my 1st experience at sea..

       MAY BE I WILL BE A SEADOG...IF DESTINY GUIDES ME THERE... J                 

17^th Mar 2010                                                            Place: Onboard ship

Leaving behind all my trials & efforts for the studies at the higher secondary level & college level I am starting here with the begining of my sea career.I joined merchant navy and am presently on the ship working as a 5^th engineer(Paanch saab).I joined the vessel M.T Col A.B.Tarapore(PVC) on 18-10-09 from chennai.It happened to be the first ship of my life and my carrier. First step on the ship, as I had thought, would be the end of my excitement which got developed when I was selected by the “Shipping corp. Of India” through the campus interview but I was completely wrong.My enthusiasm and excitement was doubled when I took the 1^st step on the ship.There were some glances of fear and nervousness in my excitement but i kept it cool with my confidence and boldness.I had never seen the ocean from such a short distance.It was like a formidable opponent throwing up a challange on me to make myself comfortable in the sea environment.But I was mentally prepared for that.

I have experienced a many times, the god’s grace in the journey of my life.On several occasions when i feel that i am in some sort of trouble the very next moment some sort of divine power interupts in between and then i am out of the trouble and find everything on the right track.I can link too many examples for the above said. But this time what I say is the presence of my batchmate “Avinash Deori” on my ship. He had joined the vessel a month before my joining. So I link this coincidence to be a part of god’s grace on me.I was knowing somebody who was my batchmate and it made me quite comfortable for the sea journey.This is because you never know about the persons with whom you will be working on the ship but if somebody is there,who you are familiar with,then your moral gets boosted up and your comfort level surges automatically.This is because you have somebody in whom you can seek solace in the time of miseries(Emotional)at sea.

The best part is yet to come.Now it was the time for a casual introduction with all the senior engineers.I called up Avinash and he took me to the engine room.I had thought of engine room as someplace where there is horrible noises,cramped spaces,etc but my prejudises melted away as soon as i entered in the engine room.We went into the ECR (Engine control room).There were 2^nd engg. & 4^th engg.. at that time in the ECR.

I got the 2^nd engg who was very supportive in nature.i consider it again as the grace of god because i have heard from my seniors that 2^nd ‘s are mostly a very strict fellow and would never mind in abusing you verbally for some silly things but it was not the case here.His name was “Prashant joshi” and was from Bhillai(M.P).After some nominal conversation regarding my whrereabouts he just asked me to take a round of engine room and make note of various machineries located at different platforms.So I took a piece of paper and a pen and went ahead to do that.Some of the machineries were easily recognisable but some were giving some doubts,but i entered their location and guessed about their identities by applying some common sense.In this manner I completed a general layout of the engine room machineries and went ahead to get it checked by the 2^nd saab.

He was quite impressed by the job i had done and gave me some suggestions about the things that i was doubting.He then asked me to come at 6:30 am next morning as he had planned my watch to be from 6:30 am to 6:30 pm.

So in this manner my training started up.one thing I want to mention here is that onboard ship there is no any provision of holyday for the junior engineers.Sunday and Monday are just the same.You can hardly keep account of the passing days.You are just concerned about the time of your watch irrespective of the days and dates.So as the dates passed it added a lot of practical things to my knowledge.Many new things i came to know about.Some sort of breakdowns were also the part of same.Likewise I had studied about crankcase explosions in my text books but I experienced this on a running generator.I was taking readings of various parameters as no.3 generator was started after a long interval of time.Suddenly I saw  some sort of smoke rising up from the push rods of no.6 unit of the generator.Before i could rush to the ECR to inform 2^nd saab there ignited an explosion inside the crankcase and thanks to the relief doors fitted,which immediately relieved the tremendous pressure build inside and thus prevented the major explosion or rupture of crankcase parts.There was a huge cloud of blackish smoke all over the generator platform.2^nd saab and 4 saab came rushing to the generator as they had sensed something was amiss.I saw some sort of nervousness in the 4 saab as he,instead of stopping the generator, went ahead to take charge of fire extinguishers.But 2^nd saab took control of the generator and made it to stop by pulling the governor controlled fuel lever.I was quite shocked to see all this accident as i would have been injured if i had been standing on the other side.But this time god interupted in between and saved me out from any danger.

That day I realised how dangerous is the working environment of a marine engineer.You may not be knowing about the dangers lurking in your way and a little misfortune for you will leave you permanently maimed or even dead.So you have to be ultra conscious whenever you are in the engine room with proper safety precautions.

