Electronic Charts

My Favourite Book

2010-10-01T23:42:00.000-07:00

I love some authors, though they are not the typical best-seller types. Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow is my all-time favourite.
So is Winter Song written by, I believe a popular Mills & Boons writer, Karen Lockwood. These books were totally my own discoveries. Nobody recommended them. I didn’t even buy them. I discovered Winter Song ten years back in my ship, a bulk carrier which was on a long trans-oceanic voyage. I then proceeded to read it more than twenty times in the next six months. I loved the book so much that I filched it when I signed off from the ship. Fortunately nobody missed that book Winter Song.

Neither my wife nor my son, both of who are voracious readers, can understand my fixation on that book which continues till to-date.

It’s a simple love story set in the 1850s. Rich boy falls for a poor girl in a small town in the heart of USA.

Presumed Innocent on the other hand is a fast-paced book. Once again set in the USA, in a big bad American city. I am spellbound by the author’s command over the language as he describes a lurid courtroom story. A simple who-dunnit type murder rendered in a poetic manner. Scott Turow is the unparalleled master of mystery, twists and turns.

The best part about this book is that despite knowing the story after one or two readings I could re-read it many times over. I still read it now once in a while even after so many years.

I marvel at the meticulous manner Turow has built up the plot, leading the reader from one climax to the next till the final climax in the search for the murderer. The actual deed of murder is just an excuse in this story which details the grime of an American life-style, warts and all.

I can only wonder how the writer details the minutest nuance in a free-flow story, seemingly wandering away in tangents. Yet every line of the book is relevant to the central theme.

The lingo of a closed group of lawyers, criminals and cops has been effortlessly incorporated in this murder story. All the slangs and private terms they use in their everyday conversation make the story eminently believable.

How a fast society takes short-cuts with rules, laws and even integrity. Bending one’s normal lawful behavior to beat the nearest competitor. It is the story of a razor-sharp lady cutting through the maze of her life to grasp her goal.

How a law abiding citizen behaves in such an environment.

I love to read about these people. Vicariously enjoy leading their fast-paced lives. I imagine how I would behave if put in such situations.

In my heart I know that I am now used to the dull, monotonous, predictable life here in this small suburb of Mumbai. Nothing is going to surprise me. I will go to sleep latest by 10:30 for a sound seven hours uninterrupted sleep.

In fact I wouldn’t welcome any surprises – pleasant or unpleasant to disturb my dull, routine existence. I don’t think I am conditioned any more for excitement that upsets my routine.

Mark of Maturity

2010-08-30T22:57:00.000-07:00

“The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one” said Wilhelm Stekel.

J.D.Salinger, the legendary author of Catcher in The Rye, had quoted the psycho-analyst Stekel in his book.

The book is considered to be one of the all-time greats. What is so great about it? When I read it many years back the underlying meaning had escaped me. In fact I found the language a little unusual. Not one of those slick writings. When I read it again this time the book hit me like a swift strong punch. I was jolted as I grasped what the author wanted to convey.

It tells a story of a teenager, written in first person in the teenager’s language, who flunks his class and is expelled from the school. He moves around in a daze and seems to be heading towards self-destruction. A well-meaning teacher tries to save the boy but is unable to win his trust. Ultimately his kid sister saves him.

This book was published in 1945. It became famous because it touches a chord somewhere deep inside. Many of us have passed through this stage. As a young immature man many of us have wanted to die for a cause. At some point in our life we cross the fine line and become mature. Then we no longer want to die. We simply want to live for a cause. And live humbly.

It’s a pity Salinger never wrote another book in his life. For the next 50 years he became a recluse and shunned the world. When he died recently there was a renewed interest in his book.

I am curious to know how the other readers felt about the book. Did they also feel the same way as I did?

I liked the way the kid sister empathized with her brother. She never tells him how he should behave. When the brother decides to run away from home to go somewhere far away out into the west, the kid sister packs a bag to go away with him.

It’s brilliant. All of a sudden the guy realizes the futility of running away. He realizes he doesn’t want to endanger his little sister and for that matter his own life. He matures, so to say, and decides to live for something. And thus dig himself out of the hole of his own creation.

For the moment the story ends right there.

It will be interesting if someone writes the part II of this book - how the boy redeemed himself.

Of Electronic Charts and All

2010-07-18T06:55:00.000-07:00

In the morning there is the usual scramble for the newspaper. And generally I lose the battle.

‘You read it.’ I told my wife today. ‘Anyway I find the newspapers are more of a distraction than anything else.’

‘It’s got nothing about electronic charts or other subjects that interest me. The maximum that the newspaper has reached into my field is the GPS. Even that they write just once in a while. Moreover the newspapers never give you anything of importance. Just some drivel.’

For example, take this news snippet that appeared in the May edition of Inside GNSS, a magazine that I receive monthly:–

GAGAN DELAYED, AGAIN
India’s first GPS/SBAS payload, the GAGAN transmitter on the GSAT-4 geostationary satellite, disappeared into the Bay of Bengal on April 15 when its ill-fated launch vehicle veered off course. A key part of India’s GPS augmentation plan, the failure will further delay civil aviation modernization. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan promised another launch within a year.

The fact that our GPS aspirations are getting delayed over and over again doesn’t seem to excite the public. It was grandly announced many years back. Planned for launch in 2007, then 2008, 2009 and now plunged into the sea in 2010. But it’s yet to create a splash in our newspapers. At least I don’t remember reading anything about it in the news.

Of the one billion plus people in our country I would guess one billion remains blithely ignorant about this important happening.

Sad. Really sad.

Not so much that the satellite plunged into oblivion, but the fact that this event didn’t get mentioned in the news. Satellite launches malfunction. These things happen. And we will get over it. But who will wake up the sleeping mass? I guess that would take time.

Remember Y2K? The media had created so much panic on account of systems expected to malfunction at the dawn of the new millennium. That particular night of 31st December 1999 while the whole world was making merry and ushering the new millennium in I was on a ship hunched over the GPS and other equipment keenly awaiting the chaos predicted to descend on the earth. In the event nothing happened.

But something happened soon thereafter. In May 2000 the NASA switched off the SA (selective availability) error of the GPS. Suddenly making it into an accurate positioning system. The fact is that nobody (in India at least) realized it then that the world had changed.

I remember around that time the Director General Lighthouse and Lightships (DGLL) was executing a costly project of setting up DGPS reference stations all along the coast. In some class in the maritime college that I was attending, one of the instructors had sniggered and announced that with the SA error removed the whole project had become redundant. The unrefined GPS was now almost as accurate as the DGPS.

But I don’t think anyone of us in the class realized the true impact this act of USAF
would have on the world.

Switching off the SA spawned a whole lot of industries in the world market including in India. Like car navigation systems, container tracking, tracking of trucks plying all over the Indian roads. In fact, anything that required to be positioned accurately on a map. It even gave a thrust to the electronic chart industry of which I am a part of.

Meanwhile another revolution was concurrently happening. I am talking about the quantum developments in communication. Now we have GPS on the mobile too.

‘What’s your coordinates?’ is a common terminology understood by a layman on the street. Lay-people today are comfortable with such terms as Latitude and Longitude which was perhaps once upon a time understood only by geographers and navigators.

I love technology. If there is one hope that I have against the entrenched bureaucracy and corruption it is that the relentless march of technology would overwhelm it soon. There will be no secrets left in the closet.

The man in the market place will know it all.

Developing Inland Waters of India

2010-06-28T22:17:00.000-07:00

The government had an important announcement to make.

“There’s a business opportunity coming up. We want private companies to avail this opportunity. There is a big demand for power in Arunachal Pradesh. In fact in the whole of North East and East. We have already identified locations for setting up thermal power plants. These points are all accessible by rivers. The inland waterways department will make available national waterways to you.

Come along. Get your vessels. The barges will go on a merry go round. Pick up cargo from the dry bulk carriers waiting at the deeps at Sandheads in the Bay of Bengal. Carry the coal up the river to the power plants. Maybe you will get a return cargo of fly-ash. It’s a win-win situation for all.

We produce the power and sell to the consumers. The transporters make money. The people get precious power. The country develops as a whole.”

Wow! What a great plan.

An erstwhile secretary of shipping was given the mike. He had a bold announcement to make.

“Privatize the rivers! If JNPT Bombay can have a private container port why can’t we have private stretches of rivers.”

He looked around at the august gathering to see the effect of his words. Some government officials shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

Next the DG Shipping read out from the prepared notes. But after the above announcement it was difficult to get the attention of the audience. The wind had been taken out of the sails.

Then the experts got their chance to strut their stuff. Professional companies from India and abroad unveiled their customized solutions.

“We have 10 years experience in this business.
We have already set up such a system in Goa.
We have experience in Canada.
We already have a passenger service in national waterway # 1.
Transshipment is the magic word. We can deliver.”
…..and so on.

Till the mike came to a thickset gentleman from NTPC. The owner of the power plants. He is the guy who needs the coal.

“Imported coal is our last option. As a matter of fact it is a stop-gap solution. Our main suppliers are Coal India from the local mines at Dhanbad. Our first priority is supply from the government. I don’t see a long term future in coal coming up the rivers by barges.”

There was a stunned silence in the hall. On one hand the government was exhorting the private players to invest substantially in new barges, in new technology and help in carting the coal up the rivers. On the other hand they were not giving any assurance of cargo.

The mike came to Coal India. The guy was wishy-washy.

“The figures they are asking for is mind-boggling. Maybe we can supply but not right now. Perhaps later.”

Some more skeletons came out of the cupboard. Turns out that the rivers are not sufficiently surveyed. There are no night navigation systems and the charts are inadequate.

The government went into salvage mode.

“Gentlemen, good quality imported coal is the need of the hour. Domestic coal do not meet the standard. Historically there has always been a continuous increase in the demand for power. Unlike nuclear or hydro-electric the thermal plants have a gestation period of 36 to 48 months. Coal has to be transported. Road and rail network is clearly inadequate in the North East. So the only lines of supply we see are the crisscrossing rivers. Even if waterway # 1 is saturated after 8 to 10 years there is # 2. Let me assure you again, there is an opportunity here. “

The private sector was watching quietly. A few questions came up.

“Give us a clear picture. We don’t want any ambiguity.”

After all it was not a child’s game. You don’t invest in substantial tonnage unless there was a reasonable chance to make profits. Looking at the agencies in the panel – NTPC, Coal India, Kolkata Port Trust didn’t exactly set your adrenalins on fire. There were huge vested interests. Sorry. They needed to convince the private sector harder.

It was time for lunch. I had seen enough for the day.

I left my card in the forum.

“Sir, if I can provide any support please let me know.”

I doubt I will get a call. They were big men in the government. They don’t call. They only received calls.

Where was the hurry? It can wait. There is another year or two before I go on a transfer. Maybe to the textile ministry. New industry new issues.

I am guessing. Six months from now the project will be quietly shelved. Two years from now we will have another big seminar. To promote Public-Private-Partnership in the interiors of East and North-East, or some other under-developed region. Which lie under the hard-hold of the entrenched bureaucracy. .

Till then Au Revoir!

Post Script – The above seminar happened six months back. For several years I have been watching the Indian government announce grand plans to develop the inland waters of India. Nothing concrete has happened so far. No wonder the retired bureaucrat had burst out in frustration ‘privatize the rivers’.

Angst of an Indian Seafarer - by P. Rishi

2010-05-29T23:07:00.000-07:00

Brian Dyson, CEO of Coca Cola once said:

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them – work, family, health, friends and spirit and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop any one of these, they will be irrevocably damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life. "

Once upon a time riding off on a horse to conquer new lands or collecting pots of gold made you famous. Perhaps you'd even get a name in history if you were politically savvy.

Going away on a long voyage was a thing of courage that only the select few undertook! You were greeted off with really really warm hugs and kisses and good wishes from every one!

Today things are very different.

SUDDENLY THOSE HUGS AND KISSES ARE NOT SO WARM AS BEFORE!!

You are not at fault.

You are just the mouse whose cheese has moved!

Remember spending the evenings sitting by the fireside, sipping a glass of scotch and your friends hanging on to each word that you uttered while they drank your whiskey?

Today, who cares if you've been all over the world! They get the same thing in a syndicated fashion on the TV.

Does anybody care for you? Or for that matter do you care for them?

WHO CARES?

And that is fine. Unfortunately that is where the problem starts. What used to be "Success" in others’ eyes and "Satisfaction" to you earlier, now do not mean either.

Things have changed.

Information Technology has opened up our societies as never before. Some changes are good but some are surely not!

There is email to keep in touch with family. Telephone to talk to your friends, but the same instrument rings whenever Boss decides to have a chat.

The net helps us to maintain relationships with friends and families. Some of us find relief in taking a break from the daily work to browse. Looking for humor or satisfying a hobby. Thus stop deterioration of our mental health. On the other hand we could simply become an addict.

Just one decade back we felt exhilarated when Sparks could tune the HF so that we could make that important call from sea. Modern communication has shrunk the world into one single global village.

Suddenly there is no demand for mariners like us who could bring back tall tales of the sea and our exploits in distant shores.

You were a provider for your family. You were very caring and loving not just to your own family, but also to your extended family. To your friends you were the "greatest guy on earth". You provided for a home, and filled up that home with the comforts of amenities that kept your loved ones comfortable.

But something happened while you were away.

Each member of the family got their "Own Space" they wanted.

You Provided. But they forgot you.

Globalization hit you smack in the face. You tried hard not to slip off the edge as the world got flatter and flatter!

Economies have improved and there are lots of opportunities other than the sea. That's where the rub is for a middle-aged seafarer. Who is looking for a job ashore in another vertical specialization that will give him a comparable salary. Unfortunately the "past experience", certification and credibility in that new industry do not matter. With diminished opportunities some mariners choose to stay back at sea.

How does a seafarer address the problem of work-life balance that Brian Dyson advised? For a seafarer it's more like work on Mars (sea) and life on Venus (ashore)! How can they balance the two?

What a joke! Please take away ALL work from me and let me take my Sailboat to the Caribbean and just leave me alone! I'll take the life, you take the work! Please don't ask me to balance work and life! Where the boundaries of work and life do not meet how can one define which is work and which is life!

They talk of Compensation. There is an easy fix to many problems - throw money. Then there are some problems which no amount of money will solve.

Excerpts from an email posted in the Merchant Navy group. It reminded me of the times I used to sail. It is difficult to compare the life-style of a shippie with those who are ashore.

Navigation Made Easy

2010-05-16T10:28:00.000-07:00

“I envied the navigators on big ships who work out the time on the Local Apparent Noon beforehand, at the proper time pick up their sextant and go out on the bridge-wing and shoot. Then back to the chartroom and in a minute have their latitude. Sometimes I wondered which was harder about my noon sights – the actual taking of the sight on the tossing deck or keeping my balance. Any slip on deck, especially with seas coming over, could mean a broken sextant. A few times I had taken a fall on my elbow and once I thought I had broken the instrument. It frightened me a little and I pasted a warning on the box

BUST YOUR BONE BUT SAVE THE SEXTANT.

Thus wrote William Willis fifty years back describing his epic voyage all alone across the Pacific on a balsa raft. Willis hadn’t seen modern navigators with accurate GPS position being plotted real-time on electronic charts. The guy would had probably gone into a shock.

The old school of navigation is a dying art. When I started my career in 1979 the sextant was the most important tool in a ship. How many of the current crop of mariners have heard of sounding sextants. It is built specifically to measure horizontal angles. Two such angles taken simultaneously would give an accurate fix plotted with a station pointer.

Those days coastal navigation was an interesting subject. Taking over a watch meant we had to study the chart carefully, pick up the binoculars, go out on the bridge wing and for the next 10 to 15 minutes identify all the important coastal features. We learnt practical geography in a way which no classroom could match. The colour of the sea, the smell in the air all those things had some clues for us. Today, with GPS, the charm of navigation is no more there.

Hyperbolic position fixing systems were developed just after WWII. Decca was the one most commonly used by the navigators.

They laid various chains all over the world but mostly in Europe and Australasia. In India we had the Calcutta chain in the east and the Salaya chain in Gujarat. When the coast dipped out of visual sight the radio receivers helped us to fix our positions till about 300 kms from the stations.

The chains ceased to operate in March 2000 finally bowing out to satellite navigation. Terms such as hyperbolic fixes, lane slips and decca charts disappeared from our vocabulary.

In the early eighties the transit navy navigation satellite system (NNSS) appeared on the scene. We were witnessing a revolution in the making. Satellite navigation would shortly eclipse all other types of navigation.

The NNSS however, was not a threat to terrestrial navigation. We got one Sat fix during a four-hours watch. Acquiring the satellites was a long drawn out process. And it wasn’t always that one could get an acceptable fix. An accuracy of 1 mile was considered to be good. Apart from ocean navigation it was not of much use. Transit NNSS was retired in 1996.

By the nineties the GPS had become an integral part of our bridge. With the deliberately induced Selective Availability (SA) we got a fix accuracy of ± 100 metres. The best part about GPS was that it gave us continuous fixes. With GPS position systems Electronic Charts became a meaningful system.

The midnight of 31st December 1999 was a defining moment as far as celestial navigation was concerned. The techies had somehow managed to create the Y2K scare. As the roll-over to the new millennium approached closer the mariners showed an earnest interest in astro-navigation. I remember we were instructed by our superintendents to practice star sights as ‘GPS might not be available wef 01st Jan 2000.’

That particular night whilst the whole world was merry-making and ushering in the new millennium, I was on the ship hunched over the GPS and other equipment keenly awaiting the chaos predicted to descend on the earth. In the event nothing happened. It was the last time deck officers would seriously consider celestial navigation.

When the SA was discontinued in May 2000 the GPS dramatically improved its accuracy to ± 15 metres. Those who wanted still better accuracy could always install a Differential GPS receiver (± 5 mtrs).

In the quest to continuously improve the accuracy the agencies have come out with the Satellite Based Augmented Systems (SBAS).

Some of the SBAS are the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) operational since 2003 in US, European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) which was commissioned a few months back and the MSAS in Japan. India (GAGAN) and China (Beidou) also have plans to provide such systems for both aircraft and marine navigation.

The WAAS has an accuracy of ± 1.5 meters depending on your geographic location.

In SBAS there is no need to carry a separate receiver to receive the satellite corrections. The same GPS receiver is good enough to get the corrections. No additional cost involved here. The other thing is that DGPS works quite close (150 miles) to the land-based reference station. Unlike in SBAS the coverage in DGPS is very limited.

Good news for mariners is that all these SBAS systems – WAAS, EGNOS and MSAS are compatible. One receiver is good enough. In the recent future I expect most ships to have augmented GPSs. With the cost of a receiver less than 50 dollars shipowners can place a number of augmented GPS receivers at strategic points of a big ship. All points of a vessel will be accurately traced in a tight maneuver. It would be very useful when entering docks or navigating in narrow rivers.

Scripting a New India

2010-04-30T22:12:00.000-07:00

“Capt. Raj?”

“Speaking.”

“Hi, this is Capt Jagan here. How are you?”

“Oh Hi.” I had spoken to Jagan a couple of times before. He used to be the master of a VLCC when his ECDIS had a problem. Later he joined Essar office.

“I didn’t know you are a charged hydrographic surveyor,” he said with a laugh,

“How do you charge a surveyor by the way? Do you put a 220V through him?”

I laughed.

“We need your signature to authenticate a hydrographic survey that we have carried out.”

“For what?” I asked, “Are you submitting the survey to the HO?”

“No no. This is a requirement of the state maritime board.”

A week later one fine morning, all of a sudden I got a call from Jagan,

“Sorry for the short notice. Can you come to Hazira today?”

"How long does it take by taxi?” I asked.

“Five hours.”

Provided you had a top-end car and there was no traffic, which he forgot to tell me. It took me nine hours to muster a good car, grab an overnighter bag and reach the Essar office at Hazira. On the highway I found lots of construction going on. The Surat to Mumbai highway was going to become world-class.

”Kab tak ho jayega?” I asked the driver. Before the next monsoon he told me. Meanwhile my left hand was clutched on the handle bar and my right on my heart, as the fast car zoomed through the traffic. It was swerving in and out overtaking all kinds of trucks forming an endless line to Gujarat.

So there I was. Back in Essar. I had sailed in Essar ships ten years back. I felt I was back amongst familiar surroundings and known people.

Rao is the boss of that unit. An old timer who has been through the ups and downs of the company, many downs till this dizzying ‘up’ happened. He inherited the chair from a retired admiral who didn’t wait for the good times to come. Rao has a band of hard working people under him.

I knew Manoj from the Navy. Both of us were from the hydrographic branch. Jagan Lal is a workhorse. He has carried the hectic life of a ship during loading/discharging to this shore post. Somebody should tell him to relax. Unlike a ship which has a fixed tenure that ends after a few months, here on-shore life goes on and on and on… I was meeting these guys at a port terminal being built by Essar.

Hazira is, or till recently was, a god-forsaken place. Essar has an iron ore plant here where they make hot-bricketed iron (HBI). It has a market in the far-east – Japan, Korea and now increasingly to China. A new port is coming up here. Lot of infrastructure is being built. A new face of India is being scripted here.

On the other side of the road Essar has built a township. On land that had being reclaimed from the sea. I am not sure if ‘reclaimed’ is the right word. Because as Leslie Forbes wrote in ‘Bombay Ice’

“How do you reclaim something that was never yours in the first place?”

