A watchkeeping Seaman (Illustration by the author)

Heading: 275 Degrees

Speed Over Ground:12 knots

Course: 270 Degrees

Estimated Time of Arrival at Destination: 0630Hrs, next day.

The Passenger Ship was heading for Lakshadweep Islands, a small archipelago that lies to the Southwest of India in the Arabian Sea.

I was in the Navigation Bridge, i.e., the Wheelhouse, as the OOW [Officer-On-Watch] for the shift from 08:00 am to 12:00 pm. My duty as a junior Officer was to assist the Captain with Radio communication and the operation of various navigational aids. Additionally, I needed to do plotting on Charts and observe and interpret the traffic on Radar displays.

Lest the tenor of this write-up would be affected, a brief description as to the hierarchy of seafarers and salient features of modern-day marine navigation has been added as a postscript.

The incident which necessitated this piece’s writing transpired in 2010 if my memory serves me right.

The senior Seaman on duty with me that day was a man in his fifties -let’s call him Hassan-who was a native of Minicoy Island. He, as with many of the Islanders, was a person who was categorised by the Govt of India as a member of the ST-Scheduled Tribe. They were accorded special privileges and concessions by the Government with a view to facilitating their integration with the mainstream population as well as social upliftment.

Although Minicoy belongs to the Lakshadweep Island group and is part of India, geographically it is closer to the Maldives. The majority of healthy men from Minicoy are globe-trotting mariners, the history of the tradition going back to colonial times and perhaps. As seafarers, they are skilful, diligent, neutral and apolitical much like their Filipino counterparts all of which makes them both the most sought-after crew worldwide. However, lately, Filipinos have overtaken Minicoy men by virtue of their edge over the latter in English language proficiency.

Coming back to the story; as the passenger ship was cruising across the Arabian Sea on its way to Agatti Island, Hassan the Seaman stood on the Bridge wing deck, watching out for fishing nets and small boats that could pose an obstruction to our vessel. Either the boats would make way for us, or we would have to make a detour to avoid the nets getting entangled on the propeller.

At some point, Hassan called me to the wing deck and pointed to the sea.

“Have a look at the water.” He told me.

The colour of the water appeared to have changed to that of milk tea.

I smiled at him and nodded as if in acknowledgement of his finding.

Oftentimes, I have seen seawater turn muddy.

“Strange, Isn’t it?” Hassan asked me.

“Is it?’’ I opined “Maybe the strong undercurrents have caused some churning on the seabed…”

“But this looks a massive one — not a tidal phenomenon. And we’re far away from the coast” he replied with a smile, highlighting the difference in the current situation.

“You’re right” I agreed with the Old Salt who might have had under his belt seafaring experience of no less than threefold of my own.” We’re around forty Nautical Miles off the land.”

That was almost seventy kilometres away, in metric units.

Such muddy water is normally seen as we approach the mainland or coastline, especially in areas where rivers and streams empty into the sea.

“Something has happened!” the old man concluded on a rather serious note.

I laughed it off and returned to the Navigation Bridge to resume Radar observation and monitoring of the Main Engine parameters.

Soon I forgot the incident.

After my watch (read duty) I went straight to the Galley and had my lunch. Even as I ate, I looked at the TV showing mid-day news. I could not help but stare at the breaking news about an earthquake that rocked Rajasthan and parts of northwest India almost a couple of hours before.

Suddenly It struck me that the time of the quake exactly matched the time at which Hassan the seaman showed me the muddy waters of the sea. I was shocked and surprised alike. Perhaps there was some connection between the two incidents, perhaps not. I did not tell anybody about the whole thing for fear of getting ridiculed. However, I made it a point to search on the matter later. The findings concurred with my conjuncture- that the land mass /tectonic plates of Rajasthan and west central India extended underwater up to the Lakshadweep Sea.

I was awestruck at Hassan’s observational precision and ability to interpret natural phenomena.

