Dinesh Mahlawat worked as a merchant navy officer before returning to Sikar to work in Nav Prerna School full time. We are fortunate to have individuals of Dinesh’s calibre at the school.
The Merchant Navy is a non-combatant commercial fleet, which deals with transporting cargo and occasionally, passengers, by sea. Therefore, its fleet is composed of passenger vessels, cargo liners, tankers, carriers, as well as other special types of vehicles. The main positions open in the merchant navy are for navigating officers, radio officers and marine engineers. They are usually employed by shipping companies on a contractual basis, which is generally of six to nine months' duration.
In Merchant Navy, major tasks performed are in three basic areas of a ship: the Deck, the Engine and the Service Department. There are many career options available for a youngster who dreams of joining the merchant navy. The deck officers include the captain, chief officer, second officer, third officer and other junior officers. The engine department consists of the chief engineer, radio officer, electrical officer and junior engineers. The service department manages the kitchen, laundry, medical and other services. Jobs are available with shipping companies in India and other countries.
A career in this field is full of adventure and long voyages to exotic places. Above all this, the excellent pay and promising promotional opportunities make the career lucrative and exciting in spite of all the hard work life and long absence from family and home. Earlier a career in this field was considered purely for men. Women were not generally known to take up jobs in merchant navy but the past few years have seen a positive change with many women taking up jobs as ship doctors and radio officers.
This is a page from his diary that he wrote on the ship.
1.2 April 7, 2005
I woke up at 03:50 am and after doing usual tasks went to the ship’s bridge for duty. Second Officer made me aware of ship’s current position as well as of any ships or boats in the vicinity or under keel clearance. Chief Officer’s duty is from 04:00 am to 08:00 am in the morning and then from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm in the night. I was to assist him in watch keeping. My first task was to check ship’s position on the chart and make a note of nearby ships. I plotted other ships positions and marked their courses.
We were approaching Amazon River. My friend Amrish was sick. This was first time in 11 months time that I saw someone sick on ship. He had mild fever and headache and was advised rest. Then I went to bridge wings to check gyro repeaters to see if they are following master gyro. Port gyro was out of sync by one degree and I rectified that.
Then I checked master gyro for its accuracy by taking positions from Cedar and Aldebaran (brightest star in the constellation Taurus) stars and found master gyro’s error to be +1.5 degree. I noted this in the daily log. Our vessel was on auto pilot as it was a clear ocean. I took positions every 20 minutes and noted them in the log. At 6:00 am a fishing boat was on collision course. I was on its starboard side as per the ROR (Right of Road) yielded to the fishing boat.
My watch was over at 8:00 am. I headed to the mess for breakfast. I had a glass of milk (with honey), omlet, bread, and grape juice. After breakfast, I changed into boiler suit and reported to the Chiefmate in CCR (cargo control room). He had planned a different day instead of usual maintenance. As we had a rough sea yesterday deck and superstructure was salty. In the afternoon, we were going to enter Amazon River full of sweet water. Therefore, he wanted complete hosing down of the vessel. In addition, he wanted two more jobs to be done: first, squaring up of fore castle storeroom and second, to make a new pilot ladder. I assigned two Abs (Able bodied Seamen) for the squaring up of castle storeroom. Bosun (the senior most AB) and I went for pilot ladder. It was first time I was going to make a pilot ladder so Chiefmate wanted me to learn it. For this purpose, we got Manila Rope from the store and started making the ladder. Since we were in the river now, I called the ABs from fore castle and asked them to hose down the vessel. This job was done in 3 hours. Engine room guys always start protesting when we want to use any of their equipments like fire pump for hosing down or deck air for pneumatic chipping needles or drills. Today was no different.
In the afternoon, I had a tasty lunch. I especially liked prawn fried rice. After lunch I went to CCR and found ship listed 2 degree on the starboard side, reported to Chief Mate and he told me to correct it. Then I went to ECR and asked the Second Engineer to start ballasting 2 and 3 port ballast rooms. Within 10 minutes, ship was upright. I updated ballast log for the current event.
After hosing down, I sent the ABs for helping in pilot ladder. At 3:00 pm we had pilots onboard our ship from Macapa. In the river, Captain called an AB as helmsman on the steering wheel. Pilot ladder was almost complete, so Chiefmate wanted me to come on the bridge. I washed, changed and reported on the bridge. In the river the charts are a bit different and at times are not accurate. Reason is that river course survey was done 10 years back and by now there were many changes in the river course. I plotted ships position every 10 minutes. It was always a fascinating experience: lush green jungle, a few houses here and there and silently moving Amazon. My watch was over at 8:00 pm and I went for dinner. After dinner I went back to the bridge where the Captain asked all the rules. He was happy that I recited all the rules by heart. For tomorrow, he wanted me to show him all the navigational stars which were visible from 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm in the night sky. I asked the Third Officer to help me in locating the stars. After this, I went to CCR and to ECR to file all cargo papers. I made four copies and put them in separate bundles. In the night I did numerical problems about ship’s stability and went to sleep at 11:00 pm.
(Written by Dinesh Mahlawat. The author can be contacted at dinesh@nav-prerna-school.com)
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