Voyage 3 - First Trip

For the seven of us the midnight flight to London was our first experience on a plane but everybody was rather well behaved and excited on our first trip abroad. The service and food on the flight was better then what you get flying MAS today. We landed at Heathrow Airport early in the morning and it was still dark when they took us to our bed and breakfast hotel. It was cold but the heather and excitement of finally in London kept us warm.

Before noon we were taken to the Malaysia Hall to meet Pak Wan the student council. After the registration at MSD we were given a pep talk by Pak Wan for us to keep our focus on our studies and not to be swept away on the new culture and lifestyle that we are going to face in Liverpool. Being fresh and obedient we listened without much questions. We were in London for a few days before taking a train to Liverpool. My quick observations, there were two types of Malaysians in London. One was the very friendly and concerned, especially to us the new comers and they were willing to spend time talking and advising us on the life in UK. The second type was arrogant and unfriendly Malaysians, they will not even response to your greetings or talk to you, maybe they felt that their eyes were already turning blue and hair creeping blond.

We were more then happy to leave London for Liverpool, our final destination. At the Lime St. Station, Liverpool we were received by Cadet Officer Manoharan. He was very angry with me for mistaking him as a porter when I asked him to carry my luggage. Sorry Sir your uniform made you look like a porter.

Anyway we were taken to Aulis the training centre and hostel for Ocean Fleets Ltd the famous and one of the largest shipping companies in UK those days. The facilities and hostel was quite good and the warden friendly. The first few weeks in Liverpool was quite challenging because the local could not understand our English while we were lost on their scouse slang. The only positive part was that all the girls and Mak Cik Salleh there called us “Love” …. How are you Love ….. Charrr Love ….. some of us began to feel that the girls were falling in love with us.

We did go to the Malaysia & Singapore Club at Jermyn St, Liverpool 8 to get the taste of Malay food. The Pak Cik sailors there were very friendly and happy to receive us …. the budding mariners. We kind of remind them of their adventurous and care free sailing days. In fact they started sharing with us their sailing experiences and gave various good tips to survive the sailing life.

After undergoing two months induction course on seamanship and maritime safety we were ready to be sent on board as Midshipman. Three of us were sent MV Flintshire, a Glen Line general cargo ship trading the Far East route. The ship will take us back to Penang, Port Klang, Singapore, Manila, Cebu, Hong Kong, Taiwan and back to Rotterdam and London. Fancy that sailing back to Malaysia just after two months of flying out to London. By now we were clearer on what going to happen to our life for the next ten years. It will takes us about ten years of sandwich courses between college and sea time for us to become a marine professional - Master Mariner or in my words Master of the Sea. In fact two thirds of our time will be spent on board roaming the seas on all types of ships, like Vasco Da Gama, Magellan and Henry the Black @ Panglima Awang in the early days. At College we will be taught on the theory of seamanship, navigation, ship stability, cargo work, shipping business law, meteorology, astronomy, naval architecture, marine engineering etc. While at sea we are expected to put the theory to works. In fact we are going to do a parallel program where at the end we will receive both our academic and professional qualifications. In the end we must be competent to sail the ship to any parts of the world …… takes her pass the storm and depressions to reach the port safe and sound. I know ten years going to be a long voyage but then it’s the route that I have chosen …. So open sea here I come.

The crew of MV Flintshire was all British with the exception of three of us Malaysians. But they were all friendly and professionals, in fact I could say that all seafarers are global people without much prejudice on culture or race. We settled in the half deck behind the ship funnel separated from the crew and officers …. It’s going to be the home for the six of us midshipman for the next four months. Our ship sailed down from English channel to the Mediterranean Sea, Suez Canal, Indian Ocean and finally to the Straits of Malacca before calling Penang and Port Klang.

As a Midshipman, we have double life on board, one as ship crew and the other as budding deck officer. As a crew we have to do all the dirty and heavy jobs like chipping, painting, greasing, washing down the deck, rigging and securing derricks, lashing and securing cargoes and all other jobs that the crew chose not to do. This is what they say learning from right at the bottom ….. some of my friends start to wonder why the hell we were doing all this after scoring good grades in MCE and given multiple choices to study abroad. Have we chosen the wrong course or getting soft??? The other life as budding deck officer wasn’t that bad at all. We put up smart uniform learn how to use all the navigation equipments on the bridge, shoot the sun and stars using sextant to get our ship positions in open seas, practical aspects of ship handling and emergency maneuvers/drills and many other duties including to be an officer and a gentleman.

Before we took off to sea all the six of us helped the crews to secure cargoes on deck and in the holds. Secured the twenty four derricks that we have on board and took the soundings of all tanks and cofferdams on board. It was important to ensure that the ship was fully battened down to face possible bad weather at sea. Any heavy movements of cargo or equipments in bad weather will change the ship stability and may result in the capsizing of the ship. Sailing was not much of a problem to me because of my experience on fishing and passenger boats in Mersing, the difference was that I am now on board a bigger ship and oceans.

The weather was good to us even as we crossed the famous Bay of Biscay but as we entered the Indian Oceans heavy depressions hundreds miles away gave us the taste of wind force 4 to 5 resulting in heavy rolling and pitching to our ship. Our Ship Master Capt. Black Mac was an old sea dog, very serious, competent and highly disciplined. I hardly see him smile and he always talked in a Commanding note. Every Sunday morning he will inspect our half deck wearing his white gloves ….. he just runs his fingers on our deck head and beds ….. if his gloves turn brown or dirty we will all be reprimanded. At times he even lifted out mattresses to see if there is any rubbish down there ….. all this are very unfamiliar to me but surprisingly we all take it in stride and as a challenge to become a good officer.

As we approached Sabang to enter the Straits of Malacca, I could see the glitter and smiles on all the crew faces ….. everybody was joking and laughing as if we were going to a party. The thought of reaching our first port in the Far East after one week at sea was such a wonderful feelings.