Today we are sailing southwards towards Florida and we are about 40 miles off the coast of New Jersey. The reason that we are so far out is to avoid the Gulf Stream which lies currently fairly close to the coast. When you are in it, and it is against you, you can have an adverse current of anything between 1.5 and 4 knots and that slows the ship down considerably. Then to maintain the schedule, you have to go faster and that costs more fuel.

The darker the color, the stronger the current. Black indicates about 4 knots

By sailing outside the Gulf Stream you solve that problem and you might even enjoy a bit of counter current; getting a free push in the back. It might cost a few miles extra in the distance to make but it only takes a quick calculation to decide what works the best. The NOAA and the Military publish charts with the latest location of the axis of the gulfstream but the charts give the situation that has already occurred as it take some time to correlate all the measurements taken into a decent chart. Thus looking for the edge of the Gulf Stream is a sort of quantified gamble. You have the best information available but nothing you can do about it if Mother Nature suddenly decides to shift the Gulf Stream a few miles one way or the other.

By tomorrow lunch time we should have a good idea of how good the plan worked. In the meantime the weather is very wobbly and the ship is quite lively even with the stabilizers working overtime. Hurricane Gonzales has moved away and only a few remnants of the swell it caused are still there, but its space has been very quickly taken up by a frontal system moving in from the shore. The Weather people have very nice descriptions for it but I just keep it simple. You should see a hurricane as a vast rotating vacuum cleaner that sucks everything away that is close enough to its vortex. That leaves a void that has to be filled somehow and thus somewhere a weather front will gather momentum and comes charging in. That has happened here was well and this morning we had 35 to 45 knots of winds blowing. A good gale in other words. Nearly full on the starboard side beam but with pumping water over you can keep the ship nicely up straight. However, the longer the wind blows the more grip it gets on the waves and the higher it will whip them up.

Since the late morning that has been happening and now the waves are on occasion too big to be fully handled by the stabilizers and that makes the ship move a bit. Stabilizers normally filter out 90% of a roll and that means that things would be very unpleasant if they would not be working. The forecast has been predicting about 30 knots but there is at least 10 knots more out there and thus there is also more swell, and movement…than anticipated . But it is not a heavy storm and the outside decks are open for all to enjoy and the relative wind on the deck is less due to the ship moving forward under an angle to the wind. Still being out there means that it is bracing. Most guests get back inside fairly quickly as they find it too bracing. Luckily there is enough to do inside the ship with presentations, shows and all sorts of gatherings.

I normally do not get the chance to nose around during a sea day but today I am in between all sorts of things and mainly cleaning up my administration before the head office gets going again tomorrow. So today I had a look at the Art Auctioneer who had her first show day of the cruise. I was impressed how busy it was. Either we have a lot of Art Connoisseurs on board or it was the free champagne that did it. Tomorrow is our 2nd sea day and, again if the predictions hold, by midnight the winds are supposed to ease off to about 20 knots and that means that the seas & swells will start to subside as well.

Last evening we arrived in Boston and this morning the ship was ready to receive the guests.  For a cruise ship it is always peculiar when there is only crew onboard. First there is always the sigh of relief of having a day “without” guests; a day where you can do things that you cannot otherwise catch up with when there are guests onboard, but very quickly everybody starts to feel ill at ease as nobody can do the job they are here for: serving the guests. So this morning bright smiles on everybodies faces: we are back to being a cruise ship.

We actually start from Boston as the ship had been cruising in Canada before, but I was too late to copy it from the Hal website, so this was the nearest I could find.  Our first calls are Port Canaveral and then Fort Lauderdale where we pick up the remainder of our guests.

This cruise is officially labeled a Panama Canal reposition cruise as the ship will sail cruises to Hawaii in the winter. To get there we will create a three week cruise out of it, calling at some ports at the Atlantic side of the Canal and then hop along the West coast, calling at ports in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Mexico. That will bring us on 08 November in San Diego from where the ship will start the cruise to Hawaii. There I will leave the ship and after a short spell in the office, hop onto the next DAM ship. I was supposed to have left from here on the 4th.  of October so this has turned into something of an extended stay. Not that I mind, the Veendam is a nice ship, I was captain of it between 2004 and 2008, and I have plenty of things to do to support the Captain and the Officers on board.

