My First Ship
It was the 19th. March 1969 — more than half a century ago, that I joined the first ship M.V.State Of Kutch ( SCI Ltd.) in Calcutta ( as it was called then). It was my first trip to Calcutta too, and coming from New Delhi, where I grew up, I found it extremely crowded and congested. The ship was being converted as a Cadets’ Training Ship, hence we were put up in the Seafarer’s Club. My father accompanied me to the ship as I was only 17+ years old ( not a major yet).
We were six cadets who were joining a ship for the first time ( all direct entry). We were taken for a small tour around the ship by one of the senior cadets, and I still remember that when he mentioned that this way forward, and this was aft – one of my colleagues asked him where exactly do the forward end and the aft starts !!!. The very first day itself I had an accident – I was trying to lean over the hatch coaming to see what was happening inside the hold, when a sling of Carpet Backing rolls (1.5MT), jammed me with the coaming, and I fainted. Luckily, the winchman had seen me, so he had stopped the winch, but the sling just happened to jam me with the coaming.
Being a Training ship, with 8 senior cadets, there was a bit of ragging and bullying but was taken in the right spirit by all of us. We used to work from 6 AM to 4 PM, with breaks for tea, breakfast and lunch. After lunch, one group used to have classes, while the other group continued deck work. 4.30-5.30PM, we used to have PT – rope climbing etc – at sea only. After dinner, we all used to practice Morse Code signalling with torches, in pairs. It was all-around training – classroom as well as practicals, which indeed laid a very good foundation for us Direct entry cadets.
Departing from Calcutta, when I went on stations for the first time – it was one tremendous experience, letting go of all the ropes, and the ship slowly being pulled away by tugs. I used to wonder how we could handle those 8-inch manila hawsers, but then we slowly got used to it.
Our first foreign port was Singapore. We all cadets ( 7 at a time) went out together, and felt great seeing the clean roads and organized traffic. We later went to Australia, which was awesome indeed for us. Those days we used to stay for 10-15 days in each Port-like Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne etc and we found the Australians so friendly that they used to take us in their cars and show us around. On our way back, when we stopped by Singapore, all of us went out and bought some small thing or the other for our parents/bros/sis etc, out of our princely stipend of Rs 90/month.
We had a steering failure in the Great Australian Bight in bad weather, and we had to steer with Emergency steering, which was so tough – 4 people had to turn the wheel ( it was so tight), and most of us were seasick too. I was the only one who did not vomit throughout that period.
By the time we came back to our home port Calcutta, we had already become seasoned sailors. The next voyage was to Japan and the highlight was that we carried 5 Camels for the Expo-70, in Osaka. We cadets had to do the feeding and one camel happened to kick one cadet ( luckily he escaped). Out of anger, this cadet brought some paint and painted the camel with the same. We all had to clean the same the next day as punishment. When these camels were being discharged in Osaka, the C/Officer was taking pictures on his Polaroid, with one cadet on either side of the camel. The last Camel was brought, I held the controlling rope, and the First officer was standing on the other side. Suddenly this camel ( which was the one which was painted earlier), turned to the first officer’s side, bit him on the shoulder, and lifted him, swung him around for a few seconds and then dropped him. In the pandemonium, I left the rope and ran for my life. The C/Officer, threw his camera, jumped on the Camel’s neck and started hitting him with his fist. Then realizing that it hardly made a difference to the Camel, he got down and picked up a thick iron rod lying nearby, and was going to attack him with that, when he was controlled by some of the other officers. The First Officer was hospitalized for one month there and later was flown back home.
The third trip was to the Persian Gulf and for the first time I experienced the desert type of weather, which is fairly warm in the daytime – but quite cold at night, as it was wintertime. Our ship was a non A/C ship, and I used to wonder how it would be in Summer in those places as the temperatures touch 50deg C. We came back to Calcutta safely and having spent 11 months on that ship, I requested a short leave and signed off in Feb 1970. When I went back home to Delhi, all my friends teased me with my Hindi – as I had inadvertently picked up the shippy Hindi of bharela hai, karela hai etc instead of bhara hia, kara hai. But I must say that I really enjoyed every moment on the ship, mainly because the whole experience was new, and I had the company of 13 other cadets. It so happened that I was posted on the same ship again after a few years, as a 2nd Mate – and surely it was not as enjoyable as before because, firstly it was summer voyages to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, and secondly the thrill of being on the first ship was missing.
Capt TV Raghuraman
Joined Sea – 19-3-1969 as Cadet
Last s/off from the ship – July 2014. – as Master