Nevertheless, from the swampy wastelands Essar has created Nand Niketan, a paradise of a place. There is greenery all around. The place is well planned and well managed. It has all amenities available such as play-grounds, swimming pool, schools, and shopping centers including a mall. So much so, that the 7000 fortunate residents hardly feel the need to go to the big city 18 kilometers away.

In the Essar office Jagan appeared a little pressurized. “What are your charges?”

I said “Look, I don’t know what the job is. Anyway, what is the hurry?”

Jagan got a little more pressurized.

“You have to simply put your signature and authenticate the survey.”

“For whose benefit?”

“For the benefit of the maritime board. They want a charge surveyor to authenticate the survey.”

Jagan mentioned a figure. I nodded my assent to his great relief.

The hydrographic surveyor from the maritime board came in. He was a chilled out fellow. It turned out we had served on the same ships. We knew many of the old timers from the branch. We got along well.

“Kabhi aaiye GMB mein. Main aapko wahan set kara doonga.”

I gave him my charming smile.

I was impressed by the developments Essar and its employees had wrought upon Gujarat. They are pumping funds in Jamnagar and Hazira. Transforming the non-descript places on the map into modern cities.

If somebody wants to see how infra-structure should be developed out of nothing they should visit these places.

Postscript – Some names have been changed to protect the identities.

Feedbacks

2010-04-28T23:18:00.000-07:00

“We work hard and we play harder.”
‘When do you sleep?’ I asked.
“Isn’t that boring?”

At midnight my ex Navy friend, now well settled in Singapore, was taking us around in his spacious SUV. I was having trouble trying to keep my eyes open. According to that fellow Singaporeans found ‘sleeping’ a boring activity. The families sitting behind laughed.

On the roads there was quite a bit of traffic. Some pedestrians on the sidewalks. The scene outside resembled a normal evening in any of the cities around the world. But this was past midnight.

I was in Singapore to attend an ECDIS conference. The conference was well attended by shipping companies. This is the one group generally missing from seminars and conferences. As usual the main subject was IMO’s resolution to make ECDIS mandatory from 2012 onwards.

Whereas OEMs are enthusiastic about embracing every new technology that comes their way, ship-operators are more circumspect. Their attitudes towards new gizmos was summed up as:

"Keep looking out of the window because, When technology becomes your Master you can navigate faster to disaster.”

One shipping superintendent gave a realistic picture of how his company was dealing with ECDIS, digital charts, AIS, GMDSS and other peripheral developments that have invaded the bridge in the recent years.

The people who run the ship – Master, Chief, Second are not very highly educated. Most of them do not have a college degree. After school they do a few months of specialized training from an institute before joining the ship as a cadet. The real training begins then.

Without any formal degree deck officers are expected to grapple with the sophisticated equipment arraigned on the bridge. A guy is considered knowledgeable if he can master the operating manual of a fitted equipment. Most times the fellow memorizes the one page instruction sheet that is attached as a quick reference guide to the instrument. But then he is a practical fellow. Faced with operating a huge vessel in a real world where a moment’s lapse could result in a spectacular incident the OOW finds out all that is useful about the equipment from the point of view of running a ship.

My instinct says that OEMs who have developed a system in response to the industry feedback stand a better chance against those that have been developed by highly technical engineers and scientists ensconced in their cubicles but cut off from the real world.

C-Map digital charts was created purely from the point of view of the navigator. It was modeled according to the market response. It has succeeded despite there being no regulations forcing its usage. On the other hand the ENC is an IMO/IHO creation. Howsoever well-meaning they are but they have not catered for the user feedback. There are hardly any users to start with so where is the useful feedback?

S-57, S-63, ENC, SENC, RENC, WEND are all alien words to the bridge OOWs. Even today, at least in India, books on the subject haven’t yet penetrated to competency students. As such, students retain at most 10% of what is taught in the classroom. Rest of the knowledge comes from the field through practical usage. The majority of ships out there do not have ECDIS. The percentage of ships fitted with ECDIS hardware could be 10% or 5% or even less.

When the bridge OOW sees an ECDIS he doesn’t realize that as per the definition it would not qualify as a proper ECDIS. Maybe as an ECS, but not as an approved ECDIS. Truthfully speaking even a properly approved ECDIS might become an ECS without the knowledge of the user if the ENCs that he uses are not up-to-date. There would be no alarm because there is no specific definition for an up-to-date chart. Up-to-date as of when? A month, a fortnight, a week or a day? Even the hydrographic offices have not reached a consensus amongst themselves how often to issue corrections.

Back on the bridge the OOW doesn’t know (as yet) that he doesn’t have ENCs on board. Maybe raster charts or some other vector charts. So they learn to use ARCS, C-Map or Transas charts. Unfortunately for him the rules are ambiguous. SOLAS has a definition for the vector ENCs but is not clear about non-ENCs. In the absence of specific information some of them feel C-Map is ENCs.

“Isn’t it vector?”

Sealing the argument by implying that raster is non-standard and vector is better. And acceptable.

When some owners buy ENCs to go along with C-Map the OOWs realize that in certain parts of the world C-Map is far better than the ENCs.

Mariners talk amongst themselves. C-Map comes out tops mainly because it was there not because it was mandated but because it was useful. ENCs are considered heavy, complicated, time-consuming, difficult to select from chart catalogs and expensive. After all that unraveling of instructions and breaking your head the official charts turn out to be a damp squib.

The next few years are going to be interesting. Let’s see whether the seafarers who come under the SOLAS regime will get their choice of charts on the bridge.

The Trip to Singapore

2010-04-25T04:59:00.000-07:00

I haven’t written for many days. I have a valid excuse for this. Family holiday at Singapore! The ECDIS conference along with some company training was conveniently thrown in.

It was a rare event for the family. One that happens probably once in five years or something. We realized it. We took in the sights knowing that those cherished images weren’t going to disappear from our memories soon.

A lot of planning went into the trip. A friend of a friend living in Singapore was traced. Isn’t his wife a homely person? How old was the daughter? The age of the daughter of the friend of a friend was a careful bit of information catered for in our meticulous plan.

So there we were at Changi airport. Two sheets of paper containing our itinerary was clutched tightly in my fist. They were already showing signs of wear and tear. Our trip was yet to begun.

‘What is the next step?’ Swipe some Singapore dollars. SGD 500 to be precise.

But where is that limo that the hotel promised?
“Did you ask for confirmation from the hotel?” asked my 22 year old son.
‘No, but I thought it was part of the deal.’

I got some accusing looks. “Nothing forms part of a deal till you confirm it”, he tells me sagely.

I swiped the card. Entered the memorized pin number. Which would soon be forgotten once the travel card got over.

‘Joy, here’s your 50 dollars. Be careful. I want an account before you get the next 25.’
‘I suggest we take a taxi to the hotel. Not the Chrysler one though.’

The family heaved a sigh of relief. Though willing, but lugging the heavy bags on an MRT or a bus was a daunting prospect.

The trip to the hotel was nice. Very nice. The hotel was nicer. Going up to the 32nd floor on a lift through which we could see the Singapore skyline was wonderful.

The week passed like a dream. We had a lovely holiday.

“Dad, when will our country ever become like this?”

I thought hard about it. I listed out a few things which, in my personal opinion, as countrymen we must admit to ourselves honestly and do something about it.

- Sanitation. And by extension plumbing.

Till our country learnt proper hygiene, cleanliness and sanitation we will continue to spoil the countryside with open-air toilets. Similarly we needed good plumbing. We have good plumbers. Unfortunately these guys emigrate to Dubai and probably Singapore where they get a better price for their skills.

We must slot the plumbers and sanitation workers higher up in our social status. This is not so much of an infrastructure problem, more of a social kind.

As long as we tolerated the lôtă and the field toilets we remained doomed to our squalid fate.

- Bureaucracy.

A government servant by definition is exactly what it says - a servant. Available for service to the public and not the other way around. When the government employees are elevated to become masters of the masses, when we give them the highest social status then we pay a price for it. How come these guys enjoy special privileges that a common citizen doesn’t? For example some of them sport different-colored blinking lights which goes with a blaring horn to pierce through the mad traffic. Come to think of it. The traffic got worse only because those administrators who were supposed to address this issue were merrily roaming around with multi-colored contraptions fitted on top of their car. How come we never noticed, albeit in our short stay at Singapore, no such traffic-piercing vehicles?

I despair what damage job-reservations in the government for the under-privileged must have done to the country. It implies that the government jobs are goodies to be shared with the have-nots. Rather than making the entry harder so that the most committed would strive for a government job, it has become a piece of pie which can be manipulated to be obtained for oneself.

It makes me feel we are doomed for a few more centuries till we clear up this particular mess in our country.

- Air Quality (As also Water Purity).

We are prone to burning things. After all it is ordained in our ancient culture. We forget that in the olden days burning was a sort of purifying process against the forest all around and the forest-insects.

Today we have burnt away a good piece of our beautiful country in the name of purification.

Take any ceremony or any rite and we burn wood and ghee. A havan in a marriage is a must. Even cremation by burning logs for that matter. Burning degrades the air around us. I am not even talking about global-warming.

I am concerned about the everyday practice of lighting fires in our cities. Burning a garbage-heap doesn’t make it disappear. Instead of the garbage being gathered in one place it has only spread more effectively around the neighborhood.

Similarly the practice of spoiling the water bodies through visarjan and other such ceremonial acts. It is such an irritating thing to watch people throw a plastic packet containing dead flowers into a river or a pond and then pray for salvation or whatever.

A Fishing Boat vs an Oil Rig

2010-03-28T05:42:00.000-07:00

Recently I was at the port of Kochi (Cochin) with a group of scientists. We were there to test an electronic charting system (ECS) on board a fast attack-craft.

The program was to go in the morning and return by afternoon. We reached the small ship after crossing the elaborate naval security. The Commanding Officer, a young Long G (gunner) told us that the sortie could get a little delayed because his ship had also been tasked to shoo away a fishing vessel which was apparently pestering an oil-rig exploring for energy offshore.

Our plan was simple. Rig up the GPS. Set up the laptop. Connect the ECS to the GPS and AIS and get the system running. Out at sea we encountered our first snag that threatened to derail the whole exercise. The serial port to USB connector was missing. We could not connect the GPS to the laptop. It meant our electronic charting system wouldn’t function. I tried to connect the laptop’s blue tooth with another wi-fi GPS but it wasn’t working satisfactorily.

The chief scientist, an old experienced hand, said,

“I have my personal laptop. It has a nine-pin serial connector.”

The day was saved. I quickly loaded the ECS software, activated the charts with the license and connected the GPS to the serial port. The system was up and running in no time.

The ship had a tiny bridge. On top of that the CO was an aggressive fellow shouting at one and all. With all that shouting and movement we could not do our job. The mark of a good seafarer is that he can improvise on the spot. We shifted to the navigating officer’s night cabin and commissioned it into a temporary lab.

The whole day we tested the system and conducted practical training for the group of participants.

In the middle of the training the ship was stopped. They had to carry out diving at sea. Compared to a steaming ship, a stopped ship rolls much more due to the effect of waves. Most of us got a little queasy.

In the afternoon, once diving was completed the ship proceeded at full speed to open sea towards the deepwater rig to chase the trouble-maker fishing boat. The sea had picked up meanwhile. I felt a little tired. I had forgotten how bad it was on a small, noisy ship which rolled and pitching uncomfortably in sea-state 5.

I didn’t envy the CO’s job. He had to scream a lot to get the work done. I decided to never ever complain about my present job.

It was so uncomfortable I couldn’t sit anywhere. I didn’t even feel like taking notes though there were enough activities going on.

Finally we reached the oil-rig about 100 miles from the coast. There was a small miserable fishing boat close by. Doing nothing.

A naval sailor took out a loud-hailer.

Hie! Shouted the sailor in the local tongue malayali . Get out of this place. C’mon. Scram!

Nothing happened. After fifteen minutes of hollering and circling around the small boat, a wizened old dark fellow crawled out on to the deck. He was wearing just a lungi and was bare from waist upwards. The poor fellow looked at us silently. He gestured in futility at the oil rig. Then he went inside to start the boat engines.

Look at the irony of his situation. This is his fishing ground. For generations he and his ancestors have fished in this place. Out of nowhere this big oil-rig has moved in and disrupted his life.

His fishing ground was encroached upon by the foreign vessel manned by foreigners. When he protests, they put the Navy on him to shoo him away. By his logic this Navy should be protecting him instead.

After all, what was the guy doing? He is just a small fisherman. Trying to earn his livelihood by catching fish which you and me will eat. In this modern age he is already handicapped by the lack of sophisticated boats and equipment.

I mentioned this to the CO. He agreed with me whole-heartedly. But he has to obey the orders.

‘I have to report back to the headquarters.’

He is just a decent cop. He wasn’t paid to take anybody’s sides.

‘Why can’t he fish somewhere else?’

Try telling that to the fisherman. He will fish where he finds the fish. Not somewhere else. These were his fishing grounds.

After another ten minutes when the boat started to move away slowly the CO gave orders to head back towards the shore. For all he knew the fishing boat would turn back when he finds the Navy ship gone.

The CO didn’t care. He will make a report to the HQ and get on with his life.

A Real Hero

2010-03-14T20:30:00.000-07:00

I met Capt. Raj Kumar Goel about three years back. He was the CEO of Silver Port Services and he needed some charts for Pawas Port under his management. I found the gentleman quite decent and pleasant.

Last year, when my son was assigned a project on Corporate Social Responsibility in shipping industry, I gave him Capt Raj Goel’s contact to follow up.

Raj Goel was quite nice about the whole thing. He gave the youngster a detailed interview. He took his time to explain his responsibilities and specifically what his company was doing towards corporate social responsibility.

We hope we are doing our little bit for the industry by making our ports safe and secure for the ships.

At that time I didn’t know who exactly was Raj Goel and his claim to ‘fame’.

Back in 1996 I decided to leave the Navy to go into commercial shipping. The next three years I did the rounds of the maritime college. I was appearing for Master (Foreign Going) competency exams as well as going through the numerous modular courses.

During this period amongst our shipping circles we used to hear stories about an Indian Master who was languishing in a jail in Taiwan. Apparently his ship had collided with a fishing trawler killing some fishermen. The Master was all alone in an alien land.

I used to feel uneasy listening to the rumors about him. Since it had happened to a stranger it all seemed a little remote and unreal.

Some months back another Indian Master, Capt Glen Aroza’s name popped up in the shipping circles. He had been arrested after his ship had collided with a boat off Taiwan causing the death of some fishermen.

The news on the net said that it was virtually a repeat of Capt Raj Goel’s incident. It dawned on me that they were talking about the same fellow.

Our offices were in the same building. Sometimes I met Raj in the premises but at no point during our association of 3 years he let out the terrible ordeal that he had undergone in the past.

I trawled the net and came across the site where Raj had posted details of his detention at Keelung, a port in Taiwan.

I went to meet the gentleman. As usual he welcomed me with a smile. He shut down his laptop, got up from his chair and shook hands with me.

Over a cup of tea he told me his story.

Coming back to sea after a 5 month lay-off, he had just taken over as the Master of a big container vessel on 04th February ‘96. The ship sailed out from Hong Kong bound for Los Angeles. That same night the incident happened.

The third officer was on watch on the bridge that time. He had given a hard wheel to avoid a boat. He called the Master after the course alteration. Raj came up on the bridge to assess the situation. They didn’t find anything amiss. They didn’t realize that the ship had gone over the net of a trawler.

Later during the investigations it was concluded that the long wire of the trawler had snagged upon the bow of the huge ship. The boat had dragged behind till it capsized.

Meanwhile the net had fouled the propeller. Within the next few hours the propeller RPM came down and the ship’s speed reduced. The ship decided to enter Taiwan to get her propellers checked. In the port the police came on board. The Master and the third officer were arrested.

From being the Master of a huge ship with a spacious captains cabin Raj Goel found himself in a 7’ x 10’ filthy cell sharing the space with four petty criminals. For the next five and half months he remained in this cell without bail.

In my clear conscience I could not comprehend what is it that I have done to deserve this treatment. One day I was Captain of a ship and the next day I found myself in a small prison cell in an unknown land.

‘Was the judge harsh on you?’ I asked.

Raj shook his head. “The judge was nice. He couldn’t give me bail immediately because then the fishermen lobby would had got angry.”

When he finally got bail the P&I club arranged for a house for the three Indians – the Master, third and the able-seaman. The AB left shortly because there was no case against him. He was actually the duty AB on paper. He was never on the bridge when the incident happened.

Raj was detained for the next three years waiting for the law to take its own course. At the end the courts found him innocent and acquitted him of all charges. He was allowed to return to India.

‘Did the Indian government help’, I asked.

“No. Our government doesn’t do much. Had it been an American or European citizen or even a Taiwanese for that matter their government takes up their causes very strongly.”

The ordeal had taken its toll. His family suffered when he was far away and helpless to do anything. Raj Goel was an unfortunate victim of criminalization of seafarers. In any marine incident the ship and the master in an alien country becomes a soft target.

What sustained him through all those years?

“Letters written by children telling me not to worry, that they were praying to God. Those letters are my prized possessions today.”

After returning to India he was sitting at home without a job for over a year. Yet he didn’t allow this terrible episode to overwhelm him. After five years he finally got a job. He sailed for another three years and then switched over to a shore job. In 2007 he joined Silver Port Services because it offered more challenges.

Today by any yardstick he is a successful man. He wants to contribute to the same industry that had ditched him earlier.

Said Susruto Das, his batchmate from TS Rajendra, "Goel is a very helpful chap. Today he has a nice family with two lovely kids and a flat on Palm Beach Road."

When my son went to him with his project, he was patient with him. He gave his precious time to answer the questions with all sincerity. He never let the boy feel how busy he was or how great his position.

I never detected any bitterness in Raj. For sure he has enough reasons. He never cried how unfair the world was or why me? On the contrary he always has a smile on his face. He quietly performs a high-pressure job. If at all he has a mild complaint it is about the work pressure that is catching up.

Today he doesn’t mind raking up his unpleasant past because "he feels that experiences and knowledge are only worth if they can help others."

Amazing!

To me he is a real hero. I wish I can claim the same determination the gentleman has. To beat back all that life could throw at him and emerge victorious. And never utter a word of it.

I am privileged to share my first name with him.
--------------------------------------------------

If any seafarer is in trouble and needs assistance he may contact Raj at captainrajgoel@yahoo.com

Commercial Compulsions

2010-02-28T19:25:00.000-08:00

Here is a piece I had written in September 2006 when I was attending the Master’s Revalidation Course at Mumbai.

‘How could he do it?’ thundered the instructor.
‘As a Master you cannot ignore a distress call at sea. SOLAS clearly puts the obligation on a Master. He has to save the lives of fellow seafarers. It is given in IAMSAR also. All through the centuries this has been an unwritten law which every seafarer has obeyed. SOLAS has even made it into an international law.
‘The Master of the other vessel had to be present at the scene of distress – if nothing else at least for the sake of humanity.’

I was attending the Master Revalidation course at MASSA Maritime Academy. The class was discussing the Red Sea incident which took place in February this year. Al-Salam, the Egyptian ferry had sunk 80 miles off Safaga in heavy seas. More than 1000 lives were lost and this was 2006. By all accounts it was a tragic incident, but entirely avoidable.

The Master of Al-Salam had initially refused to sail out because the vessel was overloaded. Bowing to commercial compulsions he took the vessel out. Mid-sea the vessel caught fire, which went out of control because it was detected late. Then the fire-fighters put so much of water trying to douse the fire that the vessel developed a list. The ship ultimately sank. Bad weather and heavy seas contributed to the many lives that were lost.

The most unfortunate part according to Capt Panda was that there was another ship in the vicinity, belonging to the same company, which ignored the distress call and continued on its passage. By the time other ships could reach the spot 10 hours later it was too late.

By his own admission the Master of the second vessel St. Catherine had refused to help because ‘the weather was bad and he feared the safety of 1800 passengers on board’. This vessel belonging to the same company was equally overloaded. The Master had conferred with the company director sitting in his office and they had mutually decided that St. Catherine should continue on its passage to avoid another disaster. There was a huge uproar after the massive loss of lives and some scapegoats had to be found. The authorities needed to show some results. The owner, incidentally, had fled to England. The Master of St. Catherine was immediately taken into custody on his arrival and put behind bars.

When Titanic sank in 1912 there weren’t any written laws for vessels to render assistance. Yet Captain Rostron master of Carpathia reacted in a most professional manner when he received the SOS. This was the first time he was responding to a distress call. He immediately altered course and proceeded at full dispatch towards Titanic 58 miles away. Carpathia reached within two hours of the sinking of Titanic. Had she not responded in this manner another 700 would had been added to the list of dead.

These are the long-standing traditions of the sea. SOLAS was adopted in response to the Titanic disaster. In it is spelt out the responsibilities and obligations of ships’ masters to render assistance thus:

The Master of a ship at sea which is in a position to be able to provide assistance, on receiving a signal from any source that persons are in distress at sea, is bound to proceed with all speed to their assistance, if possible informing them or the search and rescue service that the ship is doing so….

Humanity! For the sake of humanity seafarers must help each other. What’s happening to humanity?

Our class of experienced seafarers was there to learn. In the safe AC environs of the classroom words flowed easily. The bunch of hardened mariners was looking here and there avoiding each others eyes.

‘Sir, I want to say something.’ All eyes turned towards a young chap who had a belligerent look.
‘The conditions on board a ship are not the same nowadays. What humanity are we talking about? I was in a ship crossing the Atlantic. We sailed out of Malaga - Spain bound for US. Five hundred miles out into the sea and the Master makes a dreadful discovery. He finds a stowaway.’