On another occasion, Hasan stunned me with his offhand measurement of wind speed without using the onboard anemometer. When I asked just how he managed to tell the correct wind speed, he replied that he guessed it by looking at the clouds blown away by the storm. I did not know if it was true, because I could never do it.

A fellow seafarer from another Island once told me that while many people had gone missing at sea after losing their way in squally weather or being caught in the doldrums, every single man from Minicoy Island who ventured out into the sea had invariably returned unscathed.

I now remember one of my encounters with another tribal man in 2003.

The young man in question was one of the indigenous forest dwellers of Odisha state. One day, while onboard a Diving Support Vessel, we were visited by a team of officials from the Charterers. Their spouses and children accompanied them. Although not quite unexpected, we were nervous even as we stood on ceremony. The guests were given a short ride up to the nearest offshore platform. Finally, the entourage left the ship, and we literally heaved a sigh of relief. It was then that the seaman Loknath (Name changed) started cutting capers-he showed us how each of us- and he did not spare me- acted funnily and got fidgety in the guests’ presence. His acting was so impeccable that we had no trouble in identifying whom he was trying to mimic. All of us laughed to our hearts’ content. Indeed, it turned out to be a stressbuster for the entire crew.

Loknath later told me he once drove a Maruti Suzuki without ever learning how to drive. Although he had watched people drive, it was his first time behind the wheel. As for me, it was yet another testimony to the tribesmen’s extraordinary innate flair to observe and grasp things that matter.

In this context, it would not be out of place to mention a tribal student who was my brother’s classmate. My brother and this young man were standing about in the street when the latter suddenly turned to a woman passerby. Apocryphal it may sound, but he wanted to stalk her, as according to him (Feminists please excuse) a special scent emanating from her body suggested she was a woman of sexually promiscuous character. I still wonder whether such an inference has any scientific basis at all.

Nevertheless, these encounters have instilled in me immense respect for the tribespeople and an undying curiosity about their culture and practices.

Remember Jaguar Paw of Apocalypto who had an uncanny knowledge of his environs, flora and fauna which he more often used to his advantage.

They are the real earth people who are prescient and hence forewarned. Their philosophy of life was perfectly in synch with nature and its elements (Think Avatar).

The Captain (Illustration by the author)

PS. First of all, let’s unlearn what we think is the way a ship’s manning is done!

Contrary to popular belief, the captain of a ship does not have to sit in the Wheelhouse round the clock, turning the Wheel. Before beginning my career in the merchant marine, I too was under a similar impression, probably inspired by the real-life stories of Vasco da Gamma, Captain Cook and Magellan, Kabral etc. The skipper’s used to be a permanent presence in the wheelhouse those days- that was the norm. But times have changed and modern advancements in science and technology have demystified and simplified marine navigation so much so that even amateur sailors can now circumnavigate the earth in small yachts.

Nowadays, even the name wheelhouse has been rendered redundant as, in many a modern ship, the wheel has been replaced by a joystick and Auto-pilot. The day and night duty times aboard a ship are divided into 4Hour shifts, each manned by a Junior Officer, 2nd Mate and Chief Mate. There would at least be a trained Able-Bodied Seamen each assisting the OOW in steering and watch-keeping jobs as mentioned earlier. The Captain would make occasional visits to the Navigation Bridge ( Wheelhouse) to make sure that everything goes well and that the Officer and crew are indeed doing their jobs promptly- they now have advanced surveillance systems that enable remote monitoring of these activities! Master Mariner, or Captain as they are generally called, only needs to be present in the Bridge during important passage planning, navigational decision-making, harbour entries, docking or berthing and cargo operations at ports. Apart from the above-mentioned deck crew, the ships also must have an engine crew which consists of the Chief Engineer, 2nd Engineer, 3rd Engineer and junior Engineers, each of which may be assisted by Oilers, Pumpmen or Motormen in their watchkeeping duties.

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