But first the ship has to get on the road and departure was set for 1600 hrs. That was going to be an interesting affair as behind us was docked the QM2.

Boston cruise terminal is located in a side bay of the river and to get out you have to back the ship, (go astern) back to the river.  Plenty of room to do it but once passed the QM2 there was a container vessel docked at the other side and thus the had the Veendam to make a small swivel movement. First hugging the far side of the channel and once clear of the QM2, hugging the near/dock side to give the container ship with its overhanging cranes a good clearance.

You can just see the QM2 sticking out from behind the Veendam and in the distance the MSC Stella at the container terminal

Maneuvering with a ship is all about having a plan B. In other words having something up your sleeve in case the plan A that you had in mind does not work out for whatever reason. In the early afternoon it was blowing 20 knots and gusting higher and the thrusters can handle about 26 knots if the ship is sitting still in the water. As soon as it moves, the flow/thrust gets diluted by the ships speed and then the effective output is less.  If plan B consists of gently drifting back to the dock in case of a squall or wind burst then that is a good option. If there is a ship at that berth then it is not. as even “gentle drifting” tends to create damage.

Thus Plan B today was to have a tugboat on standby.  Captain Chris Norman had looked at the weather when it came close to the dead line of ordering a tug, and as at that moment the wind was still too strong, the decision was simple to make. As is often the case, then just before departure the wind died away, and then comes the thought, I could have saved that money………………. But you don’t know and thus better safe than sorry.

Clear of the Queen Mary 2

By 1530 all the guests were on board and they all had attended the Emergency Drill so the good ship Veendam was cleared and ready to sail south.  We sailed astern out of the slip and exchanged greetings with the QM2. I was a bit amazed at her whistle. The law stipulates that a certain size ship has to have a whistle with a pitch that decreases in tone height, the larger that ship gets. Well I am very happy to say that although the QM2 is 2.5 times the size of the Veendam, her hoot & toot was not any more expressive than the Veendam’s.

Over Boston dark clouds were gathering and it smelled distinctively wet in the air, it looked like we were gone just in time.

Tomorrow and the day after we are at sea, sailing along the East Coast of the USA, and then on the 21^st. we will visit Port Canaveral as out first port of call. The weather forecast is a bit unsettled as our Hurricane friend Gonzalez still has some influence on the weather so it might be overcast tomorrow or it might start to break up already. We will then also find out if the swells created by the hurricane have reduced themselves according to the predictions of yesterday. We should have about 6 feet and makes for a very smooth ride.

Today is our sea day before we arrive in Boston to get back in the cruise schedule. As the  hurricane of the day is creating havoc about 700 miles away, we have no issues with the wind but the swell is coming all the way to us; and the ship is quite lively even with our stabilizers working full time. By tomorrow evening that swell should start to subside and if the predictions turn out to be correct then the guests will have a smooth ride down to Port Canaveral. Of course it is not good for a cruise ship sailing without guests, it upsets the accountants and eventually the shareholders, but for us dealing with safety, it is quite handy.

We can do drills to our hearts content without having to worry that we reduce the guest’s satisfaction. So today I facilitated a fire drill which came into the guest areas. Normally the fire crews might have to go through guest area’s to get to the location but having (stage) smoke billowing through the corridors is another matter of course. But now we had the chance, so we took it. Switch the A.C. and pump out enough smoke so that visibility is reduced to less than 5 inches. (We have a very good smoke machine!!!)

The philosophy between shore side firefighting and shipside is completely different. If needed shore side they can keep everybody at a safe distance and then control the fire. We do not have a safe distance; we are on the ship so we have to go in at all times, to stop it from being a local fire, to shipside fire. While the shore side can call in much more resources than we do and have much more extensive equipment available we have the advantage that we are always “on top” of the fire, or under it if it is on the higher decks.