There was a collective groan in the class. The Master’s worst nightmare had come true. A stowaway is like an unwanted pregnancy. Nobody wants to hold the baby. Most times the stowaway doesn’t belong to the country from where he got on board. Nobody will accept him, neither the port from where he came on board and certainly not the country to which he wants to go to. The ship becomes the unfortunate carrier. The company suffers tremendous losses trying to solve the problem in the name of humanity.

In this case the Master was miserable. He was new in his command and one such incident could finish his career. All those years of painstaking work and studies would vanish in thin air just because the @#$%*^ stowaway decided to board his vessel.

The Master called a meeting of the top four. He, Chief Engineer, Chief Officer and the Second Engineer went into a huddle.

‘Bara Saab, You are the most experienced amongst us. I have spoken to the Super and he told me to take your advice. What should we do?’

The Chief Engineer was livid with anger. The problem wasn’t his creation. He knew he was being blackmailed. The Super will pay heavily for this.

‘So, what did they do?’ asked the instructor

‘Ask this question to the Master. He spoke to the company. Fortunately the stowaway was overpowered and trussed up. He was a black from the interiors of Africa. Nobody understood what he said and nobody was likely to miss him either. The Master called some trusted crew members in his cabin that night. In the morning the black guy had disappeared.’

‘I was a second-mate that time. All I know is that the Chief Officer was not a willing party to this incident. After the voyage the Chief Officer lost his job. The Master is still in the same company and sailing merrily.’

We were all quiet and listening. As seafarers we have become slaves to commercial compulsions. ETAs have to be met. Fuel has to be conserved. Perishable cargoes need to be delivered. Where is the time to think about humanity?

No Master will stop his vessel in pirate-infested waters to pick up a distressed soul. The ship is not like a car. Changing over from heavy fuel to diesel for coming to maneuvering state is a lengthy process and takes hours. The vessel is not built for easy maneuvers.

When you see somebody in a boat waving his shirt you can’t believe that this is happening to you. Who knows whether he is really distressed or he is just another scheming bastard. Waiting to board and rob your vessel.

Why are the other ships out there not stopping?

Simply close your eyes and continue on your passage. Hope like hell that the authorities will not question you. And if they did – I didn’t see anything.
Commercial compulsions have resulted in reduced manning. With 16 or fewer people on board we simply do not have the capability to tackle an emergency. Life on board is stressed. Every minute on board is accounted for. Watch-keeping, meals, loading-unloading and sleep.

Those days are gone when there was time to relax and play games. Today if a boat has to be lowered the requisite excess crew members are not available. The exercise impinges on your daily routine. It only means the crew will lose out on their precious sleeping time.

In an age when masters are constantly asked to improve efficiency and cut costs, commercial compulsions have tossed humanity out of the port hole.
Paise gino aur chalte bano. Count your money and scoot.
________________________________________
Post Script: From 01st July 2006 amendments to IMO conventions entered into force regarding persons in distress at sea. The onus of providing succour to people in distress (and stowaways) is not the master’s alone – the contracting states are equally obligated. Secondly no company wallah can prevent the master to act as per his discretion to save lives at sea.

A small step taken to make the Master’s life easier.
Food for thought: If ship-owners and masters were to be rewarded and all expenses incurred towards helping people in distress reimbursed from a specially created fund, will it help us to discharge our duties more humanely?

Seafarers Fatigue

2010-02-27T22:05:00.000-08:00

It is common for a guy on a ship to routinely follow a 100+ hour-week, month after month. It’s not surprising therefore to find serious accidents happening as a result of fatigue.

The well analyzed incident of grounding of Exxon Valdez that happened more than 20 years back had documented the effect of fatigue leading to the great oil-spill. Yet, even now we don’t have a cut and dried solution to address this issue of seafarers’ fatigue.

I mean, by now the authorities should had found some solution like putting more people, giving enough rest hours or compensating for the extra work (not by overtime allowance which will actually encourage working towards fatigue).

Having said that, in my own case I used to find work on board ship was better than say watching a movie in the smoke room or playing a video game. It acted as a balm to the loneliness we suffered on board.

The other day I was browsing through the jottings in my diary. I came across this noting made on 14th Jan 2002. At that point of time I had already spent two months on board the oil-tanker with another 4 months to go. I listed out various methods to overcome the pangs of loneliness:

- look for the company of others
- have lots of friends
- read plenty of books
- how about liquor? A drink or two or a bit more can help in passing the time
- developing a passion

Finally I came to the conclusion that within the limitations that I was in, the best antidote was to immerse myself in work.

As such none of us had come to the ship for a picnic. Once you are away from family and home the overriding aim is to earn the maximum so that we could go back to our lives ashore. That is if your life still existed back there.

A few hardened seafarers do not have any life back home. Some of them are the mal-adjusted people on board. With whom you are confined for months till either you sign off or that fellow goes. It’s quite stressful to say the least.

I remember all of us looked forward to short-hand allowance wherein we could earn the salary of the person temporarily absent from the ship. Nobody ever cribbed or complained on account of the extra work. Most times the company was quite happy to distribute the absent-seafarer's pay to others in a ratio as decided by the master. Less people meant lesser management problems.

Were we stressed? Oh Yes! But, at least in my case, I used to find stress was better than the boredom of doing nothing or suffering from pangs of loneliness. So we used to somehow pull along till the end of our contract. Those days getting a relief was not always a smooth affair. Many times a month or two would pass before we got our reliefs. Those were the toughest times to pass. Stress was high and so was the frustration of being away from the family.

A little stress is good. It puts you on the edge and you actually avoid accidents caused due to callous actions or over-confidence. But how much stress should we take and when do we put a stop to it? Difficult questions to ask to those who consider 105 hour-week normal.

IMO is seriously studying this complicated issue. The Warsash Maritime Academy is launching a project named Horizon under the sponsorship of the European Union. The project will address the concerns over the increasing human, financial and environmental losses of maritime accidents caused due to fatigue.

Its stated objective is ”To provide a realistic, high fidelity, voyage scenario in which watch-keeper cognitive performance can be measured.”

Though, I have my doubts whether it is possible to replicate in a class-room the real stress out there. Most watch-keepers treat simulators as another video game and I dare say so would the on-leave volunteers from the group of young second mates who are going to participate in this project.

How does one replicate job-related tensions, intimidation by seniors on-board and by the shore-staff, tide and weather conditions, inspections, (poor) working conditions of machinery, hawsers or other riggings?

At least a start is being made and the authorities have recognized that stress and fatigue are important factors towards human-errors. For which they should be lauded. After all studies have concluded that 80 percent of all the maritime accidents that are caused are due to human-errors.

An Expo Advisory Board

2010-02-13T07:38:00.000-08:00

From time to time I attend this particular shipping exhibition board meetings at an impressive boardroom located on a high-rise overlooking the Arabian Sea. I am one of the regular members. More regular than most. Yet my contribution to the proceedings is merely as a spectator.

The chairman of this group is the head honcho of a shipping company. He is a lovable fellow and takes his job seriously. As a chairman-material he looks good to me. Of course I have not had the privilege of watching other chairmen from close quarters.

Sometimes I wonder why they call me at all. I did participate 3 years back in one of their shipping exhibitions with an independent stall. I guess where stall-owners are concerned I am one of the easily accessible types. Thereafter they put me as part of the committee for the last two exhibitions.

The owner of the exhibition is a business tycoon. I find him as an effusive fellow. Though short in stature he walks tall in the society. Ever smiling and ever optimistic. Nothing, I repeat nothing fazes him. Recession, slowdowns, competition, elusive customers and such, nothing affects his demeanor. In every bleak situation he sees a silver lining or an opportunity.

This tycoon openly praises the meeting attendees. He reserves his choicest praise for the chairman though. So much so that the chairman has to tell him to lay off.

“The worst thing anyone can do is to praise someone in front of him. I feel very embarassed”

Nevertheless, he laps up all the praise. Perhaps the small shipping community works in a clannish manner. Where applause and pat-on-the-backs create a pleasant atmosphere.

Some of the members are organizers. One of them is a South Indian fellow. I call him the smiling work-horse. I think his motto is:

“I will work till I fall down from exhaustion.”

The fellow has a sharp brain. In the meeting he rattles off all the details in a typical South Indian manner. Taking suggestions from everyone nodding and smiling, but is the final word on deciding upon the course of action. He gets done the maximum in the meeting. The other members who are delegated with other responsibilities are either too efficient or under-worked.

At every meeting there are some good snacks or good food. I like to eat the cashew-nuts and the pastries and all the other goodies. At the end of the meeting my plate is the cleanest.

Then there is this charming lady. The shipping company which belongs to our chairman is her big customer. I don’t know if such proximity to top bosses help in the business. Come to think of it, they are my customer too. Albeit a small one. But I don’t find any advantage in knowing the top bosses. Firstly they never talk about business. Secondly the actual dealings are controlled by the second rung leaders. In fact I find being bummy-chummy with the bosses is an impedance. The second rung bosses are not comfortable with you. Maybe I haven’t yet learnt how to be business savvy. The charming lady I’m sure is making a major part of her millions from this company.

Fine. So what do I gain from attending these meetings. Some of the industry captains now know me by face. Then again I don’t see too many shipowners or their reps in the board meetings. Once in a while the bureaucrats come. DG,JNPT chairman. Very rarely does the Nautical Advisor come.

At one of the lunch get-togethers I found myself talking to an old gentleman. He retired about 17 – 18 years back from shipping. But he continues to remain associated with the shipping industry one way or the other. He must be around 80.

I commented perhaps he is the oldest man in the shipping industry. Promptly he quipped

“Not me. I’m the third oldest. My cousin Ketan is the oldest. I joined in 1950. My cousin joined Great Eastern Shipping in 1948.”

The old gentleman narrated how after the second World War his cousin was sent to the US to purchase one of the liberty class ships which had become redundant after the war. The ship was bought at scrap price. Armed with that vessel and adding some more in the next few years the Great Eastern Shipping company started the Indian coastal trading.

One day I have to sit down with him and listen to all the stories he probably has in his repertoire. After all he has being associated with the Indian maritime industry for the last 60 years post independence.

Who will be my Competitor Tomorrow?

2010-02-09T22:49:00.001-08:00

The first time I left my house to go to the hostel my mother packed an alarm clock with me. It was my most precious possession. Every night I would wind up the thing which would wake me up the next day. Without this I couldn’t had survived the military regimen.

The other day I accompanied my eighty year old mother to the market. Our old alarm clock had finally stopped working. We were disappointed. We hunted all around but we just didn’t find a shop where they could repair the clock. Neither could we find a shop selling mechanical alarm clocks to replace it.

When I read this interesting article Have Breakfast or be Breakfast by Professor Y.L.R. Moorthi from IIM Bangalore I realized the whole world had switched over to cell-phone alarms.

According to Moorthi some of the biggest companies in this world have faced competition from quarters they never expected. And guess what, many of these giants lost or disappeared from the scene.

Examples –
• The largest camera sellers in India – not Sony, Canon or Nikon but Nokia cameras bundled with cell-phones.
• The biggest music business in India – Airtel. By selling caller tunes.
• The toughest competitor to airlines – video-conferencing services.
• Who is giving the Indian film industry nightmares? IPL cricket with its shorter 20-20 version. This three-hour tamashaa (entertainment) is pulling the crowds away from the multiplexes.

Which set me thinking about navigation charts. In India BA paper charts rule. It used to infuriate a senior Indian hydrographer to no end. In his interaction with commercial shipping industry he found no one seemed to be using Indian charts. Once on a visit to a premier shipping college this hydrographer found under-trainees being taught from Capt Puri’s book on Chart Work where it stated ‘charts mean BA charts’. He found many navigators had not even heard of National Hydrographic Office at Dehra Dun which makes Indian charts.

Today who is the serious competitor to BA charts? Not NOAA or any other HO but C-Map charts now taken over by Jeppesen. In the eighties and nineties Dr. Giuseppe Carnevali and Fosco Bianchetti had led Navionics and C-Map digital charting companies respectively and created a market in the light marine sector where there was none. UKHO probably lost the opportunity here because developing electronic charts would have affected its colossal paper chart business

The big question is who will be the competitor to UKHO and Jeppesen tomorrow?

I don’t know. The competition could be lurking anywhere. Maybe it will be one of these cell companies or Yahoo or Google. If cell-phone companies can somehow enlarge the small screen then the map agencies will find them a difficult competitor.

We have to wait and see how the future unfolds.

Train Travel

2010-02-06T07:43:00.000-08:00

Rahul Gandhi, the youth congress leader, came to Mumbai despite being ‘warned’ by Shiv Sena, took a train-ride like an everyday commuter. The media went ballistic. Daring the tiger in his own den. Even if the tiger is just a paper tiger now. Still it was sweet news for the rest of the country who are fed up with the divisive politics of Sena. At least that’s what I thought.

When I asked Kuki, my neighbour’s daughter, her opinion, she was dismissive about the whole thing. Just a tamashaa.

"Let him travel everyday by train like we do. Commuting for one day doesn’t mean anything."

It reminded me of my days in the train. And a piece I wrote after a bomb-attack. I was quite bitter about the sympathy Mumbaikars got from the rest of the country. Mainly because only regular commuters understand the plight of a fellow-commuter. Any way here’s what I wrote in July 2006.

In the Warzone

Four years back I decided to try my hand for a shore job. So, after signing off from the ship I joined the teaching faculty and started teaching at Naval Maritime Academy. I used to travel by local from Nerul to VT. A distance of 54 kms took one hour to cover. This was the first time in my life I was commuting daily by trains. I had graduated, so to say, to become a true Mumbaikar depending on the local trains for my bread and butter.

Those days the Harbour line was not at all crowded as compared to the Western and Central line. I had with me a first class season pass. The crowd in the first class were the office going type and, in the non-peak hours there was enough space to put up our feet on the opposite seats and stretch out comfortably.

My day was a fixed routine and my life revolved around the 06:58 local. From home to the station was a 7-minute walk. Some days if I was running late I hopped in an auto for a quick ride. So….. 06:50 leave home, 06:58 catch the local, 08:01 reach VT. The 1 hour in the train was meant to prepare my lectures and plan out the rest of the day.

On reaching VT I used to cross the subway at a brisk pace and catch the Academy bus leaving at 08:10. The bus zoomed through Cuffe Parade and Colaba where we could see some of the eminent residents returning from the morning work-outs. It was still quite early in the day for the office crowd to throng the roads. At 08:25 I would reach the Academy, grab a cup of tea, before rushing for the first lecture starting at 08:30. The return trip was flexible and depending on the classes could be as early as 01:30 PM. I had lot of time for myself unlike a typical 9 to 5 job.

I came to recognize most of the regulars on the train in that one year. We had a strange camaraderie. I do not remember ever speaking to anyone of them. We used to acknowledge each other by the merest of the smiles and mostly it was by the softening of our facial features. Generally Mumbai local train commuters wear a grim face.

Today I hardly travel by the trains. But I do not miss them. The crowds have become unbearable and the conditions have deteriorated. Back then there was no need to fight for a seat. The rains are more severe today and tracks are flooded very easily. Life in the local trains has become bad. For a second class commuter it is even worse.

When the Western line suffered the serial blasts I felt an immense sadness. As such the commuter has a lot of hardships. He is totally dependent on the smooth running of the train. A slight delay or problem on the way throws his life out of gear. The trains are his lifeline.

There is really no other way to travel for those who stay far from their workplace.
Buses take too long, and the bad roads make long-distance commuting impossible. Similarly daily commuting by car is not practical, even if one could afford the high cost. Day in and day out you have to live through this mindless existence. Nothing can replace the local train – crowds, ramshackle coaches and miserable views notwithstanding. In terms of time taken and cost of traveling.

I don’t think Mumbaikars were back on the trains so soon after the blast because they can ‘bounce back’. Despite the fear of life and limbs and the sadness for the fellow commuters who died or lay injured, they willed their hearts to step into the boxcar. For what other options did they have?

I don’t know why the terrorists chose to plant the bombs in the trains. I don’t think the bombs could keep the crowd away for more than 24 hours. Perhaps a more dangerous deterrent would had been poisonous chemicals. After all that sound and fury of a bomb-blast only 200 people died.

Once I tried to count the number of people in a jam-packed coach. Four to a bench x 64 benches = 256. Plus 100 standees. 350 to a coach x 9 coaches x 150 trains x 3 routes! One and a half million! Do our locals carry so many every day? Three crore rupees generated everyday by sale of tickets! Is anybody auditing these figures? Where is the money going? Why is this not getting translated to a better deal for the commuters? Why do we have to travel in such inhuman conditions?

Look around yourself in a second class. Only common people travel in these coaches regularly. They don’t have the time and the inclination to protest. Most of them wear a glazed expression on their faces. But they all have a dream. An eternal hope in their hearts that one day a new line will be miraculously laid and super-fast trains will glide smoothly over it, and take them to their destinations in luxury. Like the ones on which Japanese, Londoners and even the Shanghai citizens travel.

A Mumbaikar has a burden. He has to subsidize all those ticket-less travelers in Bihar and UP. He has probably financed part of the swanky underground metro in Delhi. Because he is the murga.

A typical commuter in Mumbai can be profiled easily. Generally less than 50 years else he will not be able to withstand the rigours of daily traveling. Slim and nimble on his feet so he can take part in the daily stampede getting on and off the train. Fastidiously clean to keep all sorts of diseases away. He has the ability to switch off his brain at will. It helps to protect oneself from the plethora of sights and smells which assaults his senses everyday. He is deeply religious because he needs God on his side to take him safely through the day. He carries a black bag slung across his shoulder which leaves both his hands free. In the monsoon he carries a small umbrella which fits snugly in his bag.

There is no pleasure traveling in locals. As a matter of fact train commuters look at those who have managed to get out of the daily commuting with lot of envy. He is trapped in a lifestyle where he has to risk his life and limb everyday. Rains, floods, derailment, deadly stones aimed at him from the slums, bombs …anything can trip him in his daily journey. He lives in the war-zone and there is no easy escape from this.

It was disgusting to see the VIPs who visited the hospitals to pay their lip-service. When they said ‘we salute you and your Mumbaikar spirit’ I felt like giving them a sound whack on their backside. Have these guys ever traveled in the local trains? Who are these jokers surrounded by a horde of security guards who come to see the plight of a traveler in the hospital?

Who is paying the salary for their security guards and their swanky cars? It’s us! Despite paying taxes we have to go through the grind everyday and these guys live in luxury. To them we have only one message – you please fight the terrorists yourself. If you cannot, then privatize the railways and out-source the security to more able agencies.

We don’t need your noble words and the hypocritic faces. Just give us a comfortable train so we can carry on our jobs. Give us a less crowded and faster train with AC. We don’t need the windows because there is nothing worthwhile to see outside and it will save us the foul smells. We don’t need other people’s miseries to encroach into our mind and space. Please keep the slums, beggars, drug addicts and those living on the life’s edge away from us.

At least don’t treat us like cattle. We would prefer to have beautiful people, beautiful sceneries and luxurious upholstery around. If that is not possible at least give us a workmanlike train. After all we are paying for it!

Mumbaikars don’t like to talk very much about their local trains to outsiders because it is our private shame.

3 Lessons

2010-01-13T21:43:00.000-08:00

I counted sixteen Admirals, retired and serving, in the audience that had filled the auditorium. They had all come at the annual seminar of the Indian Maritime Foundation (IMF) including a retired Air Chief and a serving Lt General.

The most remarkable person I met in the gathering was Geeta Vir, wife of the chairman of IMF. This 75 year old lady had spent more than 50 years married to the Navy first and then the merchant navy. She stood by her husband in the Navy. Later when he became a Master in commercial shipping she sailed with him for ten years. She had a lot of anecdotes to tell of her experience at sea. Like crossing the Pacific in a storm, entering far-flung ports, dealing with various situations that only a mariner faces. Right now she was running around organizing the whole show. She had the energy and alertness that would put people half her age to shame.

Though it was ten years since I left the Navy I knew most of the senior officers present there. This was an impressive attendance. I felt a little nervous to face the audience and speak on my subject – Electronic Charts.

In my younger days I had known many of these admirals as high and mighty personalities. Whatever they spoke was taken as pearls of wisdom. On this day too they were hogging the mike. Each of them giving their considered opinion. Except that they seemed out of sorts and quite out of touch with the ground reality. Mostly they were harping on their past glories..

“When I was commanding this (or heading that) etc. etc…..”

It was disappointing to see the once powerful men reduced to such a stature.

My paper was well received. Both the contents and delivery were appreciated. At tea-time many came over to congratulate and talk about the subject. I realized my previous naval rank didn’t matter. Just having the knowledge mattered.

Are there any lessons here? I have listed out three.

Lesson 1.
Stick to your strengths and prepare like hell. If you hone your knowledge continuously and remain abreast with the latest developments in your field you cannot go wrong.

Lesson 2.
Appointments and positions may all go away with time. Ultimately it is your personal skills that carry the day. Knowledge, power of communication, pleasant demeanor, physical fitness, mental alertness and such qualities will always stand by you.

Lesson 3.
Professional life is one aspect. Family and social life is another. You have to have a balance, so that one doesn’t suffer because of the other. Imagine the plight of a career-obsessed person who has neglected his family to reach the top. After he retires, which he must, he finds he doesn’t have either family or career.

These lessons are nothing new. We come across them in different forms at different times in our life. Once in a while they have to be re-affirmed.

As they say – “Live Your Values”.

