27 REASONS WHY NOT TO TAKE UP A SEAFARING PROFESSION The aim of this post is not to discourage seafarers or the people

involved in shipping industry. The Shipping Profession, considered as the oldest and worldwide profession is presently no more attractive. Though the shipping industry is growing, enough seafarers are not available to meet the requirements of the industry. Why youngters are not coming up to take shipping as their profession? Here are some of the reasons:

Professional hazards:
1.Expensive initial training:

Any one who is coming out of a college can not straight way take up shipping as profession. Some shipping related courses have to be completed from the Marine Training Institutes. The course fees demanded by the Training Institutes are very high for a person to choose shipping as a profession. Further, many institutes are not recognised by the government and legal bodies.

2.No career growth:

Career growth for the persons who take up shipping as their profession is very limited. Like in any other profession where one can aspire to become the head of the organisation by competence, here in shipping no such vertical career growth is possible. At the most, one may become the Master or Chief Engineer of a Ship and further vertical growth is limited or not possible. 3.Limited shore jobs:

One can not afford to remain in ship for life time to earn his bread. At some point of life, a seafarer has to take up shore job. But unfortunately, not enough shore jobs are available for a seafarer. At the most he may get some marine based shore jobs in coastal area. 4.Unstable career:

Very few seafarers only can take up shipping as their life time profession. That too without any career growth. At the end of their life, they realise that no significant achievements were made. 5.Less manpower and more work:

Shipping companies, to attract more people in the shipping, tend to pay more salary. This is only an illusion. To pay more the shipping companies reduce the man power in ships. Ultimately the seafarer is made to work more. 6.Not able to cope up with technological developments:

The Navigational equipments and Engine contol systems in the ships are mostly electronic. Due to technological advancements, the seafarer has to update his working knowledge of these equipments. If the seafarer is not able to cope up with these developments, he is bound to fail in his profession. 7.Rough seas and sea sickness cause less productivity:

As the ship is a three axis moving platform, rough seas cause sea sickness that affects the productivity of the seafarer which is unique in ships. 8.Piracy threats and Marine terrorism:

Piracy attacks and Marine terrorism on the ships are increasing globally. Unlike storm warnings, no one can predict these surprise attacks. 9.Natural calamity:

Though storms and rough weather can be predicted, there are increasing instances of ships getting caught in storms and rough weather that result in groundings,collisions and allisions. 10.Multi cultural environment:

The ships are manned by multi cultural crews who have different lifestyles, religions and languages. The seafarer has to adapt himself to live in multicultural environment. Failure to adapt, results in lesser productivity of the seafarer. 11.Frequent validations, training needed:

To sustain in ships, seafarer has to undergo time bound validation courses in recognised institutes which are time consuming and expensive. 12.Unsafe ships:

Ships have definite lifecycle and are not sea worthy beyond that. But shipping companies try their best to extend their life cycle and sail the ships. The ships become unsafe and the seafarer has to face more marine accidents. 13.Increased suicides in ships:

The instances of suicides by the seafarers in ships due to their frustration in work are increasing every year.

Personal hazards:
14.Salary not adequate:

Considering the salary paid in other industries like Information Technology, cost of living and other professional hazards in shipping industry, the salary paid to the seafarers are not adquate.

15.Disturbed family life:

A seafarer is not lucky to remain with his family members throughout his career like his shore based professionals. A seafarer can not be with is family members in cases of emergencies. Further he has to forget about birthdays,Christmas,wedding anniversary and any other social and family events. 16.Health:

Due to work related stress, non availability of fresh food, lack of recreational facilities and inadequate medical facilities in ships, the health of a seafarer deteriorates faster. 17.Loneliness, boredom:

As the seafarer is subjected to Bigger ships and lesser Manpower concept of shipping companies, the seafarer till he signs off has to face loneliness and boredom. This also reduces the productivity of the seafarer. To overcome loneliness and boredom, a seafarer slowly becomes an alcoholic. 18.Faster turnarounds, no breaks in harbour:

Due to better cargo unloading facilities available in ports, ships turnaround time has drastically reduced. Practically ships crew dont get any breaks in harbours to refresh themselves. 19.Communication problems:

Though English is the universal language, as the ships are manned by multicultural crew, communication problems exist between the crew. In addtion communication problems exist between ship and shore authorities. At times, this leads to misunderstandings and cause unwanted incidents. 20.Personal safety:

A seafarer has to lookafter himself and if he is not able to get along with ships crew, his life is not safe. 21.Medical facility:

Similarly a seafarer is expected to remain fit and remain seaworthy. Medical facilities are inadequate in ships. 22.Anyone can not be a Seafarer:

To become a seafarer, a person has to be psychologically fit in addition to medical or physical fitness. To assess the suitability to become a seafarer, psychometric tests are conducted at entry level training of seafarers.