Also we know exactly what is in which locker so we can plan better than shore side, who seldom knows what they might come across when they attend a fire at a house or factory. They have to tread very carefully as they never know if there are gas bottles or other explosive devices located inside. Very scary and very dangerous. The owner is not always there, nor does an owner always realize that his barbeque, or drums with chemicals, can be the cause of instant death of a firefighter, and might just forget to mention it. We know where everything is, it is all on the fire-fighting plans and thus we can attack much more specifically. It is standard in the ships fire fighting business that you have to get to the source of the fire within 10 minutes otherwise it is getting difficult to control it. You might still be able to do it but a larger area will be affected and it will be harder to extinguish it.

The teams, we have four of them, two deck and two engine, are trained in rapid dressing up and should be fully dressed up with breathing apparatus (SCBA) operational in about 5 minutes. That gives them then 3 minutes to get to the staging area (from where the attack starts) and then they should be on location, safely behind two hoses within the next 2 minutes. From then on it depends on the location of the fire, how extensive it is, and if there are casualties inside that have to be evacuated.

The bridge is guiding the process but the attack is being orchestrated by a First Officer, who is called the OSC – On Scene Commander – who sets up “The Box”. This means that as quickly as possible the area concerned is surrounded – boxed in – by the fire teams. Then one team attacks and a second team is ready to help. Sometimes they both go in, sometimes one team can do it if it is a smaller problem. Then there is a whole slew of supports troops. Medical with a stretcher team, Security with an evacuation team, Hose handlers, SCBA refill team, 2 man who carry the thermal imaging camera’s, a Passenger Assist Team that evacuates the nearest guest cabins, a Passenger Notification Team who are ready to answer any questions from the guests, etc. etc.

The initial evolution gets about 80 crew on the move and if things are not settled quickly that goes up to about 200, if the captain starts considering getting the guests to the lifeboat stations or completely to the other side of the ship. So we had our fun this morning. The only one who might have been a bit unhappy about it all could have been the Exe. Housekeeper, because when you mess around with charged fire hoses, you get water everywhere. But we have those beautiful industrial size vacuum machines that can take care of it very quickly………………….. so why not use them once in a while?

Tomorrow life will return to normal and we will start our Trans canal.  We embark the first group of guests and then the rest is coming in Fort Lauderdale for a cruise which will end in Sand Diego on the 8th. of November. It will be interesting to see how far they have progressed with the Panama Canal. They had some set backs but I think they are rolling well forward now.

Well dry dock work was completed today so the good ship Veendam left the dock and sailed down the Delaware River back to sea. Yesterday I blogged about the Holland America cargo ships calling at Philadelphia on a regular basis but I did not mention the passenger ships. Well there weren’t any.  In the days that HAL ran the Trans-Atlantic service, calling at Philadelphia meant a longer sailing time on the ocean and then another 80 miles on the river with slow speed. Landing passengers in NY was thus faster and with the rail road connections, the number of people going in the direction of Philadelphia could easily be accommodated by train.  Thus it remained a cargo only port.  It might be possible that the passenger ships have called there in the past occasionally but I have not found any dates yet.

The reason I know the dates mentioned yesterday is that I am busy with trying to record every voyage, each HAL ship has ever made. Starting in 1872 until the present day.  I am now up to just over 8000 entries and more or less complete until 1922. That means that I have another 90 years to go.  The information about all the voyages can be found in the HAL archives in Rotterdam. Most offices, both in Rotterdam and New York, kept what they called Movement Books in which they noted the ports of call during each voyage, the number of passengers on board, the value of the cargo and the use of coal and or fuel oil. That way I also find the names of the captains as it is one of the ways that they are recorded.  The challenge is, and it is a real challenge, is that the archives are not complete.  The company was not always focused on keeping material for their historical records and then there was the great flood of 1953. The archives at that time were stored in the basement which is not a good place in a country that can flood easily. During the Feb storm of 1953 the water was pushed so high up the Nieuwe Waterweg to Rotterdam that it came above the dock edge and washed into the cellars of the Head Office. A lot of material was lost.