Loneliness of a Mariner

2010-01-05T19:01:00.000-08:00

In my younger days, when I was in the Navy, I tried to behave as a gallant officer should. I was always on the lookout for rendering chivalrous services, especially for a hapless damsel or for pretty young things.

Consider this passage:

“..what is a gentleman ? I’ll answer it now: a Royal Naval officer is, in a general sort of way, though, of course, there may be a black sheep among them here and there. I fancy it is just the wide sea and the breath of God’s winds that washes their hearts and blows the bitterness out of their minds and makes them what men ought to be.”

It was written by H. Rider Haggard in King Solomon’s Mines in 1886! He had beautifully captured the underlying character of a navy man a hundred and twenty five years back.

The other day my wife, Sumita beckoned me to the computer.

“Have a look at this.”

I was in for a pleasant surprise. Ryan Skinner, a media fellow whom I had met at Norway had some handsome comments on my writing. He called my blog ‘limpid’. After chatting with me he had deduced that many mariners wrote well because they were lonely at sea.

Ryan had helpfully depicted a serene picture of an anchorage showing a number of vessels in the background. All of them uniformly facing towards the port. The focus was on a lone cargo ship forlornly waiting under the grey skies.

I could imagine there was a lonely second mate doing his 12 to 4 watch on the bridge. We have a private joke amongst Indian watchkeepers. It goes like this –
Who do you generally find moving around in the night?
A Whore, Chôr and 12 to 4.

Chôr, which rhymes with whore, means a thief in Hindi.
Basically it is a mild dig on the second mate who does a 12 to 4 watch for his entire tenure of 6 to 9 months in the ship.

I remember when our ship entered the port I would explore the new place. It was best done jogging on my two feet. It used to give me a lot of pleasure to watch the citizens going about their daily work. I would look at the parents escorting their children to the school. Or a housewife engrossed in buying vegetables, carefully choosing the freshest of the lot which would go on their dinner table later in the day.

I would pass through quiet residential areas, looking safe and secure, and wonder about the people who lived there.

Was I lonely? Yes. Actually I used to consider myself more in the mould of “loneliness of a long-distance runner”. And transformed into a lonely mariner at sea.

A Rare Afternoon

2009-12-21T03:45:00.000-08:00

At the annual Jeppesen Marine banquet at Egersund, Norway Aslak asked me,

“Are you free tomorrow? I want to show you something.”

I sensed it would be something precious.

‘I am free,’ I said modestly.

To tell the truth, I would have made myself available anyhow just to spend the day with Aslak Dirdal. He is the guy who created C-Map’s CM93 product. The figure 93 indicates the year it was created. It brings in over 90% of Jeppesen India’s revenue, and I guess, for the other Jeppesen offices too.

Next day at 1:30 in the afternoon I stood outside the hotel lobby. Aslak had warned me that Egersund’s Christmas Town crowd on Saturday wouldn’t permit him to park the car outside the hotel.

A big Toyota came in and Aslak waved at me from inside. I opened the door and slid into the seat. It was a 15-minute drive to the coast. At some point the car turned right from the highway into a lane. When the paved road ended we parked the car and got out in the bright sunny weather. In December it is rare to see the sun in Norway.

We started our walk up the slope into the meadows.

Aslak pointed to a house. “It belongs to Odd’s wife,” referring to a colleague at Jeppesen.

Walking on these meadows requires waterproof boots. I was wearing a simple Bata leather shoe. Fortunately the grounds had dried up under the day’s sun. The heavens had conspired to provide us with a perfect afternoon to walk and talk.

There wasn’t anybody around. Just some sheep grazing and two mighty fine horses at a distance.

We were going to a summer get-away. A house built on the slopes of the Egersund coast. Stapnes was on our left and Svanes on the right. Two communes overlooking the North Sea.

I, the son of a dispossessed refugee (Bôstu Hara) from East Bengal, was going to look over some prime ocean-front properties.

Aslak’s property was acquired twenty five years back. Current Norwegian rules do not permit acquisition of such properties any more. Here, in Norway one can trespass over others properties. You cannot build of course. I suppose it is to provide access to other holdings. Otherwise, in the absence of planned roads it becomes difficult to reach a place without going over somebody else’s fields.

The population isn’t much. So there is not much pressure due to crowding and infringements of privacy. Egersund has less than 15000 residents. Stapnes and Svanes would probably have a few hundred.

This particular stretch of coast has a number of bunkers. They were built by the Germans during WWII to protect the entrance to Egersund harbour. Aslak’s house stood close to one bunker.

At present the bunker was being used to store fishing gears and other knick-knacks. Aslak unlatched the door carefully to show me inside.

‘You don’t put a lock?’

“No”. He laughed. There are no thefts or vandalism in Norway. In India such an arrangement won’t work.

Inside the bunker on a wall was boldly written in German Gothic font

Losantin u. Gasläufer
nur bei Gas verwenden

Losantin is the name of a German decontaminating agent. The sign was probably a warning to use this chemical on rolls of impregnated paper to cross contaminated grounds in case of gas attack.

A relic from the Second World War.

From the house built on a small promontory jutting out into the sea there is a lovely unobstructed view around a sweep of more than 180 degrees. Standing there and gazing out to the sea I murmured to myself William Cowper’s words:

I am monarch of all I survey…

Out in the sea stood a cargo vessel.

“Whenever I see a ship I wonder whether it’s carrying C-Map charts.” Aslak said.

That is because it is his baby. His creation. Isn’t it a great feeling to have if you have given something to the world which people like? People buy, not because they are forced to do so, but because they like the product. There could be ten thousand CM93/3 users. The navigator or the Master hardly knows the creator. They simply accept it as a C-Map Chart. A reliable piece of product. It will help them to reach their destination safely.

“Take some salmon. My wife’s brother caught it. He owns a fishing boat.”

He took a slab out of the freezer. I am a Bengali and an avid fish-eater. My nose twitched with the fine smell. I eagerly took the slab.

‘But won’t it spoil by the time it reaches India.’

“No, no. it’s smoked salmon. You can give it to your wife once you reach home. Carry it in your cabin bag. Nothing will happen.”

Aslak had built the summer-house himself. Most Norwegians are good with their hands. I suppose it’s because it’s not easy to get hired hands here. Plus they are very expensive. I saw the floor-tiles and the bay windows. To me they appeared to be built by professionals.

It was 3:00 pm in the afternoon. One hour of daylight remained. It was time to leave the house and walk some more.

For two hours we talked about C-Map, electronic charts, hydrography and the world in general.

How did you join C-Map?

I narrated my story. I used to be a hydrographic surveyor in the Indian Navy. I left the Navy prematurely to join shipping. But I was not happy there. So three years later I started teaching in a maritime academy. There I started the ECDIS course in 2002. We were the pioneers of this course in India.

Teaching was not fetching me the money and recognition that I was looking for. So side by side I started a business in marine services.

I wanted to get into ECDIS business. In 2003 I became an agent for dKart Navigator ECDIS in India. From them we got a system to evaluate. Along with the system we also got C-Map worldwide charts. I used to spend many hours exploring the charts.

This gave me an idea to try and become the dealer for C-Map products in India. I approached the Indian hydrographer RAdm Vasan, with whom I had sailed before, and broached the proposal to take up the distribution of their Electronic Navigation Charts (ENCs). Vasan invited me to demonstrate our capability.

I immediately got back to C-Map and told them that the hydrographer had invited me; could C-Map tell me how they intended to market the ENCs?

My mail to C-Map evinced a prompt response from Tor Svanes. He was on board the next flight to Delhi, to meet the hydrographer. And so the fairy tale started.

Vasan remembered meeting Tor in some conference earlier. Tor is a charming fellow. He is tall, handsome and has the typical Nordic jolliness. He had the NHO people eating out from his hand.

Admiral Vasan had grand visions for NHO India. He also wanted to become a Director at International Hydrographic Organisation, Monaco (IHO). For this he had planned the mega event Hydro-India 2004. One of his aims was to use this event as a platform to project himself as a suitable candidate for IHO directorship. He needed sponsors and money for the event. He was looking at C-Map to contribute generously.

On the other hand Tor Svanes was looking to expand his business in India. To him Hydro India 2004 was a good opportunity to showcase C-Map as the world leader in charting.

Tor and Vasan both had their own agendas. I was just the facilitator.

At the conference my wife and I did a good job of promoting C-Map and managed to upstage everyone else in this game of one-up-man-ship. I remember at the event Wyn Williams, then head of UKHO, had complained to Vasan.

“Wherever I look I find C-Map.”

That’s how we joined C-Map.

It was quiet as we trudged over the meadows.

“I don’t hear the roar of the sea or the sound of waves breaking over the rocks,” I said.

“Generally it’s there. But today it is exceptionally calm.”

I knew we should savour the day and the perfect weather conditions. Nature will catch up later and Egersund will have some rough weather soon. Meanwhile it was heavenly.

Like the smoked salmon.

Letting My Hair Down

2009-12-12T02:24:00.001-08:00

They allowed me to tag along after the banquet got over. All young fellows and lovely girls. The girls looked too easy. But they weren’t. The boys were laughing hard. Very hard. I was looking at them with wonder.

Images of licentious behaviour flashed through my mind. But they had a limiting line. And nobody crossed it.

They were drinking a lot. Whereas, I have total control on drinking. They shared the roll. I don’t smoke. I can’t hold a ciggie. They have dreamy eyes and lots of money. They can shake a leg. And they were touching each other a lot. Do I fit into this crowd?

The girls looked so pretty with their encouraging smiles. I was tempted. Like Adam. To bite into the apple. But I wasn’t drunk. Not even high. Simply mesmerized by the atmosphere around.

I tagged along with the group. They called for a taxi. I was quite deaf with the loud talk in the background. I couldn’t make out what was happening. Where were they going? I got a little concerned.

“Where are we going” I asked the girl next to me. She laughed aloud and announced my concern gleefully to the group.

I left my strong views on humanity, religion and politics in the hotel lobby and got into the taxi-bus. I let my mind open up. To the crowd’s chatter. To the small talk. To new ideas. It didn’t matter that I didn’t understand what was being discussed. But I understood the body-language. Life can’t be that serious. Mumbai seemed like another planet. Poverty, injustice, terror, ailments didn’t exist. Not in this world. And if they did, I didn’t know and I didn’t care.

The girl sitting next to me asked “Are you straight?”

I let that question pass. I couldn’t explain to her about my inhibitions. Brought upon by generations of our culture of controlled existence. It would take me a little more time to open up. The night was still young.

As the night wore on and passed into the new day I found myself caressing the golden curls of the girl sitting next to me.

“Are you okay?”

I said I was feeling excited.

“That’s okay.”

I was dancing merrily. I had merged finally into the group. The only problem was I wasn’t drunk. Not even high. Just a little light-hearted.

The host came up to me and said in broken English – “I am a fisherman.”

Oh!

“Where are you from?” he asked me.

Mumbai!

At that moment Mumbai seemed very far. For the time being I forgot the rat-race, the unmet goals and the challenges lying ahead.

“Here take this fishermen’s knife. Be careful! Don’t carry it in your pocket. They don’t allow them in the airport.”

Thanks!

I was happy. Euphoric. No bad memories troubled me. I could stretch my hand and take my pick of the goodies around. If some slipped away, let them be. There was enough around. And lots of time to savour them.

I was laughing without a thought. No worries. No responsibilities. Not here. Not now.

And then the dream got over.

“Hey Raj! The taxi is waiting outside. Come! Raj! Get Up.”

I got up. Dusted myself.

Where’s my tie?

The girl with the curly hair was wearing five of them, including mine. She looked like a head-hunter. I collected my tie from her.

Ha Det Bra. Bye Bye everybody!

Resolution for 2010 - Learn Dancing.

The Milkman

2009-11-30T21:38:00.000-08:00

Every year we have a corporate get-together. The last annual get-together was arranged at Sirdalen up in the mountains in Norway in the winter. It is a popular resort for those who like to ski.

Returning back from the resort I was putting up at Airport Hotel at Stavanger, the cultural capital of Norway.

I had the morning free as my flight back to India was in the evening. In December strong chilly winds blow across the city. It took some resolve to step out of the cozy confines of the grand hotel. I was suitably donned in overcoat, gloves and cap and walked across the road to the bus stop on the busy highway.

There were two stops. I tried to guess which one was for the bus to the harbour front. There wasn’t anybody around whom I could ask.

After ten minutes I gave up trying to make sense of the time table in Norse language. I saw an approaching cyclist pedaling up the special lane earmarked for them. I smiled hopefully at him,

“Hi!”

“Hi”, he replied amiably.

Generally cyclists are good-natured. I guess it has to do with the good health. Cycling up and down the hilly roads keeps them pleasantly fit.

”I am looking for a bus to the harbour-front.”

He parked his cycle and checked the time-table.

“There is one after 15 minutes,” he said helpfully.

It turned out he was a Spanish student and had been to India to see the famed Khajuraho sculptures.

“In Madhyaa”, he said referring to Madhya Pradesh.

Presently he was working in the hotel to fund his higher studies.

The cyclist left. Meanwhile I saw a slim, tall and distinguished looking gentleman coming out of the hotel. He was pulling a trolley-bag behind him.

He came up to the bus-stop and smiled at me pleasantly. I remembered seeing him the evening before in a dance-party at the hotel.

“From which country?”

“India.”

When he heard I was coming back from Sirdalen he looked at me closely. Sirdalen in December is for hard core winter-sport lovers.

“May I inquire from which field you are? Medicine, Engineering or IT?”

“I am a hydrographer. Now working for a digital charting company.” I said.

'Well', I thought to myself. I should return the compliment to him. So I asked,

“What about you?”

“I am a milkman,” he said with a small self-deprecating laugh.

“Every morning I take my van out to deliver milk cans in the neighbourhood.”

Wow!

Images of our north Indian rustic doodhwala flashed through my mind. Every morning the guy hollers Doodh (Milk!) and gives a long press on the door-bell. Try as I might I couldn’t picturize our rustic gwala (milkman), wrapped in a Kambal (coarse blanket), swaying gently to the music and twirling on the dance floor with his beau.

Corporate Social Responsibility in Shipping

2009-11-23T23:05:00.000-08:00

The first time I came across the term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in shipping was a year back when my son, a media student, had to submit a project as a pre-requisite to qualify for higher studies. He came to me for advice. As usual we were short of time and I had to think of something quickly.

At that time (and even now) shipping industry was hit by piracy. There were dreadful stories detailing the plight of hijacked seafarers. As a community, merchant seamen are not taught to deal with aggressive situations. They have to simply run a ship and not handle weapons. No agency or government is backing them to fight the criminals. They are there to earn their bread. Fighting is the last thing they want to do. After all injuries can only limit their earning capacity.

Today’s mariners have a tough time dealing with piracy, terrorist threats, being put behind bars in alien countries. They are after all soft targets. Therefore, in my opinion any voluntary action taken by shipping industry to help the affected seamen should qualify as CSR in shipping. Especially if the action is taken purely to alleviate the misery of fellow human beings.

That is what I told my son. He took my interpretation in full faith. After all Baba knows best. And so his project took off.

He went around and met the contacts I had given. I nodded my appreciation as he took various interviews and wrote the reports. He was able to submit the project just in time.

He spoke about piracy and the jungle out there at sea. The International Ship and Port Facility Safety (ISPS) Code developed as a response to the 9/11 attack on the twin towers. The role a shipping company had assumed to protect the private port they were developing against the terrorist threat. It was a voluntary act undertaken by the company so that their port is projected as a safe haven for ships to anchor or berth.

“Doing our little bit.” The captain of the port explained.

The project was accepted and my son made the cut to pursue his higher studies.

A few weeks back I strolled into a Finnish stall at the SMM exhibition in Mumbai. Browsing through Maritime Finland’s Navigator Yearbook I came across this article “CSR in Shipping.”

Wow! I thought to myself. I know all about this subject. That is, till I started reading the article. I couldn’t find any mention about piracy/terrorism/ criminalization of seafarers. The article talked about sustainable development in shipping. The measures taken on three different levels – Planet, Profit and People. According to this theory true sustainable development in business is not only about financial profitability but also environmental quality and social equity.

The article talked about using clean fuels to reduce carbon footprint. The different challenges included risk management from oil spills, emission control through fuel oil quality and engine design, waste management and safety at sea. In other words the stress was upon the protection of the environment.

I was looking at CSR in shipping from a totally different angle.

Referring to the textbook definition, it says CSR is a concept whereby organizations consider the interests of the society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities and other stakeholders as well as the environment. This obligation is seen to extend beyond the statutory obligation to comply with the legislation.

It includes organisations which voluntarily take steps to improve the quality of life for their employees and their families as well as for the local community and society at large.

I guess the definition is broad enough to include supporting a hapless wife of a seafarer held for ransom by the pirates or jailed in an alien country for doing his job as best as he could.

One must remember that shipping is a complicated international business. It is common to have a Greek ship-owner chartered by a Dutch company to carry Saudi cargo to Japan. The vessel agents could be located in India and the crew is a mix of Philipinos and Bangladeshi nationals.

When Somali pirates hijack this ship the families are totally clueless whom to approach for help. In such a situation any action taken by a shipping company to mitigate the problems of the seafarer’s family is laudable.

Lately the internet has added another vocal body called the Yahoo merchant navy group whose members include anybody to do with shipping. They organize rallies, write letters to the government and generally act as an overseer whose views and opinions carry a lot of weight in the maritime industry.

The world was quite different when I was sailing seven years back. The salaries have shot up but so have the dangers. And the means to fight these dangers.

Tackling Piracy

2009-11-08T18:38:00.000-08:00

November is a dangerous month in the busy shipping lanes passing through Gulf of Aden (GOA).

Just after the monsoons fish is plentiful in the Indian Ocean. Trawlers and fishing vessels from the far-east and Europe converge off the East Coast of Africa in great numbers. It is the time when Somali pirates attack. The pirates are actually fishermen who are unable to protect the exploitation of their fish-rich waters from poachers.

Last year on 26 November terrorists attacked the Taj hotel at Mumbai. It became a defining date in terrorism - now referred to as 26/11. Just two days later the tanker MT Biscaglia owned by a company in Singapore was hijacked from the GOA. It escaped the media attention due to the Taj attack.

This story is about Biscaglia as narrated by the vessel superintendent.

There were 25 Indians and 2 Bangladeshis on board. The ship also carried three security guards who were ex-RN commandos.

The vessel carried a cargo of palm oil from Indonesia. Due to its load the freeboard (height of the deck from the water surface) was reduced to 3.7 meters. Her speed was a mere 10 knots.

On board the commandos carried non-lethal anti-piracy equipment called Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD). LRAD emits a high-pitch sound which bursts the ear-drums of a person on whom it is directed. The manufacturers claimed an effective range of 300 meters. The ship was escorted by a warship in a convoy. On that day she was supposedly the best prepared against piracy. However that day she became the only vessel to be hijacked from scores of other vessels plying in the area. It was the 97th incident of piracy in 2008.

On the 28th morning a skiff suddenly appeared about 4 miles away on the starboard bow. The LRAD was installed and operated. It didn’t have much effect. Probably the pirates had inserted ear-buds. Within no time the skiff with a superior speed of 20 knots came to the opposite bow and fired an RPG. The LRAD which weighs 20 Kg is not easily portable and could not be brought on the opposite bow. The vessel was doing a zig-zag course. It actually slowed down the speed and the vessel became a sitting duck. The pirates were able to put up a ladder easily and climb on board. From the deck they rushed towards the bridge firing from the machine guns.

In a trice they went up to the bridge, broke open the port hole to enter the bridge and into the mess decks. The crew was mustered, head count was taken and the vessel was successfully taken over. The skiff having achieved its objective left the scene leaving the two pirates behind.

The three commandos who were not reflected in the crew list were hiding on top of the bridge deck. They remained undetected. Later when a German navy helicopter appeared on the scene all three of them jumped overboard and were picked up by the chopper. They managed to escape leaving the crew to fend for themselves. The conduct of the security guards was criticized. According to the crew they were roaming around in rubber slippers and Bermuda shorts. They looked as if they were on a pleasure cruise.

The efficacy of the LRAD and the commandos were questioned after the incident. One can simply put ear buds to nullify the effect of LRAD. After this incident the shipping company stopped taking security guards

Once the distress message reached the owners and the ship’s agents the human drama started. It was the first hijacking incident for the agents at Mumbai. They were totally unprepared to handle the deluge of panic calls. Everybody wanted information – friends, relatives, well wishers, apart from the normal parties like the charterers, ship-owner, maritime administrator and various other authorities.

For the next two months till the vessel was released a 24 x 7 helpline was created to deal with the enquiries pouring in different lingos – English, Hindi, Bengali and Tamil. The main problem for the agents was to control the panic of the relatives, such as an old mother or an expecting wife. It didn’t help that the incident had occurred just after the 26/11 Mumbai attack. The affected relatives were on tenter-hooks.

Meanwhile the hijacked vessel proceeded towards a small village in Somalia. After some days of steaming she reached her destination. She anchored very close to the coast. The pirates received a hero’s welcome in there own stronghold. Now there were more of them on board. The negotiations for ransom started soon after.

Throughout the negotiations the crew remained on the ship. Within the constraints they were surprisingly well looked after. They were allowed to move around to go to the toilets and have their meals. When the food on board finished the pirates brought live goats. They earmarked a place to slaughter them. The staple food thereafter was mutton and rice.

