Campaigns to encourage young people to join the merchant marine usually highlight the good money to be earned and the opportunity to see new and wonderful places. This is to be expected, but it’s a form of false advertising.
What the campaigners do not say is that seafaring is the second most dangerous job after deep-sea fishing. Nor do they talk about the mountain of training courses ship officers have to scale; the stresses of shipboard life; and the loneliness of spending months at sea. British journalist and author Rose George, who has sailed with the lads, states it succinctly in an article in Slate Magazine: “It is a relentless life and difficult.”
No doubt, seafaring can be financially rewarding. We once had coffee with a young Filipino ship captain who had just come back from sea. He fretted that he had already spent PHP4 million (approx.US$88,600) but his new house was not yet finished. There was a slight tone of pride in the way he said it, which was perfectly understandable. He’s intelligent and hardworking, and he deserves his good fortune.
We often wonder how many seafarers are truly happy. The voices of contentment are often drowned out by the whining. Seafarers grumble about unnecessary training requirements; bureaucratic redtape; despotic foreign ship officers; double bookkeeping by ship masters; restrictions on foreign shore leave; and the myriad other problems that make seafaring less than the paradise it is made out to be.
Campaigns aimed at promoting the seafaring profession seem to overlook the obvious: many choose to become seafarers because there are not enough decent-paying jobs on shore. It’s an economic imperative. Why not instill in the youth a love for the sea and the nautical life? Perhaps then they can fully embrace whatever the job brings—the joys and the sorrows, the triumphs and the hardships. ~Barista Uno
Feel free to comment on or share this article.
I agree. The job is very stressful and long hours. I think it is more than a job, it is really a commitment, a very difficult one.
It is certainly a very stressful life, more particularly for the certified officers/engineers, since they are committed, accountable and responsible, for true sea-worthiness practically at sea, as these days some black-sheep / corrupted just certify in paper to satisfy the shipping companies to meet the needs of the regulatory authorities.
It is the men on-board that suffer. During a Mariners Meet, one of the old timer ‘Master Mariner’ commented that the high cost of the shipping company is of the salaries taken-away by the seafarers. Self got furious and said to the very same person: aren’t you taking away the high salary, not worthy with your poor educational back-ground of those days. Why not you try getting employed with a non-shipping or marine shore company and see your own worth. Owing to such mentality of yours, engineers onboard have rift with deck officers. All on-board live away from our near and dear ones.
THE COMPULSORY RESIDENTIAL TRAINING FOR THE YOUNG BOYS/GIRLS DURING TRAINING: Parting them away from their near and dear ones and leading a secluded life with stress on the phase of training – physical and mental inculcating discipline. Thank god, these youngsters are fortunate to keep in touch these days, during off hours in restricted periods. Stressful period of studies during Maritime Academy till passing out and hanging around with the shipping companies, manning agents etc for sea-time. The influential and rich get early placement, which is unfair in a democratic country.
As Editor and Publisher of MARINE WAVES, I have persistently been asking the Office of the Directorate General of Shipping to form a pool of passed out candidates, to ensure fair practice so that the candidate who passed-out from the Maritime Academies/Institutions get early posting on vessels for on-board training. Added to hanging around at MMD’s to fulfill the formalities to aspire becoming Certified Officers/Engineers. During which the parallel stressful period (for the maritime student and as well to the parents/guardian) FOR THE REPAYMENT OF THE EDUCATIONAL LOAN AND RELATED INTEREST.
Thereafter, the stressful period facing MMD Exams. as applicable. Viva Voce is the pain in the ass for the young passed-out student/candidate, as to not only preparing in studies but for the Viva, who and “what would be the mindset of the Examiner, for the Viva Voce? During that period the candidate is in the most stressful sandwiched period, between their parents, to clear for paying back the loan early, if passed by the examiner, when they pray to all gods to be auspicious.
If successful, then of the joining the vessel as a full fledged officer/engineer, which again here rests on influence and or else paying the Agents exorbitantly for employment, who opportunistically exploit them, in this stage after gaining C.O.C. Some Shipping Companies also exploit them with lower wages than the stipulated ITF wage scale as achieved by Collective Agreement of the Trade Union Act. Then follows the life at sea.
This sort of selfish mentality among us mariners after leaving sea-life should stop. LIVE AND LET LIVE OTHERS.
ChandranPeechulli, Ph.D
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
MARINE WAVES
http://themarinewaves.com/
There is nothing at sea or the nautical life to love anymore. The pride and pleasures that came with the job are long gone.
Thirty years ago, life at sea was rewarding. Nowadays we are just slaves of this godforsaken job. See new places? That’s a good one. Of course you’re gonna see new places, you are gonna visit new ports and terminals all over the world and most of them you are only gonna see from the navigation bridge.
What will you really have? I’ll tell you: utter and suffocating loneliness, tons of work load, inspections, prohibitions of almost anything that is considered fun, commercial pressures, thousands of regulations and more coming up every single year with their respective paperwork, ohh paperwork!
You wouldn’t believe it, you would fall on your buttocks; also short stays at port are the rule, the shortest the better. In that short period you will be welcomed with all kinds of inspections and visits from authorities to the point that you are gonna completely hate to arrive at any port and you are just gonna want to leave as soon as possible to the quietness of the sea. Legends say there was a time when seafares would dream about arriving in dearly loved port and feel crushed when time to sail came.
All these factors add up to the point that stress levels are so high onboard you can feel the tense and toxic environment everyday. Imagine working like that for 5 or 6 months and you have a recipe for misery, and doubt it not, seamen are completely miserable at sea, if they could earn half of that money at home they wouldn’t even hesitate to quit. No wonder why we say that the most happy day of a seaman is the last day onboard. It’ss sad because it wasn’t like that in the past, and you can understand solely by that phrase the true situation of seafarers nowadays.
So I would recommend to young cadets if they are serious about studying this career to pursue a job in cruise ships. It’s the only type of ship on which you will be a little less miserable than the rest of seamen at sea.
Yes, I agree with you. What we are shown in our school is that, yes, this is the path to heaven, join the merchant navy. But sorry to say there’s nothing impressive in sailing and the thrill part you hear is only till your first sail. After that, it’s just boring and stressfull but we choose this and we don’t have much choice left any more. Actually we are kind of stuck in over here and we have to sail till we don’t have enough savings to take a retirement.
Thanks very much indeed for your comments: Patti Barrera, Dr Peechulli, el lobo de mar, narrats