Captain John P. De Silva: My experiences durng the transit of Suez canal.

On completion of loading at the port of Koper in Yugoslavia the vessel sailed for Port Said. At Port Said, the vessel had to wait for a few hours to join the South Bound convoy in the Suez Canal. Each time we crossed the canal we came across all kinds of locals who came on board. They came in small boats and, there were hundreds of them right around the ship. All the crew in addition to their duties had to do security watches, because of the people on those boats.

I was the duty officer on board at that time, and two men came with some bags and asked me who I was? I said "I am the Second Officer." Then one of them said, "We are Suez Canal electricians, I hope you know how important is the job we have to perform on board". So I asked them what I could do for them? That was definitely the biggest mistake I made. One of them said we want you to arrange two cabins with linen, some refreshments and other meals immediately, coffee as and when we want. It was a long list. When he was almost finishing his list, the Deputy Harbor Master who visited the ship was leaving and he overheard part of the conversation. He stopped there and spoke to them in Arabic. Then he turned towards me and advised me to take care of them but that it was not necessary to give everything that they were asking for. That made my day!

I arranged some snacks and coffee for the Electricians.

Just a few minutes later, one of them came back to me, and this time, he had a different request. He asked me for a place in the accommodation to display some of the articles which he had brought for sale. These people were really very funny characters, I thought! I told him he cannot open his shop inside the accommodation but he could do that on deck, somewhere.

Next what I saw was, he had opened up his shop with all his goodies in the junior officers’ accommodation. It was very difficult to handle these people. Sometimes, I found it was a great waste of time, talking to them! Because there was no end to their requirements.

After each transit of the Suez Canal, there was not a single person on board who was not exhausted.