One interesting thing about the breakdown is that it provides you a lot of new avenues of learning as things are overhauled thoroughly and started from the basics.So in this case  i also got an ultimate chance to learn various things as the generator was overhauled thoroughly.It’s piston,liner,bottom end bearings etc were changed.As the works were progressing on the genset one misfortune was waiting to happen and this time it proved fatal for the 4 saab(S K Pradhan). His middle finger of the left hand was crushed under the heavy weight of gudgeon pin while lifting it to fit on the lathe machine.The sharp edge of the pin was responsible for the injury.So he got an emergency signoff as the course of our vessel was altered to reach the nearest port.So he was finally operated upon and luckily he was able to save his finger.

So such things keep on happening onboard the ship and it is us who are responsible to take care of ourselves.

My vessel was employed mostly on the coastal run,although she was having F.G status,there was hardly any feeling of being distant from the homeplace.Because mobile networks were coming most of the time so we could easily talk to our near and dear ones.Onboard ship we were all like a family.In the leisure time or during rest hours we all usually settled down to watch movies or play table tennis.On some weekends,mostly on anchorage,we used to have parties on the ship itself.Everybody enjoyed the moment by cracking jokes,dancing,screaming n all.It acted something like a stress buster and refrained our life from becoming a monotonous one.

So from the little experience which I got from the last 5-6 months I could easily say that you need to become a responsible person on the ship as it increases the efficiency of the team you are working with.Initially you will fear doing something but you need to conquer your fear by increasing your confidence and at the same time you should never be over confident as it may prove fatal and will render you in a very critical situation most of the times dangerous.So if you have any doubt then leave it,ask from your seniors and try to learn from them so that next time you will be able to deal with the situations.

24-April-10

Today I completed 190 days of sea time.Now the time has come for me to signoff.The countdown has already started and every passing day is something like an year.You can’t imagine the importance of the day you signoff until you are on the ship.It is something like a feeling when a bird gets liberated from the captivity of a cage.Ship almost gives the same feeling of being confined on many occasions when you are low for some reasons.You are extremly eager and overjoyed to join the world you left behind when you came on the ship.Some sorts of surprises would be waiting as six months are good enough to change the whole thing happening around when you were at the land lastly.So you are thrilled enough to rejoice the things you left behind.

One thing I would like to mention here is about the days which are about a month before the day you signoff.Boredom prevails all over.You will loose your interest in mixing with people on the ship,as it was in my case.You neither eat properly nor sleep properly nor work properly.You will loose interest in all such things.There would be some instances of frustration in your every action.I don’t know why such things happen though I want to refrain.It may be because of the bond I made with the people which would be breaking in the near future or may be because that they are jealous of me since I am going to signoff so they are trying to exploit me fully.Being jealous is quite natural as it is a known fact that nobody wants to be on the ship.They all are here only to make money since they couldn’t avail,or rather say,were not eligible enough to get a good job and earning on the shore.I heard somebody saying that those people only joined as mariner who had commited some heinous crime in their past life.So they had been discarded from the society and forced to leave the land and that’s why they joined the ship.And I feel this saying to be true for some extent.

One reason of frustation for me is also due to the presence of other two 5^th engineers who had joined the vessel after the signoff of Avinash.They both are mechanical engineers and had done one year presea and joined the vessel.Although they are full fledged mechanical engineers but there is hardly any mechanical thing that they understand in nearly ten attempts,though it may be quite easy to understand.And the responsiblity to make them understand was given to me.Initially I was quite enthusiastic to make them learn but after analysing their performnance nearly after 15 days I was quite disappointed.I could not even believe that a mechanical engineer won’t be able to recognise the suction & discharge side of a simple reciprocating pump as it was the case here.They were not even knowing the rudiments but pretended to know some high fundas which I found very funny.On certain occasions they even tried to judge my knowledge of the subjects only to find that whatever they have studied was nothing more than a BULLSHIT.

So it was quite disturbing for me to make them trained since their frequency couldn’t match with that of mine and there was hardly any chance of Resonance.So in all it added to my level of frustration.I got a sense of superiority complex within me which was expressive in my behaviour towards them.I couldn’t retain anger within me for long so on many occasions they had to bear the brunt of my ire as they committed some silly mistakes after being told repeatdly to do in right way.But afterwards when i was alone i used to regret to my soul that there was no any point regarding thrashing them verbally over their silly mistakes.I was in the state of severe confusion or whatever you may say.That’s why I am quite eager to signoff and say good bye to these people who call themselves as a hardcore mariner...