Social hazards:
23.No recognition in society:

A seafarer due to isolation from his family members, gets slowly isolated from the society also and has no recognition in the society. 24.Seen as a high income man but spends more than he earns:

A seafarer is visualised by many in the society as high earning member whereas most of the seafarers spend more than they earn.

Why Seamen Cannot Save?-Saving for Retirement from The Sea & The Ships!

It is a common observation that seamen though getting paid much higher than land lubbers do not succeed in saving for their retirement effectively. Seamen, most of them, do not think of their retirement while they are working onboard vessels until very late in the career. I have seen large number of seamen who did not save for the future and there career at sea came to a halt abruptly without sufficient notice, causing them and there families difficulties in managing day to day living.

Why can't seafarers save - Where does their money go?

Lets have a look at some of the factors that do not let seamen save money for their future and analyse where do the seamens earnings go! Lump Sum Income and big spending habits. Getting lump sum at the end of contract has been one of the major reason for spending unrealistically. In the earlier days of sailing it was common practice to be paid some cash advance onboard and the remaining balance of salary at the end of contract. Even today when a seafarer comes back home, he finds his bank balance healthy due to accumulated salaries, transferred monthly, from last contract onboard. He, and his dependents, holding back their expanses during the period of his absence start spending money and the bank balance starts shrinking. After completing contract on a ship, where a seaman remains confined onboard most of the time, he spends without limits and over time the same develops in seamans families as well. The Guilt Factor. A factor triggering extra expenditures is the guilt factor. The mariner, not available to his loved ones, tries to compensate his missed affection by distributing his earnings. It has been observed that this tendency is very frequently misused by the benefices. The High Salary Structure. Seamen find themselves confident that even if they spend every penny of their income, they would be able to generate more due to the high salary structure at sea. And hence never bother to hold their hand on the expenditures. Inflated Standard of Living. Merchant Navy is a profession adopted mostly by the middle class .Where one finds educated individuals around without the big riches in hand. New entrants in merchant shipping from wealthy family backgrounds mostly do not stick to merchant navy for long time and quit comparatively much earlier as compared to their counter parts from middle class. With the increase in salary as a mariner steps up the carrier ladder, the standard of living gets better naturally. An inflated standard of living, much higher than his near ones, costs earnings of a mariner and end of the day every one connected to him requires increased share of it. When Will I Get My Next Ship? Uncertainty of job, where one does

not know when one will be getting the next ship, after two months or two years. Unforeseen extended stay out of employment eats up all the financial resources. It also hinders one to invest money from where it may not be available at the time of need.

Plan Savings, Plan Retirement.

It is never too late to give your safe future a start, that would certainly bring you peace of mind and safe future to your family. You will be pleased you did it, you saved when you were young and energetic and it was so much easier to put some money aside for the future. The best way out would be to cut of a fixed slice from the salary when ever cash advance or final payment is received. A fixed percentage would be the best choice; however small or large may it be. I would say from 10-25%, the more the better, of the gross income should be saved for retirement so far as the seafarers are concerned. What ever percentage is put aside, consider your salary to be minus this saving; as if it never existed and was not a part of your income. After all, that is how pensions and provident funds are cut in the salary slips on the shore! This saving may be put into a safe saving scheme where the actual invested sum remains guaranteed safe, that is, saving certificates, prize bonds etc. Next comes a pension plan and life insurance. Some insurance companies provide policies that combine both above features. Such investments consist of a pension plan or a policy where amount invested plus benefits is returned on completion of the term. The actual sum invested remains safe. Maintaining a insurance policy is like keeping a spare tyre in your car when leaving for a long journey. It brings peace of mind and trust that if anything happens to you your family will be taken care of. I myself, while serving at sea, realised this fact very late but however started to invest in an insurance policy and have never repented it. Only important thing is that one must go for a very reputed insurance company and investigate their previous payment records before making a final decision. Others are investments in real estate, shares and businesses; these are specialised fields and are out of scope for this essay. However, I may add that once you reach the limit of your safe investments you may only

then consider investing in risky businesses. Investments in real estate, shares etc. can only work safely when you have a person of trust on shore to invest your money while you are working and earning onboard. These markets being highly liquid, do not allow risk free investments.

Career at sea is a high risk employment.

Working at sea is, apart from all safety precautions taken, a risky employment where the chances of having an accident is much higher than many normal jobs. On oil tankers, even in dry-dock, we routinely hear about people dieing from gas inhalations. It reminds me about a chief officer i heard about , while I was serving as Engine cadet. He had a Masters Certificate of Competency and was very ambitious. The vessel was in dry-dock. After lunch break this chief officer, company's superintendent and a surveyor went down in a cargo tank. Chief officer was ahead of them all. He suddenly collapsed and the same time the portable gas meter sounded its alarm. Superintendent tried to lift chief officer and started to move up the tank ladder, but collapsed as well.