It means for me and other historians it is a puzzle to find out details of the company’s past.  Fascinating but time consuming. Thus during each vacation period, I spend at least a day in the archives and photograph the books that survived. Then, when at sea, I spend one hour each day transcribing the voyage dates from the books. It is a slow process but eventually everybody will be able to see the complete records on the blog site. Both of the captains and the voyages of each ship.

Western shore with the Philadelphia airport in the distance

With slow speed going down the river means that it takes approx. 6 hours from sea buoy to the dock and vice versa. The Delaware River is, at least at this stretch not very scenic and we mainly sail past industrial complexes. The river remains fairly wide until past Philadelphia upstream and anything that might be scenic is not so easy to see.

It is wide but not deep. The central fairway has to be dredged regularly to keep it open to deep drafted ships. Necessary as deep laden tankers travel all the way up to Philadelphia.

Same view but now on the Radar. The airport are the two beams near the top. Light blue indicates shallow water, black the dredged fairway.

What was of interest were two things.  One, just past Wilmington, they are building / creating / constructing a mountain and when just passed by that location, there is a bridge, high enough to let a  ship of the Veendam size pass under.

Delaware Memorial Bridges

The mountain is of course the local garbage dump and what was special about this one was that it was nicely covered over. While we saw the garbage trucks rolling in and out, behind them rolled trucks with soil covering the slopes of the mountain straight away. I did not see a recycling plant there for separation but maybe that is at another location.

Up and down the river, the pilots conn the ships by keeping it in the ranges. Using green leading lights that are kept in line – Green above Green –

And the same bridges but now in the chart

When in perfect alignment the ship is exactly in the middle of the fairway. A ship that comes the other way is doing the same thing and then the pilots talk to each other to make passing arrangements. Most of the traffic on the river is with barges and the tugboat skippers that push or pull the barges are tuned into this as well.

As these barges can come from all over the States a rich variation in accents can be heard over the VHF; and sometimes you wonder if they can all understand each other.  Some accents can be quite heavy and those from Alabama do talk slightly different than those from New Jersey.

We will now head for Boston for a timely arrival so we can get back into the cruise schedule. Our next cruise is the Panama Canal, ending in San Diego, and I will be on board as dry-dock also curtailed my activities.  The weather at the moment is not that great out there so we will have a bit of a wobbly ride.

Philadelphia has a long standing connection with Holland America. It goes back for well over a 100 years. Once the company had established itself on the Trans-Atlantic service to New York it started to look around for expansion possibilities. The East coast of the USA was the most logical choice as it was nearby the New York head office. In 1891 the first tentative steps were made with having the P.C Caland and Zaandam (I) call at Baltimore. This being successful this port became a regular call in the intermediate service for the next two years. Intermediate is the name for a Trans-Atlantic route that is a bit more elaborate, calls at more ports than the express route which goes straight from Rotterdam to New York.

The P Caland, named after the man who designed the sea way entrance to Rotterdam, was the 4th ship of the company

By 1894 it stopped again mainly due to the fact that all our ships were a combination of passenger and cargo and there was not enough business to make both components viable. The next step was to try a cargo service. Holland America did not have its own cargo – only ships yet but were in the process of building them. Thus in 1899 a number of cargo ships were chartered to run a service from Newport News to Rotterdam.

The Soestdijk of 1901 was the first cargo – only ship of the company

This was considered quite successful and in 1901 the company’s first cargo – only ship the Soestdijk (I) was scheduled on the route Newport News – Amsterdam – Rotterdam – Newport News. In 1902 a second ship joined in, the Amsteldijk (I) and a regular schedule could be maintained by using additional charter ships. In 1903 the Sloterdijk (I) followed and those three ships must have been deemed sufficient as the number of charter ships then dwindled considerably. On the 9th. of march 1907 the Sloterdijk (I) made the first call for the company at Philadelphia. The city became a regular port of call in the schedule for the three ships. Things were going well, the company was doing extremely well, to such an extent that it took over a similar route from Furness & Withy.

