Captain John P. De Silva

 

Did I do the right thing…

 

Following my Nautical studies in Ireland and in England, I left London in March 1979 and arrived in Venice where I was scheduled to join the ship. On arrival at Venice Airport, our local agent was there to meet me. After completing arrival formalities, the agent took me to the ship. Prior to boarding the ship, I knew that most of the officers including the captain were Filipinos. It was the first time that I was going to work with them. When I went on board the captain and many other officers were not on board. Therefore, I reported to the Chief Officer. Fortunately for me the Purser was a Sri Lankan. He had a long name, and all officers on board called him Thanam.

Thanam was very happy to have me on board as he was the only Sri Lankan on that ship prior to my joining. He immediately ordered the Chief Cook to prepare dinner for us. Then he showed me my cabin. The ship did not have a Second officer when I joined. The third Officer had been doing the second officer’s duties while the Cadet on board had been doing the third officer's duties.

Therefore, my cabin was vacant and ready. After a few drinks Thanam and I had dinner, and I went to sleep.

In the morning, I went up to see the captain and he was in a bad mood, for some reason, and he was very rude to me. But I remained calm and handed over my appointment letter to him. At that time, he was telling me how superior the Filipino Merchant Navy Officers’ qualifications was whereas the British qualifications were quite low in the order. I immediately understood his attitude and also thought that I was going to have some rough weather, on board, for the next few months.

However, as the time passed, it was not as bad as I thought. Rudolfo T. Nunez, Chief Officer, became friendly with me and was good company, too.

With a full load of cargo on board "Regent Venture" crossed the Suez Canal and entered the Red Sea. The first port of call for discharging was Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. I was used to the style of British and Indian Captains. They were greatly confident in all areas of their job. Unfortunately, I did not see that quality in this captain. He panicked and started to shout at all of us on the bridge when approaching ports. Another thing that I observed was being from the same nationality the Captain and Chief Officer were not on talking terms.

The Chief Officer also had the Master’s license and had commanded vessels prior to joining this company. Because it was his first contract with our Company he had been employed as the Chief Officer.

There were two approaching routes to Jeddah, one from the North and the other from the South. Whichever it was, the approach to Jeddah was a tricky one, especially during night. On that day  around 8.00 p.m. the ship was approaching the port of Jeddah. At my request, the Chief Officer remained on the bridge, but only an observer. The captain asked me what the Chief Officer was doing on bridge after his duty hours. I told him that the Chief Officer had commanded ship’s to Jeddah a few times, so I requested him to be around. He did not ask any further questions!

Thereafter, in their language Captain spoke with the Chief Officer. The ship was on the approach route and the engines were on standby. Suddenly, for no reasons Captain made some course alterations. While doing that it was difficult to plot a good position and suddenly we felt that the ship hit something and listed to Port side (Left side). Immediately the rudder was put to the opposite side and the ship righted and steadied. At this time, I plotted the ship’s position, and it came on the side of a reef. This was confirmed by the Chief Officer’s position. Also, both the positions confirmed that the ship was out of the approach route.

At this moment, the captain panicked, and the Chief Officer took over the maneuvering. Under his instructions, the ship approached the Pilot Boarding Ground, and the Pilot boarded. The time was around 10.00 p.m. The captain informed the Pilot that he suspected that the ship hit a submerged object on the Northern approach route. He further said that it could be a submarine and immediately the Pilot informed the control tower. Possibly the Captain was trying to prove that the ship was always on the safe approach route. It was not true that he went off course and hit a reef. Under panic situations Capt. Moran’s behavior was found to be very unprofessional. The Navy and Police Officers were waiting on the wharf at the time of berthing the ship.

In the meantime, captain refused to accept the position given by the Chief Officer and myself. An inquiry was held during this time and a Senior Naval Officer of Saudi Navy checked the positions on the charts used. After taking down statements from the captain and the Chief Officer they left.

As the cargo was being discharged, it was found that the No. 1 and 2 had water ingress. And there was water to a height of about two meters. Following the detection of water in the holds, the ship was shifted to the anchorage. As the ship was classed with Lloyds Register of Shipping, LR Surveyor for Jeddah boarded the vessel. Following the survey, he advised the damaged cargo to be discharged and the ship to be dry docked for repairs within one month. We also had cargo for Aden. The damaged cargo was discharged into barges at Jeddah anchorage. Temporary repairs were carried out on the Surveyor’s advice. On completion of temporary repairs, the ship sailed for Aden and discharged all remaining cargo.

 

Thereafter the ship proceeded to Bombay for Dry Docking and arrived in Bombay on June 20,1979. After about three days it was dry docked and we were informed that a formal inquiry will be conducted by the Mercantile Marine Department Surveyor in Mumbai and also by the Class Surveyor. Capt. Moran got very anxious following receipt of the news of the formal inquiry. He came to my cabin and sat down on my day bunk and told me "John, I have six children, and I do not want to lose this job. Please help me out in this situation". Then I told him "Sir, I alone cannot do much and we must speak with the Chief officer". He immediately agreed and we had a meeting in the captain’s day room. It was first time he offered a drink to Chief Officer and me.

Whatever had happened in the past, the Chief Officer was with me to help the captain. We discussed our statements and made certain alterations to the entries which were on record.

That night all three of us did not sleep. I had a bright idea to avoid all these confrontations; I made some excuse to sign off prior to the commencement of the inquiry. On the following day, early in the morning, I went out and called a friend of mine and told him to send a cable to our Agents in Mumbai as if it was from home, for me to return home immediately as my father was terribly ill. I informed the captain and the chief officer about my action. Also, I told him that it was not possible to go on lying to surveyors, specially the MMD surveyor. Around 9.00 a.m., the Surveyors boarded the ship with the Senior Superintendent of the Company. While the Surveyors were interviewing the Captain, the Agent brought my message. The message was shown to the Superintendent. He was not happy to let me go but there was nothing much he could do about it. The surveyors did not have much time to question me as my flight was booked for the same evening. I informed my father that I was coming home.

Just before I left the ship the superintendent called me and told me "You are a product of this company, and you must tell me the truth of what happened." I lied to him, and he was very annoyed with me. At the time of leaving the ship, I had this thought that it was my last time with that Company. I was only trying to help my Captain to save his job because of his commitments at home. All the travelling expenses were deducted from my balance wages, and I had little money when I reached home.

Capt. Moran was full of tears, embraced me and thanked me when I met him at the gangway. But inside me I knew that my leaving was not going to do much good to him as there was more than required evidence to prove that the ship had gone off course and have contacted a submerged reef.

My father was there to meet me on my arrival at Colombo airport. They were happy to see me back.

They also asked the question why I had come so suddenly! My father was really sick when I came home as he had extremely high blood pressure. On doctor's advice he was admitted to hospital when he was in hospital. Few days later, he was discharged and brought home.

Once my father was in a position to listen to me, I told him the truth why I had to leave the ship and come home much earlier. He listened to my explanation but did not make any comments. Observing his facial expressions and knowing my father’s way of thinking, I knew he was not in favor of my action. As I have mentioned earlier, he was a very honest and straight forward person. As for him, if  the Master of the ship had made a mistake he must face the consequences and on my part I should have been honest and stood by the Company which provided me with a job to start my career.