The Master and a few others from the crew were Muslims. A factor which helped in the well-being of the crew during the negotiations as the pirates were also Muslims. At regular periods the Master was permitted to speak to the world at large. His replies to all queries were always in English and the same:

“We are safe and fine. Food is running out. Please pay the ransom fast.”

The pirates called themselves businessmen. They looked after the crew as guests. They are fishermen, not terrorists. At least not yet, but they might change in the future if they are continued to be hounded by the rest of the world and their fishing livelihood is not addressed.

The ransom was delivered in hard cash inside water proof bags through their own network. The money was counted in a closed room. Once that was satisfactorily completed, the pirates told the master

“You are free to go to the next port. Nobody will harm you. Remember it is only till the next port whichever one you choose. In case if someone does attack, please call up this number.”

The pirates disappeared immediately thereafter.

The ship sailed north towards Salalah, Oman. After a few days the Master gathered sufficient courage to call the agents and gave them the message. “We are safe.”

Some lessons learnt by the ship-agents from this incident.

The pirates operate from mother vessels which carry the skiff aboard or tow it behind. The key to a successful hijack is the control of the crew.

Barricade all doors and port holes. Put iron bars on the port holes. The pirates will need to cut the bars to enter the bridge or the mess deck. Put wire rolls all around the bridge and access points. The aim is to delay the access to the bridge.

Meanwhile the crew must have a citadel stocked with enough water, dry provisions and walkie-talkies including spare batteries. The engines should be shut down. The pirates cannot run a ship. They cannot start an engine. They are not seafarers merely fishermen now calling themselves businessmen.

If the pirates are unable to capture the crew or move the ship towards their stronghold in Somalia they will simply abandon the vessel. They are scared to remain in open waters for long.

Earlier the pirates used to attack only in the morning. Not any more. Prem Divya, a VLCC carrying oil from Sudan to Singapore was attacked on the night of 09th Feb 2009. This was the first attack in the night, indicating their frustration or boldness depending on how you interpret it. With a loaded cargo its freeboard was just 3 meters. She was the last ship in the convoy. The Master of Divya complained that she did not detect the naval escort neither on the Radar nor on the AIS. Apparently it was a British stealth warship which doesn’t paint on the Radar. Moreover it had kept the transmission of her AIS off.

When Prem Divya was attacked she cried out for help. The warship came alive on the radio. She gave Divya a direction to steer. The frigate just ten miles away swung towards the tanker.

The Master, a good chap according to her superintendent was able to put all the ship’s reserve power and kept the pirate boat at bay. Fortunately the pirates didn’t fire an RPG or else the tanker would have been history.

Prem Divya survived. The Royal Navy caught the boat. They couldn’t find any guns. Probably jettisoned overboard. But the ship had video taped them, which helped in positive identification.

It’s a jungle out there. Who is bad or who is good depends on whose perspective you are looking from.

Advice from the vessel Maersk Alabama who successfully overcame an attempted piracy even after the pirates were on board:
- Have a well fortified location with food and water supply.
- Kill all the lights. The pirates are reluctant to enter inside a dark ship.
- Leave the alarms going, the noise helps to cover movements in the
house
- Flashlights and radios are very handy, as well as the sound-powered phone.

Empowering the Fishermen

2009-10-18T02:15:00.000-07:00

Even in the calm weather the 35 meter trawler was tossing uncomfortably in the long ocean swell. It was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, a thousand miles from nowhere. I had just scrambled aboard a fishing vessel from a small rubber boat which I had used to cover the short distance from our stopped oil tanker.

In 2002 I was on a product tanker chartered to provide bunkers to fishing vessels operating in the rich fishing grounds off East Africa.

The skipper remained inside the bridge watching me hauled up by his miserable fishing hands. They had already been at sea in the small trawler for six months. Another three will pass before they touched land.

“Nee Hao Ma”, I shouted at them. ‘How are you?’

It took some time for the Chinese crew to comprehend my accent. Then they broke into smiles.

“Hen Hao! Bu Hen Hao!” ‘Fine! Very Fine!’

My knowledge of Chinese language didn’t exytend beyond that. I stepped onto the deck strewed with nets and fishing remains, I wondered, a little disdainfully, how lucky I was to be on a luxurious tanker.

I entered the small bridge and handed over the papers to the skipper. Along with it I gave him a small plastic bottle containing a sample of the oil that we had transferred.

The Japanese skipper was furious at me for entering his precious bridge without taking my shoes off. He took the sample from me and threw it out into the sea with a mighty heave. Then he proceeded to put his scrawl on the papers.

Meanwhile I took in the surprisingly neat and clean bridge. Prominently placed on the sill was a compact electronic charting system. It had digital charts for the entire region equivalent to 350 paper charts. The cumbersome chart table with paper charts that clutters a small bridge was missing.

Fishing vessels are not covered under the IMO regulations. In India for example they come under the local state maritime board. Any equipment it has is due to the support received by the company/state to which the fishing vessel belongs. Not because it is mandatory.

In the Indian Ocean there are a lot of fishing vessels coming from the far-east and Mediterranean. Local fishermen operate generally near the coast. As a community the Indian Ocean littoral states are poor and do not possess sophisticated vessels. In India fishermen are perceived as the under-privileged class. They do not receive the same support from the state as fishermen from developed countries do.

Their boats are nowadays fitted with GPS track plotters. They need digital charts on them to venture out to sea far from their home-ports. It’s not possible to maintain paper charts on a small tossing vessel.

A common enemy of the Somali and the Indian fishermen are the poachers who come from distant lands. Many Somali fishermen over the years have graduated into pirates. Earlier they were trying to protect their waters all by themselves as they did not have functioning governments. Today they have become the targets of the world navy including the Indian navy.

I wonder if we have unwittingly helped the common enemy of the local fishermen of the littoral states in this complicated state of affairs.

Development

2009-09-01T00:21:00.000-07:00

As a hydrographer I used to render voluminous reports at the end of a survey. I remember we had a paragraph for reporting such things as the sighting of whales or turtles. Sometimes I would insert a small paragraph which would go something like:

“This remote beach is frequented by turtles. On a particular dark moonless night thousands of them small ones crack open their eggs and scramble over the sands into the warm sea. It happens before their predators realize.”

Consider a world where there are golden beaches with beautiful patterns created by the waves. You can bend down, take a fistful of sand and feel the clean grains streaming out of your fingers.

If you lift your gaze you can see the azure sky afar, where it meets the sea at the horizon. The world looks like an impossible painting done by a child using bold colours.

You cannot detect any movement or sign of life. But you know there’s a vibrant world hidden within.

On the other side tall brown tree torsos rise vertically straight up. On top of this red and brown mesh is thick green foliage. If you look carefully you might notice a sudden rustle of the branches betraying the presence of an exotic tropical bird. The rain forest doesn’t allow prying eyes to peep into its world.

In this vivid gold, green, blue and red universe there is no sign of man. Not yet. The weather is gentle. As you walk on the sands your footprints are etched forever. Till the next wave come and wipes away the stain.

You know you are privileged to share the beach with the olive ridley and leatherback turtles. They don’t come too often. Sometimes after a stormy night you will find them frolicking on the sea with the dolphins, having re-claimed the waves.

Once I gazed at them from a helicopter hovering vertically above them. From up there they looked like a big swarm of bedbugs. Thousands of them all headed towards a particular direction. They have been playing this game for centuries. Maybe millennia. The next few years are going to be tough. Their idyllic world is threatened by development.

Close by a modern port is coming up. The constructions for which will destroy their habitat forever. It will bring a lot of wealth to a handful few and prosperity in this region. So what if some turtles die.

“Can’t they go somewhere else? I’m sure they will find themselves another place to breed and frolic. Anyway it’s not that important. A few dead turtles won’t shake up this earth. After all you can’t stop development. We’ve to make our fortunes and spend it before we grow old and die.”

Dynamic Charts

2009-08-07T01:32:00.000-07:00

A general refrain of old timers is why do the ENC look so different from the paper chart. The former is based on IHO’s S-52 colours and symbols, the other on INT1 Symbols & Abbreviations.

The S-52 has been developed keeping in mind that an ENC is displayed on a CRT or an LCD screen which is fundamentally different from a paper chart. Whereas a paper spread on a table reflects light the computer display emits light. Further the resolution of a typical monitor is insufficient for INT1 symbols to be seen optimally.

Yet if you notice S-52 closely resembles the INT1. So that the mariners get a comfortable feeling of dealing with familiar symbols.

Suppose if there was no compulsion to stick to existing symbols and the digital chart symbols were developed from the point of view of optimum exploitation of the new dynamic medium then, I dare say, the charts would appear radically different. Perhaps with drastic results till such time the mariners got used to it.

Let us take the example of the danger highlight symbol. It resembles a magenta-coloured screw-head and most mariners are stumped when they see it on the screen. Because of this isolated danger symbol we have already had the incident of an ECDIS fitted RO-RO vessel losing a propeller and suffering extensive underwater damages by running over a charted wreck which had being wire-swept to a depth of 1.8 meters. This was in January 2008.

The isolated danger symbol or the screw-head appears only if the user-defined setting of the safety contour is more than the depth over wreck. In this particular case of Pride of Canterbury running over the charted wreck of Mahratta the symbol of the wreck had changed its appearance due to the setting of the safety contour.

The ship was navigating off Dover which was familiar grounds for the Master. However, none from the bridge team consisting of the Master, Chief and 2/O realized the significance of the isolated danger symbol. Had they referred to the paper chart spread on the chart table they would had immediately recognized the wreck symbol.

So much for this dynamic symbol – that was actually designed to draw the attention of the OOW. Not only did it fail to attract the attention, it was simply ignored. For sure, the ECDIS has the facility of interrogation of a symbol when you move the cursor over it. Unfortunately in this particular case it was not used.

In my interaction with students preparing for competency exams, many of whom have undergone ECDIS course, I did not find any who understood the significance of the isolated danger symbol. As ECDIS/ECS usage becomes more widespread let’s hope the users become familiar with dynamic symbols and incidents like Canterbury rarely occurs.

On the other hand widespread usage of ECDIS will surely lead to development of more such uses, so that the digital chart becomes dynamic and changes its appearance due to external factors. Here are some examples which demonstrate how a digital chart is used differently from a paper chart.
- Guard Zone
A concept borrowed from the ARPA. Depending on the speed of a vessel the user defines the length and width of the guard zone which will extend as a probing beam from the ship’s head. Any shallow depths/contours or navigational dangers which happens to fall in this zone will trigger an alarm.
- Echo Referencing
This is an elegant way to accurately position own vessel. It requires positive identification of a stationary target such as a rock/beacon/islet on the radar. Then use the ARPA to acquire the target. The ARPA target should ideally coincide with the charted position of the rock. Many times it doesn’t because your positioning system is in error. The ECDIS allows you to lock this target on the charted object. The small difference in position becomes the correction which is applied on own position. The ECDIS uses the notation ‘R’ to indicate the referenced target.
- Weather Alarms
Set by the user depending on such parameters like heights, wind speed and barometric pressure. These are not chart symbols but an additional layer on the chart. It helps to indicate alarming situations in a particular region. Going a step further, you may have a voyage optimization software which will advise you on the course and speed of the vessel to avoid bad weather and choose the best passage to reach your destination.
- Ice Alarms
Depending on the ice information that has been received you may get alerts to indicate the presence of ice-bergs.
- Man Overboard Mark
The usual MOB mark tells you where the man fell. The ECDIS then generates another moving MOB symbol based on the calculated drift. Some software will also draw the Williamson turn for you to take the vessel around. It has received positive feedbacks from the end-user.

There was a time when a chart meant a wide sheet of paper spread on a flat table on which the outline plan of the coast, underwater details and navigational information was contained. In 2002 SOLAS changed the definition of a chart. The term nautical chart now includes a specially compiled database, for example an ENC, from which such a map can be displayed.

Today even this changed definition is outdated. The current definition implies static data. Whereas now in addition to the static hydrographic data the digital chart on the screen contains external data such as ice information, weather parameters and wave-heights. These data can be accurately collected only in real-time.

It's time we had a new definition of a chart which would reflect the dynamic character of a chart.

A Seafarer’s Perception of ECDIS

2009-07-17T05:58:00.000-07:00

Capt Anshuman Naik has written an excellent post titled 8 myths about mandatory ECDIS in the group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ecdis/. He is an experienced seafarer though he prefers to call himself a ‘hapless mariner’. I have reproduced it below adding my comments in italics.
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Now that IMO has approved Ecdis becoming mandatory from 2012 there is a lot of interest among shipping companies. People who had earlier burnt their hands over last minute fittings of AIS and LRIT do not wish to repeat the same mistakes. Unfortunately this has given rise to many myths.

Myth 1 - Ecdis will be mandatory on all ships from 2012 so hurry - time is running out!

Reality - Ecdis becomes manadatory from 2012 only for new ships. The timetable requires existing ships to fit it before the first Seq survey after 2014 (passenger) to 2018 (handy sized cargo). The timetable is (all July)-

New passenger and tankers - 2012
New cargo more than 10,000 GT - 2013
New cargo more than 3,000, old passenger - 2014
old tankers more than 3000 - 2015
old cargo more than 50,00 GT - 2016
old cargo more than 20,000 - 2017
Old cargo more than 10,000 - 2018

What this means is that a 2500 teu brand new container ship built today need not have an ecdis upto 2017 - that's a good 8 years and 2 computers away!

A tanker presently sailing (or for that matter even built next year) need not fit ecdis for the next 5 years! Now in computing, that IS a very long time. Remember 2004? Your 1 GB hard drive was considered state of art... today you cannot even buy a 1 GB flash!! More importantly, try running a large program on a 5 year old computer? (Yes - Ecdis programs are very heavy on memory and need lots of space - just like elephants!)
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True! Any futurist will tell you that 5 to 10 years is a generation away in a fast changing digital world. On top of that the S-57 ENC version 3.1 is frozen since 2000. By the time this version is implemented on SOLAS ships it will be already obsolete.
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Myth 2 - every ship will have ecdis by 2018

Reality - ships which will be scrapped within 2 yrs of the implementation date are exempted (good ole grandfather clause!).

In other words, a 1995 built cargo ship can be scrapped in 2018 without ever having to fit an ecdis.
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True! But then not fitting an ECDIS just because it is not mandatory is not in the right spirit. Ask a mariner who has got used to ECDIS/ECS. He will not like to go back to paper charts.
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Myth 3 - We have raster charts so we have an ecdis. We now comply with the Solas requirement!

Reality - Sorry guys, but IMO believes it is an ecdis only if you have official vector charts (you know - those electronic charts with weird numbers like FR136870) also known as ENC's. Your raster chart is good, but not good enough to be called an Ecdis.
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Myth 4 - Let's fit a Transas (substitute that for any private chart manufacturer of your choice... C-map, furuno, blah) ecdis - that way we get to comply with the IMO requirement.

Reality - Bad news again! Private vector charts are excellent in quality and reliability, but IMO does not believe them worthy of being called an ecdis.

And just for your information, which charting system (Transas Navisailor, Furuno, Maris, Telko) you install hardly matters. You could get any ecdis software and load ENC's on it. The company matters only as far as the operator friendliness of the interface is concerned (Or should that have been "unfriendliness" ?!)
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Due to all the hoopla around it is easy to get confused about ECDIS and the digital charts. For example Transas Navi-sailor is an ECDIS which can use Transas charts whereas C-Map is not an ECDIS. Similarly Furuno do not produce charts – they use different types of charts produced by C-Map, Navionics, ENCs etc.
Otherwise what Anshuman says is true, IMO only recognizes ENCs for ECDIS.
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Myth 5 - let us fit our ecdis now - that way we will be prepared when it becomes mandatory.

Reality - that "state of the art" computer you fit today will be useless 5 years later when ecdis really becomes mandatory for your ship (Moore’s law). It will be terribly slow and outdated. In other words, you anyway would buy a new ecdis.
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Maybe. But just because something will become obsolete five years from now doesn’t mean that you sit tight.
Myth 6 - Train my men in ecdis? Bah! Humbug!

Reality - Much as this reminds me of Scrooge (may Charles Dicken's soul rest in peace), it is well worth the moolah to spend on a good robust computer, a technician who does not leave a web of wires, an electronic charting software, and private vector charts and allow your seafarers to get familiar with all aspects of ecdis. Let them get confidence on it.

This comes only after someone knowledgeable shows them what they can do - something possible only through training (the usual mariner fear psychosis - why try anything new when the present system is running well. The last time the previous 2nd mate tried to change ecdis settings, the damn thing froze....)

After all, mariners will be making multi million dollar decisions based on information they get from the ecdis. What they get depends on where they look for it... If they do!
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Spoken like a true educationist. Good training along with hands-on experience is worth every penny spent.
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Myth 7 - We train our seafarers in ecdis by delivering excellent 40 hours of theory and working on one ecdis set. We are ready!

Reality - There is only one way of learning ecdis - by working on it with one's bare hands. Any training that does not let each seafarer work independently on ecdis (1 to 1 ratio) is money down the drain. Of course, the best way is to train the seafarer on board... But I wonder how many people can afford that

Ecdis's of different manufactures differ too much from each other for a seafarer to easily be able to find common / most useful features on the Ecdis on his own - at least for now, he / she certainly needs guidance.
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With standardization the need for type-specific training is reduced. For example every time you buy a new mobile phone doesn’t mean you have to go through a training course. For that matter the chart plotters are designed for fishermen who may not have had formal schooling.
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Myth 8 - Cannot afford an ecdis to give your seafarers hands on training now? You are doomed...!

Reality - The only way ecdis will prevent groundings is when your mariners are familiar with the uses and limitations of this beautiful piece of equipment, viz. Hands on familiarity. You don't need big bucks for that.

Companies like Furuno (navnet 3d), raymarine, Leica, etc. make robust ecdis units for between 2500 to 4500 us dollars. From a user point of view, they are as useful and dependable as any of the more expensive 10,000 dollar plus units. Plus they either come preloaded with charts or can be purchased real cheap (google earth nautical charting suite combines with noaa raster charts for just 50 usd).

That would be a more sensible way of spending money rather than spending it on ecdis training on an equipment which your seafarer is most probably not going to see on board!
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It is important to understand the pros and cons between various types of charts. Cheaper charts do not permit regular updating. You have to replace them every 6 to 12 months depending on how often the updated versions are brought out. And you have to pay for them every time you update.

A ‘Wreckless’ Trip

2009-06-16T00:59:00.000-07:00

In 1773 a ship set sail from England to India. As the Suez Canal wasn’t yet built, she had a long passage of ten thousand miles, via the Verde islands off the West Coast of Africa, thence around the Cape of Good Hope to head straight up north-east to Calicut, India.

Navigation was a tricky task those days. No GPS. No Loran or Decca. Though Mr. Harrison had just brought out the chronometer, it hadn’t yet being made a standard accessory on all ships. Without a chronometer to keep accurate time at sea, ascertaining the longitude was grossly imprecise.

After rounding the cape the ship was cruising to the north in the Indian Ocean, waiting to reach the right latitude before altering course eastwards towards the Indian coast. She was in a hurry to make landfall before the monsoon arrived. All of a sudden in the early hours the ship was rudely woken up to the dreadful sound of its running aground onto a reef. She thus became instantly famous by lending her name to the yet uncharted reef in the Laccadive Islands. This reef came to be known as the Byramgore reef.

From the Horsburgh records we know Byramgore was carrying a treasure on board. We still don’t know what kind of treasure it was. But it was important enough for the ship to leave behind two of its crew while the rest left for Calicut on a cutter, two hundred miles to the East. A rescue to recover the men and the treasure, soon thereafter, had to be postponed due to bad weather. The team could only return after two weeks. By then the two men had perished and the attempt to recover the treasure failed because the monsoon had set in.

The next year a fresh attempt was made to recover the treasure. But the wreck was decimated in the monsoon and had disappeared into the deeps. For the next two centuries the world forgot about it.

In 1989 I was on a hydrographic ship as the senior hydrographer under a dynamic captain who had just taken over command. We were tasked to locate the wreck of Byramgore and perhaps recover the unknown treasure. From the records we knew she had iron cannons fitted on board. They were meant to fight against piracy. The Somali pirates were a scourge even in those days.

We reckoned that the iron cannons were most likely to survive the passage of time and expected our sonars to find them.

Dr. S.R.Rao, an eminent marine archaeologist was on board. Rao had gained fame after discovering the undersea city off Dwarka in Gujarat. This was the fabled abode of Lord Krishna in Hindu mythology.

Besides our regular survey equipment which included side scan sonars, we carried naval divers equipped with underwater cameras,

Byramgore reef uncovers only during the low tide. Ground control proved to be a difficult task. We placed a trisponder (microwave ranger) on top of a lighthouse on the islet Bitra Pār, 25 miles away, to obtain one position line. Two more trisponders were rigged up on the Byramgore reef itself on raised poles. The three position lines gave us the required fix. It wasn’t a perfect arrangement but it would meet our need.

We were there for three days. All the four survey boats along with the ship carried out a typically high density survey to search for the wreck. Our team of divers and surveyors went on the reef during high water to physically search for evidences of the wreck. We did find a few interesting artifacts but it was disappointing that we couldn’t find any major remains of the wreck, cannons or treasure.

We noticed a rich colony of submerged corals. There were fishes galore. Away from the destructive human interference the natural fauna thrived.

The undersea terrain of this reef was typical of a coral atoll. It rose straight up from depths of 1000 metres. The gradient of the seabed was extremely steep. Our team analysed that the wreck could had rolled down on this steep gradient deep into the abyss.

