The Ship Years….
The ship years…
The first I ever saw a ship, at least one this large, was in 1992, when I was placed as a cadet onboard MV Alam Aman. She is about 180m long and is about the largest vessel I have seen.
To a non-seaman or a newbie, this is quite an experience. I still remember looking in awe at the engine room when I first saw it.
The years at sea started at this point. Merchant ships are large carriers of what we plain folk forget to realize that these men and women of the sea, turn the wheels of trade. No way is it possible to move the millions of tons of cargo, like wheat, sugar and countless electronics where we take things for granted.
Anyway, this is not a blog about economics, but I will like to place on record my admiration for those merchant seamen who face daily toils and struggles to ensure we get our food, our electronic gadgets, etc.
The sea is an extremely ‘fickle’ place. The sea can be as calm as a lake, glass-like, and then change into a roaring monster. Man, in all his supposed greatness, will not ever tame the sea but will always look into her and marvel at this Creation of God!
In my life as a seafarer, I have seen the greatness of God, the Creator, no one unless who has gone to sea, will ever experience this. Cruising on mega cruise ships is just not the same. I will always hold my time at sea, as a time when I see how SMALL we are in the scheme of things. To see the stars cover the whole night sky and to marvel at this, is, to cut it short, SIMPLY AMAZING.
Over the years since returning back to being a landlubber in 1998, I have always dreamed of this but put it in a place in the corners of my brain and locked it up. Not knowing how to experience this, In 2007 , i thought i could see this when i went on the Queen Mary 2. I did not see what i saw though.
The sights and sounds , or lack of sounds i heard, at sea, is permanently hedged into my heart and mind. God willing i shall return? but how?
The ship years was one of trying to complete the contract i had with the company that paid for my education. This job, thought me a lot , also thought me about discipline. Over the years, it was i must admit was an amazing journey, but at that time , more a time of boringness, a time for longing to be back to the ones we love, etc. Never did i realise how the sea had caught me in her spell. or is it Neptune with all his powers!
The following are the vessels i have at the opportunity to sail in.
1) MV ALAM AMAN
2) MV ALAM TEGUH
3) MV ALAM TEGAS
4) MV ALAM SELAMAT
I sailed AMAN, twice, in the beginning of my career and my final chapter too. In the process, it was SELAMAT who took me around the world. I circumnavigated with her. Starting in Jakarta and heading east through the Panama Canal and Suez Canals. I also did one trip from Antwerp to Fremantle, via Cape of Good Hope, my single longest voyage ever, 38 days long. On SELAMAT, I experienced the most, with the wildest seas, once between the Philippines and Japan. Absolute madness, we were loaded up, 60,000 tons, and was just thrown all over, rolling for 2 days about 20 degrees port/ starboard. with waves that could smack the bridge, and seas that covered the entire vessel.
Its a pity i lost all my videos which i took of this adventure. It was above everything my greatest voyage!
When i completed this part of my life in 1998, i decided to quit the industry because my wife was expecting my son, Francis. Also, i felt the company was short-changing the Malaysians by giving them the crappy ships, and in my mind, they were doing it to get rid of us, possibly cos we were more ‘expensive’ than the other mariners, mainly from China, Vietnam, and Indonesia. So, the naivety of youth prevailed and i left that year. The sea years ended. Never would i imagine i would return, almost 2 decades later.
The sea years is a time of learning , growing up and also sadness. I experienced all these emotions in these years. I got married, i got a son, and i lost my father. That is a time which showed how difficult it is for us to actually really say ‘Good Bye’ . All of us take things for granted until we really lose the things that matter. Never been able to say good bye to my father ranks amongst the saddest part of my life. He died on 27th August 1992, while i was at sea, returning from Australia. Getting a call by HF radio, from my mom, telling me the news, is one of those memories that i shall carry to my grave. All i can say is we often take these things for granted. Once things are lost, death is a Finality, there is no returning back. Remember that we are on this earth for a finite period. We are dying the day we are born!
So the ship years ended in 1998.
To recap the most formative time of my life - the period that moulded who i am. Showed me, my abilities, my weakness and made me who i am today.