This was a British company which ran a similar service in direct competition. As there was not enough for both of them and HAL wanted to stay, it came to a hand over agreement. Ships were taken over as well and a full-fledged branch line was now established. While this was in progress, the company started to experiment with an all-cargo route to Quebec and Montreal. Again the same pattern was followed: first charter ships and then slowly moving their own ships in.

By 1910 there was a weekly departure from Rotterdam – Newport News – Philadelphia – Baltimore – Rotterdam. A round trip took roughly 6 weeks. 15 days were spent on crossing the North Atlantic and the remaining 30 days were taken up by loading and discharging cargo in the three ports. The average time in port was about 7 days. Nowadays it is already considered a long stay if a cargo (read container) ship is in port for 24 hours but in those days the loading depended on the speed of the longshoremen and the cargo gear that was being used and thus it look time. In 1914 Boston was added to the service and then the East Coast service was more or less complete. After the war Norfolk became a port of call as well when the Poeldijk (I) made the first call.

The Atlantic Star of 1967. Yours truly was cadet on this ship in 1979

The service continued well into the 60’s but then it fell victim to containerization. Holland America recognized this and took part in a new company called the Atlantic Container Line (ACL) with two ships, the Atlantic star and the Atlantic Crown. But containerships need special docks and thus the terminals were concentrated in only a few ports. ACL opted for New York (Port Elizabeth) and the regular East Coast service ceased to exist.

Unfortunately due to this containerization many of the old docks have disappeared and I have not been able to find many traces back from the days “from before the box boats”.

Today’s topic is Pyrotechnics, or the fireworks that we have in the lifeboats. I never thought that it would be an interesting topic but I am starting to find out that the crew, especially the non- nautical crew, find it fascinating. Although pyrotechnics are in general deeply frowned upon on board and if used they are very strictly regulated. Holland America used to have them for a while in the show lounge but currently the shows that we feature do not have that aspect in them anymore.

That leaves the pyrotechnics that we still have, only in the lifeboats for lifesaving. Ever since pyrotechnics could be constructed in such a way that they could be used safely and simply and could survive the climatic conditions at sea we have them in the lifeboats. Ready for us, nicely stowed away in a waterproof /plastic drum. Solas specifies what we should have on board and that comprises out of 4 parachute flares, 6 hand flares and 2 smoke bombs. The flares can be used during day and night, although night is better of course but the smoke bombs are for day use only. All the three items are meant to attract attention: when in the water and help is nearby.

Some of you might have seen the movie Captain Philips and there is a scene where he is also shooting off flares from the bridge wing. During day time if I recall correctly and thus less effective than during the night but it worked. If I would have been him, I would have aimed the flares into the boat of the pirates; the effect would have been quite spectacular.

As pyrotechnics are dangerous in principle, and what we have on board, is the real stuff, much time and care goes into training the lifeboat crews in how to use them safely if and when needed. Each training always starts with the Mantra; read the instructions. Whatever we have in the lifeboats it comes with clear and detailed instructions. Partly to remind a crewmember what he/she has learned in the past, partly as different ships can have different equipment in the lifeboats. Each pyrotechnic comes with a series of pictograms so basic that whether you come from the USA, Holland, Russia, China or Timboektoe, you will be able to understand how to operate the thing safely.

Most of the training then revolves on when to use them. There have been instances in the past, when pyrotechnics were shot off, when help was already there; and helicopter pilots do not like it very much when somebody sets of a rocket flare right under them. Also in that particular case they did not like it very much. The person concerned had forgotten that small word in the sentence: when help is nearby, that is different to when help is already there. So the basic rule, make sure that you are standing on the outside the lifeboat, check if nothing is nearby or above you, aim away from you, look away and then pull. The rocket flare goes about 1000 feet in the sky and gives off a very bright red light. Then it slowly descends back to earth, brightly burning so there is maximum time for anybody who might be in the neighborhood to see it.

