Maritime Shipping - Essays and Articles.

So, you want to join merchant navy? Minimum that a deck cadet must know.

This article is for the interest of the Pakistani young men intending to join merchant navy as deck cadets. Cadets joining ships, especially from upcountry, have no idea of a ship, life onboard a vessel and their duties.

It is not a job description for cadets onboard as provided in procedures manuals of shipping companies nor is it a comprehensive and complete description of life onboard. It is what I think young men intending to join sea as deck cadets should know to have a rough idea of their new ‘way of life’. The Article is mainly directed to Pakistani Cadets and includes constraints and difficulties that they have to come across in completing their cadetship.

Before Joining - better evaluate your preferences

It is always better to 'test the water' before you enter.

Joining as a deck cadet is not easy for Pakistani young men. You need to complete pre-sea training which is expansive and the institutions including Pakistan Marine Academy does not provide job security after completion. Once you complete your pre-sea training you are out in the 'market' in Karachi, where you need to apply for cadet ship in different shipping companies and recruitment agencies.

I have seen boys looking for employment on ships after years of completing their training. It does take lot of visits to different offices to get selected. Like all other fields at our place, ‘contacts’ have major importance in getting selected contrary to any standard merit - unfortunately. However, persistence and patience always counts in opening doors for the ones who deserve.

Another short cut that job seekers come across is paying shipping agents and middlemen to join ships. The fees asked for are very high as compared to the salary offered. Hardly any good shipping company would do selections on this criteria. These are mainly agents of small unknown shipping companies which, in some cases, may neither pay their employees nor offer hygienic living conditions and safe working conditions onboard their ships. In some cases applicants paid the said amount and could not even join the ship. International Trade Federation has issued warnings in this regard, for details see "Attention Job Seekers in Maritime Shipping and Offshore Sector. Frauds in Ship Jobs, Merchant Navy Employment and Offshore recruitment" in the Essays and Articles Section.

It will take lot of yours, or may I say your parents, hard earned money to provide you pre-sea training. It would be wiser to check the winds before you sail instead of sitting and cursing the 'system'.

Can you stay away from home?

Working on ships is not only a profession, it is rather a way of life. You will be sailing onboard for the duration of contract you sign with the shipping company. Contract durations varies from up to nine months on general cargo ships and up to six months on oil tankers. Some companies offer four months contracts as well.

The situation of jobs for cadets in Karachi is such that once boarded the boys do not know when would they get the next vessel if they go on leave. The result is that, presently, cadets prefer to complete their cadet ship sea time in one go only.

The sea time required for the first Certificate of Competency is around thirty-four months. Sea time is time spent onboard a ship and does not include leave period.

You will need to study - HARD!

Many young men think that joining merchant navy will get them rid of studies - they are heavily ignorant of facts.

You will need to study throughout your career until you reach the rank of Ship's Captain and thereafter you will still have to keep yourself up to date professionally and academically in the fast changing practices of merchant navy. Working in merchant navy is a continuous learning process and unlike many shore based professions your knowledge and studies are not limited to few subjects, instead you study several diverse subjects as deck officer: you have to gain enough engineering, nautical, legal, and practical skills to be competent in your profession. Mechanical parts of machinery, theory and use of electronics equipment, marine and local laws, navigation regulation, meteorology, marine architecture, ship construction and ship stability. The subjects are diverse in nature. You will find them easy to follow if you have developed good base in English, Maths ( algebra, geometry, trigonometry) and Physics in your college and pre-sea training.

Onboard ships, unlike home where studying is your full time job, you need to learn and study in addition to performing your routine duties. Let me make it clear that on ship you study and learn for your own benefit and very rarely any one would force you to study. If you will show interest and ask for guidance the deck officers would be happy to guide you.

Big Money and Lusty Sailor Stories!

When a young man thinks of entering sea he has two dreams: one to see the world and the other to earn big money. In the poll conducted on our PakistaniMariner eGroup site the young men have mostly voted for the same two options, which is very natural and positive.

You can make big money out of hard work, commitment and careful planning when working in merchant navy.

You are young and full of ambition - what about your dreams that originated from very attractive sailor stories full of lusty experiences!

Shipping today, unlike its past, is very busy and demanding. Modern ship machinery and extensive mechanization at ports has reduced the port stay for ships to minimum.

Job on ships has gone very demanding too, with each person having responsibility to carry out several jobs; resulting in ever increasing work hours. Most normal working hours during the port stay for watch keepers, officers and crew, are twelve hours of work in two watches of six hours a day. The seaman is left with maximum 6 hours of rest period, in between the watches, during which he may go ashore - if allowed to by the local authorities and other constraints onboard. Tired after six hours of work, he may not get much colored approach in his off period other than necessary shopping and a great looking hair cut.