Later on our way back to Bombay as I was poring through the echo-rolls and other data in the survey chart-room I got a message from the ward-room.

‘The bar is open.”

Opening the bar at sea was a bit of a surprise. The PMC, short for President of the Mess Committee, was a jolly old fellow and enjoyed his tipple. In the wardroom they were all there – scientists, divers, surveyors, except the Captain who is generally kept out of such gatherings to make the atmosphere informal. So that people can let go of their inhibitions.

Accompanied by loud laughter, the PMC raised a toast to ‘a wreck-less trip’. The term wreck-less was actually aimed towards the Captain who was quite reckless in his approach. I doubt whether his records would pass the safety audit of a commercial management.

Fallout of the Byramgore tragedy was that the region around Laccadive islands came to be perceived as unsafe. Even today the Admiralty manual Ocean Passages of the World recommend ships coming from Dondra head, south of Sri Lanka and bound for the Persian Gulf to first sail north to a point Lat. 13deg N, Long. 73deg E; before striking out westwards to the Strait of Hormuz. Thus bypassing this group of islands.

Living with Stress

2009-05-14T23:37:00.000-07:00

“I’ve got some bad news for you.”

Shit! I thought. I was speaking to my best customer on the phone. What could be the bad news? Did I lose some business? I was tense.

“Actually, I should had called you up before”, the marine superintendent continued.

“By the way, thanks for the nice calendar. There is another one you sent for my colleague. It’s here with me. The only thing is that he is no more.”

“No more?” I repeated stupidly.

“Ya. We were in Italy last week. To board a ship out there. He had a massive heart attack. Just 32 years old. Clean habits. Never smoked. Has a wife and a small kid. I don’t know why. He died on the spot.”

Oh God! I knew him well and he was in my select list of customers. At least I didn’t lose any business. I immediately felt remorseful. Here I was getting this horrible piece of news and my brain was still stuck into business.

Shippies have a tough job. There’s too much of stress out there. Even in normal times with the reduced complement there’s too much to do. The extra pay they receive is really not enough to compensate. Recent developments of Somali piracy, criminalization of sea-farers, and now with the recession looming ominously in the horizon; there is a tremendous amount of stress in shipping.

Many years back a second mate who took over the ship’s accounts from me died of a heart attack.He was actually an ex Radio Officer who had switched over to deck duties.

In the STCW 95 days the IMO had permitted reduced safe-manning standards. In the process they had done away with ROs. The rationale was that the Master and Second Mate could perform those duties in addition to their own. The existing ROs had two options – either to fade away or change their jobs. This particular RO, like many others, studied for competency exams and transitioned into the deck stream.

I didn’t know him too well. Except that I had handed over the pay roll accounts to him. As I was signing off from the tanker he gave me an envelope containing, I think, a letter and USD 500.

“Please give it to my wife.”

I didn’t give him any receipt. It was unlikely that I would ever meet him again. Simply trust. That the packet will reach safely to his wife at Mumbai.

In the weeks that followed I was busy with yet another bunch of maritime courses. I met his wife at the main VT station. In the busy public place we spoke about the ship and I handed over the envelope to her. Then we each went away pursuing our own priorities in life. I had forgotten about the whole thing. Till one day I got a call from the panic-stricken wife.

“He’s no more.”

“Who? What happened?” I asked.

“This is Gloria here. My husband died yesterday. The company called up.

Oh God!

“Give me your address. We’ll be there.”

Later in the afternoon my wife and I found ourselves in an old part of Bandra. There was a quaint building. There were two kids playing in the tiny yard in front of the house.

This cannot be the place. I thought to myself. The place doesn’t seem as if a disaster has just occurred in the family.

But it was the right place. Mom had not been able to break the terrible news to the kids.

We remained in touch for some time. It took a few months for the compensation to come. The company was extremely cordial about it. Unlike some other shipping companies who are uncaring and unapproachable. And who give a bad name to the entire industry. As such most mariners work on contracts. We do not have the employee-owner relationship in the true sense.

I called Gloria up that Christmas. And then for another year. But, as it happens in life, I have lost touch with them.

End of a Season

2009-04-24T21:58:00.000-07:00

The summer is on its last legs. Strong pre-monsoonal winds have started, strong enough to prevent boat-sounding. My son has reached Australia for a month’s holiday and is as good as flown the coop. The note-book that I am writing upon is almost over.

I feel as if a season has ended and I’m stepping into a new one. I feel like making some new resolutions. Talking about resolutions why can’t we be a little more honest about it? Let’s see - in the next one year I would like to:
- become filthy rich by hook or by crook
- develop a poison pen and write a spicy little book
- lose 10 kg and sport a charming lady-killer smile
- bed that luscious thing next door who is bent upon, literally, to attract attention
Keep dreaming man!

Our survey season is almost over. Now we have to plan to tide over the monsoons. If there is one thing I am scared of it is the weather, or rather the bad weather. Nothing in this world makes a man more god-fearing than to witness nature in all its fury.

I have personally experienced two storms on the high seas. The first time it was in 1990 when a particularly severe cyclone emerged in the Bay of Bengal and crossed the East Coast of India south of Visakhapatnam. This super-cyclone had two eyes. The second one was in 2000 when our ageing Bulk Carrier rode out a Force 9 gale in China Sea.

In May 1990 I was on a hydrographic vessel when we sailed out from Vizag for the survey grounds. We entered Madras to pick up men and material. That is where we learnt on the TV that a cyclone was brewing at sea. Weather forecasting was primitive. As the cyclone was expected to pass right over our port we were asked to leave the endangered harbour and ride out the storm at sea.

The moment our ship crossed the breakwater into the open sea we faced mountainous waves and gale-winds. As we put distance between us and the coast the seas became worse. We applied the Buys Ballot Law - Face the wind, 10 to 12 points on the starboard is the eye of the storm. In the northern hemisphere, that is. We figured out that our vessel was in the dangerous semi-circle, but we couldn’t do much thereafter. The wheel got stuck in a particular position and the vessel’s speed dropped from 15 to 2 knots due to the wind and sea.

The sea state was phenomenal. I don't remember getting any help from the weather messages. In fact it was the other way round. The ship was passing weather parameters to shore authorities. The next four days were the worst in my life. The waves became higher and higher, sea water started dripping through every pore in the ship. The engines stalled due to loss of suction. The main switchboard caught fire due to short-circuit. We were forced to adopt the ‘do-nothing’ theory in which the vessel shuts off the engines and allows free play of the waves and the winds. I guess this is what saved us ultimately.

In that storm we lost all the four boats. The radar flew off. We suffered a lot of damages and barely managed to escape with our lives. I became very religious after this event.

The second time I encountered bad weather, I was a little wiser but still helpless in the storm. The speed of a vessel in bad weather drops drastically and any action you take seems futile. This time we got better weather messages but to us it still seemed as if we were getting yesterday's weather. Our old ship developed some leakages. We were fortunate to steer the ship safely out and bring her into the port.

Keeping the Charts Up-to-Date

2009-03-19T23:07:00.000-07:00

As a navigating officer one of my main tasks was to correct the charts. I was guided by the Admiralty publication NP 294 How to Correct Your Charts the Admiralty Way.

My tools consisted of a parallel ruler, divider and a set of plastic protractor and scale. I had a hack-saw blade to draw zigzag lines on the chart representing submarine cables.

The chart corrections came in the form of Notices to Mariners (NtMs). Ntms have evolved from the time ships started sailing with paper charts. In the early years a mariner depended on important navigational information passed by word of mouth amongst fellow mariners.

At some point of time, probably a hundred years back some Hydrographic Offices (HOs) started collating this information. They verified the information before distributing them to the ships through print. This lent an authenticity to the information.

Since then NtMs have become an integral part of charts and publications required to be maintained on board for safety of navigation.

I remember, whenever we entered a port after a long voyage, there would invariably be a stack of four to five weeks worth of NtM packs waiting for me.

Most times the ship would anchor off some big port and would remain there for days till we got an available berth alongside. The anchorage is the best time to correct the charts. I would spend many hours bent over a chart table to clear the backlog. There was a time when I used croquils dipped in black or magenta indelible inks. Later I used Pilot Hi-tech 0.5mm pens. One could practice draughtsman ship with these pens. I would painstakingly draw the figures and shapes from INT1 on the charts.

Once in a while I would look up and watch the enticing skyline of Singapore from the bridge windows. Or look around our anchored ship to find a pleasure boat drifting past rocked by an amorous couple in it. The thought would cross my mind that perhaps I had missed out on life imprisoned in a ship with nothing to do except correct charts whilst the rest of the world enjoyed.

Manual updating of charts is a very tedious and monotonous job. Now with electronic charts on the verge of replacing paper charts, the need for manual updating is going to disappear for ever. This tedious job will be taken over by the machines. A task which used to take many hours can now be completed within a few minutes with the click of a button.

Automatic updating is not only a great time-saver but has also removed a major source of human error. They tell us that eighty percent of all errors are caused due to the human factor.

How often do marine incidents happen because of uncorrected charts? A difficult question to answer; but one can trawl through various sites on the net which lists marine accidents and get an idea. There are a host of sites such as IMO's GISIS database, MAIB and BSU. Or one can commission mac@maritimeaccident.org to do the research.

There is an interesting site called ‘Centre for Tankship Excellence’ created by a naval architect, Jack Devanney. As a tankerman he felt ‘the oil tanker industry had lost its way’. And so he must do something about it.

Here there is a database of tanker casualties that is openly available to the public. We can list tanker incidents caused due to navigation errors specifically due to bad charts as a result of the ship’s fault. It means either the ship did not update the charts or were not carrying the appropriate charts.

Incidents such as Globtik Sun and Sanko Harvest were caused due to uncorrected charts. If we go by the philosophy of the accident pyramid, then for every reported incident there are a hundred more which went unreported.

With automatic updates the Master gets the corrections when he wants. For example just before entering a harbour or transiting through a narrow channel. One doesn’t have to wait for the physical arrival of the NtM packs by post.

In this age of reduced manning on commercial ships automatic updating helps the Master to regain the services of the second mate for other equally important tasks required to run the ship.

Predicting The Future of Charts

2009-01-14T20:58:00.000-08:00

Trying to predict the future is difficult depending on what you are trying to predict.
There are things which only experts in that field can predict with accuracy. There are people in the know – the insiders, who can predict what’s going to happen because they are privy to information which is not available to others.
Of course, there are a few certainties in life. For example it’s certain that in future you will become older.
A few near certainties. Example a particular tree will grow taller after a certain time.
But there are some other predictions which are tricky. The extent of development in technology and how our lives will be affected by it is one example which comes to my mind readily.
For quite some time now I have been preparing a paper on ‘Navigation Charts of the Future’. The future here is mostly technology related.
For last so many decades the appearance of a chart has remained almost unchanged. Of course its content was regularly being refurbished based on the new data that was being collected. Ironically, technical advances in this field were being used so as to ensure that the collected data was displayed in the same old fashion as it had been for so long. To give to the mariners the image of a chart they had got used to.
Old tars don’t like to change. They cling to their old-fashioned views and guard all attempts to change with time. No wonder the age-old sea customs, ceremonies and other quirks continue to remain for centuries.
And so, the paper chart which the old chart-makers had foisted on us centuries back remains with us even today.
Ten years from now – will this paper chart continue to remain? Here I am willing to stick my neck out and confidently say – No!
After all the IMO has already announced the ECDIS to be made mandatory on SOLAS ships. Starting from 2012 the implementation will commence and will cover all types of ships by 2018. It will finally push the paper chart into oblivion. To become an artifact displayed in the maritime museum as something which lasted almost forever.
But why is it taking so long to replace the paper charts? Five to ten years from today in this fast changing world is almost a generation away.
It is because the authorities have twisted the regulations in such a way that the replacement of paper charts can be only the official Electronic Navigation Charts ENCs in the S-57 format. ENCs are not favoured by most ship-operators for reasons such as faulty design and high cost.
Regulations insist that ENCs must be issued under the authority of a government. Which government?
Sovereign nations that have been vested with the responsibility of charting their own waters. There are around hundred odd nations in the world which fall in this category. Most of them are well… governments. Not competitive. Not sensitive to the end-user. And not commercially inclined. They have their advantages though. The purity of data collections is not compromised due to commercial compulsions. But a government does not like to change along with technology.
Trying to predict what will happen to the charts of commercial shipping is easy because they come under the IMO-SOLAS regime. The difficult part is trying to predict the future of non-SOLAS class vessels. They are the ones which are driven purely by market forces. The growth of technology here is about to explode.
Here I will quote the futurist Ray Kurzweil. In his book ‘The Singularity is Near’ he mentions that the pace of change of our human created technology is accelerating and its powers are expanding at an exponential pace. Exponential pace is deceptive. It starts out almost imperceptibly and then explodes with unexpected fury.
One of the startling predictions that Ray has made is that due to advances in nanotechnology we will soon be able to produce solar panels which will give us substantial amount of energy from the sun itself.
Imagine what will happen to the portable charting systems. Its size and weight will reduce drastically. Hence the power required to run these systems will reduce. On the other hand the computing power will progressively increase. In the next five years yachters will most likely carry an e-chart folded in the pocket; run on powerful portable solar cells. Satellite positions will be available on the mobile. They will have millimetric accuracy when they are in the range of mobile towers equipped with GPS sensors. Once on board the yachter will proceed to unfold the e-chart and tack it onto a convenient bulkhead. Wireless interfaces with the mobile and with other sensors like AIS and ARPA fitted in the vessel will provide all necessary data.
Voila! A full-fledged charting system is now available at his/hers disposal.

James Horsburgh

2008-09-01T04:06:00.000-07:00

In the 18th century, a trading ship was on a passage in the Bay of Bengal. There were 250 people on board the sailing ship. The sea through which they traversed was mostly uncharted. The ship unfortunately strayed many miles from her path and was wrecked on a remote islet in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The story might have ended there, but for one of the survivors James Horsburgh it had just begun. He resolved to dedicate his life ‘making accurate charts’. It was a promise which he kept for the next fifty years. He did not seek glory but was lucky. The emerging empires of that era needed people like him.
http://www.hydro-international.com/issues/articles/id960-James_Horsburgh.html

In May 1786, an East IndiaCompany (EIC) ship Atlas was on a passage from Batavia (present day Djakarta) to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), a distance of 1868 miles to the northwest. James Horsburgh was on the vessel as a recently promoted first mate.

Navigation was a difficult task in those days. Still, it is hard to believe that the ship had drifted more than one thousand miles from its path to the Chagos Archipelago on the West. Navigators used the imprecise lunar method to determine longitude. Chronometers had not yet become a standard accessory on ships.

With the onset of monsoon, perhaps the ship did not have clear skies for astro-navigation. Another important factor which could have aggravated the ship’s navigation was the effect of monsoon currents and wind. From May to September, the easterly currents in the Bay of Bengal change to southwesterly, attaining a peak of 3 knots. A westerly current coupled with strong following winds speedily carried the ship across the sea. It was wrecked upon Diego Garcia, an islet named by early Portuguese sailors located at 7°23’ S, 72°30’ E. This point is now known to the world as the Horsburgh point.

Horsburgh later wrote:

’The charts on board were very erroneous in the delineation of the Chagos Islands and Banks, and the commander, trusting too much to dead reckoning, was steering with confidence to make the non-existent Adu or Candu for a new departure, being their longitude nearby, by account, and bound for Ceylon; but, unfortunately a cloud over Diego Garcia prevented the helmsman from discerning it, (the officer of the watch being asleep), till we were on the reef close to the shore. The masts, rudder, and everything above the deck went with the first surge; the second lifted the vessel over the outer rocks and threw her in towards the beach.’?

The survivors of Atlas were fortunate to find a British settlement there. They lived on meagre supplies for the next 6 months until they were picked up by a British ship and brought back to mainland.

The shipwreck of Atlas was a momentous event for Horsburgh. He saw the necessity for accurate charts of the Indian Ocean. He resolved to devote himself to this task, by making and recording nautical observations. This resolution was put into practice from that day, and he began to accumulate a store of nautical knowledge that served as the materials of his future productions in hydrography.

Early Life
James Horsburgh was born into a humble Scottish family in 1762. He was destined to follow Dalrymple and James Cook, the two other Scottish hydrographers who had achieved eminence before him. From the beginning, he was prepared and educated for a sea-faring life. Aged 16, having acquired some knowledge of mathematics, navigation and book-keeping, he joined a coal trading ship as a cabin-boy.

In 1780 he was captured by the French and incarcerated at Dunkirk. After his release, he went back to sea – first to the West Indies and then to India. Calcutta was the seat of power for the British Empire at that time, and was the hub port from where ships used to trade to the Far East. There was a flourishing opium trade between India and China, passing through Calcutta.

Horsburgh was employed in the ships trading between India and the neighbouring islands of East Indies. With his skill and contacts, he soon became a first mate. He might have continued as a skilful and enterprising sailor if the disaster at Diego Garcia had not happened. This incident, however, aroused his ambition and the world was fortunate to have the services of a dedicated hydrographer.

Western Europe at that time was on a quest for explorations and scientific research. The fourth model of Harrison’s chronometer had just come out. James Cook used it successfully for his expeditions to the South Pacific. Cook was killed in his third expedition to the Pacific Ocean in 1779, seven years before the Diego Garcia shipwreck.

In 1787, William Bligh sailed from England on theBountyfor a scientific expedition to the South Pacific. Other European empires were expanding and the world needed bold hydrographers to produce accurate charts of the new lands being discovered.

For several years, Horsburgh sailed between India and China. Throughout his travels, he took meticulous notes and observations. He learnt drawing and etching on the job. He constructed three charts around this time: the Strait of Macassar, the west side of the Philippine Islands and the tract from Dampier Strait through Pitt’s Passage towards Batavia. Practical sailing directions accompanied each of these. Dalrymple, the hydrographer to the EIC, published his work.

Horsburgh had a scientific mind. For two years from 1802 to 1804 he kept a meticulous record of the rise and fall of the mercury taken from two marine barometers. He found that while it regularly ebbed and flowed twice during the 24 hours in the open sea between 26°N and 26°S, it was diminished and sometimes wholly obstructed in rivers, harbours and straits (due to the proximity of the land). This important discovery was published by England’s Royal Society, of which he later became a fellow.

Hydrographic Works
Horsburgh’s greatest work which made him famous is the celebrated Directory (the original title was Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, and the Interjacent Ports). It was compiled from original journals and observations made during 21 years of experience in navigating those seas.

It is interesting to note that this compilation was published by Horsburgh using his own funds. HisDirectorywas the standard work for oriental navigation for the next 50 years, until Robert Moresby’s work was published in the 19th century.

It was only after this publication that Horsburgh was acknowledged as an expert in this field. The decades of perseverance and years of toiling under the hot tropical sun had paid off. After Dalrymple died, Horsburgh was appointed as the Hydrographer to EIC in 1810. He remained in this post for 26 years until his death, dedicating himself fully to the field that he had chosen.

In a letter to the explorer Captain Matthew Flinders on 10 Nov 1812, Horsburgh wrote: `Should you pass the India House at any time, I shall be happy to see you, where I am daily to be found in the Map-room until 2 P.M.’

Apart from re-publishing the charts of his predecessors, Horsburgh published 15 new charts of Indian waters. Whereas Dalrymple was prolific in publishing all charts that came his way, Horsburgh carefully examined the data before publishing the chart. Some of his outstanding works were the charts of Bombay Harbour published in two sheets in 1830 and the general sea charts of the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. The details that he provided were sufficient for the master of a vessel to safely take his ship to its destination. His last labour was the preparation of a new edition of his ‘Directory’ that was first published in 1809.

In a letter to Sir Charles Forbes, he wrote `I would have died contented, had it pleased God to allow me to see the book in print.’

Horsburgh was a merchant ship navigator who became a hydrographer. His works had a lot of practical value for the trading community. He was well regarded by the merchants as he had charted map-routes of the eastern seas which proved invaluable to the seafarers of that time.

In 1836 soon after Horsburgh died, a group of British merchants got together in Canton, China. They decided to build a lighthouse as a memorial tribute to him, the funding for which was to be collected from donations. A 109ft tall lighthouse tower with black and white horizontal bands and a white flashing light was erected in 1851 at the eastern entrance to the Malacca Straits.

The Horsburgh Lighthouse, also known as theFirst Pharos of the Eastern SeasorLighthouse for All Nationshas stood like a sentinel for more than 150 years, a fitting remembrance for one of the greatest hydrographers in history.
http://www.hydro-international.com/issues/articles/id960-James_Horsburgh.html

In the Warzone

2008-08-01T03:20:00.000-07:00

From the Archives

Five years back I decided to try my hand for a shore job. So, after signing off from the ship I joined the teaching faculty and started teaching at Naval Maritime Academy. I used to travel by local from Nerul to VT. A distance of 49 kms took one hour to cover. This was the first time in my life I was commuting daily by trains. I had graduated, so to say, to become a true Mumbaikar depending on the local trains for my bread and butter.

Those days the Harbour line was not at all crowded as compared to the Western and Central line. I had with me a first class season pass. The crowd in the first class were the office going type and, in the non-peak hours there was enough space to put up our feet on the opposite seats and stretch out comfortably.

My day was a fixed routine and my life revolved around the 06:58 local. From home to the station was a 7-minute walk. Some days if I was running late I hopped in an auto for a quick ride. So….. 06:50 leave home, 06:58 catch the local, 08:01 reach VT. The 1 hour in the train was meant to prepare my lectures and plan out the rest of the day.

