What is best for cadets?
Posted on | March 22, 2010 | 1 Comment
On my first ship, the master, who seemed as old as Methuselah, although in reality he was probably only in his 50s, never spoke directly to me during a six month voyage around the world.
There was nothing personal about this. I was merely the junior of four apprentices and he affected never to notice any of us, communicating his wishes via a certificated officer viz – “tell that bloody apprentice to get out of this wheelhouse, Mister!”
I didn’t hold it against him either, assuming that this was how shipmasters, from the heights of their exalted rank, always behaved. On my next voyage, with a master who was a rather more approachable person, and who took a close interest in the education of apprentices, I nearly died of fright when this person wearing four rings on his sleeve, actually spoke to me.
But on those ships there were invariably four apprentices, who stuck together and a crew which, barring the odd Gaelic speaker, spoke English as their first language. What would it be like to be one of two first trip cadets from the UK on a ship where the language of the ship was not English. It must have been like suddenly being plonked down on a different planet, but it is not too rare these days, British crews being like hen’s teeth.
I was speaking to seven Maritime London Cadets this week, in London to meet the trustees of this excellent scheme to encourage British seafaring. We asked those of them with sea time behind them whether they had any really negative experiences to report.
One of them had been given a hard time by a Ukranian master of his “British” ship, while another said that the inability to communicate with the rest of the crew was the most unpleasant part of his initial experience. Interestingly, both were hugely positive about their subsequent experiences.
These were well educated young people, attracted to the sea and enthusiastic about the shipping industry, but I just wondered how I would have fared if there was barely a soul aboard my first ship who was able to talk to me. It’s the way of the world in our globalised merchant navies with the owners chasing lowest costs, and the flag on the stern becoming irrelevant, but it would be interesting to see whether there is unnecessary wastage as a result of posting young cadets to ships full of what are, to them, foreigners. Any thoughts?
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One Response to “What is best for cadets?”
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April 2nd, 2010 @ 8:25 am
A sad story to read about your experiences onboard as a cadet, my friend. These so called “old timers” must have grown up as cadets onboard vessels at the same type of “human” aproach as you faced and described in your story.
In an interesting discussion with one of my Filipino officers he stated that the most dangerous threat to safety onboard a ship is just an angry and not communicating captain..
There is a very interesting article in “SEAWAYS”, the magazine from The Nautical Institute. The article is written by Dr Hans Payer covering the financial crisis but have a look at the headlines re The Human Element.
One of my cadets just came to my cabin bringing some paper re computer inventory which he had fullfilled for me and we discussed your experience and compared the different ship board cultures one can face.
I wish you a far better Captain on your next ship and who knows, we may meet one day.
Soren Johansson
Master