The surveyor who was still following managed to escape to deck. By the time B.A. parties went down to rescue, both had expired. There are more dangers to life lurking, as compared to shore, while one is serving on a ship, isnt it. Above is just one accident, many similarly ones can be traced in newspapers and by the word of mouth. Let me remind that on FOC ships, where most of us work, the compensations are not very affective and where they are present, procedures involved are very slow. If you are not doing it already, go ahead and give yourself and your family a safe future. Save before it is too late.

25.Not able to mix up in society:

Many seafarers are not able to mix up in a heterogeneous society as they interact with limited people throughout their career. They mix up successfully with other seafarers only.

Legal hazards:
26.Pollution:

If a ship pollutes the sea due to whatsoever reasons, ships crew including the captain of the ship have to face legal actions. 27.Marine accidents:

If a ship gets involved in collision, allision, grounding, fire etc.,the ships crew including the captain of the ship are liable to face legal actions.

Update: June 20 Seafarers: Dont sell your lives for money. Lead a free life/normal life also ! Read more from Life at Sea. Flashbacks of a Sailor When one remains at sea for long time, he loses his contacts, his qualities to deal with people, expansion of his view of the world. He serves for months at time on ship and goes back on leave for short duration.He earns good salary and is able to provide better living conditions for the ones he cares about. A seamans own life do not get benefits of luxuries within his buying power, he instead works like a machine neglected , in many cases and dealt as a money making machine. Over time the seafarer forgets himself and points his planning towards others only. I was sold to sea in the beginning of youth but it is satisfying enough to feel that I have bought myself back from the sea and the ships and I am now among many common people, average people, who live with their families and worry about their day to day needs. Who see children grow and are part of their families instead of being a guest who arrives 'home' after six months, introduces himself to children and waits for kids to get used to him to enjoy their company.There is no free lunch. There is a price for either end of the coin: one has to let go the benefits of career at sea and lose a lot in gaining what life on shore has available. The decision is difficult and depends upon ones commitments and responsibilities. A desire to live the way majority leads their life: good or bad, rich or poor, deprived or fulfilled is vital.Life on shore is busy and demanding too, but end of the day one is home and free. I am able to walk around when I am off and see others around new people and new faces it is worth my decision to come ashore though shore does not pay me much as compared to ships.Ship job provides the most important financial independence but buys a seamans life in return.

At last I am on shore and not at sea any more!There is no more pitching, rolling and shipboard tensions, no facing of behaviors from others who are tense and rigid due to staying long on board.Here everyone has his own job. No one is jack of all trades. On ships one has to be able to do everything from operations to maintenance, from administration to accounts.Sore job is not that easy either. My routines are tough. I work long hours, it is normal so far as the private employment is concerned. But the people are different; they are more descent, not all but most of them. They take their jobs easy unlike ships where lots more deadlines need to be met and fast actions are required. It is not an 8-5 job, where one goes to an office sits on a table and gets up in the afternoon to go homeTrue that things were not that easy as I expected when I decided to jump at the first offer of quitting sea I got my hands on.True that I lost money in the hands of crooks on shore.True that I worked on less salary than sea.True that I have to use public transport until I pass driving test in a new country where my fifteen year old driving license is not accepted.Here I am among variety of people with different personalities, different fields of action, different qualifications, different academic backgrounds, and different attitudes. Variety what ever form it may be in brings amended thinking and eradicates staleness. I am enjoying all the changes like a person coming from a far planet!I can think more; my view has expanded more than the arc of visibility of a ships mast head light and never stops at 22.5 degrees abaft the beam on either side. It has no restriction of visibility range either :)I do like to look at sea now as well, but in a different way - with a different eye.

Lot of people are enjoying on the beach on the weekend, after a weeks work. If they worked hard a week they have a day to relax and nourish there soles and bodies. When I reach back in my flat, there is no worry of tanks being pressurized or bad weather expected or some thing may go wrong. My telephone never rings during my sleep every hour to tell me that the discharge rate has fallen and a person from shore from an unknown agency is insisting to see me and on meeting he is only there to get some cigarettes plus some coffee and jam. The time does not change, night does not transform into day with the changes in longitude and the high latitude weathers are story of the past. Many years have passed in dry-dock I was standing on deck with the duty A.B. when the ship chandlers brother, a young boy in late teens, approached us and started talking about life at sea and onboard ships. The chap was on holidays and had come to visit the ship. After hearing about our contracts, leave duration and the scale of our salaries - he liked the income part of the information. Seeing his interest I asked him if he would like to join sea."You stay away from your home for so long and you are confined to the ship all the time, you are selling your lives for money, I want to live a free life - a normal life!!! was his straight reply.