On reaching VT I used to cross the subway at a brisk pace and catch the Academy bus leaving at 08:10. The bus zoomed through Cuffe Parade and Colaba where we could see some of the eminent residents returning from the morning work-outs. It was still quite early in the day for the office crowd to throng the roads. At 08:25 I would reach the Academy, grab a cup of tea, before rushing for the first lecture starting at 08:30. The return trip was flexible and depending on the classes could be as early as 01:30 PM. I had lot of time for myself unlike a typical 9 to 5 job.

I came to recognize most of the regulars on the train in that one year. We had a strange camaraderie. I do not remember ever speaking to anyone of them. We used to acknowledge each other by the merest of the smiles and mostly it was by the softening of our facial features. Generally Mumbai local train commuters wear a grim face.

Today I hardly travel by the trains. But I do not miss them. The crowds have become unbearable and the conditions have deteriorated. Back then there was no need to fight for a seat. The rains are more severe today and tracks are flooded very easily. Life in the local trains has become bad. For a second class commuter it is even worse.

When the Western line suffered the serial blasts I felt an immense sadness. As such the commuter has a lot of hardships. He is totally dependent on the smooth running of the train. A slight delay or problem on the way throws his life out of gear. The trains are his lifeline.

There is really no other way to travel for those who stay far from their workplace.
Buses take too long, and the bad roads make long-distance commuting impossible. Similarly daily commuting by car is not practical, even if one could afford the high cost. Day in and day out you have to live through this mindless existence. Nothing can replace the local train – crowds, ramshackle coaches and miserable views notwithstanding. In terms of time taken and cost of traveling.

I don’t think Mumbaikars were back on the trains so soon after the blast because they can ‘bounce back’. Despite the fear of life and limbs and the sadness for the fellow commuters who died or lay injured, they willed their hearts to step into the boxcar. For what other options did they have?

I don’t know why the terrorists chose to plant the bombs in the trains. I don’t think the bombs could keep the crowd away for more than 24 hours. Perhaps a more dangerous deterrent would had been poisonous chemicals. After all that sound and fury of a bomb-blast only 200 people died.

Once I tried to count the number of people in a jam-packed coach. Four to a bench x 64 benches = 256. Plus 100 standees. 350 to a coach x 9 coaches x 150 trains x 3 routes! One and a half million! Do our locals carry so many every day? Three crore rupees generated everyday by sale of tickets! Is anybody auditing these figures? Where is the money going? Why is this not getting translated to a better deal for the commuters? Why do we have to travel in such inhuman conditions?

Look around yourself in a second class. Only common people travel in these coaches regularly. They don’t have the time and the inclination to protest. Most of them wear a glazed expression on their faces. But they all have a dream. An eternal hope in their hearts that one day a new line will be miraculously laid and super-fast trains will glide smoothly over it, and take them to their destinations in luxury. Like the ones on which Japanese, Londoners and even the Shanghai citizens travel.

A Mumbaikar has a burden. He has to subsidies all those ticket-less travelers in Bihar and UP. He has probably financed part of the swanky underground metro in Delhi. Because he is the murga.

A typical commuter in Mumbai can be profiled easily. Generally less than 50 years else he will not be able to withstand the rigours of daily traveling. Slim and nimble on his feet so he can take part in the daily stampede getting on and off the train. Fastidiously clean to keep all sorts of diseases away. He has the ability to switch off his brain at will. It helps to protect oneself from the plethora of sights and smells which assaults his senses everyday. He is deeply religious because he needs God on his side to take him safely through the day. He carries a black bag slung across his shoulder which leaves both his hands free. In the monsoon he carries a small umbrella which fits snugly in his bag.

There is no pleasure traveling in locals. As a matter of fact train commuters look at those who have managed to get out of the daily commuting with lot of envy. He is trapped in a lifestyle where he has to risk his life and limb everyday. Rains, floods, derailment, deadly stones aimed at him from the slums, bombs …anything can trip him in his daily journey. He lives in the war-zone and there is no easy escape from this.

It was disgusting to see the VIPs who visited the hospitals to pay their lip-service. When they said ‘we salute you and your Mumbaikar spirit’ I felt like giving them a sound whack on their backside. Have these guys ever traveled in the local trains? Who are these jokers surrounded by a horde of security guards who come to see the plight of a traveler in the hospital?

Who is paying the salary for their security guards and their swanky cars? It’s us! Despite paying taxes we have to go through the grind everyday and these guys live in luxury. To them we have only one message – you please fight the terrorists yourself. If you cannot, then privatize the railways and out-source the security to more able agencies.

We don’t need your noble words and the hypocritic faces. Just give us a comfortable train so we can carry on our jobs. Give us a less crowded and faster train with AC. We don’t need the windows because there is nothing worthwhile to see outside and it will save us the foul smells. We don’t need other people’s miseries to encroach into our minds. The slums, beggars, drug addicts, those living on the life’s edge please keep them away from us.

At least don’t treat us like cattle. We would prefer to have beautiful people, beautiful sceneries and luxurious upholstery around. If that is not possible at least give us a workmanlike train. After all we are paying for it!

Mumbaikars don’t like to talk very much about their local trains to outsiders because it is our private shame.

Capt Raj. S. Chakravorty

The Corporate Conference

2008-07-01T01:43:00.000-07:00

From the archives dated December 2006.

In December I attended the C-MAP conference at Egersund, Norway. Reps from 17 countries were present. For a change, Egersund appeared lively this time. Perhaps it was because our trip coincided with the opening of Christmas Town – Egersund’s annual Julebyen celebrations.

The trip from Mumbai to Egersund has become familiar now. I was coming back after four months and I didn’t expect any problems. But I had not reckoned with the ever increasing security measures. At Amsterdam, having browsed through the over priced duty free shops. I stood in the long queue to enter the Scandinavian world. When my turn came they asked:

‘Are you carrying any liquids?’

I drained my coke can, kept it aside and smiled confidently.

‘No.’

The hand bag and I passed through the scanner. Whilst I sailed through I noticed that my bag didn’t. It was moving back and forth under the X-ray machine. Finally it moved forward along with a grim faced gentleman.

‘Open it’, he snapped at me.

‘It’s already open. You just have to pull the zip down.’ I said.

I demonstrated how easily my bag could be opened.

‘Take your things out’.

The gentleman was clearly unimpressed with the ease my bag could be opened. And it seemed he was wary of touching it.

I slowly took the things out. A hand towel, a diary, one set of clothes, my toilet kit.

‘Hold it right there. Open the zip of this pouch.’ The guy said.

I opened my toiletries and took out the toothpaste, shaving cream and skin cream. They were gingerly picked up and put on a tray.

The tray was taken to the head of the security, duly checked and brought back.

‘These are liquid and they go into the trash’.

‘I am sorry’. I mumbled.

I was nonplussed. If that was liquid, I better be careful. Tomorrow they might object my walking through the scanner especially after drinking all those cokes and coffee.

At Stavanger airport the weather looked daunting – cold and windy with rains. By the time I reached Egersund the smile on my face was wearing thinner. At night, in my hotel room I switched on the TV and watched ‘SKY TV’ channel. I adjusted my watch with the TV and went to sleep.

That was a bad move because SKY is a British channel and UK is 1 hour behind Norway. In the morning I had my breakfast and noticed – wrongly - that I had sufficient time to go for a walk and probably replenish some ‘liquids’ essentially required to appear well-groomed.

By the time I came back to the hotel there was a search party mounted for me. I found an extremely worried Terje looking for me. He was relieved to see me safe.

Terje took me to C-MAP headquarters. When I entered the conference hall I could see that I had made a grand entrance. Representatives from different parts of the world looked up to see India entering the hall. Perhaps I should had felt proud that some of the most knowledgeable professionals in Electronic Charts were looking up at me. But there are better ways to make India stand out.

Around 25 people took part in the conference. C-MAP was represented from Baltic (Estonia), China, Greece, Italy, India, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Scandinavia (Norway), Singapore, South Africa, UK and USA. We also had visitors from Boeing, USA and Japan. Jeppesen Marine, USA who are in the process of taking over C-MAP was there too. It was a heady feeling to interact with an international group. I felt reassured to see a vibrant C-MAP all over the world. We are the number one in USA, Western Europe, Far East & the Indian subcontinent. What is left is Africa and South America. Do they really matter?

In a conference in which there are many countries represented one gets the opportunity of understanding the company philosophy better. We had presentations from major shipping countries which included India, Japan, China, Greece, US, Scandinavia & Malaysia. I enjoyed the presentation by Mizuho, a young petite clerk from Japan as she read out the impressive figures of her country in a sing song voice.

C-Map has followed a simple policy. The National Hydrographic Offices (HOs) are the owners of chart data and C-Map’s responsibility is to obtain this data, repackage it and supply it directly to the customer. In this business of providing nautical information service C-Map aims to be the best in the world.

The very simplicity of the corporate vision ensures that there is no confusion in the minds of both the supplier and the customers. C-MAP has remained extremely focused in its objective.

HOs in the world are invariably government agencies. Being non-commercial agencies they ensure the purity and accuracy of the collected data. But HOs generally do not talk to their customers. This is where C-MAP comes in – to provide the interface between the HO’s (producers of data) and the shipping industry (users of data).

The five days – Monday to Friday zipped through and before we realized the conference was over.

In the daytime there were presentations, animated discussions and workshops where we exchanged our views and experiences. In the evenings there were dinners and banquets with good food and wine. There was laughter all around.

Before I forget to mention, Egersund beer was a big hit. It is coffee coloured and has a distinctive flavour. It requires a little time to acquire the taste. The locals were quite proud of this brew. From time to time somebody would come and offer me a mug of beer and ask my opinion about it. Perhaps the Christmas spirit had already begun to make itself felt.

Egersund is a quiet town. One morning when the rains abated a bit I went for a walk. At 7 in the morning it seemed like midnight. It was dark and there was not a single soul around. Mercifully the street lights were all on.

I decided to trudge up the hill and visit Egersund Chapel which has a cemetery. On both sides of the narrow road there were wooden houses. The curtains were mostly drawn apart and there would be a light burning inside. One could easily see neat rooms through the windows. It all looked enticing.

As I rounded a corner I saw a big dog coming noiselessly from the opposite side. I don’t know who was more surprised – the dog or me as both of us looked at each other. In Egersund, there are no strays. When somebody takes a dog out for a walk it should be always held by a leash. Otherwise you have to pay a big fine. I wish Mumbai could control the stray-dog population by such methods.

On the last day we had a grand banquet. Here I met Steve, an Englishman with an Indian connection. Steve’s Dad was in India till 1947. He lived in Cox’s Bazaar (now in Bangladesh).

Steve himself had a story to tell. Twenty years back, whilst on a short visit to Norway he succumbed to its charms. He married a pretty local girl, Anne and settled down in Norway forever. Steve likes to hunt. Though he is not so particular about the quarry itself. Steve had an endearing way to describe a day he spent on deer-hunting:

‘The day’s hunting was non-productive in terms of how many deer we saw, but I regard hunting rather like I do fly fishing, that we should also appreciate nature, good company, the weather and that any game / fish is a bonus’.

On Thursday evening Egersund celebrated ‘Christmas Town’. It was a friendly gathering and the whole town turned up for the occasion. People were dressed up for the festive season and children turned up in big numbers. There were lots of Christmas carols in which people would sing along good naturedly with great gusto.

As I was walking around, Santa Claus turned up and boomed in his loud voice.

‘Now Raj Chakravorty will take our photographs’, as he draped his arm around a few children.

I duly obliged. It was pleasant to hear Santa pronouncing my surname perfectly. Not surprising because we knew each other from the office.

It was hard not to be affected by the friendliness around. Even the weather couldn’t dampen the town’s spirits.

Capt. Raj S Chakravorty

I Can Smell It!

2007-09-07T03:19:00.000-07:00

I was in a maritime seminar ten years back. The theme was ‘Ancient versus Modern Navigation’.

Admiral Awati, a seventy year old charming gentleman was the coordinator. It was apparent that the speakers had prepared well for the seminar. One of the topics which had just been presented was ‘Colour of the Sea’. It detailed how the ancient navigators ascertained their position from the colour of the sea.

Awati had a booming voice and a demeanour befitting a sailor. With flowing white beard he had an arresting presence on the dais.

He was relating his own experience how as a young lieutenant in the early sixties he was piloting a warship from Africa to Bombay. In those days navigating in the open sea could only be done with the help of astronomical sights.

For three days the sky was overcast. The stars, sun and the moon were all hidden. Ship was running on DR. Landfall was already overdue. There were lookouts high up on the crows nest and right ahead on the foxle. The navigator, Awati had not slept for 48 hours at a stretch.

When the Captain entered the Bridge the first question he asked young Awati was “Where are we?”

Awati stepped out to the bridge wings and searched the horizon with his binoculars for many minutes. He came in and buried his head into the radar hood. The precious radar was being intermittently switched on and off. The manual claimed 24 miles range but the radar had never picked up anything, including high cliffs, beyond 12 miles. Then he went behind the curtains on the chart table where he proceeded to roll the heavy brass parallel ruler across the chart spread out. When he couldn’t delay any longer he stepped out and announced

“We are 20 miles from Prong’s Reef light off Bombay.”

“How do you say that?” asked the Captain.

With low visibility, overcast skies and no radar echoes how could anyone be sure about his position?

“I can smell it” said Awati referring to the distinctly pungent odour which hangs in the air off Bombay. Thus adding smell as yet another aid to navigation.

With the advent of precise satellite navigation, which does not tolerate even a few meters error here and there all other forms of navigation has become obsolete.

Navigators of the old had to soak in their surroundings. Everything including colour of the sea, shape of the horizon, pattern of the stars, smell in the air went into consideration for ascertaining the position.

No one looks into the water nowadays. A pity. Because you miss out on all the life teeming inside there.

Pick up a glass of water from the sea. If you look into it carefully you will see minute creatures floating around. Planktons. I once saw a zoo-plankton in the form of a miniature shark clearly visible under a magnifying glass. From these minute life-forms the chain moves upward till you have giant squids and mammoth blue whales.

One of the joys in life is yachting where you can put your hands down and feel the sea water. Peek into the depths and you might see exotic tropical fish lazily swimming around.

Navigators of big ships miss out on these simple pleasures.

A pity!

Passion for Hydrography

2007-08-01T03:05:00.000-07:00

Were the people in the past more passionate about life in general? Whenever I read about the exploits of the discoverers & explorers of yesteryears I cannot but marvel at their tenacity. Their will to succeed against all odds.

One such Hydrographer was James Horsburgh of the erstwhile East India Company. Horsburgh started his life as a cabin boy in South England; perhaps shanghaied into this profession as so many were in those days. By 16 he was already a veteran sailor having sailed on several ships in the coal trade.

In 1780 he was captured by the French and incarcerated at Dunkirk. After several years he was released whereupon he immediately went back to sea – first to West Indies and thence to Calcutta.

In 1786 during one voyage his vessel was wrecked on a small island in the Indian Ocean at Diego Garcia due to an error in the chart. The point at which his ship was wrecked is known to the world as – (what else?) the Horsburgh point.

This incident changed the course of his life. He took it upon himself to map and record the entire Indian subcontinent. In those days if one wanted to pursue a career in Hydrography or whatever, one had to pay for it himself. Horsburgh purchased surveying and drawing instruments from England out of his pocket. He thereafter taught himself drawing, etching and spherics.

Then for the next twenty two years of his sailing he meticulously maintained an East Indian directory which contained a running log and sketches. Imagine the privations that he must had gone through to pursue his passion for that long! Not knowing whether he will succumb to illness or mishaps at any time during this long period.

At the end of it when he gave this directory to the authorities for publication, neither the Admiralty nor the East India Company was prepared to publish it. So Horsburgh published it at his own expense!

It was only after the publication that he was acknowledged as an expert in this field. The decades of perseverance had paid off. He was thereafter appointed as a Hydrographer to the East India Company. A post which he held for 26 long years till his death. All the time enriching the field that he had chosen.

A life truly committed to a passion.

At the eastern entrance to the Malacca Straits there stands a tall lighthouse tower with black and white horizontal bands and a white flashing light. This structure is known as Horsburgh Lighthouse.

Like a sentinel it guards the mouth of the straits keeping a vigil for the last 150 years. A fitting tribute to a great hydrographer.
_______________________________________

Exchange of communication between MMTN (Master of Motor Tanker Nagesh) who wanted some clarifications and SELF (self). Names changed to protect identities.

From MMTN:

Dear Raj,

Request please clarify following while using cmap on simrad ecdis.
1. the alarm window on the display panel shows "datum is not WGS 84", even though when you see the chart legend the information on horizontal datum is WGS 84.
2. the display on all chart areas shows circled "U". On quality rating window of charts it says "zone of confidence U, data not assessed".

Please reply ASAP.

Best Regards
-----

From: SELF

Good Day,

Sorry for the late reply.

Reg 1. Datum is set on two places. The chart geodetic datum which is set by the chart maker and on which you have no control. Most electronic charts are prepared in WGS 84 datum but there are a few exceptions.

The other is the external device geodetic datum which is generally the GPS. Sometimes you need to change the GPS datum to match with that of the chart. By default GPS is set to WGS 84. I think this has been changed on your ECDIS by an operator. Please check this setting - the method of which should be explained in the Simrad manual.

On most Ecdis it is under the Datum and Units section.

Reg 2. Please ignore it. Except for some ENCs all charts will show Zone of Confidence as un-assessed. In your case you are viewing C-Map charts and not ENCs. On some Ecdis you can get rid of this symbol by viewing the charts in C-Map mode (rather than S52 mode). I think Simrad also allows such viewing.

Best Regards
-----

From MMTN:

Dear Raj,

Thanks for your advice. All ok now.

Captain

How to Install an ECS by Oneself

2007-07-03T05:17:00.000-07:00

I was standing outside Mangalore airport searching for the agent. The sky was ominously dark and seemed ready for another bout of lashing rains.

Extreme weather. It seemed as if the weather god was punishing planet earth for all her misdeeds.

I got through the agent’s number at last. Ship’s programme was cancelled. Now she was going to enter only after two days.

Nothing new. Rare is the ship which can keep her schedules.

“Is there any lady with you?”

I looked around and spotted her straightaway. An attractive lady looking extremely harried at that moment. Like me she was hunting for her receiver. Speaking on her mobile and trying to manage her damaged luggage which was threatening to come apart.

“I think I can see her”, I told the agent.

“She is the Chief Engineer’s wife and will board the same ship.”

For the next two days we were stranded in the hotel. The unexpected company helped to pass the time. As it generally happens, one tends to tell one’s secrets to a stranger in a foreign place. And so I was privy to her life story.

Hubby had spent all his time in the ship. He had broken his leg and had a steel rod inserted there. Twice he almost lost his life. But he soldiered on, otherwise, as a robust handsome man happy in his milieu.

During all these travails the wife looked after the home front. Mostly by herself as Dad was away all the time. She brought up her daughter who was now safely married and pursuing a career in medicine.

She was joining her husband to give him company in an otherwise lonely profession.

Her own career was on the back burner. She wanted to open a business in medical astrology. But was finding it a tad difficult to get it off the ground. Youth was no longer her forte. Sometime in the past she had slipped from the pilot ladder whilst disembarking the ship in a choppy sea. As a result she had a bad back.

No promotions or medals. Not that she expected any.

Indian wives! There aren’t many who can beat them.

Meanwhile everyone is asking for ECDIS/ECS. For Vetting Inspections, by OCIMF, by Port State Controllers. Even some Masters are insisting for it because of associated spin-offs.

New ships mostly come equipped with ECDIS. It’s the old ones which cause problems, where ECS has to be retro-fitted.

Is it possible for the ship staff to install an ECS all by themselves on old ships? Where you don’t want to wait till the next lay-up?

Yes!

I am aware of at least two ships in India who have installed the ECS by themselves. One ship had some teething problems the other had none. Now for the past several months their ECSs have been running without a problem.

I have prepared a sort of ‘Do It Yourself’ guide for installing a typical PC based ECS. This will have all the features of an ECDIS and certainly more than the minimum laid down in ECDIS Performance Standards.

Basically there are three things that you need to look into:

- Hardware consisting of PC and multiplexers
- ECS Software and
- Charts

Computer and OS Requirements

ECS installation manual give you the minimum specs but it is wiser to choose a little higher for better results.
A standard PC with Windows XP and 512 MB RAM should do. Ensure you have a DVD ROM because charts are now increasingly being supplied on DVDs.

It should have at least 6 USB ports for the protection devices, multiplexers and computer peripherals.

A 17” TFT monitor is sufficiently big and comfortable for viewing the charts.
Disk space is not an issue as the entire program with vector charts take less than 2GB size.

It’s better to have a dedicated computer for the ECS for error-free operations.

Internet is desirable for online correction of charts. But if you want to avoid the associated virus risk have another computer for downloading updates and transferring it to the ECS on pen drives.

Interfacing With Bridge Equipment

Most people stumble on this.

An ECS has to be connected to the GPS for it to have basic functions.
In addition it is strongly recommended to have AIS and ARPA connections but if you cannot have one or both then don’t despair. Your ECS will still give you value for money. These can be connected up later by shore technicians.

Interfacing with Echo Sounder is good especially for getting anti grounding alarms. Frankly, I belong to the old school of navigators and don’t lay too much importance to such methods of watch keeping.

Interfacing with Gyro and Log is optional. If you can do it without breaking a sweat then go ahead.