Hand flares burn the same way but are there to be waved with, to direct a rescue team towards you.

My greatest scare is the smoke bomb. These give off a bright orange color smoke-cloud while it floats in the water. The problem is that the stuff used for this orange smoke is very messy. It clings to everything and if you inhale it or get it in your eyes then you are not a happy camper.

Thus the mantra is drilled in: Always be sure to have the wind in the back, following wind, pull the plug and then throw the can as far away from you as possible, as shown by the pictograms. For about 3 minutes a large cloud of orange smoke issues from the canister and a wise lifeboat commander tries to get his boat at a safe distance from the smoke while is still billowing out or hanging above the water.

The pyrotechnics are for saving life at sea, and the important fact is to ensure that the life of the user is not endangered either and stays safe while handling them.

I just realized that there is a name for my generation: baby boomers, for Generation X, for Generation Y, and for the Millennials, but no names for the earlier generations. Were those generations all similar to each other, or were there no psychiatrists and psychologists? The latter I doubt as we already had Sigmund Freund milling around long time ago. Still it is peculiar.

A big difference between the generations is the way they keep and kept in touch. With the modern media and connectivity everybody can keep in touch with each other 24 hours a day. During the 1986 world cruise, the only time I reached my mother at home, was when I went to a calling station in Hong Kong. Calling from the ship was also possible – most of the time – but cost prohibitive for a poor 3^rd officer and for the rest it was writing letters.  The person who went home in the middle of the cruise was at once promoted to postman with the order to mail postcards and letters upon arrival Schiphol airport. That saved money in foreign stamps and because of this system everybody always carried a good supply of Dutch stamps with them.

Technology goes faster than the ships are renewed and that means that we are retro fitting the ships all the time with new capabilities. The problem is, is the moment we have a new system installed, it is already going out of date as the usage required has increased again by an  X amount percentage. But for the current generation, being in constant contact is a regular way of life and it is not always understood that a seafaring career might not always make that possible.

Everybody goes to sea for all sorts of reasons but one reason seems to be less and less important, is the one to see the world.  As air travel has become cheaper and cheaper it is not an overpowering reason anymore to leave everybody behind for 4 months in order to finally get to Sri Lanka or Hong Kong.  I believe there are already package flights for approx. 500 euro’s to Sri Lanka from Amsterdam.

Interest in Technology and the chance to gain a lot of experience in a very short time have become more important reasons to choose a career at sea. Nowhere in the world are you put in charge of a watch – of a piece of equipment worth $ 500 mln. other than at sea. I do not know of anybody who is 21 years old and supervises a completely factory by him/herself and has to make immediate decisions when something happens. At sea you do and on a cruise ship even more so.

As a result it is fairly easy to find a job ashore after a number of years at sea and not only in pilotage. The name Holland America still has a magic sound to it and it can still open many doors. That brings the challenge to the company to retain people because there are so many possibilities for a change in career path.

With it a new word came into our cruise world. Career Path. In the past we just joined a company and eventually we got to the top. Now the whole career of an officer is managed, step by step and each officer has a fairly good idea where he/she will be on the promotion ladder in the coming years.  As the company is not decreasing, it is something that can also be managed quite well.

Basically the Human Factor has become much more complex in the last 20 years and this will only continue to evolve further. To stay in tune with what is going on, our Human Resources department keeps close tabs on what is going on out there, and although I work for Nautical I can still forward and advise about the latest concerns and thoughts that emerge.

After a few internet wobbles we are back on the blog. My current function is really far ranging and encompasses everything that is in the realm of the Captain and Staff Captain. That means it is not related just Navigation, more or less everything that might come under the captain’s purview is linked to it.

One of the more fascinating parts of this is the human factor. As time progresses the human attitude changes, the way people live changes and what people find important changes. That all has its effect on the way we man the ships. Ships have to sail and thus we have to attract new Officers and Crew all the time and that means that we have to find them. Once found we have to entice them to join Holland America and once they are there, we have to try and keep them.