In addition, for Pakistani seamen joining , leaving and shore leave from a ship has become difficult since 9/11 incident. Many, or shall I say, most of the ports do not allow them to set their foot on their soil. You may like to go through my article 'I am a seaman' in this context.

The message, in black and white, is that you will spend most of your time on the ship even when she is along side berth in a beautiful port!

Sea Sickness, Rolling and Pitching

A ship making her way on the high seas is never still she may roll or pitch due to the wave action on the sea surface.

Rolling and pitching is the major cause of so called sea-sickness or motion sickness. Every one has different reaction due to rolling and pitching. Some may feel dizzy and uneasy, others may feel head ache, vomiting is quite common among new seamen. Once the body gets used to the ship's motion, sea-sickness also reduces among experienced sailors.

Let us see what rolling and pitching is? Rolling is ship's motion on its transverse axes, that is from side to side while pitching is the ship's motion along the fore and aft axes, that is, along the length of the ship. The intensity of a ships rolling and pitching depends upon the condition of the sea and the waves, type of ship, whether loaded or in ballast (empty) and the size of righting lever of the ship.

Home Sickness.

Seamen do get home sick. The new and the experienced alike pass through  mood shift at times when they miss their families and home. Fortunately, unlike old days, means of communications have improved tremendously on ships making it possible to phone home from the mid of any ocean by direct dialing. In addition, email is available onboard most of the ships making it easy to know the well being of the loved ones.

Many shipping companies provide electronic versions of newspapers to keep the mariners current on their national affairs.

Living and Working Onboard

What you are going to do onboard a ship? When I was fresh cadet, one of my batch mates brought a Chess set with him thinking that it would help us 'kill the time' onboard - needless to say we hardly ever played on that set.

A cadet maintains a bridge watch under the supervision of duty officer. Bridge watch is the time period of four hours spent on duty on the ship's bridge while navigating the ship or when the ship is at anchor. While on the bridge he may plot ship's position on the navigational charts, maintain lookout and perform other duties related to vessels navigation.

On deck under the supervision of Chief officer and Boson he performs and learns seamanship techniques: rope work, knots and hitches, rope and wire rope splicing, use of deck machinery, and general maintenance of the ship including cleaning and preparing steel surfaces for painting and anticorrosion procedures.

The job on deck is physical and tough at times. The deck crew is fully exposed to the prevailing weather, whether it is extreme sun of Persian Gulf or freezing cold of high latitudes in winter bringing rain, snow and rough seas shipping on the main deck.

Under circumstances and to fulfill the 'traditions of the sea' a cadet may have to do the cleaning jobs, i.e. booming, mopping, scrubbing etc., in the accommodation, deck stores, working places, lavatories, toilets and WCs.

He performs paper work under chief officers guidance: typing, printing and use of computers; knowledge of windows and MS office especially word and excel is essential.

Practically there are no duty hours for a cadet. He is always on the call and on the orders of the Chief Officer. He is expected to be neat and clean, well mannered and dependable. A deck cadet is expected to perform his duties in the most complete manner. He is expected to know what he is doing and ask what he does not know.

Cadets are always told to keep their eyes and ears open and mouth tight shut!

A deck cadet remains and behaves like a cadet until he passes examinations for his first Certificate of Competency and then climbs up the gangway as a third officer.

It is not all gloom – there is recreation available.

A ship’s complement is like a family – working, living and interacting. Smoke rooms in a ship are the major joints where officers and crew sit together during the off duty hours. Normally lot of movies are available for selection and so are the indoor games.

Some ships have a table tennis table fixed at a suitable spot, some have excellent gymnasiums set up. Depending upon the atmosphere of the ship, parties are arranged during long voyages and competitions held.

Most of the ships have a large collection of books and magazines. New magazines are bought at port out of officers club contributions.

Traveling and Exposure Benefits You.

You get the opportunity to visit different countries and people. Travel is in it self complete education; it widens ones vision of the world and brings tolerance to new ideas and living of different races.

Best of all, it lets us compare ourselves with the rest of the world and switches-on a huge bulb of realization of facts.

Some day standing in a far off land you may realize to your utter astonishment that the people there were 'sinners' in their personnel lives to our understanding and standards - but were honest, helpful and fair to the truth; making you think about the life and the people in an entirely different context and vice versa!!!

About the Writer - Qaisar Qayyum
Qaisar Qayyum is a master mariner with 23 years at sea mainly onboard oil tankers, presently working for a oil refinery as Tank Farm Coordinator & Marine Coordinator. He is maintaining a web site, pakistaniMARITIME.Com, offering free services for seafarers and marine business concerns alike.