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Why ship’s officers should get the samerespect as airline crews

Hendrik van Hemmen - Friday 30 May 2008

AS A marine consultant I have the pleasure of slowly dragging myself through the airportsecurity line.

This provides me with ample time to observe chipper airline crews with their roll-on bags

and uniforms sail through the crew-only line, and wonder why I, as a paying passenger,

am not extended the same privilege.

It makes no sense from a business point of view. Why does the service provider enjoygreater privileges than the customer? As a customer, I should blame myself for not

 protesting more loudly.

But as a person who serves the marine industry, the ‘crew only’ line is even more deeplytroubling. Why do aircraft crews enjoy this privilege while similar privileges are not

extended to ship’s crews?

In worth, stress and skills there is no comparison. Airline officers basically work an

eight-hour day, sleep in comfortable hotels and, in essence, have no maintenance,management or operational worries beyond flying the plane from point to point with

detailed instructions provided through outside assistance. If something on the plane does

not work, they fill in the gripe sheet and leave it to the ground crew to deal with, without

worrying as to whether they can take the plane out the next day or not.

How sharply this contrasts with ship’s crews.

After slugging themselves across the ocean standing day and night watches for many

days, they arrive in port and are interrogated, inspected, investigated and treated as

suspects by the port they arrive in. They do not get to leave the ship so they can sleep in a

hotel room, but instead work long hours until the vessel is ready to leave again. They donot get the benefit of repair and ground crews that ready their ship for the next trip.

Instead they stay aboard and do it all themselves. Ship’s crews are not just ship drivers;they are very highly skilled individuals who perform a huge number of different tasks.

While there are ranks and task divisions aboard a ship, in fact, with today’s small crews,

ship’s officers are jacks of all trades and master of most. What is incredible is that,

considering the number of various tasks that officers are engaged in, there are actually people out there who can perform all those tasks.

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To a large extent this is related to the ship’s crews’ traditional ability to make do, and to

 bear the load in silence. Shipboard employment is not for the faint of heart and those who

can handle the load simply are not the types to complain. Still, as an industry, we knowthere are rumblings from the crews and our difficulties in attracting young people into the

seafaring profession are probably a sign of our neglect.

Actually, today we are facing a crisis in ship crewing. Some argue that young people are

no longer interested in the hardships at sea. This is possible, but I do know there are still plenty of young people who are willing to undergo hardship if it includes commensurate

respect and compensation. There are still plenty of young people who endeavour to

 become astronauts, commandos, firefighters and police officers, and none of those professions can be characterised as high-paying or low-stress.

While we know there is a shortage of seafarers, very little research related to crews’

motivations is taking place. One exception is the Shiptalk crew survey programme that is

 presently underway*, and hopefully this very worthwhile effort will shed more light on

this complex subject. (If you have contact with ship’s crews, please encourage them to dothis survey. Our industry desperately needs the data to be able to attract the next

generation of seafarers.)

What does the preliminary data show? It points to factors such as increased paperwork,schizophrenic job description, lack of shore time, lack of training, excessive work hours

and lack of rest.

But regardless of the results of the survey, we will fail in finding the next generation of 

seafarers if, as an industry, we do not insist on better treatment and greater respect for crews.

At this stage there are no simple answers but every journey starts with the first step and in

this regard let me suggest that at the next ship visit, when you ask to see the master or oneof his officers, that you do not judge them by their dirty coveralls, puffy eyes and their 

limited success in making themselves understood in your native language.

Instead, realise that you are not talking to just some random labourer, but rather that you

are talking to a hardworking ship’s officer who, with his shipmates, has just hauledthousands of tonnes of vital materials across the ocean. That this officer is not just a boat

driver but a person skilled in foreign languages, works with technologies that you might

have never heard of, is able to perform managerial, security, legal, commercial,

operational, repair, maintenance and reporting tasks that you might have never heard of,is able to do it far from his home and his family and does it 24 hours a day, seven days a

week.

I cannot think of a way to provide these officers with crew-only privileges, and I doubt itwould impress ship’s officers, but, as an industry, we will be well served if we provide

them with the respect they deserve in any other way we can.