Thus I am trying to find out all the time what makes the younger officers tick. What are their interests, what makes it worth while for them to stay?  The Human Resources world out there has identified several groups of people and that links in with the changes that happen from generation to generation. And all generations all different. When I was young, I saw my grandfather as a sort of stately person from a bygone age and not really relevant to my current life; he was old. That did not mean that he was not hugely important though, as he augmented my weekly pocket money considerably.

Then there were my parents and with them came a period of time that you are absolutely convinced that they absolutely do not know what they are doing and that there must be something completely wrong with them as they cannot understand what your life and your friends life are all about.  Now I am even past my parents, parental years and now I have to figure out what the new generations are doing.

I remember that the first captain whom I sailed with, Capt. Van Noordt. in 1981, was greatly puzzled about the way we as 4^th. Officers behaved. He had children himself but he did not think that the (normal) behavior of his children should in anyway be reflected by us. He expected that we would behave as he did, when he was a 4^th. Officer back in the 1950’s. Luckily he was a very quiet and understanding man, so he let us “carry on” as he called it. The next two captains, Hoenderdos and Hess had more outspoken opinions and thus we reduced our presence on the bridge to the absolute minimum.

Now I am in a similar position but we have more science available to understand this better. As we all have to deal now with Generation Y, which will be shortly followed by the Millennials. Me as a baby boomer is the outgoing group.

If you look at the table, the various generations greatly differ; there is only one common denominator:  they will have to have a career as well, to earn money some way or another. Thus a career at sea is a possibility. However to get another generation into that career means that the framework of that career has to be adapted.  In what way, is very much open for discussion as there are many ways to sail a ship safely.

Generations have always been different from one to the other and thus the world has slowly involved as well, including the shipping world. However it seems that this evolving goes faster and faster compared to before 1960. There was not so much difference between the ways a navigator in 1900 did his work compared to 1960/65. Then technology started to make a big impact on the industry, starting with the Container revolution. Since then everything has gone into overdrive both ashore and at sea and that reflects on the vastly different outlook on life between the last few generations.

So today something that relates to the function of the Master. The “Ships Articles”. This is an old phrase from the early days when seafarers would sign on, on a ship.  They would sign a contract and were then bound by the “articles” the rules under which they had to do their jobs. Some of them could not even read what was in those “articles” but as they were a law, it was accepted that they were what they were.

The phrase still exists and it still covers the same basic idea. A crewmember has to sign on, sign a contract, before he or she can work on a ship.  That procedure has not changed very much as far as the motions are concerned. What has changed is the enormous increase in requirements, training and preparation that takes place before “The Ships Articles” can be signed.

In the early beginning, you could directly sign on with the Captain. He was the owner’s representative, or he had his own ship and thus he ensured that his ship was manned with the necessary people. Out of necessity as crews were not always signed on in the most respectably ways, this was moved shore side and officially regulated.  You now reported to an office which ensured that you were signed on properly not just by signing the papers but that the “ships articles” were also properly applied. Especially where pay was concerned.

About 25 years ago the responsibility was returned to the captain. Protection against a Captain who had you drunk and press ganged into service were by then long and truly gone. To make sure that you arrived on board in compliance with all the requirement was now the full responsibility of the company’s office.  Thus when you first joined a company you had to go through a sort of pre-signing on program to ensure that you had all what is needed to be a real crewmember.

When you then finally arrive on board the captain will sign you on. On our cruise ships, there is the crew clerk who takes all your papers and by using a checklist, verifies that all is complete. A checklist is needed as nearly each function has different requirements.  What is required?

For all crew:

a. A Labor contract. (A written and signed agreement between the Owner and You)

b. A valid Physical. (So it can be expected that will be able to sail in good health)

For most crew

c. A valid Seaman’s book issued by the Flag State or the Home Country.

If one of them is missing, you cannot be signed on. If you are not signed on, you are not allowed to work. Thus you cannot come on board, or if on board already have to wait with working until the omission has been dealt with.

