travel agent was a Gujarati and the agency was named Balaji Travels. Obviously, there was a huge picture of Shri Balaji in his office.

He gave us a very good deal for ‘plane trips to Orlando - Washington - New York- Buffalo (Niagara Falls), hotel stays at each place, with free airport pick up and drop. It was a wonderful deal - I cannot thank him enough for the wonderful time we had.

The sights of Orlando and Disney World were a revelation and pure delight.

If European cities were for the intellect, these US cities were for the senses.

We stayed at a Comfort Inn in Orlando and booked our buses to Disneyworld for 0630 next morning. There was a 24 hour Denny’s next door, so food - even vegetarian - was no problem.

Unlike Europeans, Japanese, Chinese and many other countries, the Americans well understand vegetarianism as a concept.

My elder son was then 19 months old. Waking him up at 5 am, bathing him and getting him ready was very easy, as he showed his excitement without knowing what was in store. A quick breakfast of butter milk pancakes with honey and syrup, hash browns and hot chocolate and we were off to the mini bus that would ferry us to a central terminal for the eventual journey to Disneyworld.

With Disney World your senses get satiated.

Tickets were costly if you bought them individually - for EPCOT Centre and Magic Kingdom, for the day.

Since we intended going at an easy pace, we bought a ‘World Pass’ at $50 per person, which gave us rights to multiple entries and every ride for 4 days, multiple times if need be.

EPCOT is an acronym for Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow. We were treated through an absolutely astonishing series of topics such as Energy, Communications, Flight, Travel, Civilisation etc, each going the gamut from the dawn of time, through the present day to the unforeseeable future. It was a unique experience.

Using optical illusions - where we were stationary and the visuals went past us at high speeds - we were treated to some veritable delights.

‘Civilisation’ started with a massive dinosaur stooping towards us, with a smell akin to damp earth coming in through the vents.

‘Travel’ was embellished and, finally, consummated with a ‘countdown’ which culminated in our being shot off into space, an all pervading silence as we swept past the planets and went into the ‘Milky Way’ in search of other civilisations. It gave me a feeling of deja' vu', as there was a lot of similarity to a science fiction novel by Arthur C Clarke "2001 - A Space Odyssey", where the main computer goes rogue.

Holograms, cutting edge technology in each field were shown to us. The paradox is - more than thirty years later the world has surpassed all the innovative predictions that ‘Disney World’ offered us in 1985.

Magic Kingdom was a joy for the child within each one of us, replete with rides amidst the screams of pleasure from children. Who could resist being boarded by pirates and the mayhem caused? Although simulated, it was very lifelike.

My first - and last - roller coaster ride was taken then.

Water World was another destination that was worth seeing. Killer whales, dolphins, sea lions, synchronised water skating were all on the menu.

There were other interesting areas we visited in Disney World, but then this narrative will then change from a blog to a travelogue.

For me, Washington holds a unique place because of the various museums of the Smithsonian Institute. 30 odd years down the line, I am a regular reader of their columns.

A few days stay in New York to see the usual sights, including a trip to the World Trade Centre Observation Deck, culminated in a trip to the Canadian Embassy to secure visas for a walk across the Bridge to the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls.

Niagara Falls ceases to amaze you in about 2 minutes for, after all it is just a huge body of water cascading down, something akin to a stuck giant spigot.

But, it does look beautiful from the Canadian side. We had walked across the bridge, pushing a stroller with visas in hand.

The Maid of the Mist trip was worth it, as the boat went very close to the falls, all of us wearing rain coats and life jackets.

I was disappointed that they did not permit me (or anybody) into the tourist tunnels behind and under the falls, a la’ Marilyn Monroe’s movie “Niagara", which I had seen.

Then an Air India flight from New York to Bombay ended that saga.

Rangan

===== Blog 72 Continues ===== Marine Musings 19 Next =====