To connect up with the bridge equipment you will need marine data interfaces (MDI). An MDI helps to connect up multiple NMEA 0183 instruments to an ECS. All present generation equipment come with the industry standard NMEA 0183 outputs. It is the older instruments such as Speed Logs, ARPA and depth sounder which cause problems and may not have NMEA outputs.

Fortunately GPS & AIS which matter the most are the simplest to interface.

AIS requires 38,400 baud rate. All other equipment need 4800 baud rate. Generally MDIs have a special slot configured for AIS.

There are many MDIs available in the market. I have found Shipmodul (www.shipmodul.com) to be reliable and reasonably priced.

Cabling

Use a 6 core shielded cable gauge 7/38 for data transmission. They are readily available in the market for Rs 40 to Rs 60 per metre. Buy sufficient cable to lay them out through the paneling. They should be neatly bunched, marked and laid out. This helps in easier trouble-shooting in the future.

Choosing the Monitor site

This should be done very carefully. The chart table is not the right place unless you have dual monitors. A suitable place would be to have the monitor on one side away from the center so that it does not obstruct keeping a lookout outside the bridge windows. At the same time it is possible to check the scenario on the screen with a quick sideways glance.

When working on the ECS you should be still in control of the bridge and have not dragged yourself away from the position of looking out.

At night use the dusk viewing option so that night vision is not impaired. If you can install shades on the monitor and have an adjustable screen to swivel it to the desired viewing angle it would help tremendously.

Installing the ECS software

This is similar to installing video games. Most ECSs manual have a step by step guide to help you install the software. Remember you will need the admin rights on the computer to install the program. Many a time it happens that the old crew has not handed over the old passwords to the new crew. It creates a problem when the ECS software needs to be re-installed in the system.

Charts
You have the option to install Raster or Vector charts. In this age it doesn’t make sense to go for Raster charts. The other question is whether it is worth to pay for the expensive ENCs. There are many areas especially at minor ports and harbours where the details are only available on ENCs. Here it makes sense to buy the ENCs.

For worldwide coverage of vector charts I have no hesitation to say that C-Map is the best.

Capt. Raj S Chakravorty

Lossless Transformation

2007-06-01T04:49:00.000-07:00

The crew of a merchant ship is like a small fighting unit. Every voyage they undertake is like a campaign. The Master is the commander who has to win the battle regardless. No wonder these people hardly ever interact with the rest of the shipping industry because they are too engrossed in their own battles.

I have noticed that it is very difficult to engage the sailing staff to take part in conferences. Most such events are dominated by the OEMs, educators and the authorities.

So whatever little feedback we get from the operational seafarers is bonus and should be brought to the notice of all those who matter.

The other day I read this honest feedback from a sailing Master –

I believe that as electronic charts get more popular, their costs will automatically drop (the GPS way - down from 2000$ to 50 $!)It is left to us Masters to convey this (let us use our marketting skills, gentlemen!) to owners / reps - during their visits on board, to supers, and of course in the ultimate ISM tool - Masters review!As far as costs go, an ECS (non compliant with solas, but equal features as ecdis) is a commercially viable option - about 1.5-2 lakh installation per vessel. An ecdis will set you back aout 10 times this cost, ut is a good investment future wise.EU will be making it mandatory for larger tankers by 2010 to carry ecdis, Norway has already done this for it's fast ferries.

This feedback appeared in an ecdis forum. Those who are interested may visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ecdis/. It is a forum for sharing your experience in Ecdis with others.

Lossless Transformation

What do they mean by lossless transformation of the ENC?

I was taking an Ecdis class when someone asked this question referring to the changed definition of System ENC in the new Ecdis Performance Standards.

In the old definition, SENC meant the conversion of the S-57 (ASCII) ENC into a binary form which is basically the internal format of a computer. To this were added external data like ARPA, AIS and user info before the complete database was displayed on the screen.

It was assumed that the conversion of ENC to SENC would be carried out within the Ecdis kernel. In actual practice there are two major problems encountered in this method.

Firstly most ENCs are not error-free. They originate from different countries and subject to different standards of quality. So when onboard the ship the navigator carries out the conversion operation he gets frequent errors on his system. At this stage what is the point of getting such errors when there is nothing much he can do.

Secondly it is an extremely lengthy procedure to carry out this operation on board. The whole process could take as much as ten hours before the charts are ready to be run on the Ecdis.

There is no argument that the ASCII format of ENC has to be converted into a binary form for it to be recognized by the computer. The question was how to overcome the above problems.

In the late nineties C-Map proposed that the data conversion could be carried out outside the Ecdis. The charts could be tested in lab conditions. The customer is then given this error-free ENC data, in binary form, to be directly run on the Ecdis.

Initially this method of distributing ENC was mooted in 1998 at an IHO meeting at Singapore. However, some HOs objected to it. Later in 2002 at Valparaiso this issue was once again debated. This time Tor Svanes of C-Map Norway and Chris Anderson of National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), USA were able to convince the majority to adopt the SENC method of distributing ENCs.

In 2002, the IHO CHRIS committee passed the resolution TR 3.114 approving the distribution of ENC in SENC format as follows:

It is resolved that SENC distribution can be accepted as an option, in addition to direct ENC distribution, providing that the following principles be adhered to:
- The HO should ensure that the ENC is always available to any user in the S-57 ENC format.
- As an option HOs may allow the distribution of their data in a SENC format.
- Service providers who are to supply the SENC service must operate under the regulations of the issuing authority. The onshore ENC to SENC conversion must be performed using type-approved software.
- The SENC update mechanism should not be inferior to the ENC-ECDIS update mechanism.
- The distributor of SENC data should maintain a registry of its users.
- The copyright of the ENC data should be maintained.

In December 2006 the new Ecdis PS was brought out wherein the SENC was redefined as the manufacturer’s internal Ecdis format, resulting from the lossless transformation of the ENC. The phrase lossless transformation was added basically to ensure that when the conversion took place outside the Ecdis the data was not downgraded in accuracy or contents.

It took more than five years for the SENC method of distribution to be accepted. And another five before the definition changed in the PS.

Who says there is no bureaucracy in Electronic Charts?

Future ENCs

2007-05-10T01:46:00.000-07:00

Future ENCs

I was coming back to Bangalore after a fairly long time.

I had reached quite early in the morning which gave me ample time to keep my appointment. But not enough time for sight-seeing. I wished I had the energy to roam around for a few hours in the city under the summer sun. Instead I waited in the airport lounge itself. I took this opportunity to strike up conversations with other passengers to glean some local knowledge.

Whilst waiting in the long queue for the pre-paid Auto I started talking to a young fellow beside me. He turned out to be a friendly guy from the IT sector. I learnt he was an M-Tech in software engineering and hailed from Bhatkal.

‘I have been to Bhatkal. A sleepy little village north of Malabar coast. There is an islet there called Pigeon Island, and a fishing harbour close-by.’

That guy was surprised that I knew the place.

I was there about 15 years back during the course of a hydrographic survey. Bhatkal could qualify as one of those parts of Incredible India. Beautiful, sun-kissed and un-spoilt; having a wonderfully temperate climate. I remembered it as a picturesque village on the sea-shore. I was glad to know that IT had penetrated deep into these villages.

The Auto-ride was surprisingly comfortable and not as bad as it would had been in Andheri. The peak-hour traffic hadn’t yet built up. A distance of 12 kms in the heart of the city was covered in 40 minutes.

Peeping out from the Auto I watched the early morning crowd. Schoolchildren seemed to be happy looking forward to the day. A middle-aged man was crossing the road at a traffic signal. He was in a hurry weaving around the standing vehicles before the lights changed. He had a lap-top in his hand, without its carrying case. As if he didn’t bother to pack it up nicely before leaving for the office.

I don’t think I had seen so many lap-tops anywhere else in the world as I saw in Bangalore that day. In the airport, at restaurants and other public places. Instead of thinking of renaming it as Bengalooru perhaps the state politicians should call this place laptop-nagar. It would be original and apt.

I was in Bangalore to attend the marriage of Shwetha. I used to know Shwetha as a quiet little child. That day she was looking radiant and enchanting.

At the marriage Bhavan I met some old friends and fellow seafarers.

People asked me about the world of electronic charts.

They all agree that ECDIS has been a good thing for the shipping industry.

Watching your ship progressing on the Electronic Chart on the Bridge is a dream-come-true for the Master. The screen gives him an informed picture of the situation outside. Dangers to navigation from proximal targets can be correctly assessed without too much of an effort.

What else would a Master want from the ECDIS?

As he looks out of the Bridge windows he can see the waters around. But he is unable to see underneath the water. Is it possible for him to somehow penetrate the water, as if with a powerful x-ray vision and see the seabed underneath?

What if he could visualize the column of water on top of the seabed corrected for the tides at that point of time?

Suppose if the Master could see the hull of his ship immersed in the water at its current draft. The ship’s draft continuously being corrected for the height of the waves and the vessel’s squat and heel. If he could only see the under-keel clearance and measure the changes when the vessel varied her speed and/or applied the rudder.

The three-dimensional graphics using rotation matrix technology already exists in the video-games that the kids play. Can we use this technology to view the oceans and our ship moving on it? When can the navigators get such charts?

Most navigators are aware of the projection errors of a chart. Simply put, it is the distortion that occurs when a marine cartographer transfers a part of the spherical earth on a flat sheet of paper. But how many know about the sounding selection algorithm which skews a sea-bed to be artificially raised on a chart. The important thing to know is that all these errors on paper charts have being carried forward to the electronic charts which are being depicted on the video screens today. Including the algorithm for selecting soundings.

When selecting soundings to be put on a chart, the cartographer is handicapped by the limitation of available space. Too many soundings clutter the chart, especially on small-scale charts. So he follows a rule for picking up depths from a fair sheet:

- As far as possible, all shoals are picked up.
- Space permitting, the deeps between the shoals are picked up.

Many times, especially when the seabed is uneven, space does not permit all deeps to shown. This means that the shoals which appear on the chart will artificially raise the seabed. This is deliberately done so as to err on the safe side, but the fact remains that the seabed is not correctly shown on the chart. It also means that the chart is not suitable for applications which require the undulations of a sea-bed to be accurately shown. Anchoring is one such example, trawling is another.

The soundings that appear on the chart are a few selected depths out of the thousands which appear on the fair sheet. There are many more which remain forever inside the echo-roll. The chart drawn on a flat sheet of paper or flat screen does not show all this information.

Modern surveys today are carried out with multibeam sounders connected to data-logging systems. These instruments collect many times more information than single-beam echo sounders with manual read out. And yet the way we prepare our charts have not changed.

The fact is that the chart that you see today, even if it is an ENC, contains only a small fraction of the data that was actually collected in the field. The vast majority of the data lies unused in the Hydrographic Offices and repositories all over the world.

A lot of research is going on in C-MAP to improve the appearance of the charts. A research is going on for example in the integration of land and sea maps. This has always been a problem earlier because the datum for land and sea data are not same. Soon we will have 3D land sat maps integrated with the sea maps.

C-MAP OceanView software permit the vector charts to be viewed as a 3D picture. We have to remember that presently this 3D model is based on scanty data. Only on large scales charts where there are sufficient depths this feature can be safely used.

At IHO there is a committee working on the upgradation of ENCs from S57 to S100. The electronic charts prepared in accordance with the S100 standards promises to be of the state of art technology. It proposes to overcome the limitations of S57 ENCs. They expect this version of chart to be available only after 2012.

To protect the customers, it is planned to be upwardly compatible from S57.

It is going to be a long time before these charts becomes a reality. But when these future electronic charts become available to the Master, his dream would be realized. He will be able to use the underwater information in the chart in a way he wants.

Off course, the chart developers still have to cope up with the logistics of exchanging the vast amount of data in a practical manner.

Perhaps if commercial charting organizations are included by IHO in the programs for developing future ENCs there could be a faster development.

These future ENCs would then become a tool not only for the navigator but for many others who work out there in the sea. The fishermen, oil explorers, submarine cable layers and many others. In fact it could give a fillip to the nascent ocean-related industries.

Capt. Raj S Chakravorty

2007-04-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

Opportunities on Offshore Vessels
Last week an Indian Shipping company offered 12000 USD to an Indian Master.

That too for a vessel operating in Indian waters where you don’t need a foreign-going certificate, a coastal certificate being enough.

Unthinkable!

Just 4 years back the average salaries were 2000 USD. A whopping six-fold rise.

Till very recently the Indian Navy used to be fodder for the domestic shipping. DGS has stopped issuing Certificate of Service (COS) to naval lieutenants since 1986. As a result COS from Navy has dried up and a combination of market forces has driven the salaries up to stratosphere.

A piece written by an OSV Master sailing in South African waters provides an interesting insight of the Offshore market. It was written about 6 months back when oil prices had touched 90 USD per barrel.

Capt. Raj S Chakravorty

Offshore Vessels: - Manpower/Ship handling Skills/Training.

Background:

Crude oil prices are currently ruling at a historic high. With the accelerated GDP growth in BRIC countries viz Brazil, Russia, India & China, the incremental growth in oil consumption is bound to keep them high. The prevailing oil prices may be a matter of concern for the consumers but for the players engaged in oil exploration industry it is a win-win situation as this would lead to greater opportunities. High oil prices force the oil exploration companies to seek greener pastures. The drilling and exploration activities onshore have already reached saturation point in shallow waters. Therefore oil majors have no option but to train their sights in deeper waters and relatively unexplored offshore sector.

1. Manpower:
The only point of grave concern for Indian offshore industry would be inadequate availability of skilled man power, which needs to be addressed urgently. The exposure gained by naval officers by virtue of handling twin screw vessels whilst in service, made them ideal candidates for joining the offshore industry. The majority of deck officers in OSVs are ex navy. The reduced inflow of ex naval officers in the offshore industry has already caused problems in man-power costs. Let us examine the current scenario for Great Eastern Shipping on the basis of SWOT analysis. This article is primarily restricted to availability of manpower in offshore sector.

a. Strength:
Gesco is an existing player in offshore sector. Rated by personnel as number one amongst the domestic companies. Continues to be first choice of seafarers aspiring to switch over to the offshore sector. The current expansion and deployment of offshore vessels is leading to widespread exposure and quicker promotions for the fleet personnel. The company should continue to attract fresh talent. The problem area will be retention of the experienced floating staff.

b. Weaknesses:
i. Certification system: The existing certification system is skewed towards main fleet in terms of counting of sea time for competency exams. Bright & talented youngsters would rather opt for main fleet. The offshore sector would have to depend upon coastal certification (NCV) for meeting its manpower requirement. The NCV certification is not likely to generate desired quality officers. The primary source of input for offshore sector is middle aged seafarers looking for a second career.

ii. Reduced inflow of retired naval officers: Section 80 of merchant shipping act 1958 was repealed in 1986. The youngest officer today in possession of COS is 45 years old. A number of officers opt for premature retirement when they become eligible for pension. In the present scenario officers leaving service are without COS and cannot join shipping without a lengthy certification process. DG Shipping has recently issued MS notice no 08/2006 which facilitates the conversion of naval officers to Certificate of competency (NCV/FG limited to 3000 GRT). The service onboard OSV would be counted 2/3. For becoming an NCV Master he will require 18 months sea service as NCV mate, which translates to 27 months of actual sea service. Considering the 2 months on/off policy, the average time required for converting from NCV mate to master would be about 6 years, which is a very long period and will further aggravate shortage of masters in the offshore industry.

iii. Non standardisation of Pay scales: The emoluments of the contractual floating staff are fixed on adhoc basis & no parity is maintained vis-à-vis seniority and experience. It is recommended that the emoluments rather than being fixed on individual basis be linked with the grades.

iv. Long term stake: The majority of floating staff is employed on contractual basis and hence it is very difficult to foster a long term relationship. Presently the stakes for the contractual floating staff are minimal. Measures such as introduction of provident fund for contractual staff can be explored or even employees stock option can be considered.

v. Introduction of Dynamic Positioning: Consequent to introduction of dynamic positioning, there would be lesser incentive to learn ship handling skills. So far the remuneration onboard the DP vessels have been better than OSV and since no manual handling is involved the stress is also lower. The majority of new seafarers joining the offshore sector are only looking for a career in DP vessels.

c. Opportunity:
i. Shorter tenure: There is general preference amongst seafarers to go for shorter sea tenures. The offshore industry offers shorter tenure and hence it would continue to attract officers from the main fleet.

ii. Availability of ex naval officers: A large number of naval officers retire every year from active service and hence are available for the offshore industry. With the removal of COS, there is bound to be reduction of inflow of naval officers. The offshore industry must do some hard selling by interacting with the navy.

iii. Take the case of the booming civil aviation industry; it is more than happy to absorb ex pilots from armed forces. Then why the same is not happening in the booming offshore industry? It is pertinent to mention that for joining civil aviation similar exams are conducted by DGCA. The major difference is in the passing percentage, which is higher for an aviator compared to naval officers. Logically obtaining civil pilot license should be more difficult.

d. Threat:
i. Opportunities ashore: With the rapid growth in GDP, the number of openings ashore have increased. Till recently it was difficult for a seafarer to get absorbed in well paying shore jobs but the scenario has changed. There are numerous instances where chief officers/masters have quit offshore industry within a relatively short period of time for taking up shore assignments.

ii. Rampant poaching: In view of unprecedented boom in offshore sector the shortage of skilled seafarers is likely to get further aggravated .The shortages will lead to rampant poaching. If the manpower situation is considered bad today, tomorrow it can only become worse.

II. Ship handling skills:

Acquiring ship handling skills require aptitude, patience, interest & boldness on part of the students desirous of becoming ship handlers. Handling of OSV is some what similar to driving a car and there is no mystique or greatness involved in becoming a good handler. When an average person can acquire driving skills and negotiate the torturous traffic of cities then why the same can not be replicated in OSV. Knowledge of seamanship and understanding the effect of tide and current on vessel is more than enough for acquiring basic ship handling skills. The art of ship handling has been made to appear extremely complicated by seafarers, who are jealously guarding their turf and perceive that they have acquired great skills which are difficult for ordinary mortals to comprehend.

The most important key to imparting ship handling skills is the willingness & attitude of the master to impart practical training to his subordinates. Although the PSV is not an ideal platform for learning ship handling skill, one of the greatest advantages of working on PSV is that it removes the fear of handling. The candidates who posses requisite aptitude should be identified early and posted on PSV for obtaining accelerated exposure to offshore vessels.

One of the prerequisite for a future master should be to have requisite confidence in handling conventional vessels. Not withstanding introduction of DP system onboard , the future masters should be advised to continually practice ship handling skills when ever possible . There are various types of rigs & platforms in Bombay high and hence one is able to get widespread exposure. Bombay high continues to remain by far the best learning ground. It would be an added advantage if some how more company vessels can operate in Bombay high rather than in isolated and small oil fields.

III. Training:
The training should comprise of theory as well as practical training on simulator. The detailed syllabi and content can be worked out at later stage.

1. Theory: All deck officers joining offshore industry for the first time should be made to undergo one day capsule course on under mentioned subjects. The training can be conjoined with the induction programme.

1.Ship handling principles. Topics from Danton seamanship.
2.Berthing/unberthing from Jetty.
3.OSV and its functioning.
4.Rigs/Platforms.

2. Practical: The practical training on simulators can be imparted prior to commencement of second tenure. Various anchor handling simulators are available in the market. Based on inputs from various sources, Naval Maritime Academy (NAMAC) has already prepared guidelines for anchor handling simulator. NAMAC has already installed ship handling simulator and adding anchor handling simulator should not be much of problem. Various types of simulator training which could be undertaken are as given below.
3. Basic: The module could be of one day duration. The basic ship handling only needs to be simulated. Various injections of current and wind can be given. The candidates can practice positioning of the vessel with in a circle of limited radius.

4. Advanced: The module could be of two days duration. The exercise would involve the real life situation where in direction of tidal flow has to be ascertained. Conditions similar to the Bombay high field can be simulated. In addition towing/anchor handling exercise can also be carried out.

IV. Conclusion:

1. Bridging the demand/supply gap: It is a sad paradox that in country like India which boasts of ample man power should be facing difficulties in meeting demand for its own offshore sector. Brushing the problem under the carpet by saying quality man power is not available would be akin to ostrich like attitude. The tremendous growth of the service sector in India has only been possible due to resilience and capabilities of our man power .The developed countries due to their ageing population are increasingly looking to India for sourcing their man power requirement. A major source like ex naval officers should be aggressively tapped by the industry. The methodology for conversion of certificate of service from STCW convention 78 to 95 and the resultant court cases has vitiated the atmosphere. As for as meeting the requirements of the offshore industry are concerned both the parties DG Shipping & Navy appear to be sitting on the opposite fence. The good part is that the gap of late has narrowed down. The basic problem how ever still remains the prevailing mindset of the facilitator, which works more efficiently in denial mode rather than meeting the requirements of Industry. With the discontinuation of certificate of service it is no longer possible for naval officers to effortlessly switch over to merchant navy. Earlier the effort was individual based in case of ex naval officers, who were seeking alternative career in merchant navy. With the rapid changing of rules and stringent requirements of sea service etc, it needs much more of an organizational effort on part of Navy by way of conducting courses & coaching classes in accordance with MS notice 08/2006.

2. Conduct of simulator training: NAMAC was way ahead of others in foreseeing the potential of offshore industry & has done pioneering work in planning & designing training for offshore industry. Not many people are aware of the fact that DG Shipping had entrusted NAMAC with the task of preparing modular courses for offshore industry based on OPITO standards. The company can tie up with NAMAC for conduct of simulator courses.

Capt. Ravinder Singh