For certain functions such as entertainers, regular hotel staff and concessionaires a seaman’s book is not directly required. But some countries such as Russia require one if you want to go ashore as a crewmember. No seaman’s book and it must mean that you are a passenger and then you need a Visa. If have neither, then you are stuck on board.

Then going up the ranks, it becomes more and more complicated. Everybody (Deck and Engine) involved in watches have to have

d. A Certificate of Competency or C.O.C.

A C.O.C. which states that you can do the job that you are hired for. Mine states Master unlimited, which means I am basically allowed to captain any sort of merchant ship anywhere in the world (give or take local rules or extra training for a special type of ship).

Those 4 items, the captain always has to verify before he/she can sign the crewmember on. Contract, start date and function are entered into the Seaman’s book and the end dates are checked on the Labor Contract and on the Physical Certificate (Medical as we call it) and then you are legally on board.

Once you are on board, a whole plethora of indoctrination classes, trainings and other course taking starts but that is another story.

Another beautiful day, a glorious Sunday. Again the whole town was out and it looked like that those who were not in church were all out on the sea front.  Although embarkation was yesterday; during the day guests  still trickled in. Some of them delayed by transport issues and some because they lived in the area and did not see the use of staying a night on board as the ship was not sailing. I have seen that before, either with boarding guests or disembarking guests and I have a hard time understanding it. You paid for the night so you are wasting money and while on board you can enjoy an elaborate meal and a show but instead you opt for a quick sandwich when coming home. (As you first have to go shopping, to stock up the fridge)

Training continued today with the Sweep Teams. This is another addition to our safety plans. Sweep Teams are not required under SOLAS and as a result most company’s including HAL only had impromptu procedures in place; to be executed if somebody was missing during a mustering. SOLAS only requires that a Full Muster shall be held. It does not say exactly what you should do if you do not get a 100% count. It only says that there should be a 100% count.  Thus if a 100% count was not achieved the captain would dispatch crew, the security guards, cabin stewards etc. to find the missing persons. That worked, as has been proven during drills but it was not formulized.

Thus now we have a complete and official “Sweep Operation Policy” which ensures that for each area in the ship a group of crew members is allocated to start searching incase a Full Muster reveals that people are missing.

So what do we have now as Sweep Teams?

1. The Passenger Assist Team. These are the cabin stewards. They were already there and they search – sweep — cabins to ensure that all guests are going to the Muster.
2. The Passenger Area Sweep Team. These are Dining Room Stewards who will walk all the public areas – sweep – from stern to bow and back and search for missing persons.
3. The Crew Area Sweep Team. These are Kitchen Staff who will – sweep – search all crew areas, cabins, workshops, mess rooms etc. section by section for missing persons.

Group 2 and 3 will only come into action when during the Mustering the count does not come to 100%. In principle all guests and crew always will go to Boat drill or a mustering during an emergency at sea. The problem is that they do not always stay. We come across some “experienced” guests who try to sneak off when they have been checked off.  That is most of the time noted and then you get the angry voice of the Master over the P.A. system, but not always and they manage to get back into the warmth of the ship, and now they will come across a Sweep Team.

It is really useful of course, as there could be guests or crew alike who could be injured or dis-orientated in an emergency. Not everybody reacts rationally during an emergency when stress and anxiety levels go up.

The crew has to learn the basic physical reactions to Emergency News

These crew, who will be assigned to these teams need training. First of all for what they have to do and how, but then also in Crowd Management for the case when they come across upset, disorientated, belligerent, erratic, stressed out, panicking or fearful persons.

The basic rules to handle these people are quite simple and thus we can do the lessons on board by teaching the right state of mind and a number of tricks to get these people to do, what you want them to do. Most of my audience has never dealt with this before and they all find it fascinating.

Just before departure the Captain announced that there was a technical issue and we were sailing a little bit later.  It will be a good thing that we are not in Quebec tomorrow. The wind is expected to breeze up in the early morning to about 40 – 50 knots. We will be sailing down the St. Lawrence River and that means it will not affect us that much.